Renegade Guard 0.93 for Soulstorm file

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MOD NEEDS THE OBJECTIVE POINTS MOD.

Fuggles here and welcome to the 0.93 release of the Renegade Guard Race Modification for Soulstorm!

Whilst the mod has changed a lot, our eternal thanks has not. Especially to Warsmith, Torzel, Green Scorpion, Roderick, Thudmeizer, Gambit and the rest of the Team Thudmeiser. I forget who has done what over the years, but I am indebted to you all.

Now, a word from Roderick on what this all is:

This is an article describing the design of the 0.93 version of the Renegade Guard.

Precedents
The latest public version of the Renegade guard Mod was the 0.64 made by Torzel. It was based on a combination of two remarkable armies such as the Blood Pact (a Khornate army) and the rebels of Vraks (Nurgle army) in an attempt to represent a canonical renegade regiment with enough variety to make a full faction. As such, the 0.64 was designed as a transposition of the DoW:SS Imperial Guard faction, sharing almost all the organization and the tech-tree and also sharing some of their limitations in strategy variety. The 0.7 (non public) added more units but lacked organization, with the presence of overlaps in the role of several squads or the squads being excessively dependent on conditional limits: there was no clear techtree.

Therefore a 0.9 version was made to put order on the new added options while preserving the spirit of the 0.64 version. The mod now represents a generic army of Renegades & Heretics (also known in the fluff of WH40k as the Lost and the Damned). It has been put an effort to get different feasible possibilities while playing them, with enough room to let the player imagine a narrative to justify the army s/he is playing in whatever particular configuration it may have. The choices for the player have been based on a mix between the 7th and the 8th edition for Renegades & Heretics found at ForgeWorld.

What are the lost and the damned?
Thousands of Chaos-fueled rebellions and attacks of treacherous imperial armies appear every day in the galaxy in many shapes, purposes and origins: from the tainted regiments exposed too much to Chaos to the warbands coming from the Eye of terror as allies of the Heretic Astartes, from civil uprisings inspired by chaotic fervorous leaders to the armies of the very denizens of Demon worlds, the armies of the Renegade and Heretics become an amalgam of traitors, cultists, mutants, outlaws or even worse abominations driven by the sole purpose of destroying the Imperium.

As a faction army, the backbone of the mod consists on the traitor militiamen: defected guardsmen who have fallen to the Ruinous powers and still retain their former combat skills and organization (or reasonably similar). As any other army of guardsmen, the faction consists in a large amount of weak human squads backed by a formidable array of vehicles or even demon engines (thanks Chaos!).
Instead of being enhanced by attachable minor leaders as in the DOW:SS Imperial Guard, the renegades are more dependent of the two leaders they may have, who provide global bonuses to them as described below.

Primary Leaders
The primary leader can be considered as a "warchief" or as the leader found at the first line of battle. He is a skilled warrior and therefore has an offensive role, helped by their bodyguards to stay in battle more time. It appears at the early stages of the game and gives the player the first choice, which defines the overall doctrine of the army and the units' roster.
1) The Master of the Horde is a former officer of an imperial regiment who has been corrupted by the Chaos powers. Being a renegade commander, he imposes a kind of organization close to a regular standing army on both their troops and vehicles. The renegade militia have access to heavy weapon teams and many vehicles from the Imperial guard refurbished in a chaotic fashion.
2) The alternative option is the Mutant Overlord, a powerful mutant (either born or tainted by Chaos energies) who has been blessed by the Chaos gods with enough powers and ascendance among his fallen comrades to lead an army from diverse origins. The army of this Malefic lord is an irregular army, with a more heterogeneous appeal and with a more evident presence of Chaos. Joining the ever -present renegade guardsmen you can found mobs of civilian cultists and mutants, demon engines, undead outbreaks and even some chaos spawns.
Roughly speaking, the first choice provides quality and a familiar organization over quantity and heterogeneity provided by the second.

The Secondary Leader
The secondary leader or demagogue appears later, as the escalation grows. He can be regarded either as an ally or as the mastermind behind the scenes, it's up to you. The secondary leader grants a particular global bonus to your troops and an specific squad. You have four choices:
a) The Arch-heretic is a political or a religious figure whose zeal is enough to instill devotion to the troops. It provides a bonus of morale to the troops. He allows the creation of enforcers, mini-leaders who can give invulnerability to damage during a short time to the squad he is attached to.
b) The Dark Magos is a former Magos of the Adeptus Mechanicus whose arcane technology and forbidden experiments enhances the troops. It provides a bonus of extra damage to the weapons of the militiamen. He allows the creation of a Decimator walker engine, a powerful close-combat biped demon engine.
c) The Primaris Witch is an exceptionally powerful psyker which eventually has fallen to Chaos as the fate of many of their kind. He taps energies from the Warp bestowed upon the troops. He provides a global bonus of health on the troops. He allows the creation of a renegade psyker coven, whose abilities are useful and supportive to the army.
d) The Bloody-handed Reaver is either a mercenary, a raider, a pirate or all those things together. It isn't uncommon that powerful soldiers or warriors opt for a life of pillage and murdering while offering themselves to the Ruinous powers. He provides a bonus on the number of weapons carried by each squad. He allows the creation of veteran squads, specialized to bring down structures and vehicles.

Why there are not devotions to the four gods?
While doing the design we found that a third layer of specialization or customization would mess the design layout and detaching the mod from the original, simple and effective way it had.
Currently there are eight combinations of doctrines and the variation of squads grant that no two games will be exactly the same either with or against this army. With the additional mark would be up to 32 variations with would need to be balanced. In short, too much mess for a little gain.
In addition, the guardsmen aren't famous for being zealous or deeply religious to any particular god; this is more a thing of the chaos cults. Thus, other mods can explore this untouched design line of chaos marks.
Still you can find some art details, units or speeches which may give you a clue of what god is directly related to. One can consider that different mono-god worshipers cooperate under a same banner if the leader is powerful enough. Finally, although it is a mere visual thing with no implications in the game, you can select a specific teamcolour that had a particular god allegiance. We have been careful to put a good selection and the badges and banners are right placed in case of mono-god worshiper armies as per fluff.

Enjoy!

TTFN

fuggles