Hey Fatshark,
You did a cool thing with Enchanters Lair. Cut scenes, traps, Drakkenfels telepathic whispering, etc. Great stuff. It implies you folks are breaking out of the mold, which keeps the game fresh. Here are some other ideas for fun levels and mechanics.
Allies. It doesn’t feel like the Empire when the main characters are the only non-enemies in existence. Adding NPC soldiers and peasants who actually run around doing stuff would breathe new life into the game. It would also make it more challenging at higher levels of play, because you could penalize players for killing bystanders with bombs and such.
Artillery. Cannons and catapults are currently window dressing, but if you made them turret-like objects players could interact with it would contribute to the fun. Great Cannon, Hellstorm Rockets, even some sort of flamethrower or a dwarven doom wheel would be fun. On the other side, surviving enemy bombardment would add a level of mayhem to the game as long as you gave an indication where the missiles would land so players could get clear. It could even work to their advantage by killing hordes of enemies, or there could be a challenge where you have to ‘lure’ enemy artillery into blowing open a gate or destroying a barricade to progress.
Illusions. The gray wizard helping the team was a fantastic idea. Perhaps some sort of trinket or weapon which creates a fake “illusionary” character that can draw enemy fire and lure the hordes into wasting their time on it would be fun? Or potions of invisibility.
Escort Missions. The heroes must defend a moving caravan while it passes down a road, past several ambush points. They could also defend a riverboat passing down a waterway against waves of boarders, or have to jump out and clear away obstacles to keep the ship moving smoothly. Finally, they could defend a wizard who needs to move to various points and perform a magical ritual to destroy wards or something similar. This alone is three maps.
Mass Battles. I know this game isn’t supposed to be Dynasty Warriors, but turning the group loose on a battlefield where they have to support hordes of Empire soldiers (or dwarves in the mountains) by capturing objectives and killing enemy heroes would be great fun. You could also do some sort of “Helms Deep” siege defense where the group helps imperial state troops stop escalades, battering rams, dump flaming oil into barbican tunnels, destroy enemy siege machines, and so forth. Finally, you could do a mission where the party has to “slip in” and accomplish objectives while two or even three different enemy factions are fighting eachother (two chaos tribes, beastmen and skaven, etc.) This would force the group to decide when to move, whether or not to get involved in street battles, find alternate routes through cellars, etc. This is 3 maps.
Evacuation Missions. Running around through a series of areas protecting NPC’s from waves of minions while they move to a safety zone. This is sort of like an escort quest, but with a twist. Helping farmers haul bales of food away while monsters attack, helping soldiers transport gunpowder to the boat (great mission), etc.
Stealth Missions. The basic “move through the map to the end” plot is a solid one, but you could jazz it up by having the party try to avoid enemy attention as long as possible. Perhaps once opponents “spot” the team you have to kill runners or slay them all in a set amount of time to stop an alarm from being raised, or the level becomes much harder to finish? Or perhaps if the alarm is raised then gates or doors get closed, so the party needs to go a different route. You already have some good sabotage related missions to use as a template. Not sure how many maps this is, because you could “modify” existing ones easily enough.
I’m sure other people have a ton of great ideas too, so I encourage more posts to this thread. Just please keep them constructive and avoid trash talk.