It would be great to see every minor faction getting the chance take the spotlight and become a playable major faction. I'll start with my favorites, the Sisters of Mercy.



The sisters are an order of warrior nuns, who heal the needy with one hand and strike down evil with the other. They are small in number, but well-respected.



In their storyline, the sisters come across ancient, powerful technology, and they are faced with a choice: Will they use it to enforce peace, or unleash destruction?



FACTION ABILITIES



Urbi et Orbi

A sister's life is hard work and prayer, and they sacrifice their own happiness for the greater good.

The sisters ignore all approval mechanics.

They cannot build sewer systems and markets.

Wine grants +1 morale to units.



Cloistered

The sisters cannot build boroughs.



Towers of Faith

The sisters treat watchtowers as outposts: They gain a stationed militia unit and FIDSI from surrounding squares.



Hospitaller

Units heal an additional 5% per round per era.

They start with Military Science.



Spread the Word

The sisters cannot attack minor faction villages.

They gain Language square as starting tech.



Lead the Faithful

The sisters treat assimilated villages as outposts: They gain a stationed militia unit and FIDSI from surrounding squares. They also gain +1 (per era) influence per assimilated village.

Assimilated villages grant vision.



Alms for the Poor

Cities can choose to donate an amount of food per turn to assimilated villages in the region. After enough food has been donated, a new village of that faction is created (in a square chosen by the player). It can be placed in the same or a neighboring region. (Even one not controlled yet, but that village does not grant any bonuses.)





QUEST ABILITIES



Assimilate extra faction

(in addition to the ones granted by research)



Crusade

The Sisters can declare a Crusade against another faction.

This lowers the Influence cost to declare war against that faction, and gives a combat bonus against them.

It also lowers the cost of peace / alliance with other factions who are at war with them.



Nuclear Weapons

In Era 6, the final stage of their quest line, the sisters rediscover the secret of building a nuclear missile.

They can a) use this to enforce a peace or b) nuke an enemy city.

The effects of a nuke should be disastrous - nothing is left, it's pretty much a forced "salt the earth".



Using the nuke should be a major decision - with grave consequences also within the faction (split, uprising, civil war)



Storywise, it doesn't have to be a nuclear weapon - it could be a dust bomb, a deadly virus...





UNITS



Aside from the well-known Justicere, the sisters get the following two units. Note how all of their units have a support function.



Valkyrie

A unit of small, flying mecha with flaming swords (yeah)

Valkyrie can use a morale boost on allies (+1 to ally, -1 to all enemies in adjacent fields)

When Valkyrie are garrisoned, they can fly in as reinforcements to extended range (10 squares?)



Inquisitor

The Inquisitor is a large mech with a giant, white-glowing holy symbol in their right fist.

Massive hit points, ranged attacker.

When it hits an enemy at range, all sister units adjacent to that target heal equal to half the damage.



TARGET VICTORY



Supremacy (Crusade + Nuke)

Diplomacy (Rally allies through Crusade)

Expansion (Spread out as there is no expansion penalty and you can't build up individual cities that much anyway)

I love the idea of not being able to build districts and using minor camps for FIDS. Like having a race which spreads out in a district rather than in one central city. Watchtowers also providing FIDS and being able to build more of them or additional minor camps. That's cool. Makes them seem really nomadic and tribal

I would like to see the Sisters of Mercy as a Major faction as well. Give them healing abilities and make them permanent war/no peace against Necros and Cultists!

I do support the great idea to have the Sisters of Mercy as major faction!

Sooner or later Amplitude will have to add one and they are already very well designed and only a few implementations are needed to have them perfectly aligned with the game storyline.

Very good suggestion!

... but it is also true that for every new major faction added, you need to add at least two minor ones!...



Looking forward to downloading them soon!

Thanks for the heads-up everyone.

steve.rossiter wrote:
I would like to see the Sisters of Mercy as a Major faction as well. Give them healing abilities and make them permanent war/no peace against Necros and Cultists!

I don't like the idea of predefining certain faction relations. This takes a lot of dynamic and surprises from the game. With the Crusade mechanic (which I didn't fully define, but I hope you get the idea) you can already declare a faction of your choice as the enemy. For storytelling reasons, it's great to choose the Necros or Cultists, but you don't have to!

Up until the nuke suggestion everything fit nicely into a religious centered theme. Id say instead of a nuke'em ultimate, you give them a Prophets of Mercy, who can persuade minor factions belonging to other Majors. I would envision it being a single hero who is given to the player, to roll with the crusade theme of one enemy at a time. You then convert a minor faction in an opponents territory, and it would act as an outpost/watchtower, giving vision and healing and a staging point to launch a crusade from.



As for the units, I think two supports and a flying would be a good choice, and then you'd get your infantry and cavalry and ranged from the multitude of factions that you can assimilate. Keep the original sister, add another one that supports morale and such adding to the army's defense and strenght, then lastly an angle creature with flying, but acts as the inquisitor you came up with. (I personally dont see the Sisters of Mercy being a technology based faction, due to their focus on religion. So having a religious symbol be their powerhouse I personally think works better lore wise.)

I can't help but get a bit of a "better Cultist" vibe from the whole "minor faction villages as outposts" idea, especially giving the limitations on their own cities. Being able to create new minor faction villages sounds like a potential gamebreaker, if there isn't any limitation on it. Adding another village or two to each region would be reasonable I guess.



Or it would have to work more as a borough replacement without counting for the minor faction boosts.

It can be placed in the same or a neighboring region. (Even one not controlled yet, but that village does not grant any bonuses.)

How would that work when every region already has minor faction villages, usually another one?