Update: Here is my upload, which if I need to I may update but if not, this will be my final one:
CREDITS
-MODELS-
Ujimasa Hojo
Gluma
Callahan
Thrikodius
paulH
Retera
EvilCryptLord
Direfury
PeeKay
Daelin
crl
JesusHipster
sPy
UgoUgo
nGy
JetFangInferno
Power
s4nji
Skizzik
Vortigon
-ICONS-
Blizzard Entertainment
Ujimasa Hojo
Gluma
Illidan(Evil)x
Mad
MrRious
BlazeKraze
Amargaard
bu3ny
Marcos DAB
PeeKay
Darkfang
bigapple90
Daelin
Greed26
VaLkYroN
4eNNightmare
Sorenkj
PrinceYaser
Nugamentum
FhelZone
Stanakin
The Panda
Wezthal
CrazyRussian
morbent
viiva
Nash
NFWar
La morte
The_Avenger's_Return
-SKINS-
n/a
-SYSTEMS-
Bribe
Archmage Owenalacaster
Illidan(Evil)x
PHILOSOPHY
The ideologies of the Bandit Faction are inherently self serving in nature. While they do operate together, their "alliances" are tenuous at best, mostly built upon a foundation of mutual usefulness and held together simply because they are more likely to succeed in their own goals when in larger numbers. The organization itself is inherently designed to exploit the greed and selfishness of those lower down, while the community tends to siphon out those of more altruistic notion by the nature of how it functions. Should anybody be found to hesitate in a heist, they are left behind to the authorities not long after to cover the escape. If they are likely to provide any meaningful information to the authorities, they are eliminated as a liability.
As cut-throat as it is, it is not through any sense of "evil" that they do these acts. Many started out as doing what they do out of a necessity for survival, only to find those of wealth and home trying to tell them that their way of life was wrong. Consequently, notions of authority are not respected among the Bandit Outlaws, for many of them are people who have had many opportunities to live a better life than they were ever afforded and now spend most of their time telling other people how they should live their lives.
STRATEGY
The Bandits thrive on ambush tactics as well as hit-and-run. Whittling away opposing armies in quick strikes before retreating to regroup is the primary method of combat. Upon reaching the second tier, the Ratmen from the Sewer Tunnels provide substantial glass-cannon firepower, as well as a tank that tends to be a little frailer than most. The Shadow Works, on the other hand, provides units that are geared more towards disrupting enemy units. The third tier is where the Bandits get access to their Night Runner assassins, who are adept at hunting heroes, as well as the Nether Dragon, their flying assault creature.
Unique to the Bandits is the capacity to get more out of mercenaries than any of the vanilla factions. They are able to perform a research that will get them Veteran and Elite mercenaries. Additionally, their Town Halls grant them access to hiring mercenaries dependent upon the map, which in this case is the unit roster from the Sunken Ruins Mercenary Camp. This gives them a little more access to mercenaries than anybody else, allowing them to make use of the later game upgrades should they choose to do so, but also allows them to spend a rather substantial fee if they find they need some extra defense at home in a pinch.
While hiring Mercenaries is one of the primary crafts of the Bandit faction by design, another is unconventional means of developing income. With the Artifact Smuggling upgrade available in the early game, the Bandits are able to sell any unwanted items for extra gold, giving them a considerable income boost for selling their spoils. The Life Insurance upgrade gives a small refund for any units that die in combat based upon their unit level. These income boosts may prove critical to the Bandit's operations. The Bandit Lord is also a unique choice in that he is primarily an economic hero. While capable of fighting rather well, his main strengths lie in establishing map vision through his Sentry Traps and acquiring extra income through his Bounty Hunters Aura, which grants a small bounty for all units killed by those under the Aura's effect.
Through these unconventional moneymaking schemes and their hit-and-run ambush tactics, the goal is to pick apart as much as you can of the enemy while keeping as much of your own assets in tact. After all, you are here to turn a profit.
DESIGN
The primary governing decision behind the design for the Bandit faction was to keep things simple, while innovating into new territory of the melee game. I wanted to do something with the Mercenaries, but not in a way that wouldn't fit in with the melee game, and not in a way that would just end up being a boring rehash that pretends to be interesting. As such, the Veteran Mercenaries upgrade was born. The idea was ultimately to give the Bandits an edge in something that no other faction really capitalized on. After having watched a few of Grubby's videos of playing pro-level Warcraft 3, I deduced that the only mercenaries people tended to hire was the Forest Troll Priest, and the Forest Troll Berserker. So I had hoped to give the Bandits a suitable edge in these areas.
I also wanted to capitalize on all things Bandit related, be it ambush tactics, illegal trade deals, even Shadow Demons. i wanted them to be an economic race, but in a completely unconventional sense that utilized characteristics from the melee game in an attempt to shed a new light on what could be possible. Extra income for selling items, small refunds on lost units, as well as incorporating the ingame Bounty system was ultimately what was settled on. As far as Ambush tactics went, I wanted to draw considerable inspiration from the ingame Bandit Creep units, but without simply rehashing what has been done before. Defend and Evasion were both more or less done before, so I decided to put the two abilities together. Everything else more or less fit together nicely. The Heroes were also intended as a tribute to each ingame Bandit creep, named after their most powerful incarnation.
Ultimately, the faction was designed to have a rather Lord Of The Flies feel to it, with the decay of humanity into a more primal, bestial form of survival and almost tribal savagery mixed with unparalleled cunning. It's every man for himself, and while the motives are inherently selfish, that's what has become necessary to survive.
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