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Well, it's time to remember 7.5 again. Once upon a time, I spoke unfavorably of it because I encountered the very beginning of its existence in the form of a crooked and glitchy Inferno. I looked at 7.5 and the following few years with doubt: new factions were being released for it all too often, and I remembered what state the very first one was in. Nevertheless, here in 2024, I decided to finally play the most modern version of the mod. What brought me to it, however, was more the interest of a modder than a player. And yet, 7.5 pleasantly surprised me.
Unlike that old, glitchy Inferno that had to be installed manually, the mod now has a beautiful installer with some options, and it even has several localizations, including Russian. In the old days, Seven often liked to break (saves) for me, followed by the need for a reinstallation. I haven't encountered this in 7.5 after about twenty-five hours. The mod generally includes the best bug-fix available, but there are still plenty of bugs. This is Seven. Its favorite crooked displays of unit movement range, hero control that sometimes breaks in battle, AI 300Q moves, and other minor errors are still with us, but for fairness' sake, I haven't seen anything truly critical. And the game only crashed once.
So, what does 7.5 actually do?
Well first, it heavily changes the balance. The mod plays completely differently than the original. At first glance, everything seems familiar, but it isn't. Nevertheless, for the most part, the changes have benefited the game. For example, a total rebalance of skills and spells. Many spells work differently than before, including the removal of all area-of-effect magic abuses that drove the AI crazy. Cooldowns were added to some spells, and the number of these spells was significantly expanded. Abilities of some units were changed, as well as the city construction tree. The cost of heroes in taverns was increased (I didn't quite understand why, but more resources are now given at the start on every difficulty).
Additionally, the AI has been buffed. If in the original it wasn't that hard to dismantle heroic bots on a maximum hardcore GSK map—the bots were too stupid and neutrals fought using magic abuses—then that won't work here. Here, on such a difficulty, you will be shown your true shameful place, because a heroic bot in 7.5 is a factory for creating an army of clones. They are simply countless! Although the bot is still stupid and might run to capture neutral mines instead of your city while its own is under threat of capture by you, the AI army is so large that it can eclipse even the heavens with its numbers! Normal AI difficulty is roughly heroic in the original. On high, there are already about twice as many, and even here winning can be very difficult; on heroic, it reproduces by nothing other than budding. So, every tactical trick and abuse that comes to mind is put into play.
But let's move on to the best part: what the mod added.
1) A sort of T8 for all cities. This is the freshest update from the New Year. It adds two new units, including to the old factions. Like regular T7s, they are built from the T4 guild, and when choosing, you can get either a prolific T6 (4 per week) or a T7 unit with a growth of one additional to the seven standard faction units. At the same time, a regular T7 is hired at 2 per week instead of 1, so the new one is stronger and fewer in number.
2) One unit in all factions has an alternative. It varies: for humans, it's a banal choice between griffins and wolves, while for undead, suddenly between vampires and new bone priestesses with a game from a crowd of skeletons. I assume there will be more such alternatives in the future.
3) New artifacts, spells, heroes, neutrals, and creature banks. This is all clear, although rare banks with bosses inside sometimes spawn on maps.
4) Five and a half new factions; I've played as all of them, Sanctuary and the Underground Empire were my favorites:
1. Inferno. Classic demons with additional squad summoning. They can cast summon up to three times, even on the same squad. Summoned shooters distract the AI's attention quite well. The faction composition is partially familiar, partially not: T1 are upright horned demons, T2 succubi, T3 cool three-headed cerberuses with a powerful burn without retaliation, T4 ifrits, T5 destroyers from Six, T6 shooting Lords of the Abyss or, suddenly, equally shooting spiders, and T7 devils or magogs, melee and shooter respectively. For T8, there is a choice between T6 behemoths for an aggressive charge into enemy ranks and T7 flying Skarbrands from Total War Warhammer 3. The developer really wants to change something about the ifrits, so this list may become outdated.
2. Sanctuary. Another classic faction. But the composition isn't very classic. At T1 we have strange shark warriors. Very strange. At T2 familiar kappas. At T3 a large naga-archer with one-time paralysis. At T4 a choice between deep sea warriors and brutal monkey kings with staffs, at T5 a non-ice analogue of Yuki-onna, at T6 nagas with glaives from Six. At T7 a choice between classic kirins and monster girls with snakes. Choose wisely. T8 offers T6 manly ronin or even more manly T7 gigachads with tridents.
3. Ice Spires. Apparently, the closest analogue is Tower from Three, but this faction has no real prototype. Or maybe there's something I don't know. These are ice mages with an interesting composition. At T1 we have anime characters with bows. At T2 anime characters with swords and shields. At T3 sort of ice dendroids. At T4 ice warlocks with long staffs and beards. At T5 multi-armed ice women, but not nagas—there's an Indian vibe. At T6 a choice between ice cats and ice riders. At T7 between blue dragons and giants. For T8, the T6 version is ice (no, damn it, fire!) beastmasters or birds that look like phoenixes. Ice ones, by the way).
4. Underground Empire. Many models in the mod are taken from Total War Warhammer 3, but the last two factions are literally Waha. Because now we're talking about the Skaven race. Its prototype, funnily enough, is the Xel race from a similarly named unfinished mod. Apparently, its creator participated in the development of 7.5, but that's not certain. Nevertheless, the only things rat-men and Xel have in common are some names, a racial ability, and support units (machines in Five). So this is definitely a Skaven race. At T1 we have clan rats with halberds. At T2 just huge fast rats on four legs. At T3 a choice between a very toxic shooting wyvern and... Ratling gun crews! Who needs a wyvern when you have same-minigunners! Moreover, their mechanics are interesting: the rats shoot randomly; their normal damage isn't that great, but it can proc up to three times, and then the DPS will exceed any expectations! However, usually, it's a scam. Additionally, the crew can blow up when taking melee damage, killing everyone nearby. At T4 shooting beastmen. In TWW3 this is not a Skaven unit, but okay. At T5 ninjas with shadow movement from the Eshin clan. At T6 rat ogres with very OP abilities. And at T7 a choice between the famous Skaven Hellpits and, suddenly, Tomb Kings scorpions. Moreover, tombs enter the faction not only with the latter, as the T7 version of the T8 unit is a Tomb Kings Hierotitan. The T6 version is a beastmen Gor-mutant. Thus, the Underground Empire is a mix of three factions from TWW: Skaven, Beastmen, and Tomb Kings. Perhaps this faction has the most interesting abilities. If desired, it can be disabled during mod installation.
5. Cult of Balance. These are Lizardmen from TWW3. The author clearly loves this game. Here we have lizards and dinosaurs for every taste. At T1 lizardmen with polearms. At T2 same, but shamans who shoot lightning. At T3 the everyone-loved (not) snakes from Three. At T4 jumping buff lizardmen. Seriously, they fly by jumping and deal damage to everyone around upon landing! At T5 dinosaurs. At T6 Croxygors or dinosaurs with kidney stones. At T7 especially large and angry dinosaurs or pterodactyls. For T8, the T6 version is suddenly T6 Zoathes of Wood Elves from TWW3 or T7 hydras. Not the ones from the gym faction, but much larger ones with legs. Also disableable by choice.
6. And the final chord is mercenaries. Not exactly a new race, but there's a kind of city. It's a medley of neutrals commanded by a universal mercenary hero. Quite playable. If given to the AI manually, it can also play them.
5) And the most important change that I simply cannot forget: own jinns in 7.5 change gender upon upgrade just like in Three! Oh yes!
In conclusion, I can say that I did like the mod. Yes, it's still a bugged Seven, but already much more interesting, difficult, and engaging. By the way, there will soon be 6 and a half races, as Conflux is being polished... The fact that the author's imagination has clearly drifted away from canon doesn't bother me personally.
I can definitely recommend playing it) And yes, it only installs on the DLC with dwarves and no other way.
