PBEM and Single Player Balance Mod v1.21 released on its beta branch (Community)

Ranked #4 best mod by AoW3 players in a recent poll, the PBEM & Single Player balance mod released its v1.21 about 2 months ago on its beta branch. That new version will be released on the main branch of the balance mod around April 21st and brings much needed changes to specializations such as Earth Adept, Partisan, etc., refines the previous changes to mind-control and healing and start to tackle the issue of risk/reward for high level sites. v1.21 also includes Russian localization and integrates two mods into the balance mod, bringing some of the best visual improvements of AoW3 to its users: the Racial Class Unit Reskin mod by Tibbles and the Racial Watchtower by iHunterKiller. v1.22 of the balance mod will make currently rarely used units, heroes or their abilities more useful, fun and interesting to play.

An Article by Hiliadan

The PBEM & Single Player balance mod is an essential mod for any AoW3 player (as explained in this article) and has been recognized as one of the best mods for AoW3 in a poll of the community organized recently (it ranked #4 by number of votes, as explained in this article listing the top 20 mods for AoW3). v1.21 further implements the objectives stated in the article announcing the release of v1.2: improving weak and unexciting specialisations, improving the balance of risks and rewards for high level sites and polishing previous balance changes. v1.21 also introduces a Russian localization for the mod, which means that Russian users will now be able to enjoy the mod fully in Russian, thanks to Larik for the translation!
This 25 minutes video introduces the key features of v1.21 (turn the English subtitles on as additional content is provided through them):

With the permission of the two mods' authors, v1.21 integrates the Racial Class Unit Reskin mod by Tibbles and the Racial Watchtower by iHunterKiller, which means that users of the balance mod will have to tick only 1 box at launch and benefit from the content of the 3 mods.

The new racial Frostling watchtower brought by the Racial Watchtower by iHunterKiller and new icons for all class units brought by the Racial Class Unit Reskin mod by Tibbles

v1.21 will be released around the 21st of April (to coincide with round 4 of the PBEM 2vs2 Team Tournament) on the main branch of the balance mod. You can already play it on the beta branch of the balance mod.

The release that will come after v1.21, namely v1.22, will further boost lacklustre specializations (e.g. boosts to the Fire and Creation Empire strategic spells, boosts Shadowborn Master, etc.), provide adjustments to overpowered strategies that recently emerged on the competitive PBEM scene (e.g. evolved Exalted Martyrs) and above all start to tackle two issues the AoW3 community highlighted as priorities for balance in a recent poll about the directions the balance mod should take in the near future:
- Make currently rarely used units more useful (e.g. non-cavalry units produced at War Halls)
- Make all heroes and their abilities more interesting (e.g. boost Dreadnought’s late game abilities)



Full changelog of v1.21 (also available on the official changelog of the balance mod)

General
- T4 all have Mind Control Immunity
- Dungeon's battle enchantment is Suffocating Sadism. Every turn, one enemy unit is hit by 15 physical damage, Undead, Machine, Elemental and Incorporeal are immune. Every time an enemy dies, all defenders of the Dungeon get +100 Morale and +1 melee strength.

The two new battle enchantments beefing up the defenses of Dungeons (one of the best high-level site, which usually provides two T3 as rewards, for risks that were limited up to v1.21) and the new design of Frostling Theocrat class units by Tibbles (Racial Class Unit Reskin incorporated into the balance mod)

- Healing is once per battle (was cooldown 3). Shamans (on Elite) and Evangelists get Combat Healing in addition to their Healing ability. Combat Healing starts fights with an initial 4 turns cooldown, it heal 20 HP and it can be used once per battle. Combat Healing has no effect on the strategic map (but Healing still works on the strategic map). Order of Healing gives Healing and Combat Healing to Theocrat's Supports
- Transform Mana Node can target any Mana Node (was can target only basic - i.e. non elemental - Mana Node)

Elemental Master specializations' Transform to XX Node now works on all Mana Node

Rogue
- Lesser Charm and Charm have strength 6 (was 7) and 8 (was 9) respectively

Theocrat
- Lesser Convert and Convert have strength 8 (was 9) and 10 (was 11) respectively

Frostling
- Frostling Apprentices, Shamans and Evangelists are female (were male) and can thus be protected by Frostling Royal Guards

Partisan
- Guerilla Tactics apply to all units (was only Infantry and Irregular)
- Hide Out is renamed Cloaked in Shadows and gives: all units in target friendly army gain Invisibility until end of turn (was All friendly units in enchanted city's domain are invisible). Cloaked in Shadow costs 60 CP, 120 RP and is tier II.

The new strategic spell, Cloaked in Shadows replaces Hide Out and opens up new possibilities for stealthy raids

- War Anthem costs 20 CP to cast (was 30 CP). If it fails, the unit suffer -100 morale instead (was no effect if it failed).

Earth
- Domain of Earth gives +1 defense to allied units in the enchanted city’s domain.
- Slow costs 9 CP and 300 RP (was 10 CP and 350 RP).
- City Quake costs 90 CP (was 100 CP)

Air
- Domain of Winter gives +1 ranged damage to allied units in the enchanted city’s domain.
- Artic Empire gives Inflict Chilling and Inflict Frostbite to units in your domain.
- Air Master gets Heavy Winds instead of Wind Ward. Heavy Winds is a strategic spell which gives -2 vision range to all Flying enemy units (on the strategic map) and prevent them from Flying in tactical combat. It costs 800 RP and 150 CP, is tier V, its disjunction cost is 170 CP and its upkeep 60 mana/turn.

Fire
- Domain of the Sun gives +1 fire damage to allied units in the enchanted city’s domain.

All Domain of XX spells got boosted to give bonus to units in the domain, Fire Domain now provides additional Fire damage

Creation
- Domain of Life gives Fast Healing (stackable) and +20% Spirit protection  to allied units in the enchanted city’s domain.

Destruction
- Domain of Corruption gives +1 Blight damage to allied units in the enchanted city’s domain.
- Blight Empire gives Inflict Curse to allied units in your domain.

Wild Magic
- Pandemonium gives two 60% weakness to two random damage channels to hostile units  (was one 100% weakness) (other effects of Pandemonium are unchanged)

Related Links