Stalfos (Conquest)

The Stalfos are a playable faction in Hyrule: Total War. They must be unlocked by beating a Short Campaign as the Moblins or a Long Campaign as any faction.

Description
The fear of death is shared among all mortal beings and those that are fearful enough have, in the past, become entangled in many dark and unnatural means of preserving their lives. The Stalfos, also the ancient Hylian word for "Of Bones" are remnants of these long-lost endeavors to achieve long-lasting life. Little more than animated skeletons, Stalfos are completely mindless and, without guidance, will simply rot as any dead being would. In recent times, however, the Stalfos have slowly been assembling into an army under the guidance of unseen masters. The Kingdom of Hyrule and many other races have done their best to utterly destroy all remnants of these undead, yet periodically they show up time and again. The fear of an all out Stalfos army looms in the hearts of many, and without a doubt that fear is becoming more true every day. The dead corpses and remnants of the long deceased are rising from their graves all the more and gathering in all the hidden corners of Hyrule. Being an army of mindless drones, the Stalfos have the advantage of being completely immune to all psychological effects such as fear. It is impossible for a Stalfos army to flee, and they will fight until every bone in their carcases are smashed beyond repair. Despite this huge advantage, the Stalfos lack muscles and their only means of movement is artificial: Stalfos move slowly and awkwardly and are relatively easy to destroy with a well placed hammer to the rib cage. Even though they may be frail in combat, most people would only dare to stand against the march of a Stalfos army coming to collect the corpses of the dead.

Strengths, Weaknesses and Abilities

 * Mindless Undead: Most Stalfos soldiers are little more than mindless automatons and as such are immune to fear, pain, and tiring.
 * Unwilling Recruits: The Stalfos have a chance to gain more soldiers from those they slay in a campaign battle.
 * Skeletal Menace: Stalfos are little more than bones held together by twisted magic, as such they are extremely frail and can be destroyed easily.
 * Ultimate Recyclers: Stalfos are able to use any structure of any empire in the campaign and raise the dead of those races.

Freeform Campaign
The Stalfos start at war with all other factions if they are not selected by the human player; otherwise they are neutral with all factions except the rebels.
 * Faction Leader: Lord Akazoo
 * Settlements: 0
 * Goals:
 * Short Campaign: hold 30 regions
 * Long Campaign: hold 40 regions

Gameplay
The Stalfos are one of the other factions that play differently from the standard empire builders. Much like the River Zora, the Stalfos are not too keen on building their own cities: rather they capture and convert their targets for their own use. This focus on conversion is most evident in the way the Stalfos create new units: They raise the corpses of enemies they defeated in battle.

Recruitment of new Stalfos units revolves around Necromancers (as their name so obviously implies): powerful units capable of converting the rotting flesh of the deceased into animated soldiers. They are extremely powerful and very rare, and you'll rarely have more than one out on the field at a time.

Whenever you are victorious in battle, the soldiers that were slain in battle are immediately shipped to the Necromancer, who can spend anywhere from a turn to several turns animating them. The success rate of the animation is not always 100%, but you'll generally get a majority of your kills to join the ranks of your armies.

Obviously this means the Necromancer is your key priority and you'll want keep him around doing his business. If a Necromancer goes down, you'll not be able to increase your numbers for a long period of time until another Necromancer rises to take his place.

Whichever the reanimated units are depends on who were on the receiving end of your scythes: There will also be additional Stalfos unit types that can be obtained under certain conditions, such as Stalkin, Stalhounds, and Stalmasters.
 * Kingdom of Hyrule: Stalfos Eurdi
 * Gerudo: Stalfos Gerudo
 * Gorons: Deadrocks
 * Zora Dominion, Lanayru Province, River Zora: Stalfos Zarko
 * Kokiri: Fallen Skull Kids
 * Ordona Province, Labrynna Regime: Staltroops
 * Moblins: Parutamu
 * The Deku Tribes: Rotting Scrubs
 * Darknut Legion: Dark Stalfos
 * Lizalfos: Stalfos Lizal
 * Fairies of Tarm: Bubbles
 * Sheikah Cadre: ReDeads
 * Order of the Wizzrobe: Scythe Lords
 * Gohma, Kingdom of Ikana, Forces of Twilight, Oocca, Rebels: N/A

Standard

 * Staltroops
 * Stalfos Eurdi
 * Stalfos Gerudo
 * Stalfos Zarko
 * Stalkin
 * Fallen Skull Kids
 * Stalfos Lizal
 * Parutamu
 * Dark Stalfos
 * Rotting Scrubs
 * Bubbles
 * Stalhounds
 * ReDeads
 * Scythe Lords

Command

 * Dead Hand
 * Grand Reaper
 * Necromancer

Heroes

 * Lord Akazoo
 * Death Sword

Bosses

 * General Onox
 * Stallord

Beta version

 * Originally the Stalfos' main colour was Black, this colour was later changed to be the Church of Majora's colour.
 * The Stalfos was originally planned to raise corpses directly from defeated enemies on the battlefield, however because of the engine this method could easily result in glitches and become broken to the point where the player could not receive any new soldiers. Naturally this meant things had to be reworked and thus the Necromancer was made.