PBEM and Single Player Balance Mod v1.22 released and available in 3 languages! (Community)

v1.22 was released on 25 July on the beta branch of the PBEM & Single Player balance mod! This new version significantly improve the ease of play/comfort improvement for all players with many unclear or incorrect descriptions of units or abilities clarified! It also brings improvements to XP counters, correct some remaining issues with Necro, boost Dreadnought and AD, nerf Divine Justicar and Lesser Mighty Meek, fix 1 exploit and bring a few other improvements. v1.22 is thus one more step into the continuous and progressive improvements of the game initiated with the balance mod more than 15 months ago! After the addition of Russian in v1.21, a new language is added with this update: Polish! Changes associated to units currently rarely used and heroes and their abilities were pushed back to later versions to refine them.

An Article by Hiliadan

The balance mod has been improving the AoW3 experience for Single Players and PBEM Players for more than 15 months. It has included the Racial Watchtower and Racial Unit Reskin mods and has been available in Russian since its v1.21 (see article on v1.21). With its latest release, it becomes available in Polish and in addition to the improved visuals it was already providing, it now provides more ease of use with reworked ability's descriptions. With all this excellent content (learn more about why you should use it), maybe the balance mod will improve its ranking next time a poll is run to rate the best mods of AoW3? (it ranked #4 in the last poll)

A 25min video was released with v1.21 but can still be useful to learn more about the balance mod if you're new to it (turn the English subtitles on as additional content is provided through them):


In June 2017, Der Mentat, the author of the great Empire Building Mod (also #4 in the same ranking of best mods) released a compatibility mod for the balance mod. This solves issues with several concurrent changes to the same units/abilities/etc made by the two mods, and improve the experience for players using both mods. In order to benefit from the advantage of the compatibility mod, you need to play with the 3 mods enabled: the balance mod, the Empire Building Mod and the compatibility mod. Many thanks to Der Mentat for his effort!
Please note that the compatibility mod only works with the main branch of the balance mod and, as of September 2017, is thus limited to v1.21.


The main changes brought by v1.22 have been guided by the poll about the directions the balance mod should take in the near future:
1/ It increases ease of play with over 30 improvements to in-game descriptions

Before and after v1.22 update: Blinded is a subtle ability and its official description does not make it justice. The updated description clarifies the significant impact of Blinded on melee units who lose most opportunity for attacks of opportunity and can get severely flanked

2/ Experience farming is further contained through a minor tweak to XP counters
3/ The overhaul of Necro started in previous releases of the mod is completed: Ghouled units get the +25% upkeep that other mind-controled units had already been suffering since v1.21, the Necromancy I-VII economic boosts (introduced in early versions of the mod) are removed and Whispers of the Fallen is nerfed. Based on a poll on difficulties when playing Necro which revealed most players had no issue with Necro, but those who had struggled only with its economy, new economic boosts are introduced, linked to buildings.
4/ The first phase of the boost to heroes and their abilities is implemented with new abilities for Dreadnought.
5/ A strategy that had appeared recently in PBEM Tournaments and which threatened the balance of the game is nerfed: Exalted Martyr rush (see videos of Marcuspers on how to get 6 Elite Exalted Martyrs by turn 20).

v1.22 was released on the beta branch of the balance mod and should be released on the main branch around the end of October.

v1.23 and further versions will continue to build on the poll on directions for the balance mod and the latest poll on the types of changes people wish for heroes.

Thanks to Badok for the Polish translation!

Full changelog of v1.22 (also available on the official changelog of the balance mod)
Bug fixes
- Siren’s Musical Box is Epic (was Strong, despite its change of status in v1.2)
- Tigran Necromancer’s economic RG are correctly displayed (was: the descriptions are blank)

General
- Maximum XP interactions (XP counters) for each tier are 6/8/9/10 for tier 1, tier 2, tier 3, tier 4 respectively (was 6/8/10/12)
- Units acquired through Ghouling Strike and Inflict Ghoul Curse have an upkeep increased by +25% gold/turn
- Earth Elemental cannot be obtained as a reward any more in the Forbidden Sanctum
- Effigy of the Lich King gives Healing Undead and Undying (was Healing Undead and Necromantic Aura)
- Spiders spawned by the battle enchantment of Shrine to the Queen of Spiders (Arachnide Hordes) do not provide XP when hit or killed
- Over 30 abilities see their text updated to correct imprecise or incorrect descriptions (full list): True Sight for heroes and leaders, Giant, Toughness, Thunderstorm…

Before and after v1.22 update: the invalid targets of mind-control abilities like Convert, Dominate and Charm are explained explicitly, meaning no more bad surprises when you discover that nasty Animal cannot be converted during a tough fight! (note: as of 7 September 2017, the description of Convert is incorrect in the "beta branch": it does not mention Animals are also incorrect targets, the description will be updated for the release on the "main branch")


Before and after v1.22 update: the meaning of "strength" for Mighty Meek is clarified to state it applies to melee and ranged and to all channels

Arch Druid
- Baby Spiders and Baby Serpents get the abilities of their evolved state (Spider Queens and Mature Serpent) on Elite, namely:
Dread Spider Baby: Inflict Severely Poisoned
Hunter Spider Baby: Inflict Enfeebling Fever
Vampire Spider Baby: Inflict Exhausting Fatigue
Baby Reed Serpent and Baby Shock Serpent get +4 MP

Dreadnought
- Musketeers do 11 melee damage (was 10) and gets +1 melee damage at Veteran and Elite
- Dreadnought heroes can choose Lava Walking for 4 points at level 9, it also gives them 100% Fire Protection

Lava Walking in action: Firak now walks on lava while he casts Temperate Empire, a spell also boosted by v1.22 (see below)

- Dreadnought heroes can choose Inject Mana Fuel at level 11 for 5 points, a self-buff active ability costing 0 AP which gives them Wall Crushing, Demolisher, Tireless, Reinforced, 40% shock weakness (and add blue particle effects to represent the mana injected in the veins of the units)

Necromancer
- Dead cities do not have economic bonus linked to Necromancy skills any more (was gain +5% to all types of income for every level of Necromancy skill)
Embalmers Guild gives +5 gold and Cathedral of Bones gives +10% to all the incomes of the city. The Bone Furnace (new building) can be built in Ghoul city, requiring Cathedral of Bones, it costs 150 gold and 100 mana and gives +15% to all the incomes of the city.
Cathedral of Bones costs 100 gold and 100 mana (was 150 gold and 100 mana).

You won't be able to say Necro has no tool to boost its economy during late game!

- Whispers of the Fallen provide 2 RP per unit tier for each unit killed in combat. Fallen Heroes provide 10 RP (was 3 RP per unit tier and 15 RP)

Theocrat
- Divine Justicars costs 12 points (was 10)
- The description of the tech Exalted Martyr is corrected: it does not provide any XP bonus to Martyrs (was saying it gave +50% but was actually not). When Exalted Martyrs is researched, Martyrs evolve into Awaken Martyrs at Elite (was evolve into Exalted (Martyr)). Awaken Martyrs have the stats of an Elite Martyr and have Evolve into Exalted at Elite. They don’t get any bonus on medals (not even HP or defense, damage).

Warlord
- Researching Death March allows to cast Death March for 60 CP and Scout Death March for 20 CP, which has a similar effect. Scout Death March affect only T1 Irregulars in target stack (and units can only be targetted once by Death March or Scout Death March).

Halfling
- Halfling T1’s Lesser Mighty Meek gives +1 physical damage by tier level difference with the unit attacking them (was +1 strength on all channels per tier difference with the unit they attack)
- Brew Brothers cost 75 gold and 20 mana (was 70 gold and 20 mana)
- Halfling Shaman get Nourishing Meal on gold instead of Healing.

Fire
- Tropical Empire gives Inflict Immolation to allied units in your domain.

Creation
- Temperate Empire gives +1 defense and +1 resistance to allied units in your domain.

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