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Cataph's Kraka Drak: the Norse Dwarfs 2.0

WH3 version here.


==Chatty blog post about latest changes![www.patreon.com]==

Try it with our Closer to Tabletop overhaul!||

Here we go again. Another roster expansion, new techs, characters, skills, just like with the Southern Realms, but with less plumes and more beards. Way more beards. Excessively so, one might say.
Because we’re talking about playing as the Norse Dwarfs. Which means you’re like one of those squirrels in an ice age with snow blowing all over the place, except that you’re a dwarf and you’re in hell because everything wants to kill you and your mug is sprouting tentacles and whatthehellisgoingon.

Ah, and SURPRISE! I'm gonna chat a lot but you gotta read it because there's important stuff. *evil laughter*

The Dwarf colonist that went so far north probably spend most of their time (that is not taken by mining and beer-guzzling) fighting chaos-loving humans, their daemons BFF, truckloads of giants and trolls and disgusting Skaven from Hellpit (Clan Moulder living right beneath the dwarfs’ steel-capped boots and probably stealing their chips, and this is a legit reason on its own right to go berserk).

Some solace may come from the fact that the Norse Dwarfs were spared many of the cataclysms that put a dent in Karaz-Ankor, like the War of Beards/Vengeance. Which also means that some of the military advancements from the imperial dwarfs didn’t quite bloom for them. Namely, gunpowder and stuff. Soap, probably.
Basically, I’m assuming they instead focused on killing humies, drilling stuff and runesmithing, or mixing these things a bit. Hence their unique units. Also, inevitable influence from their direct enemies and neighbourhood make them even crazier and weird enough to wield a few swords, known Umgi weaponry.

Please note that if we exclude contradictory recent stories about their extinction, specific lore about them is quite limited: all that is known is that they are isolated, endangered (like pandas, only they fight back) and considered weird by other Dwarfs.
So I had to do some behavioural guesswork to make them interesting. While trying to put “more norse” into something that is already a 1,4m tall viking.



Compared to Karaz Ankor, this faction was redesigned to play more aggressively in melee and relying less on artillery and missile units, with more melee specialists and zero gyrocopters. Mobility is given by vanguard units and human auxiliaries. On the campaign map, heavy focus is given on fighting Chaos with resistance to attrition and corruption.

FULL UNIT NOTES HERE



- Warding Stones: quite self-explanatory, protects the region with a much needed anti-corruption.
- Norscan Allies: a chain of refugee camps to offer shelter to survivors from norse allies and chaos-abhorring tribes. Offers limited recruitment options and other effects. Can only be built in northern provinces.
- Seat of Power: twin and rival to the one in Karaz-a-Karak, the King of Kraka Drak eventually gets himself a comfy and sparkly seat as well. Good for back pain and showing off. (actually made redundant by a CA landmark, removed)
- Okrinaduraz Mines: special mine in Kraka Ravnvake.
- Ungruvalk Channel System: a hybrid garrison/ranger building, available in Sjoktraken and Tower of Khrakk.
- Great Shrine of Kraka Ornsmotek: important Slayer shrine in Aesling Conclave.
- Reclamation chains (plus respective landmarks for Kraka Ornsmotek and Kraka Dorden): sacrifice a slot to counter norscan climate and then some.

Moreover, a fourth barracks level has been added, replacing the Hall of Oaths. Why? You can build it in one slot rather than having them split, although it won’t buff your Thanes. Gods know Kraka Drak needs it.

The idea was to shape the tech tree like a Sanctuary Rune… Well, for technical reasons I had to rotate it by 90°. Close enough.
Anyway, it’s made of 4 branches focused on:
- Anti-Chaos Warding
- Warriors
- Slayers
- Economy
Eventually converging towards the final apotheosis. Collaterally, there’s a few floating tech nodes that bring parallel buffs together with significant debuffs, so these are kinda optional.
The single nodes are stronger than vanilla dorf techs but that’s because the latter's are three times as many and I think KD needs the extra burst.

USE and COMPATIBILITY:

1. Compatibility:

- The mod is compatible with pretty much everything vanilla-friendly. Balance overhauls may/will be a problem.
- Faction climate edits may conflict with related reworks.
See FAQs for more from our field reporter, or the collection above for examples of what's surely compatible.

2. UNLOCKERS:

You need an unlocker to play: Mixu's or Crynsos's (not functional until further notice, DO NOT USE CMF EITHER).
- Mod WILL work without unlockers for the AI (minus tech tree and landmarks).

- See first link in FAQs if something's wrong.

DISCLAIMERS
- All new units, Orgi included, are entirely fictional, e.g. I made them up: there is no direct/known/recent lore about anything I could replicate. Still, I tried to fit them into the faction and make them interesting, so hopefully they are not dwarf griffon cannon cavalry (great weapons)-levels of made up.


CREDITS
Special thanks:
- CA for modding support
- Crynsos's unlocker, Mixu's unlocker and related scripts
- RPFM
- h3ro's asset editor
- Marthenil for script and .bin help

Don’t forget to provide feedback and rate!

FOLLOW VIA PATREON BLOG[www.patreon.com] for dev posts, detailed patch notes and stuff!
Also, JOIN THE MODDING DEN DISCORD SERVER[discord.gg], designated lurking place for me and other modders.