Delenda Est - Alpha 23

Delenda Est works to bring authenticity to the in-development indie title 0 A.D. Empires Ascendant. Delenda Est molds the game into a coherent focused design, adds features, new art, and new civilizations, and serves as a testbed for new ideas that could potentially make their way into the core game.

Delenda Est includes all-new unit balancing, all-new technology trees customized for each faction (with technology choices and unique techs), new buildable structures (cult statue, archery range, stable, workshop) new playable factions (Han Chinese, Theban Greeks, Epirotes, Imperial Romans, and the upcoming nomadic Scythians for Alpha 24), modded maps, brand new maps, capturable mercenary camps with dozens of new mercenary units, farmlands that enrich the player's food production, a brand new resource (Glory), and much much more!

Major Changes/Features

• A 4th phase: Empire Phase
  • Build a Wonder to auto-research this new final phase and unlock unique technologies.
• Citizens/Villagers/Slaves/Citizen-soldiers
  • All factions now have dedicated civilian "Villager" units. They are divided between:
    • Citizens: Build economic buildings and gather resources very slowly. They have a "Slave Ownership" aura which boosts the gather rates of nearby "slave" class units.
    • Slaves: Are purely resource gatherers. Trainable from Storehouses and Farmsteads after constructing a Market.
    • For Alpha 23, not all factions have slaves. Other "social" paradigms will be explored for Alpha 24, for instance the Indian caste system for the Mauryas.
  • Citizen-Soldiers no longer gather resources.
    • Can build Military buildings and help the civilian Citizens with building other types of buildings.
    • Since they are also "Citizens", they too have the "Slave Ownership" aura, which boosts nearby Slaves.
• New factions
  • Principate Romans: The classic "Imperial Rome" of the 1st and 2nd centuries A.D.
    • Start each skirmish match with a free Temple of Vesta.
    • Have a Legionary Barracks and an Auxiliary Barracks.
    • Their wonder is the famous "Flavian Amphitheater", or better known as the Colosseum.
    • Like the Republican Romans, the Principates have the Army Camp and Siege Walls.
  • Han Chinese: Massed crossbows.
    • Artwork by the Terra Magna team, used with permission.
    • The Minister unit boosts the effectiveness of buildings he is garrisoned inside and of nearby Peasants (Civilian Citizens).
    • Construct the new Imperial Court building to advance to Town Phase (II) and train more Ministers.
    • Construct the new Cult Statues in order to advance to City Phase (III).
  • Epirotes: An imperialist Greek civ with a variety of ethnic units, lead by the famous Pyrrhus of Epirus!
    • Unlock training Champions from the Barracks (a feature removed from all other civs).
    • Towered War Elephants. 'nuff said.
    • Has access to a wide variety of troops, from many different ethnicities.
  • Theban Greeks: The ancient and storied Thebans, from central Greece.
    • Construct the Theban Fire Raiser siege weapon.
    • Train the famous Theban Sacred Band from the fortress.
    • They start each skirmish match with a free Greek Stoa, which increases building health by 20% for as long as it stands.
• All new Buildings
  • Cult Statue
    • Build these to gain a trickle of the new Glory resource!
    • Task soldiers and civilian alike to it to gather additional Glory.
    • Glory is used to train Heroes and Healers, research special technologies, and research Temple technologies.
  • The old "Barracks" structure has now been split into multiple other structures
    • Barracks
      • Train melee infantry.
    • Archery Range
      • Train ranged infantry.
    • Stable
      • Train cavalry units.
    • Elephant Stables
      • Train War Elephants.
    • Siege Workshop
      • Construct Siege Weapons.
  • Greek Stoa
    • Greek factions receive a free Greek Stoa at the beginning of each skirmish match.
      • Athenians
      • Epirotes
      • Macedonians
      • Spartans
      • Thebans
    • Grants +20% health to all buildings for as long as it stands.
    • Cannot be rebuilt.
  • Imperial Court
    • For the Han Chinese, unlocks the Town Phase (II).
    • Train Ministers, who help boost the player's economy.
  • Naval Shipyard
    • For those factions with more than 1 warship, it constructs warships.
    • Split from the Dock, which is now purely economic for most factions.
• Mercenaries and Mercenary Camps
  • Mercenary Camps, in the form of either a desert encampment, a small village, or wooden stockade, are neutral, capturable structures dotted throughout skirmish maps.
  • Capture them to train Mercenaries unique to each faction.
    • Train very quickly, in usually only 5 seconds.
    • Mercenaries cost no food, only metal and one other non-food resource.
    • Most start out at the Advanced rank.
    • Can only train 30 mercenaries for the first captured Merc Camp, and 10 more for each other Merc Camp under the player's control.
• New Combat Mechanics
  • Hard Counters
    • They're back. Streamlined and (mostly) realistic.
    • So every unit is good for something.
  • Phalanx, Syntagma, Forced March and Wedge formations more useful:
    • "Massed Pikes" aura for pike infantry gives them additional attack and armor for every nearby pikeman, making the Syntagma formation more useful.
    • "Locked Shields" aura for hoplite infantry give them a big armor boost when near other hoplites, making the Phalanx formation more useful.
    • Wedge formation for cavalry boosts their movement rates by 20%.
    • Forced March (the old 'Column' formation), boosts movement rates by 15%, to get your troops across the map swiftly.
• New Technologies and Technology trees.
  • 100 new technologies, with some new icons.
  • Each faction's Blacksmith has a unique tree.
• Farmlands
  • Many skirmish maps have areas of terrain where building farms on them will increase the output of the farms by 100%.
  • Consequently, Civic Centers and Temples have the "Civic Spaces" aura, which reduces output of nearby farms by -50%.