Ideas for an nation

[Dermenore]

I speak mostly about themes and history because I am too new to the game to propose clear statistics and mechanics.

Concept: A MA Outremer state nation, which put in front the mix "western-eastern" because Christian Crusader is already the MA Marignon hat.

History: Angels send visions to prophets to gather a great army to fight the blasphemous Rephaim and their descendants. This army invade faraway lands and in their fanaticism fight also the innocents Endiku and Adites. Now, decades have passed and most of the soldiers have left and returned to their homelands. Those who stayed to continue the mission had to become pragmatic and improve their relation with the locals to keep the land they conquered.
Alternative: they could also/instead have Abysia as a target.

Units: Nabaean like archers, light infantry, and light cavalry, and archers cavalry recruited as auxiliaries, without pillage, and with lower morale because they serve strangers. Heavy infantry and cavalry of Ermor successor state, with eventual crossbows. Elites troop of religious orders, possibly blessed by angels or maybe instead Endiku or Avvim auxiliaries/allies/converted.
"Eastern" units should be more available than "Western" ones. Could be a system similar to MA Man, when "Eastern" can be recruited outside of forts. Or a system similar to Ind, when forts give different troops. Or simply make most "Western" units capital only. Or maybe something new, like all 10 turns, the fort will the most population gain access to "western" units.

Priest and mage: some Christian-themed clergy with Jewish and Muslim-themed local priests and mystics(maybe some of them Enkidu or Avvim). They could have among their mages some diminished angels disguised as humans, like the Istari of Lord of the Rings.

Evolution in LA: they could lose their lands in the "East" like the historical Outremar states and be forced to move to the "West". Their inspiration became then Malta under Hospitaller rules, with the loss of their Eastern units but more accessible Western ones. They would become the Crusaders of LA since Marignon let the place.
Or, they keep their previous theme and lands. Eastern units became more integrated into the army and picked some Western practices, making less distinction between the two. At the same time, they lose some of their more mythical elements, for a transition to LA more "soft".

[knowthyself2]

Definitely a lot of potential there, but they'll need their own unique units rather than just Ermor and Naba's units, IMO.
Personally I can't wait to see LA Naba

[mestaritareenalla]

For custom nation ideas, the way to get them done is to make a mod yourself. Probably Illwinter has more ideas already that they have not gotten around to doing yet.

[Mormacil]

Sounds like a very doable first mod project. The concept is solid ableit a bit bland for my taste. I don't think the game is lacking in European nations at the moment.

[Dermenore]

Originally posted by knowthyself2:

Definitely a lot of potential there, but they'll need their own unique units rather than just Ermor and Naba's units, IMO.
Personally I can't wait to see LA Naba

Yes, the quote of other nations is more for the inspiration than to make only copy paste.
I am personnaly more curious about LA Pyrene but LA Naba interest me to!

Originally posted by mestaritareenalla:

For custom nation ideas, the way to get them done is to make a mod yourself. Probably Illwinter has more ideas already that they have not gotten around to doing yet.

You are probably right but I am not really the modding type. And a player can always dream. :)

Originally posted by Mormacil:

Sounds like a very doable first mod project. The concept is solid ableit a bit bland for my taste. I don't think the game is lacking in European nations at the moment.

Yes, the game indeed has (comparatively) very few Asian or American nations and not a lot of African ones. That's why the idea is more of a mixt than a "pure" European nation.
That said, the western European nation, bland "knight" seems pretty popular: in the six multiplayer games (mostly for newbies) in MA and LA that I play, all have Man and Marignon and four have Ulm. Granted, I am the one who picked Marignon or Man in 4 of them but I still think it's a sign that there are still picks when I don't. :D Of course, it's not a true sample.

[Mormacil]

All three of those factions have heavy knights, a unit that got extremely buffed. Heavy sacred cavalry might be the new meta.

[Dermenore]

Originally posted by Mormacil:

All three of those factions have heavy knights, a unit that got extremely buffed. Heavy sacred cavalry might be the new meta.

Does heavy knights include thing like armored centaurs or Serpent Cataphract?

[Mormacil]

No and yes, centaurs don't have mounts this don't benefit from the changes. Serpents I'm not sure, haven't actually looked closely at them but probably?

[Dermenore]

Originally posted by Mormacil:

No and yes, centaurs don't have mounts this don't benefit from the changes. Serpents I'm not sure, haven't actually looked closely at them but probably?

Interesting, thanks for answering.

To come back to your previous point, you are right, these 3 nations represent a lot of the heavy cavalry in MA (althought the Ulm one are not sacred). That's change in LA, with Marignon loosing cavalry entierly, Man sacred becoming infantry and some other nations obtaining heavy cav (Arco by example).
After, it was just a personal impression. I suppose with more games I will have a better idea to the popularity of all the nations. :)