Don't use attack orders with the broadside just position it manually. You know the left side will always be the killy side. I do agree it may make more sense to put thunderers in the balloon. However I have a better idea. Why not both? Have two types to recruit. I also would humbly suggest a "right handed" broadside. Since right now they are all "left handed". Could open up fun strategies using them in pairs. Regardless this is the best damn unit pack for Warhammer 3 love this mod.

The main issues I think is their range of fire is very short they get out-ranged by most archers who can move faster than the barge so they can effectually kite them in skirmish mode. The AI really struggles with an attack order on them. It tried to move towards the enemy by aiming the front of the blimp towards the enemy instead of the side that can shoot. This can be fixed by manually ordering them to turn so the guns aim the right way but it requires some micro-managing.

@Diremerc
Great ideas!
The firing cones with Thunderbarge units are really iffy and I had to experiment a lot to get it to work at all as well as it does. That basically has something to do with the fact that the original Thunderbarge has a rather weird way of determining its attack orders, due to its 4 different ammo types. If I change the arc to properly represent the gunners on top, the attack orders start to bug out.
If there is a way to "twist" the direction of the directional armor attribute then I also don't know how. Kinda sucks, I would have really liked that approach.
Rifles do make more sense than shotguns on an airship.
But is range really the core thing its missing?
Apparently you played more with the Broadsiders than I did.
What do you feel are the things that make them unpleasant to use?

I went back to my dwarf game and made a full stack of the Broadsiders to test them a bit more.
assuming you wanna keep the current design and not have it shoot on both sides.
My suggestions to changes to them would be:
-Replace Grudgerakers with Thunderers. Rifles make more sense than shotguns if you are going to be shooting out of a blimp.This way the blimp would have a proper range attack of like 200.
- Remove the flat 25% missile resistance and add a 180° 55% (silver) shield facing the opposite side than the shooting side
-Not sure if this is something you can change but right now the Blimp seems to think it has a 360 fire arc and you should see if you can change it to be a cone in the direction it can fire.

@Diremerc
Thanks for your feedback! I won't fundamentally change the mechanics of the Broadside Airship, because I like its identity and the drawbacks of it only being able to shoot into one direction very much. If you think its too weak overall there are of course other possible solutions though. What do you think its core problem is? Too little damage? I think its almost as powerful as a regular unit of Grudgerakers which doesn't sound too bad on paper, especially due to its height advantage. Or do you think its too squishy?

Excellent mod, I used this along with the tank one. These felt properly balance, no major issues with any of them. If I were to chance one thing is that I would make it so the Broadside Airship can shoot on both sides at the same time. As it currently stand it's actually a bit underwhelming for the cost and time it takes to make them. It should have the same amount of riflemen facing both directions and that would make it a very good unit while not being overwhelming overpowered as it can still be taken down pretty easily by archers and artillery units. Definitely my favourite unit of the pack thought.

The broadside airship is the best modded unit that anyone has made For this game. Bravo! I love the look. I love the unique "broadside" way it works. Can not wait to see what airships you make next!

Why dont you just write it into your description? :D

@david.vicr Great to hear. Thats a piece of advice I can forward in the future if someone has a similar question then!

@Vrooktar Thanks for the quick response! I managed to do it with the Warhammer3 Mod Manager – there you can simply just deactivate them. :)

@david.vicr Glad you like it!
The only way I know of would be to change the mod. Would be a rather simple change though.
You could easily try it yourself.

Such a great Mod, i love the Bugman Balloon! Since i play also with a lot other Mods that add Units i would like to deactivate the other Units - is there any way? I cant find it within the Mod Manager ingame. :(

@Kane Beckett
You are welcome to do one yourself. Its really not a big deal. You simply need the 3 or 4 tables that define which factions are allowed to recruit them and from which buildings.

Oh please a submod for the empire!

@Don Cheadle
I prefer that they are more distinct from one another.
But you are welcome to try that yourself!
That wouldn't be a terribly difficult beginner mod project.
All you need is the AssetEditor from Ole and then you just kitbash them together.
You could even design your own engine after a few hours of getting used to the editor!

It'd be sick if you added the engines from the runefire airship to the broadsider, maybe its just me but it looks a little bare as-is

@DonTony
@Illegal FQ

The mod is fully functional.

update plz

update?

@硕小衰
Thank you for the feedback!
Its Riflemen have the damage output of 80% of a regular Grudraker unit.
I only tested for a small number of encounters so far, but since Gruderakers are usually not considered weak, an underwhelming performance would surely surprise me. I will look into this!

"Hello, author. The damage output of the airship you designed seems too low. I observed that the musketeers on the Sky Terrace needed 4-5 shots to barely eliminate a Chaos Hound."

@Luca.barbieri1
I am always happy to hear new suggestions!
From other factions as well.
I feel like my imagination for more Dwarf units is slowly running out and there are many factions that deserve more love!

thanks for your reply,what you say is rigth, this new airship offers a line of fire from above,
have a nice day, we are waiting for your new creations

@luca.barbieri1
Glad that you like it!
This might have made it more powerful thats true. I wanted to introduce a new dynamic though, instead of just building a Thunderbarge without cannons and bombs. This new airship has a strength the Thunderbarge doesn't have without just being even stronger. It can support a frontline with more focused fire in a specific zone. Maybe thats just me, but I find that this creates better synergies with the rest of the army compared to a unit that just does spread out damage everywhere.
I also like that this offers meaningful counterplay and that it requires better positioning.

hi, i tried your new airship ...it is beautiful and fun !!! but what if you had put the rifleman on the two side? it would become even more powerful !!! thanks for your work !!!!!

@luca.barbieri1
Its already in the mod.
I updated it yesterday ^^

really ????!!!! nice idea !!!!! when will we be able to see ?? thanks for your reply and again compliments for your mods really well done and that make the game more beautiful

@luca.barbieri1
I made another airship with 16 riflemen.
Hope you like it as much as I do!

@luca.barbieri1
Copying the same Airship, just with more rifleman sounds kinda boring.
A different kind of gunship that relies primarily on riflemen and has no primary weapon, if thats what some people like, doesn't sound so bad though.
I will think about that!

congratulations for your mod, i wanted to ask you if a version of the runefire airship with 8 rifleman could be interesting (another 4 alongside those already present) thanks

@julian-walzl93
Not really.
The Empire simply got so much DLC with so many units in a similar category of what I would design that I struggle to really come up with interesting ideas to fill meaningful niches with.

nice work man really,
something for empire^? have you programm for empire?

Well, that's quite the update :) I'll check it out on a subsequent playthrough, I think, since my Malakai campaign has already concluded.

I gave the mod the update I looked forward to and ended up increasing its scope by doing so.
The Bugman and Runefire Gunship have now been entirely reworked and two new units have been added.
The Original version of those 2 Gunships are still in the files though, so everyone who still has a campaign going on with them can keep using them for that campaign.
Only the new version can be newly recruited though.
I thought that this kind of phase out creates the least amount of problems for everyone.

Well, they do seem to benefit from the Firebombs from one of the Adventures, so fair enough :)
As to Grudgesettlers - fair enough. I was going to suggest adding Grudgesettler variants of one of the Gunships, instead, but it doesn't sound like that's something you want to do.
Either way, I love the mod. Looks great, plays well, I love it. You do good work.

@Malidictus
Thank you very much. They should profit from every bonus other Gyrocopters profit from. If it turns out they are not, because I forgot something, just tell me and I will fix it.
Personally I am not a huge fan of the way the Grudgesettler system limits the units. The player simply has not much agency over it. When I eventually go for a redesign, which might be in the near future, it will primarily be a cosmetic change.

A comment and a suggestion:
[*]The Gunships are AWESOME! They're exactly what I imagine a Dwarf war machine would be like - slow, heavy, and armed with overwhelming firepower. Plus, the visual design is just... top notch :)
[*]If you're looking to redesign the Bugman's Gunships, maybe consider making them a Grudgebearer unit? Those have a few unique variants not normally found in recruitment buildings, like the Gyrocpters with Trollhammer torpedos.

Do these gunships benefit from Malakai's bonuses to Gyrocopters, from his various Adventures? And if not, could they be made to?

@Lee Perry
It does work fine with 6.0 as far as I can tell.

6.0 pls

@xxx
I currently think about redesigning the Bugman and the Runfire Gunship. It is possible that those will look vastly different afterwards, which could very well include that said face is not going to make the cut. However, I intend the standard Gyrogunship to more or less stay the way it is.

Is it possible to delete the Dwarf face modeling on the outside?

Alright, well no rush at all, they play and serve their purpose as is! Thank you for the insight!

@The Lich Sneeze
I can't say that my thoughts on that have been super deep so far. But from a superficial standpoint I am more interested in creating interesting models without breaking the existing texture traditions from the Dwarves. But I am a rather slow worker in that regard so who knows when and what kinds of developments can really be expected from me.

Thanks for your reply! Have you considered doing some kind of texture work to add visual differentiation?

@The Lich Sneeze
Thanks for your feedback.
I decided against additional building requirements because that results in the AI struggling too much to ever recruit them. I can kinda agree that the attack helicopter aesthetic does not fit as well with the Bugman Gunship which is one reason why I already considered a redesign. I don't really agree with your take on its role though. Its effects are already incredibly powerful. Adding more buffs just for the sake of adding more buffs, at least in my opinion, furfills no meaningful role. Visual indicators could indeed be improved though.
Overall I am still gathering more inspiration regarding improvements I want to make.
But at some point in the future there will surely be some kind of update.
Also regarding the Rune Gunship. Its not bad right now, but I would just like to have 3 unique designs for the 3 gunships instead of following the vanilla path of just reusing the same Gyrocopter model three times.

Also, for flavor and lore reasons, I recommend tweaking the recruitment so that the Runefire gunship is recruited via the Engineering chain like other Gyrocopters, but with the requirement of the tier V rune building having been built. Also, the Bugman's variant should probably have some sort of a connection to the Hosteltry chain.

My opinion on the units:
The Gyrogunship base and Runefire are fine. The slow speed is visually jarring, but I get the idea behind it, as it's supposed to be a heavy unit. Would need custom animations to look better.

The Bugman variety, however, is disappointing. It's passive support ability is accompanied by no visual indicators. It also feels like a unit that should have some clickable buffs to dispense on a target. Other Bugman's themed units in vanilla and in mods are focused on explosives, but the Bugman Gyrogunship just launches low impact barrels out the front. It also doesn't make a whole lot of visual sense. The Dwarfs are dedicating a lot of materiel and technology for a gunship that ends up sporting any primary attack capabilities. Why would the Dwarfs transport Bugman's booze in an attack copter? Just kind of strange.

@Ghosts of Volga
I think I will test this at some point in the future.

@Vrooktar
Ahh didn't think of that. I'd have to play a faction that is friendly to them though. Likely small chance to get an outpost with chorfs as Malakai. Allied recruitment for your units would be awesome though.