Iunno if it's been suggested already, but it'd be nice if each faction had a certain number of unique weapons all to themselves. It'd be relatively easy to implement, and something that no one who's sane would dislike. The unique weapons could have their own weapon type tag and be universal across all unit types and minor factions within reason. Vinesnakes can't used Poleaxes, but they would definitely be able to use Needle Spewers, yet an Ice Warg has the dexterity to use a Short Spear just fine, evne if it can't use a shield. Even heroes should be able to cross-faction them. It could shake up established strategies and open further strategic options. Of course, I have direct suggestions to get the creative juices flowing.



Broken Lords

Short Spear: This is kind of a no-brainer. It's in the artwork thumbnail for the Stalwart, a spear that can be held with a shield. With its shorter reach and lighter weight, it wouldn't be a Cavalry Slayer. Instead, to make it viable, yet not entirely overpowered, it carries a capacity called "Braced Rush 1-3" which gives the unit 1-3 extra hex of movement over the battlefield, a 3-10 attack bonus if the unit moves before attacking, and 5-20 extra damage if the unit moves as well. This ISN'T a per hex attack/damage bonus, but just a flat bonus. As envisioned the Short Spear would play to the Stalwart's strengths of mobility while preserving defense, partially help some of the deficiencies of Ryders, and do something crazy yet awesome in turning Dust Bishops into swooping, self-healing terrors if someone wants to risk these fragile Support units in the grind of melee.

It would also help BL heroes keep up with their troops, and offer some... interesting ways to play with Roving Clans and Wild Walkers heroes.



Necrophages

Needle Spewer: The Necrophages come in many shapes and sizes, corrupting flesh of many shapes and sizes to fulfill any number of roles. Why haven't they embraced their nature and created an offensive symbiont? Why have those clever enough not woven technology into such a symbiont? A short-ranged weapon (two hexes), it could be a way of delivering the Disease by Foragers and Necrodrones without having to risk themselves directly. Proliferators might not have much use for it but for the debuff. Yes, it causes the Slow Debuff, but to balance this out it only does, say, 80% of the damage of a like-tiered and material-forged axe, a straight bonus to initiative, and reduces the unit's HP by 15%. This would give massed units a better chance to strike first, but less able to survive retaliation and fire from longer-ranged range units, while keeping slowed units within danger range. If you're not killing with Needle Spewers, or using them intelligently then prepare to be punished!

I don't think I need to tell you how neat this would be in the hands of a Necrophage hero, or a Daemon unit. Wouldn't be that great for a Drakken or an Ardent Mage hero, but you can't win them all.



Vaulters

Death Atlatl: Auriga offers many wondrous substances, but also many, many dangerous ones. The Vaulters have had to survive in the darkness for hundreds of years, struggling and killing and trading and warring and learning many important new lessons as they forgot their origins and other such useless trivialities. By capturing the poisonous/corrosive substances both above and below Auriga, and placing them into a fragile canister at the end of a launching stick or "atlatl," the Vaulters can bathe entire armies in a toxic, if short-lived fug. It worked in the close tunnels, why not below the sun? Basically, the Death Atlatl is a ranged AoE weapon that can either help or hinder your armies depending on how it's used. It has a standard range of 3 hexes, and at the impact sight of the attack, will deal 30% of its damage to the initial target and ANY UNIT within the blast radius of 1 hex. It is 2-handed, and offers NO retaliation as the atlatl sticks are quite unwieldy yet lightweight to hurl the canisters, and make poor weapons by themselves. This does NOT mean that units with atlatls rushed by melee units can still attack, sorry, they've been shut down. Troop placement and command of the terrain is IMPORTANT, if not vital to avoid nuking/neutering your own troops.

A properly upgraded/outfitted Ranged hero can turn a line of Marines with these things into utter death, I won't lie that it could wind up being utterly OP, but then that's true of ANY sufficiently well armed army with a good hero with synergy.



Cultists

Words of The Unspoken: The Queen does not speak, but She rages. She sees the End of Auriga, and desperately seeks to share it. The Words of The Unspoken are not a physical weapon, per sey, but a revelation so profound echoing through the Dust of Auriga that it can shatter mountains... or just your bones. Based upon evangelical technologies, the Words of the Unspoken is a device that channels a single utterance of the Queen, recorded and amplified, ready to be projected into the bodies and minds of heretics and the unfaithful. It is a ranged weapon of only 1 hex, but has the Stun 1-3 capacity, and the concentration to use it does not allow for retaliations, so it's possible for an army entirely armed with such devices to completely stymie the opposition without taking damage, or get obliterated.

The Words of the Queen could be used to great effect for any type of hero or unit, or could see it tied up and killed. I like a game balance that gambles, can you tell?



Wild Walkers

Essence of the Unforgiven: The Wild Walkers nearly lost themselves to the Sharing following the first great cataclysm of Auriga. The reasons are many - it scattered them as a people, made them ill-prepared for the eventual death of Gaia, and it utterly consumed some of the most promising of their number as Auriga cracked open and many Wild Walkers came into contact with new and dangerous forms of life. Within these claws, lies the essence of one of those ancient horrors. A vial of its blood, one of its many teeth, or perhaps one of its squirming progeny, it doesn't matter, it's in there and those who Share with it will be consumed, for a time, by its rage. Mechanics-wise the Essence of the Unforgiven is a claw weapon with Sweeping Strike Backs 1-3, but also a capacity called "Scuttling Rage 1-3" which allows the unit to climb over, but not attack from, a cliff while increasing battle mobility by 1-3 hexes. The capacity also gives a flat 20% damage bonus against Ranged and Support unit types due to the soul-scarring anger of the Essence. Turn your archers into frothing, wall-climbing furies!

Think your Ranged hero is safe from Empty Belly behind a wall of Marines? ... Good joke. Not great for Daemons or other flying units, but again, you can't win them all.



Drakken

Poleaxe: The Drakken are shrewd, knowledgeable, and hardy. They also have one of the longest, most distinguished military histories upon Auriga, defending their cities from Necrophages for hundreds of years while the Broken Lords still had flesh, and the Wild Walkers were first getting high off of wolves or whatever. They have long known the importance of keeping their enemies off guard, and then punishing them for walking into carefully laid traps, both militarily and diplomatically. Poleaxes are large, sweeping weapons held in both hands. They have two capacities, one called Chopping Strike Back, which causes a flat 15% damage increase on retaliation, and Sweeping Attack 1-3 which causes the attack to deal 80-100% of damage to the target, and then 15-25% of damage to hexes adjacent the target. This is a weapon that's as good on offense as it is on defense, yet it doesn't allow for shields which can leave an army equipped with them dangerous but fragile.

Bring your Drakken lord to the front, why don'cha? Put all that health to fabulous use, and create a scaley bulwark! Also, fur units with inherent AoE like Arpuja, Dredges, Sweeping Attacks increases the damage done to the chosen target, and ADDS damage to the immediately adjacent hexes in addition to the Circular Attack percentage, so for it'd go from 80-100% to initial target, and then 50-75% damage to adjacent, and 50% to all other enemies next to the unit. Could be really nasty if the right assimilation is available and exploited.



Roving Clans

Bolas: How do you catch Sand Swan, let alone pluck its shimmering, colorful feathers after mating season? You can't catch it, it can fly faster than the fastest mount, and its blood is a deadly acid that ruins its plumage so you can't shoot it with an arrow. Simple, you tangle its legs, pin its wings, and snap its neck with a bola. The long and short if it is that the bola is a ranged (3-hex) weapon with the Entangled 1-3 capacity, which has a 20-60% chance of causing Stun, Slow, or Unsteady debuffs. Just one, though, not all three. It's random which. The Dust-infused weights that ensure accuracy are as dangerous and easy to use when swung from the hand as they are when thrown, so the weapon also allows for a Free Retaliation, but it can't entangle the enemy. It is a 1-handed weapon, so allows for a shield when applicable.

This is a straightforward, and almost universally useful weapon regardless of the Hero type, and can be nasty when handed over to certain minor faction units.



Ardent Mages

Crucible of Will: A Dust-Infused, flaming lodestone, the Crucible is one of the first foci for many aspiring Mage neophytes, through force of will and outside application of pain the stone can be made to hover or float to the whims of the user. Skill of the flight path, distance from the users, and repetition of the patterns of its path are useful tools in measuring neophytes' progress until they are ready for more arduous trials. The only thing surprisingly about seeing the Crucible upon the field of battle is how long it took someone to realize that they could forge a bladed ring about the Dusty, fiery trinket. So, yeah, this is a melee weapon with a capacity called Free Pain, and true to form, it doesn't allow for retaliation against a unit armed with a Crucible. It doesn't allow for a shield, for the Crucible works to the body language as well the unfettered mind of the user to wield properly and with skill. To make up for the power of the Crucible's ability to strike without suffering strike-backs, it doesn't do as much damage as a big, heavy blade swung by muscle power.

This is another boring, but universally useful weapon good on just about any Hero and minor faction unit, making them able to tie up and kill just about anything so long as they go first.



Mesari

Auto-Crossbow: Yes, I've put way too much thought and effort into this, and even the Mesari, I think, should have something unique to them, even if they are just a reskin right now. The Auto-Crossbow is, as the name implies, capable of multiple ranged attacks during an attack phase. It is large, long ranged (4 hexes) and powerful, being a 2-handed ranged weapon that hits harder than a longbow. The first attack strikes with 100% attack and damage, but it can fire up to three more times depending on the rank of its Linked Barrage 1-3 capacity. At rank 1, it fires off a second attack at 20% attack but full damage, at rank 2 it fires 2nd and 3rd attacks at 25% and 20% respectively, at rank 3 it unleashes 3 attacks at 30-20-15% attack rating against defense with no reduction in damage. It is a large weapon that is complicated to reload, tiring to cock, and heavy to aim so regardless of material bonuses, it incurs a hefty 20 Initiative penalty. This is a weapon that you prolly want to pair with a Glassteel as opposed to a Titanium ring, and special armor/raised terrain to be really effective, because it doesn't allow for retaliation.

Turn any hero into a walking artillery piece! Do it. Give this to a Daemon and watch the multiple Chain Lighting arc off a tough targets with fortification HP just melt it all away.



Yeah, I've put way too much time into something that would be a lot of work to implement, and will likely never see the light of the game. Still, a man can dream for insane amounts of awesome.

While there aren't many, and the idea could definitely be expanded upon, there are already some faction-unique items in the game. (the one that comes to mind is the item the Broken lords get in there main storyline) So chances are it would be easier than you think to add this as the system is already there, and such a thing would definitely be worth it if it differentiated the different factions even more.

I really like yours suggestions. Creating more equipement and specialised faction equipement would be always good for more strategies and immersion.

Faction-specific weapons can present balance issues besides the ones that already exist. And it would be tricky to balance them all so that they don't completely overshadow the regular weapons or end up being gimmicky options at best. It could work for accessories, but that list is already pretty big and kinda annoying to navigate and manage.



That said, I kinda like those suggestions, they all fit pretty well and could indeed make for some interesting options.

Most of the weapons also would be really bad picks to go pure with, too. Which I think is a good idea, as it doesn't so much lead to weapons outshining the existing stuff, but encourages specialist unit design. Which I think it something the game sorely lacks right now. You don't WANT an army with nothing but Atlatls, and especially not against a unit type with lots of Initiative like Centaurs, Ryders, or Minotaurs. They'll be wiped out.

Hell yes! Give the factions even more flavor!

A delicious proposal



In fact, my Typhon (aquatic) faction have ranged units that use Harpoon Guns (or Harpoon Slings, like a small portable ballista that shoots harpoons)