Hello! Following a full Karl Franz playthrough (~150 turns) using the Deithland mod and testing out each of the new units I wanted to give a comprehensive evaluation on the state of unit balance when it comes to each unit that the mod adds. Deithland in my opinion is one of the best designed unit overhauls when it comes to making the roster feel well-rounded, and many of the units are extremely fun and add a new way to play the game. With that being said, there are a decent few units that in my opinion perform fairly poorly for their expected niche. This discussion will cover each of Deithland’s units from top to bottom. Before writing about each unit I’ll also give them a numerical rating between 1-10 which encompasses how fun they are to use, how effective they are, and what niche they fill in the faction

As a side note: I am considering Deithland a distinct faction from the Empire, and in my playthrough I tried to avoid Empire units as much as feasible. I think eventually Deithland would be best suited as a separate faction as opposed to included in the Empire, but if that is not the eventual end goal, then my views on some of the roster may be different than yours or Doktober's based on that opinion.

Extremely strong portion of the mod, although I definitely think we could use more block-style infantry in the long term.

Starting off easy, the Gallowdogs are pretty much exactly where they should be. A little stronger in melee than you might expect, but vulnerable to fear and chaff mulching weapons. If anything I might consider a small nerf to their MA/MD stats since they are fairly solid for chaff.

Also easy, they’re cheap, provide mass volley fire, not particularly weak to anything except powerful AOE. Well designed, one of my favorite early game units. Wouldn’t touch them.

Really interesting unit especially for the early game, effectively a force multiplier when you’re lacking overwhelming firepower that you see in the late game and end up bogged down in melee. I personally think they’d do better and be relevant longer if they were a 32 man unit with slightly altered stats but they change up the way you play in a way I found interesting. Overall well done.

Solidly done, I don’t think I’d make any changes here honestly. The only variant that I feel falls behind the others is the shields and carbines, mostly because I think their niche (offering improved MD and shields to tank enemy ranged) is generally less relevant for a faction that focuses on overwhelming ranged supremacy. They aren’t bad, I just don’t think they fill a role the faction really needs in the majority of armies, so I’d leave them as is. Blasterkeys distinguish themselves by having a unique niche in breaking low armor charges with the shotguns, but being less versatile than base variant, so also good.

A note: I feel weapon teams are where the mod lacks the most in terms of making the units feel impactful, with two units in particular needing significant changes to feel useful compared to other roster options.

I’m gonna say it, I think these guys are complete garbage. They have extremely low range, pack a punch that’s fairly comparable if not worse to a block of Deithguard, and crumble if anything so much as breathes in their general direction. I did extensive testing in campaign and in custom battles to see if there was a niche I was missing since visually I think these guys are really cool looking. The concept of a low range, high risk, high damage ranged flanker is fine - but they need a significant damage buff to justify using them as opposed to anything else in the roster. I’d argue Hellbores do their job better (which is not their general intended role) with the only caveat being the explosions capable of causing friendly fire.The unit I was disappointed the most by easily.
-Small edit: Danzigers currently shoot one projectile, when based on their gun maybe they are supposed to be shooting in a volley of 3? Which would explain their poor performance, possibly an issue that needs to be fixed.

Excellent, solid against any targets, I’d argue though that there are pretty minimal differences between HE and HEAL ammo when targeting infantry so I’m not sure why you wouldn’t just leave it on HEAL since it performs better against large. I think some “bonus vs” stat adjustment to make switching ammo more impactful would be nice but the performance and concept of the unit is great.

Really underwhelming in my opinion. Explosive rounds are basically sneezing at enemy troops (even small unarmoured like goblins or zombies), the shotgun mode I’m fairly certain is useless (but I guess 1 damage is better than zero if you’re in a situation where you need to use it, could be decent against fliers but never got a huge chance to test). I liked the cinderwind shells, so I do think they’re worth using in the exceptionally early midgame before you have war machines / pyrehulks / excessive arty, but they phase out really fast since they have no other significant impact on the battle. Their non-cinderwind firing modes need alterations - IMO the explosive shot should be changed to be very effective at taking down unarmoured chaff, the shotgun should have high AP but high risk due to range and low accuracy (danzigers lite, assuming they get buffed), and the cinderwind stays the same.

They’re fine. They perform better than hochland rifles after they get their blackpower discipline, but play a little differently since they can’t hit the broadside of a barn without it. I’d keep them the way they are, bread and butter long range AP.

Extremely fun, extremely temperamental, very effective when they work. Love the addition, have to include one in each army now honestly.


Short section, chemlancers and their drilling gun variant are fine the way they are. They require more thinking to use than standard cav, but I’d expect that from Deithland given their faction strengths. Well designed, like the mortars.


Performs like you’d expect the mainline cannon of a human faction to. Good versatility with the grape shot. I like them, I wouldn’t suggest any changes.

They’re OKAY, but honestly I’m not really sure why you’d choose to use them over Culverins. They lack a lot of versatility without the extra range (nearly half!) and their increased damage isn’t super visible against most enemies. I’d give a small range buff (maybe 325) and make their shots a little bit more devastating to justify using them in the later game. I’ll do some additional testing with chain shot to see if I’m missing something.

Probably the most reliable artillery choice in this list, in my testing they performed absolutely amazingly against pretty much everything - infantry, monsters, lords, although obviously not the best choice for cheap chaff. Basically tiller guns on steroids. The grape shot is basically worthless though, in my testing in custom battles the grape shot performed equal to or worse than the standard shot against all unit types.

These kinda fill the role that I feel like the Knellgun was going for actually, ignoring the extra mobility. They are actually pretty devastating and I really liked using them in the early game for value plays - a good volley from the six cannons can really mess up whatever you’re shooting at. I’d keep 'em the same, I think they’re quite well designed.

As a gatling / minigun enjoyer, I really tried to like these. They just performed really, really underwhelmingly across all my testing. I don’t think they did anything better than any other artillery piece and were especially anemic against chaff which surprised me since they’re touted as an explosive artillery piece. I’m thinking they probably need a wider explosive damage hitbox, because as is I don’t know why you’d bring them along.
-Little edit here, Vinderbanes apparently have their own explosive effect that I found in RPFM, but are using the explosive effect from I think outriders with grenade launchers? Which might explain their lackluster performance, possibly an upcoming update or a minor mistake, since I swapped them to their explosive effect in the editor and it didn't seem to break anything.

Almost exactly the same. Extremely underwhelming against large targets, not fantastic against infantry. Both this and the Vinderbane need damage increases to stay competitive, possibly accuracy buffs too. If I were balancing these I’d make the vinderbane the low armor infantry mulcher, and the autofalcon the heavily armored infantry / large killer.

Absolutely fantastic. Do exactly as advertised, fun to use, love the effects, love the sounds. Got these down pretty much perfectly.

It’s FINE, but I do think it’s a slightly worse performing Hellstorm until things get close, at which point the grenade launcher is pretty useful. It doesn’t need a change per se but a very slight accuracy increase wouldn’t hurt to put it a little closer to the Hellstorm in rocket performance.


I’m gonna lump both the volley gauntlets and the fusilaxes in the same spot here, because in my opinion they both suffer from the same thing. The units are fine balance wise, but I wish they filled a different role. It’s possibly their accuracy that handicaps them, but essentially both of these unit variants do poorly in terms of ranged damage. How are they balanced then? Because they honestly shred in melee especially against their intended targets. And if that’s the way that Doktober wants them balanced then I think that’s fine, but personally I think I’d prefer strong weapon strength but poor MA/MD (they’re still unaugmented humans inside, afterall) with a greater focus on using their ranged weapons to soften up targets before they get too close.

Generally I like the concept that powered armor (steam powered armor, in this case) is more developed as a solution to carrying large, unwieldy, close-range support weapons, as opposed to melee being the main selling point (or possibly using separate variants focused on close combat). This makes sense to me because it fills a niche vehicles are unable, since it is generally inadvisable to have tanks and the sort that close to enemies. I’d like to see the Pyrehulks move more in the mobile weapon system direction. As it stands the ranged weapons are kind of an afterthought.

Might be worth considering splitting the pyrehulks - Volley Gauntlets are attached to Pyrehulks with powerful melee weapons as a way to soften the enemy before contact, other variants carry large powerful weapons but are less suited to up close engagements (IE fusilaxes). So two orders - Maybe the Pyrehulk Gauntlets and the Pyrehulk Lancers or something? (Also, completely irrelevant, but I will quite literally offer my soul for Pyrehulks carrying a minigun of some sort, PRAISE DOKTOBER)

All of these are exceptional, and do literally what the description says. Culverin variant is a great long range siege support weapon, Knellguns offer a lot more destruction but at the cost of range (knellguns perform a lot better on these guys then in artillery form for some reason in my testing), Flamethrowers absolutely devour any infantry that get too close. They feel like proper late-game units to the faction and I think it’d be hard to have done them better.


Anyway, those are my thoughts regarding Deithland. To mention again, I mean all of this as constructive criticism, and these are just my opinions on each of the units, your experience may vary. The faction is incredibly well made, visually distinct, super fun to play, these are just my own opinions regarding what worked and what didn’t. I hope to see continued work on this mod and I’d be happy to provide more input or elaborate my points further if needed!

Thank you Doktober for the amazing work you have put into this mod, and the amount of enjoyment you have provided to us who have had a chance to play it!