As I promised previously, today I would be explaining my ideas on improving the Black Hand, Nod's most elite and fanatical soldiers.
The Black Hand is something of a unique fusion between a personal bodyguard division to Kane, a secret police and commissariat, a religious order, and a special operations unit - the result of its decades of history.
Because of this, its combat philosophy evolved significantly over the course of the series. In Kane's Wrath, it focused on a "Warrior Priest" model, with its religious Confessor officers being the most obvious example. Additionally, the Black Hand also gave significant prominence to Nod's classic flamethrower weaponry, having just about everything in their arsenal spew hellfire in just about every way, from their basic infantry to their giant bipedal walking death-machines.
My plans for them aim to expand on that further, as well as giving them some new additions as well.
Part 1 - Infantry
First, some changes to the Black Hand infantry:
1) Replacing the Rocket Militia with a proper Confessor Cabal equivalent. Having ill-trained militia in ponchos placed next to elite and highly-trained religious officers is just damn wierd, so they are obviously the first to go.
2) Filling the Shadow Team's hole with the Elite Cadre. The Elite Cadre from the last mission of TS: Firestorm make their return here, serving as the Black Hand's elite heavy infantry. The art design I have in mind for it is this piece here.
3) Giving the Black Hand unique Commandos - the Twin Sisters. The way that Kane's Wrath handled the Black Hand's commandos was interesting, but sloppy: they get two standard Commandos instead of one, and both are trained at Heroic veterancy, but stripped of stealth in exchange. The nickname for them, "twin sisters", held far more potential for them. So, that's the plan here: give them proper armored battlesuits (upping their health and armor), and give them each a flamethrower and a heavy laser assault-minigun, plus the ability to change between them. Flamethrower for infantry, laser-minigun for tanks. The result is a truly badass pair of deadly female warriors.
4) Make some changes to the Secret Shrine's upgrades (and change the name to "Shrine of Nod"). The biggest complaint about the Black Hand comes from the fact that their "Purifying Flames" Upgrade is accessible too damn early - it gives the Black Hand an enormous early-game advantage, way too much. So, my plan is to move the Purifying Flames to the Tech Lab, while replacing its spot in the Shrine with TWA's "Advanced Training" Upgrade. A much fairer balance than before.
Part 2 - Vehicles
Next, some changes to vehicles:
1) Some minor rearranging of the vehicle que. This rearrangement will be standard across all factions for future reference. As a basic outline: first two rows of the vehicle que are designated as Tier 1, and comprises of 6 vehicles; third row is designated as Tier 2, and comprises of 3 vehicles; the forth and final row is designated as Tier 3, and also comprises of 3 vehicles. Tier 1, obviously, means all basic vehicles you get at the start, while Tier 2 refers to the vehicles you get after building the Operations Center (or equivalent), while Tier 3 refers to the vehicles you get after building the Tech Lab/Tech Center.
As for the Black Hand specific rearrangements: the Reckoner is moved to Tier 1, second row, next to the Harvester and MCV, while the Mantis is moved to the third row, third slot in Tier 2.
2) Adding the Subterranean abilities from Tiberian Essence. As a way to give the Black Hand some more flavor, I think adding TE's Scorpion Tank (can be seen here) and Devil's Tongue, along with Twisted Insurrection's Mole Artillery, would work perfectly. The TE Scorpion Tank would replace the original's spot in Tier 1, with the Devil's Tongue replacing the vanilla Flame Tank in Tier 2, and TI's Mole Artillery replacing the Specter in Tier 3. Additionally, giving the Reckoner an upgrade to allow it to go subterranean would round out the Subterranean line of vehicles for the Black Hand.
3) Add in TE's Basilisk Beam Cannon to replace the original Beam Cannon design. This is mostly a cosmetic change, and who can blame me, the TW Beam Cannon looks ugly.
4) Revamp the Mantis's design. The general idea of what I'm looking for can be found here in my image gallery as well.
5) Add in a new custom design to fill the Stealth Tank's empty spot. The design in question is one I drew up myself, which you can find in my image gallery here.
6) Revamp the Purifier Warmech's design. Seriously, the Purifier needs some work in order to make it look more unique against its standard counterpart the Avatar.
Part 3 - Aircraft
Lastly, giving the Black Hand some aircraft:
1) A new structure to fill the Air Tower's empty spot. The design I have in mind is also one I came up with, and can also be found in my image gallery here.
2) Two new units: an incendiary ballistic missile, and a scout drone UAV (both also in the above-mentioned image). Names are still pending, but the general idea behind these two units are simple: the scout UAV searches for a target, and when it finds one, you can launch one of your missiles to blow up said target. As I said: Simple. Easy. Direct. Do note, however: the scout UAV is weaponless, so it cannot defend itself (not that it needs to, anyway: the UAVs are supposed to be cheap and expendable).
3) One additional new unit: the Harpy Attack Helicopter. An old throwback to TS, but modernized and upgraded (eh, imagine something like TE's Harpy or whatever). This unit is only available, however, after you research Hanger Authorization, a building-specific upgrade for the new air-structure.
Additional Notes
1) An idea for a Tech Lab upgrade I had would be "Thermobaric Warheads", a missile upgrade for the Attack Bike and Mantis (and maybe my custom Tac-Nuke SSM launcher if the Tac-Nukes prove too OP, and are moved to being an upgrade for the vehicle from the Temple of Nod).
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And that about wraps up what I have so far for the Black Hand. The only big roadblock I have left so far is coming up with new Black Hand-specific upgrades, particularly on the Laser upgrade front (perhaps something to do with high-energy plasma, perhaps?).
Any thoughts, suggestions, or comments are welcome. Some of the things I referenced here, such as Tiberian Essence's Scorpion Tank, Twisted Insurrection's Mole Artillery, and TWA's Advanced Training upgrade, are all property of their respective owners, and no attempts to use mentioned materials will be made unless permission is given.
One way of looking at the Black Hand in Kane's Wrath is that they are the "GDI-esque" heavy attack subfaction. In that light, it might be better to give subterranean units to the Marked of Kane (a more stealth/subversion-oriented subfaction) while beefing up the Black Hand's tanks and artillery.
The design that you have already does a good job on that - e.g., using TE's Tick Tank-inspired design for the Scorpion tank and adding a tactical nuke launcher as a stealth tank replacement. Another possibility would be for the Black Hand's non-stealth Specters to fire airbursting high explosive rounds, which have a much higher blast radius than the normal rounds.
I'd rather have the Black Hand keep the suberranean tech, since the MoK already have Stealth, Cybernetics, and Tiberium-based weaponry, so this'll even things out with the BH having Subterranean, Flame Weaponry, and Elite Units. Plus, with the BH lacking both Stealth and Aircraft, having Subterranean units gives them both the mobility of Aircraft and the evasion aspects of Stealth.
What you've suggested for the artillery, though, I've actually considered myself: the Mole Artillery, in addition to its subterranean ability, would also have those high-explosive/napalm rounds you mentioned. Probably should've made that clear in the post. :P
The perspective of seeing the BH as the "GDI-esque" heavy attack subfaction is fitting, but I think my arrangement takes that into account well enough. Still, thanks for the comment.:)