[Strategy / Risk] Need ideas for a 6th team

[Oliver]

I'm working on a map based around a civil war in a ruined/flooded/bombed 18th century port city. There are no bases, just buildings and when a building is destroyed it is captured, units spawn automatically from buildings but can also be trained. The game is organised into 3 stages. First stage is only a couple of basic units spawning in fairly small groups, Second stage unlocks siege units, Third stage unlocks ultimate powerful units along with larger spawning group sizes.

I'd like the game to be micro intensive so units survive a while in combat, counters and positioning matters and at least some units having abilities.

The map has a circular layout with 6 different factions, such that each faction will encounter it's 2 neighbours before encountering other teams. 3 of the teams are "human", 3 of the teams are "monsters". 5 of the teams I have a fairly good idea about theme, units and abilities but the last team I'm struggling with.

For context here is a rundown of the teams:

• Cultists - Basic, weak cultist units buffed by "lovecraftian" powerful monsters. Lots of AOE buffs.

• Militia - Start out owning most of the map, out numbered, have to fall back to the centre of the city to make a come back. Based on 19th century german army with "prussian values" eg stoic, honourable fighters. 2 key mechanics are defensive auras which interact with other abilities and officers who give orders to units.

• Demons - Powerful demon units which can buff hordes of disposable zombie like units. Zombies are also sacrificed to empower/buff the demons. Main base is in a desecrated church, all the areas nearby have been bombed heavily by the army.

• Army - WW1 themed army with a small number of powerful units, came to save the city but turned bad/cynical and decided it couldn't be saved so seek to burn it all down. Tactically they're designed for quick hard strikes - they don't have the numbers for drawn out conflict.

• Rats - Similar to skaven from warhammer. Lots of weak rat units accompanied by powerful special units. Basic rat units don't count toward food limit so they have the potential to boom out of control.

I would like the final team to be a human team (like the militia and army) with their main base being a tavern hidden in a cave near a dockyard area. I've gone through several different theme ideas. The original map I'm basing this off of (made by me and my brother years ago) had some Pirate rebels using bandit models, which were terribly imbalanced, both being minmaxed and having ridiculous buffs. I'd like to make it fairer balance but perhaps keep the minmaxed theme, perhaps throwing in elements of ambushing or scavenging equipment from killed enemies.

Potential flavours for final team:

• Pirates
• Rebels
• Criminal Gang
• Workers Rebellions
• Inventors
• Ambushers

One issue I'm having is with units, I'd like each team to have at least 6-7 different units.

Going with the Pirate/Rebel theme I have the following units:

• Rebel - Ranged unit with medium armour type and AOE attack with hide. (minmaxed for being a backline ranged unit)

• Duellist - Melee unit with large armour type, increased damage resistance against melee units (like parry) and a bash type ability. (minmaxed for fighting powerful enemies in melee combat)

• Cannon Team - Like a mortar team but with pirate flavour. Siege attack damaging stuff in a line. When they kill a building they give friendly units nearby a buff.

• Brute - An ogre type unit with high HP and cleaving attack.

• Ironclad - A siege golem-like unit themed off a walking 19th century ironclad battle ship. Has good armour, has an ability called broadside which fires lots of cannon balls, while it has less than 50% hp it's speed and attack speed is greatly reduced.

So you see the theme is a little incoherent, I'm looking for more units to add to this - specifically a basic unit with melee attack and perhaps some sort of supportive caster - a pirate captain unit if I could find one with decay anims. Along with something to cement the theme - perhaps some reward for the unit fulfilling it's given role (like the cannon team buffing nearby units when it destroys a building) or perhaps a gold bounty for killed units.

Any ideas for my 6th team?

 

[Pyrogasm]

Summoning @cleavinghammer

Tweakers/Scrappers/Tech-Junkies - A group of human outlaws who seek to augment themselves with 'mad science' chemical & steampunk-esque technology (basically just no magic). In general their units can be upgraded/augmented/permanently buffed during combat to allow them to function in some different way. This allows you to mostly take the faction you already have written but tie it together a bit more.

• Rebels become "Ghosts". Can keep hide or perhaps have a timed self-buff that grants them permanent invisibility for X seconds (revealed while attacking). These are basic tech junkies that are mostly humans that either go invis with some chemical goo or a stealth field.
  
  
• Duelist is some sort of tech-augmented armor unit with two stances. Defensive stance and Offensive stance, which either gives melee damage resistance or bash. No mana cost to switch stances.
  
  
• Cannons become "Chem-a-pults" (that's an awful name, probably don't use it) that fling gas/goo/gunk canisters at things. Similar concept but their attacks against buildings coat the building in some substance (a la burning oil) that spreads out in a medium AoE from the building. Allied units standing in the substance are significantly buffed in some way. Perhaps consecutive attacks against buildings stack up this buff over time so it gets stronger the more you attack the same building.
  
  
• Brute - A chem augmented human (think Bane in the DC universe). High HP and cleaving attack. Explodes on death, coating nearby allied units with some of its chemical, slightly increasing their HP, HP regen, and attack speed permanently.
  
  
• Ironclad - Basically what you described. Thinking a Mad Max Fury Road-inspired steam machine.
  
  
• Support Caster: Tech Priest - Can manually attack allied units, which heals them for x% of the damage dealt. Has an ability, Worship, with a significant cooldown (such that you might only be able to cast it once before the unit dies) that permanently chaos-morphs another allied unit, altering its stats and function:
  
  • Ghosts: Increased move speed. Grants AoE attacks.
    
  • Duelist: Increased HP. Increases bash chance and makes it a short-range AoE bash. Defensive stance gains a self-only thorns aura that reflects X% of incoming damage.
    
  • Chem-a-pult: Secretes its substance over time wherever it walks, attacks no longer coat buildings.
    
  • Brute: Increased attack speed. On-death explosion now also coats enemy units, reducing their hp, hp regen, and attack speed permanently. Attacks drain health and explosion may be cast manually, sacrificing the unit.
    
  • Ironclad: Increased armor. The unit becomes a permanently immobile building, converting to a base-like structure that heals nearby allied units. Can still cast Broadside, also gains Flare.

 

[cleavinghammer]

Popular Uprising: High numbers, weak individually but cheap.

* Looter: Basic melee unit. Has Pillage, and can loot corpses for money.

* Hunter: Basic ranged unit. Can kill critters to increase food count by 1.

* Rat-Catcher: Melee unit with Ensnare and ultravision. Can mass-kill rat swarms.

* Angry Mob (limit 1): Short-ranged unit. As long as at least one Mobber is alive, continuously spawns new mobbers. Each Mobber has a targeting ability that orders all Mobbers to Attack-Move to the targeted area. Can create Barricades and man them (Orc Burrow, but the mobbers die with the barricade).

* Mechanic: Can repair and resurrect mechanical units (allied and enemy under their control).

* Saboteur: Melee siege unit with Demolish. Can target enemy buildings to interrupt production.

* Demagogue: Rabble-rousing unit with several auras. Angry Mobbers spawn faster in the Demagogue's presence. Can use Seize the Means of Production (A channeling spell that brings an enemy building under player control as long as the channeler is uninterrupted).

 

[Oliver]

Thanks for the ideas @Pyrogasm I really like the 2 stances on the duellist, infact it'd be cool to make that a theme for the team. The permanent change thing I'd like to tie in, I had planned to have a veterancy mechanic for the militia but I could take that and apply it to the rebels/pirates then have the veterancy unlock the permanent upgrades.

Also thanks @cleavinghammer I think I'll combine the Mob and the Looter into one unit, a mechanic I've outlined for other teams is to have units emerging from nearby buildings to join the fray, I could re purpose that for the growing mob idea and give those units pillage perhaps, in my mind it sounds very similar to neighbouring team the rats, but I'll give it a try and see how it goes.
I think I'll also combine the hunter and rat catcher into one as a kind of Monster hunter with a shotgun, perhaps with some "cooldown passive" ability where if it kills a monster unit it creates a ham haunch powerup to heal nearby units.

Thank you to you both, I'm gonna try and rework the team and see how it looks, cheers for you help

 

[cleavinghammer]

Ghost Pirates: Amphibious skeletal units.

* Crewman: Melee skeleton with a sword. Has a grappling hook that lets it move from building to building.

* Pistoleer: Ranged skeleton with a pistol. Has a stacking evasion bonus when it fires due to the cloud of gunpowder surrounding it.

* Gunner: Siege unit. Can switch between a high-damage low-splash attack and a medium-damage high-splash attack.

* Sawbones: Healer with Unholy Aura. Can Cripple enemies at melee range.

* Carpenter: Melee unit with Demolish and Repair.

* Cook: Medium ranged unit. Throws expired supplies at enemies to spawn short-lived Neutral Hostile rats at their location. Can throw bottles of rum at allies to buff them.

* Captain: Strong melee unit. Can shoot an enemy for high damage or one of its own units to give nearby allies a strong buff. Can summon an undead parrot as a spotter and to pick up items.