The Progress of Version 0.3 (2 September 2022: Recruitable Creatures, New Siege Planning, Siege Equipment, and Raiding)

Greetings Conquerors!

Apologies for the lack of a post last week as I needed to spend the last couple of weeks moving across the country. But now I am back with another progress update and this adds some pretty major things to the mod.

RECRUITABLE TAMED CREATURES

Firstly, I wanted to show even more things you'll be able to recruit: Creatures! In the context of this mod "Creatures" means non-human/non-dwemer things that can be tamed or recruited like wolves and bears. Here is the list of recruitable creatures so far (I am open to more ideas):

Now you can lead the bears of Skyrim to take back their land from the evil humans!

SIEGE PLANNING

Now here's where things start to get more interesting. Right now, famous historical military leaders like Napoleon or Alexander the Great are spinning in their grave at the thought that Skyrim players' best attack plans are to simply run at one single entrance of a city with some catapults and hope for the best? Well now they'll be spinning slightly less because you will now have more freedom to decide how you want the siege to play out!

Instead of talking to your General whenever you want to launch a siege, you will now be able to do it at a war map in one of your camps. This will open up a menu where you can select which armies you want in the siege, what siege equipment you want to use, and decide on a battle plan you want your troops to partake in.

The battle plan specifically will be different for whichever city or fort that you are attacking. The first choice you will make is which entrance to attack. Most cities and forts only have one entrance but for those that have two, you can choose to concentrate your forces on one of the entrances or divide your forces in half to attack both.

You will then also be able to decide how you want your troops to enter the city, whether it be through the city gates or using ladders (more on this below).

SIEGE EQUIPMENT

Another big part of invasions are the siege equipment. This update will include 3 types of siege equipment: Catapults, Battering Rams, and Ladders.

You are already familiar with catapults, however, there will be a few changes with them. Catapults are useful in cutting down enemy troops and deploying 5 of them will cut down a good amount of troops from the defending army. Additionally, they will no longer cost 10000 gold each but instead will be built with 5000 gold and 50 wood.

A new change with attacking cities and forts is that the gates will no longer be flagged as "locked" until you kill all the exterior troops, but instead must be broken down through a couple of means. By default your troops will attempt to use their weapons to break down the doors but this can take a very long time.

So why not speed up the process by building a battering ram?

Each wham from the battering ram will take out the city door's health by 25%, much faster than just whacking it with your swords.

Battering Rams too clunky for you? Want to just bypass the city gates entirely? Then siege ladders are for you!

You and your troops will be able to use these to get past the door and enter the city if you desire.

You can choose which equipment you bring into your siege from the planning menu before you launch the invasion.

RAIDING

Finally, another addition that can certainly affect your playstyle is the concept of raiding! Upon entering a city during a siege, you will now receive a new optional objective:

You will also notice new barrels scattered across the city:

Looting these barrels loots resources straight from the city's reserves and will have an effect on the city economy. This allows you the option of starting sieges for the purpose of raiding them of resources rather than just outright taking them over (like if you wanted to be a bandit).

Additionally, while you're raiding the city you can also take civilians prisoner or simply have them empty their pockets for you.

For now these civilians can be ransomed like the POWs but I have more plans for them in the future.