Zann Lore is a Farce!

[Fleebusia]

Firstly, I really like the concept of a massive invasion force imposing itself on the entire realm. This was something I always longed for in PoP.

I was anxious and buckled into my seat the moment the invasion force landed. I was lost in the chaos and ran around frantically trying to help where I could. Rapid and frequent siege defenses felt pretty awesome, to begin with. But I quickly realized how futile and pitiful Zann's forces really were.

If it weren't for some major disorganization on the Zann front I doubt they would have captured more than a few castles. The AI scrambled and scurried about in a disorderly fashion, leaving minuscule garrisons where they were needed the most. Some cities having no more than 300 men.

I was personally able to help repel several thousand of Zann's forces as they laid siege to Forniron, Vinica, Fountainhall and other neighboring cities. And while the whole scale of their attack was initially satisfying, it soon became evident that this wasn't the epic "invasion" I had envisioned. It had instead developed into complete genocide as Zann's forces were annihilated on virtually every front.

Something felt off here. What was all the talk about the terrifying Zann with their "superior" weaponry and tactics?

I didn't realize just how underwhelming the Zann actually were until I observed for myself, field battles between regular factions, where 200 Zann got totally obliterated while losses on the other side were inconsequential. I soon found out for myself just how pitiful Zann's armies really were. Their armies are a hoshposh of predominantly weak troops with numbers that don't form any type of cohesion. They were one of the most disorganized forces I've fought against and quite possibly the weakest, with few exceptions.

This "Invasion" if you want to call it that, lasted a mere week- to a point where everyone entered peace and the map became even more stale than it was before the invasion. The Zann, now floundering about killing all the minor spawns on the entire map. Not so much as a single eagle or wolf party to fight. Even worse, the Zann never entered Drahara territory, leaving them to prosper and bolster their forces, which in turn they used to dominate other weakened factions.

Drahara consumed Hakkon like it was an all-you-can-eat buffet, simply because they were completely unaffected by the Zann invasion.

The boredom had set in. My campaign devolved into waiting in my castle for weeks on end, reading books and refining my garrison forces. Until it clicked- this is some boring ass shizz!


So, the Zann were ultimately successful in ending my campaign, just not in the way I thought they would.

 

[Kushana]

Think of it from a mod design perspective. Was the Mount and Blade engine designed to actually handle a custom faction suddenly spawning with massive armies and invading everyone? The mod development team have created something original and unique from the regular MBW experience with the appearance of a menacing new faction in the middle of the campaign and they've made it work as best as they could. But in the end, you can't escape the hard coded limitations of the AI and game engine. Much of what you have described are issues inherent in the game engine which is rather crude to begin with (which is why it's so easy to mod and hasn't been made proprietary out the ass, like almost all of the AAA game engines).

In my campaign, since I largely stuck to the eastern part of the map and the Zann appeared in the west, they managed to overrun 3-4 major factions in about 50-70 days. As of my latest save, there are only 2 major factions on the map that are "healthy", 1-2 that are about to be destroyed or are kept alive by me intentionally, and a largely Zann covered western part of the map. None of the AI factions were capable of standing up to the Zann blitzkrieg for even a short amount of time. I believe this was in 1.3.4.

 

[Sylfa]

Think of it from a mod design perspective. Was the Mount and Blade engine designed to actually handle a custom faction suddenly spawning with massive armies and invading everyone? The mod development team have created something original and unique from the regular MBW experience with the appearance of a menacing new faction in the middle of the campaign and they've made it work as best as they could. But in the end, you can't escape the hard coded limitations of the AI and game engine. Much of what you have described are issues inherent in the game engine which is rather crude to begin with (which is why it's so easy to mod and hasn't been made proprietary out the ass, like almost all of the AAA game engines).

In my campaign, since I largely stuck to the eastern part of the map and the Zann appeared in the west, they managed to overrun 3-4 major factions in about 50-70 days. As of my latest save, there are only 2 major factions on the map that are "healthy", 1-2 that are about to be destroyed or are kept alive by me intentionally, and a largely Zann covered western part of the map. None of the AI factions were capable of standing up to the Zann blitzkrieg for even a short amount of time. I believe this was in 1.3.4.

I think that the fact that Zann is able to take down several factions in mere days is because the game just keep doing the autocalculation in all battles. Zann numbers is what makes the difference. The moment you take part in the battle yourself they are pretty weak. It doesnt mean they wont be buffed or reworked in the future. I think that there is a great potential in invasion mechanic but i would like to see a bit more invasions. AWOIAF has 2 for example. Also i myself dont really like Zann as a faction, for me they are out of place in the Perisno world, still i believe they are not bad just not great....

 

[IBorbarad]

Thank you for the interesting read, I agree that the Zann troops are the least powerful nation, not at all what you are being told everywhere. Though that could be exactly it - they are an unknown force and thus people are scared, and they become even scarier because they suddenly overwhelm Perisno with their forces. But the Zann are just an event - they are not the driver of a main story. They are not there as the ultimate evil the world needs to be protected from. They are just there to change the world and establish themselves as another nation. Drahara taking over Hakkon in the heat of chaos is a most reasonable and realistic decision. I see no problem there.

 

[GeminiTiger]

The only thing that I just have to add to all this is that I do think it would be better if the Zann landed at least one force on the far side of Drahara (iiirc there is water over in that area) and attempted to take out at least one or two of it's cities. Basically only for the sake of making post invasion more random each playthough. It's annoying to see Drahara be such a big untouched faction in the back of the map. Otherwise I would personally shrink the size of Drahara a bit -- maybe making the Hakkon/Drahara area 3 factions in total.

The Zann invasion and lore is generally though brilliant.