The Issue:

I'm sure there's many other players who feel the same as I do, disappointment that Volkmar and Markus (soon to have his own thread) didn't get a small glow up during ToD. Despite these factions definitely having issues with their campaigns. Volkmar suffers from a very dull campaign where his mechanic of collecting the Books of Nagash isn't even linked to his victory conditions, and it takes so long to complete that you can easily achieve his short victory condition before collecting a single book and you can easily complete his long victory before collecting half the books. He also needs some other kind of secondary mechanic as there's nothing for the player to interact with while collecting the books, except for just painting the map your factions colour. 

What I would suggest:

- 1) Remove the elector count state troop unlocks from the Books of Nagash mechanic and give Volkmar the same elector count state troop unlock technologies that Gelt & Elspeth received. Currently they take forever to unlock and you can finish a long campaign without using some of them. The books aren't randomised either, so you're almost always unlocking the same units first and missing out on the units in the books furthest away. 

- 2) Add the Books of Nagash onto the short and long campaign victory conditions. I would remove destroying the Oracles of Tzeetch and The Drakenhof Conclave from the short victory conditions and instead replace it with a requirement of collecting 3 Books of Nagash. I would remove controlling all Empire provinces from his long campaign victory conditions, this is a holdover from the previous WH TW games, and instead replace it with at least 6 Books of Nagash. 

3) For the books that have a control settlement unlock requirement it should be expanded to not just player owned but owned by an ally. The 7th book location often gets taken over by the Dwarves before the player gets there and the player shouldn't be forced to declare war on them for the book, the same applies to the 8th book except for Elves.  

- 4) Add a mini-quest line, like what Gelt received. Initially directing the player to wipe out the Dune Kingdoms minor faction to protect Sudenberg (thematically speaking) which would give some minor reward options. This might require Mannfred to be moved slightly and redirected North towards the Springs of Eternal Life. Then it directs the player to the nearby rogue army of Nicolandor the Blade of Scolarii to collect their first book. Once the player has defeated this army and collected the first book a dilemma appears with several options:

1. Return to the Empire. This puts you closer to book 5. Your previously conqueror territory is given to a new minor faction New Coast Colonies and you get the A Triumphant Homecoming buff, the same as Gelt.
2.  The Huntsmarshal Calls for Aid. This teleports you to the Temple of Kara and closer to book 3. Specifically on the Southern road facing Tlaxlan. Unlike the above you still keep your previous territory. See my Markus suggestion (when completed) that I would make the Hostility mechanic apply to all non-Lizardmen factions once they control a single settlement in Lustria, similar to how the new Imperial Authority mechanic works. 
3. Do nothing. 

- 5) As discussed above,  some form of secondary mechanic would be ideal. It may require some tweaking to some of the book bonuses, but it would make Volkmar's campaign far more enjoyable. Ideally I would love to see something like The Motherland where Volkmar and Emil have a supporter race to become the dominant religion in the Empire, though without the confederations. However, it's hard to say when or if a Cult of Ulric DLC is coming. Something simpler like Temples of the Old Ones could work, renamed and limited to just Sigmar. So the more Shrines of Sigmar you build across the land the more points you can spend on campaign or unit buffs. A rites ability that unlocks as you increase in zeal could be interesting too, which temporarily adds additional abilities to Shrine of Sigmar chain buildings may be interesting, I'd also like to see the Cathedral of Sigmar building come back. For example there could be a "swords to plowshares" rite that provides 5/10/15 growth for each tier of shrine globally for X turns. 

- 6) I think Arch-lectors should get Volkmar's War Eternal skill to give them more options for army construction. Free Company Militia fall off in power very quickly and this would keep them relevant a bit longer without making them OP like Volkmar does with the rest of his unique skills. 

- 7) I'd like to see the War Altar of Sigmar gain an aura of Frenzy, this represents the aura of Hatred special rule it had on the table top. Volkmar should be a support chariot as that's what the War Altar was. 

- 8) The Volkmar AI has been suffering a lot recently. The last AI patch has improved his situation, but I believe whenever the AI is controlling Volkmar he should start with the entirety of the Land of the Dervishes. Just like how Franz starts with all of Reikland when the AI controls him. The issue is Flagellants do incredibly poorly in autoresolve due to how much armour and missiles are weighted, and that the AI doesn't know how to demolish buildings. Since Volkmar now starts with a Shrine of Sigmar in their major settlement they have to wait until their settlement expands to 3 building slots (not including the settlement building) in order to produce different unit types. 

- 9) This one is completely optional, but I'd love a soft re-release of The Grim and the Grave DLC. Bringing the contents of both lords to ToD levels and increasing the cost to reflect the new value. Anyone who already owns the DLC gets the additional content for free. This could be used to justify reworks like the above. I would love to see Huss and Valten become LH's for a Volkmar campaign. Sisters of Sigmar would be a very thematic unit to add and could be added as a unit in the Shrine of Sigmar chain so it has more than just Flagellants. 

I'd love to hear other peoples ideas on what they'd like to see to make Volkmar more interesting, or if there's anything I've missed.

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Steelclaw#6359 wrote:

While I don't personally play Empire much, this has my support as a matter of principle - if this were happening to a race I was more invested in, I'd want every LL to get their quality improvements.

Not sure about re-releasing G&tG, though - I feel like that opens the floodgates to people demanding that for all past DLC with less content, and as cool as it would be to have it all at that level, it's not very financially viable for CA (and even if it were, it'd mean no new content for a long time).

Absolutely understand, that's why I marked that one as optional. Maybe we could still get Sisters of Sigmar, Huss and Valten as FLC. 

kissmydairia#7307 wrote:
Good ideas and I really want an in depth churches/religions mechanic for Volkmar and Emil if he ever comes. We also need a knightly orders mechanic and grand master lords which would hopefully come with Kurt Helborg as a lord.

I've got some ideas for Kurt Helborg in this thread I made.