Essential Guide #4: The WARLORDS – What’s Coming Up In v1.32
Essential Guide #4: The WARLORDS – What’s Coming Up In v1.32
Three(!) new Imperial warlord factions; reworks to existing warlord rosters; many new units; improvements and bug fixes. Get the full run-down on November's new release!
Age of Legends v1.32: The WARLORDS will release in the next two weeks. It is packed full of new content. This article will give you a full briefing on everything you can expect.
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New Factions!
Age of Legends already has more fully playable factions than any other Empire at War mod, and this new release includes 3 more!
Pentastar Alignment – this will be familiar to players of EAWX, but in Age of Legends they have a completely unique roster. Grand Admiral Kaine’s warlord faction can field mighty Vengeance-class Super Star Destroyers and Arc Hammer-class Fleet Tenders, but its primary tactic relies on its swarms of V-19 Torrents, T.I.E Starfighters and Belbullab-24 bombers. On land it has an exciting combination of Dark Jedi, Imperial droid technology and unique Pentastar infantry. [EDIT: 8 November 2022. Read a FULL OVERVIEW of the Pentastar Alignment in Essential Guide #7: The Pentastar Alignment (Faction In-Depth)]
Zero Command – the turtle of warlord factions, High Admiral Harrsk spent most of the war fortifying his holdings in the Deep Core. He focuses on building a small number of extremely high quality capital ships like the Tector II, and Mandator III and Bellator-class Super Star Destroyers. He has some new designs too, the Ludwick ECH frigate (the hugely popular up-armoured version of the Nebulon-B), and the Velox-class Star Frigate. [EDIT: 5 November 2022. Read a FULL OVERVIEW of Zero Command in Essential Guide #6: Zero Command (Faction In-Depth)]
Restored Empire – fans of the Clone Wars need look no further. Supreme Commander Devian’s power-base is a flotilla of salvaged Venator and Acclamator-type ships. These venerable craft will be his means of restoring Palpatine’s New Order to power, but he faces a tricky starting position with just a few worlds at his disposal. [EDIT: 4 November 2022. Read a FULL OVERVIEW of the Restored Empire in Essential Guide #5: Restored Empire (Faction In-Depth)]
This is the largest expansion of factions in any single release since the ‘Rise of Caedus’ came out and there is a huge amount to look forward to.
Each of these new factions will receive a full In-Depth article about their rosters, heroes, units and strategic position before the release. You won’t want to miss those.
Reforming The Warlords
The fun doesn’t stop there. The upcoming release makes each warlord faction feel unique, with changes to their units, strategic doctrine and rosters to provide a completely different gameplay experience for each one:
Zsinj’s Empire – Zsinj starts as leader of a conventional Imperial faction. But as he loses forces to attrition, he becomes increasingly reliant on Mercenaries. These Mercs are semi-randomised, and will fight alongside your forces in battle. They will be allied to Zsinj in battle, not directly controllable - making combat unpredictable!
Crimson Command – High Admiral Teradoc relies on wave assaults, be it of droid-piloted TIE Bombs which descend on enemy ships in deadly kamikaze runs before activating their self-destruct, or else with his fleet of red-hulled Victory-class Star Destroyers.
Eriadu Authority – Delvardus’ forces have had a complete rework of their roster. He can depend on high quality fighters like the TIE Hunter and TIE Breacher, with a range of old surplus corvettes from the days of the Outland Regions Security Forces and more traditional Imperial capital ships.
New Units
There are many new units for the new warlord factions (with full credits to be included in the release notes for the models used):
Fighters and bombers – Porax-38, V-19 Torrent, T.I.E. Starfighter, Belbullab-24, NTB-630, LAATi (space variant), Ye-4 Gunship
Capital ships – Rothana Battlecruiser, Immobilizer-209 (2-dome interdictor), Procurator (new model), Arc Hammer (Fleet Tender variant), Pelta, Raider Corvette, Carrack (anti-fighter variant), Ludwick ECH (A and B variants), Velox Star Frigate, Tector II
Land units – Hover AT-AT, Pentastar Patrol Troopers, Dark Jedi Knight, Inquisitor, Protectorate Trooper, PTB-625 Planetary Bomber, Politorate Officer, Inquisitorium Dark Trooper, AT-RT, AT-TE, AV-7, Stormtrooper Sharpshooters, Reconnaissance Troop Transporter, 008 Heavy Landspeeder, LAAV Gunship, AT-AT X-80 (turbolaser variant)
25 ABY: Dark Vector
In this nightmarish ‘Infinities’ scenario the Dark Empire under the clone Emperor has dominated the Galaxy for a decade, after the extinction of the Rebellion and the fall of Luke Skywalker to evil. The Yuuzhan Vong Invasion has begun, and fleets of World Devastators and Palpatine’s legions of Dark Jedi acolytes clash with Kor-chokk-class Grand Cruisers and Yuuzhan Vong Warriors. You can finally settle the question: who would win, the Empire at full strength, or the Yuuzhan Vong?!
There will be many more Infinities scenarios in the future, including a resurgent Mandalorian Empire…
Under The Bonnet
Every release includes bug fixes, optimisations and rebalancing. There’s too much of that to list, but there are some new things worth noting:
- Excitingly, the BUILD BAR is now expanded to include double the number of slots. This will mean units will no longer ‘overflow’ and become un-clickable, and many, many new units and space station types can be added or be made buildable in future releases
- The Hutt Cartel are now playable in Rise of Caedus (skirmish only for now)
- The MT-AT (or ‘Spider Walker’) is now a vehicle for the Maw Irregular Fleet, giving them such much needed heft in land battles: with the MT-AT’s ability to climb over mountainous or difficult terrain and surprise enemy forces
- Plex missiles now have a longer range, and are effective against aerial units. This is part of major land reworks coming up, and the planned introduction of full aerial/atmospheric combat
What’s Next For The Mod?
My vision for Age of Legends is simple: a Total War-style Star Wars experience, with every playable faction imaginable. I have 40+ factions planned. That’s right: more than 40.
As I work towards the final build of the mod, each new release will add new factions and the underlying mechanics required to make this vision a reality. The next release after v1.32 is slated to totally overhaul land combat in the mod (making it much more fun!) and also to add various new criminal underworld factions.
At the moment the only crime faction is the Hutt Cartel. They are going to be split into various rival Hutt kajidics (think Hutt warlords!) who are all competing with each other to control the Hutt Cartel (which will be like the Papal States in Medieval II!) In addition to the arrival of the kajidics, Black Sun will also become a playable faction. I’m also hoping to add the Invids as either a playable faction or else as a micro-faction who might pop up to cause confusion in your space battles.
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Hello, i have a question. Do the world devastators actually have some special ability or are they just tanky destroyers?