MTW Pocket Mod: General

[The Unknown Guy]

I made a full rehasal of building orders, and altered cavalry yet again to some more uniform standards (which vary depending on faction and depiction, but anyway,:
The military reforms, I already outlined in the previous posts, and now are a bit refined by trial and error (custom battle comparation of battle efectiveness: heavy cavalry have 7+ charge, light cav 5-6, dragoons/horse archers, as they have no weapon, 3 as a "trampling bonus". Men at arms have around 1 defense, attack around 5-6. I suppressed the charge because they are not quite yet like no-dachi, but rather an inbetween "slow mowing" unit. I made two handed axe-sword units no-dachi like, with 3 charge, 7-8 melee, and varying ammounts on armor depending on the unit (gothic foot being the strongest, highlanders the lowest. For the record, you cant put 0 armor, it causes a crash). I also added a "muslim mercenary" to sicilians, which is a combination of Men-at-arms and compound bow, but with low defense -2, expensive, and not too good morale (they are mercenaries), and I want some "two handed" troop for the almohads, which as a counterpart lose naphta. Either that or halberdiers. I also tried two custom "Nizari" and "Granadian" factions, but I´ve left it aside for now because I had too many crashes, and I dont want to get around balancing them right now.

Now the building order/economy, heavily altered

Six farming improvements, which deal 140,200,260,320,380,440 income improvements. Last two need the compass. So do the last two merchant improvements.
Basic troop building thing: Blacksmith (as with the viking blacksmith, only I used the unused "Tavern" building because I had problems copying-pasting code). It requires farm level 2 and a castle, and it´s a prerrequisite for all other weapon manufactures (spears, swords, etc...). It also makes some basic units avaiable (vanilla spearmen, javelinmen, woodsmen and other "trash troops"), but for sergeants, men at arms, etc... you need the adequate smith.
The Royal Court line also needs some farming improvements. I´m thinking on restoring byzantine access to this building (at least low levels) and making the Pronoiai dependent on it.

Now, related to economy: I drastically reduced all farming incomes. Some noteworthy cases are Constantinople (which I left with a low farming income, even when upgraded, but with many trade goods, as to point out it´s "trade" roadway). Anatolia and Smyrna/Nicaea have a more decent (in the "reformed farmland" system I outlined) as they were prosperous as well (nothing out of the ordinary through. They have a slightly higher than average income, but their main advantage is that they start at level 4 of farm). I lowered castile's farm income, and removed trade goods, but added in it´s place gold (which is slightly enhaced), but the south remains economically rich (it was so historically, and muslims brought new farming techniques, whereas the north, barring mineral wealth, was not as profittable to invade-specially bearing in mind the rugged terrain favoring ambushes, and native hostility). Egypt keeps a large income because it was historicaly prosperous.

The reduction of farming incomes only makes sense, as with the new system there are more economic improvements, and furthermore, they will be built by the comp as the basic ones are needed for units. (I´ve tested this, and it does). This also slows early rushes, as barring some early more or less (faction dependant) developed provinces, which start with farm1 or 2 (more in some cases) the players (computer or human) have to develop what they conquer.

As for trade, I made some "trade routes", one "spice/cotton" route following Levant-Cyprus-Crete-Sicily-(Venice,Genova,otherports), and one "silk/dyes/gems" route, following Asia minor, Constantinople, Hungary, Venice, and the rest of Europe, and some minor ones. My theory is that this way trade routes are somewhat profittable, but not bloatish, and that real trade power comes from holding monopolies, which is very hard. Also, I wanted "island stranded factions" to have a chance to build an economic network. This would symbolize taxing all trade coming near the island to try to regain their position.

A not altogether too relevant note: I did manage to get the inn as a rebel only income generating thing, by making it produce a huge farming income. It does work, the rebels DO build it, but I´ve not seen it do anything beyond that. I want to keep an eye on rebelled developed provinces.

Balance testing system: I tested my modifications on building order, economy, and starting position, by running medieval on auto/godmode several times until year 1300, and observing the outcome:
I managed to outcast bloating for the most part, until at least year 1200, and now superpowers are not as "determined", meaning that whereas in some games Spain squikked the almohads, in others it got squikked in turn, and likewise for all factions (I saw French, German, and British Empires as well). Byzantium does have a tendence to become superpowerish, as well as Italy, but they are far later more unstable bloats than what I had seen until now. Italy can bloat onto the mediterranean, but it is still vulnerable on the mainland (in some games I saw it survive with scattered colonies around), and Byzantium has fallen to the Seljulks several times. Their survival is not ensured, nor is their bloating. The only one I´ve seen survive more often than most is Egypt. Which doesn´t bloat. I also increased the survival rate of the Golden Horde.
Factions do build advanced troops (specially Euro factions), in big ammounts, althrough they do produce a lot of trash, specially early in each era (this comes, I think, from homeland restrictions, as European factions, with no restriction to building, do produce more advanced troops (chivalric maa, heavy cav, etc...), than, for example, the Byzantines or the Egyptians. I attribute this to a computer preference for low tech approaches, and thus, spearmen and naphta taking the places which would have been for pronoiais. Thus, I see less of them. Psiloi, Skulkatoi, and Kontarakoi do parade around in significant numbers, through.

Right now I´m playing a "normal" game as Castile, and all seems to be allright
Cosmetically I changed "Byzantine Emperor" and "Emperor whoever" to "Romaion Autokrator" and "Autokrator Whoever", I left Holy Roman Emperor stand, but changed the "Emperor Conrad whatever" to "Kaiser Conrad whatever".

[Noir]

Remaking of an old suggestion, just so to get it out of my system:
I am well aware that valor bonuses in provinces are an essential element for many players; nevertheless i've only seen it making the gameplay better when applied in provinces of low income and no minerals. In all other cases the AI was wasting its potential significantly just to get the bonus, that is definitely not worth it especially for low end units.

Noir

[ULC]

I had some rather lopsided ideas lately, but here me out.

What I did

I recently made the Castle line entirely dependent on the farm upgrades; If the A.I. attempts to tech up to fast, it is at least forced to build the farm upgrades. Also, I slimmed down the number of unit production buildings, their are now only 6 unit training types - Barracks line, Stable Line, Archery Line, Court/Estate line, and Blacksmith Line. Spies were moved to the Court/Estate line, and Assassins were moved to the Merchant line. Also, regional units are now avaible to anyone who controls the region, but you must have the required level of "Merchant" to hire them. Also, I made all religious units trainable, but rendered the Chapter House and Ribat as "unique" buildings.

What do you think?

[The Unknown Guy]

Interesting. I did the same with the chapterhouse (IHMO it should be unique. With muslims it´s even more needed, as jihad spamming is far easier)

I also did something akin making some structures dependent on farm upgrades. I was going to do it further, but found a lack of AI tech development, so I lowered some tech requirements a bit and started tinkering with the building influences. Now the AI does tech up to knights and other advanced units (mameluk horse archers, Byzantine Cavalry, etc...)

I have made a small package if anyone wishes to try my particular tinkering:

http://files-upload.com/files/493697/Modtest.zip

Also, regional units are now avaible to anyone who controls the region, but you must have the required level of "Merchant" to hire them.

EDIT: I was thinking on doing something akin, althrough placing some restrictions with some units. I also linked urban militia to the merchant line. The problem I see with tying mercs to that is that not all provinces have a merchant avaiable (I thought that UM didn´t matter that much, as its an auxiliar at best), so I tried to leave units in two tech trees, with "royal court" tying in full feudal units, such as knights, and early gendry, and the town watch covering mercenary, mercenary gendry, and urban units (IE: all the Byzantine tech tree, pikemen, etc...) Some "mercs" such as steppe heavy cavalry, and whatnot, are widely avaiable, but not "tied", as somehow I saw them as "local tribes and clans", more occassional mercenaries than organized companies. The spanish javelinmen I made into a basic spanish land unit into almughavars, and the old almughavars into the Catalonian company, avaiable to anyone who holds Aragon (I was going to make a Navarrese company as well, but stopped at the last moment because I was unsure on what stats I should place the difference)

[The Unknown Guy]

BTW, could the pics from Shogun be used as the basis for some units? I find that the pikemen animation is unsatisfactory, as they look like regular spears. The Yari Ashigaru, or the Yari samurai might be more in order for those units. Some others could be used as well...

[The Unknown Guy]

Feedback anyone?

[caravel]

All good ideas, Unknown Guy, though I have pretty much suspended work on this mod for a number of reasons, the main one being time, I quite simply don't have the time to devote to this project, and the understandable general lack of interest as a secondary consideration.

There is also the issue of MTW mods and the current demand for such mods. The Medmod, XL mod and BKB Super Mod seem to fit the bill in all respects as far as Medieval realism/gameplay balance mods go, there simply isn't a "gap in the market" for this type of thing.

The mod did get off to a good start but eventually tailed off due to lack of new/innovative ideas. Instead of innovating in a "pocket sized" fashion, we seemed to get side tracked into doing what "xl has done" or what "medmod has". I started with a simple unidirectional beast and finished with a mass of loose ends, reminiscent of the spaghetti monster himself. So instead of working on a particular part of the project and focusing on that part until completion, people were requesting all kinds of things not at all related to what was being worked on at present. You have to see it from my point of view, that while being busy working on the units and tech tree, I was being bombarded with requests for work on the map, then once work on the tech tree and units had been postponed and work on the map begun the ideas/requests began for unit balancing and additional units. At that stage I could have closed the doors and gone it alone, but that was not what the Pocket Mod was all about.

This has left me with a momentus task that is not complete in one single respect and is still far from ready for distribution.

So it is with regret that I must close the project. Individual files will be available for those that want them. I might one day get the unfinished v1.7 ready and upload it.

Feel free to use any of the ideas/info in the Pocket Mod threads for your own projects.

Thank you for your support.

C

[caravel]

This is my Edessa Garisson prior to receiving a kicking from the Fatimids:


This is the Edessa "troop surge" (unfortunately led by the very same coward...) the following year receiving more of the same from the Fatimids...


The conclusion I've come to is that the Fatimids must be smoking something...

Anyway those damned 200 men Arab Infantry units are absolute killers, due to how that simply wrap around my smaller units. In melee they are unstoppable by anything I can field at present, and combined with Ghazis, Futuwwa, Camels and the Arab Horse Archers they make a dangerous combination. I feel that my Turcoman Horse were not in large enough numbers to really show their best, I also ended up in a very bad position perched on the crest of a hill with the Fatimids milling around (they also had a pretty good general).

[naut]

Ouch. Unlucky.

[Martok]

Incidentally, I'm about 20 years into my Fatimid campaign. I've not had any issues thus far.


About the only thing I've noticed is that the Blacksmith provides only 2 florins/year, despite costing 500 florins to build. Sorry to sound like I'm second-guessing things, but is that right? I mean I know it's not supposed to be a major income-producer, but that still seems to be an overly high cost/benefit ratio. Unless the Blacksmith is a prerequisite for something that I'm forgetting?

[caravel]

The smith buildings are still very much in the experimental phase. I want to see what people (well so far the mod has two players ) think of the smith buildings and whether they're worth keeping. Currently the spearmaker is unbuildable (removed). The blacksmith, armourer and swordsmith are all income generating buildings under the Iron mine. So they are not available to build in all provinces anyway. The serve as the dependency for no units. At present I'm still wondering whether taking them out altogether would not be the best approach, as they seem redundant.

Remember that your campaign will crash at 1159/1160. The only fix for this is the next version. I want to find as many problems as possible before I release v1.0.9 and also I would like to include many of the changes we've had suggested (changes to hobilars, muslim halberdiers in granada and saragossa etc). I'll also need to know if it's worth keeping the smith buildings or not as that ties in with tinkering with the resource names and icons.

[Martok]

The smith buildings are still very much in the experimental phase. I want to see what people (well so far the mod has two players ) think of the smith buildings and whether they're worth keeping. Currently the spearmaker is unbuildable (removed). The blacksmith, armourer and swordsmith are all income generating buildings under the Iron mine. So they are not available to build in all provinces anyway. The serve as the dependency for no units. At present I'm still wondering whether taking them out altogether would not be the best approach, as they seem redundant.

Well unless we're going to either increase the smith buildings' income, drastically reduce their construction costs, or a combination of the two, then I agree it might be better to just remove them entirely. As they are right now, there doesn't seem to be much reason to build them.

Remember that your campaign will crash at 1159/1160. The only fix for this is the next version. I want to find as many problems as possible before I release v1.0.9 and also I would like to include many of the changes we've had suggested (changes to hobilars, muslim halberdiers in granada and saragossa etc). I'll also need to know if it's worth keeping the smith buildings or not as that ties in with tinkering with the resource names and icons.

All right. I'll try to do some more killing Seljuqs/ & Byzantines bug-hunting then.

[caravel]

Well unless we're going to either increase the smith buildings' income, drastically reduce their construction costs, or a combination of the two, then I agree it might be better to just remove them entirely. As they are right now, there doesn't seem to be much reason to build them.

As I said, I haven't worked on them apart from sticking them in roughly the right part of the tech tree. It's to give an idea of how it might work and to spot potential issues before going to the trouble of implementing them properly. This is why the incomes have been left as they are so as not to impact provincial income too much. I'm ok with removing them altogether as they look messy and seem redundant.

All right. I'll try to do some more killing Seljuqs/ & Byzantines bug-hunting then.

My campaign has started to go well. Fixing the 1159/1160 bug allowed me to continue, which was lucky. The Fatimids are on the run but the Byzantine invaded Egypt which was rebel at the time.

Speaking of rebels, they are still strong and haven't gone bankrupt, if you look over the rebel provinces carefully you'll see why.

[naut]

Hehe, I like the Nomad Camp description.

Also, the Seljuks start with under-strength Steppe Horse Archers.

[caravel]

Also, the Seljuks start with under-strength Steppe Horse Archers.

The Seljuks can train Steppe Horse Archers in the correct provinces. As to the under strength issue I suppose it depends on the unit size you play the game on, though I know that some of the sizes are odd. I might tidy these up at some point.

[caravel]

My Turks campaign is coming up to 1204. No issues, other than those I've reported, as yet. I will be interested to see the arrival of the Mongols. I have quite a lot of infrastructure built in most provinces now and I'm holding the usual 3 way chokepoint region (now only a 2 way, because Egypt no longer has a "back door"). My next goal is the massed training of Anatolian Infantry once they become available, to replace the basic spearmen which won't be much use against the Mongols...

[gollum]

Hi there,
i've played 4 campaigns so far: Byzantine, French, Almoravid, Danes and Sicilians all of which were good fun until 1159. If you got the fix made may you please include it in the download? Since the pace is slow i get to the point that things get interesting and then get the ctd.

!it burnsus!

[caravel]

Welcome gollum,

I will try and get the next version out as soon as possible. You're right of course and as it stands the current version is not much good for testing and further development. I'm just trying to get through a campaign at least to mid way through the high era and then I will release the fix. This should be some time this weekend. All fixes are included on the download of the next version. Be aware that not all fixes will affect existing savegames though the fixes to the event CTDs do resolve without you having to start again.

Thank you for your support.

Caravel

[naut]

Playing the Turks is fun. The combo of spearmen and ghazis early on is a challange to actually keep in battle without a top general.

[gollum]

Hi,

thanks for the reply and for making the mod. Here are some suggestions/impressions:

-the muslim cavalry units of 60 men are almost a cheat when used en masse. They also make units like desert archers obsolete since they can take better position for shootouts, they can skirmish better, are faster to redeploy have a better charge due to being mounted can melee reasonably because of their large number and can chase routers. This mostly concerns the cheap to train/quick to get desert horse archer/steppe horse archer but also applies to ex-faris, mameluk horse archer. Perhaps returning them to 40 men may be a consideration.

-The muster field/inn line of buildings may be perhaps restricted to Byzantines, Russians and Danes. The catholics do not really need it as they have the chapter house +2 morale bonus. In addition it affects playbalance as catholics get +1 from church, +1 from monastery, +2 chapter house and +1 inn. That's +5 in total that essentially turns seargents to (jedi) knights. Not to mention provinces with royal palaces that the player tends to use as troop factories that get another +2.

I would also suggest dropping the +2 for chapter houses to +1 and the +2 for Royal palace to +1 and the +3 of cathedral to +1. Units with +5 on average from production under worthy generals will simply not rout unless sandwitched by knights or something.

For the Byzantines, Russians and Danes the muster/inn line it represents well the thematic system and scsandinavian/russian societal hierarchy and so its really a good idea: invest to get native troops better.

-FMAA are somewhat too far into the tech tree for catholics - the player may get them at citadel barracks level that appears well after 1159 unless the Byzantines. This takes a component from the tactical battles - that is the player gets spears/shooters/cavalry instead of spears/swords/shooters/cavalry. Perhaps tieing them to town barracks might be a good lidea and a similar argument can be made with feudal foot knights (currently at fortess barracks - drop to citadel). The varangians that are comparable are in fact at citadel level which feels and plays ok.

-It might be worth it in future versions to split the Egyptians or Turks or both in two factions. For the Turks the sultanate of Konya/Iconium and the Great Seljuks and for the Fatimids the Fatimids and an independent Damascus. As the game stands at the moment the situation is too easy for the Egyptians since they are protected from the desert and the Byzantines that start with many provinces. The Anatolian Turks may be given Nicaea, Sinope, Antalya, Anatolia while the great seljuks Rum, Armenia, Edessa and Mosul. The fatimids may get Egypt and Palestine, while the Damascenese, Tripoli, Antioch and Damascus - or something historically plausible in that vein.

The Levant may turn much less predictable in this way - much like Iberia which is imho excellent. In all 4 campaigns i played by 1159 the Egyptians had annihilated the Turks and invaded the Byzantines ready to deliver the kill.

-Consider returning the arad swords to 60 men default since they aer killers on the field and probably i suspect in autocalc two.

!itburnsus!

[gollum]

(continuing from above)

-Dynatoi Oikeitai can be called simply Dynatoi (the strong ones), since the name being long proves invasive in the tactical screen when moused over. The "oikeitai" (familar ones) bit can be included in the unit card description. Similar arguments may be applied to Nizari Fedeyan.

-The iron line of buildings can work thus: introduce the blacksmith as an extra investment and then the swordsmith and then the armourer as money makers with something semi-decent as income such as say 26 florins +10fl for every upgrade for the swordsmith and 36fl +12fl per upgrade for the armourer.

-A historical description of the order of the camel is missing in the nomad camp building info.

!itburnsus!

[caravel]

You have raised some very good points and there were quite a few that I was thinking of changing myself, including reverting back to smaller units for HAs and Arab Infantry, but many more ideas I've not considered. I've noticed the problem with the HAs already and yes with the Arabs I have created a monster, so I will either adjust their stats accordingly or reduce them back to a standard size sword unit.

I totally agree also on the morale bonuses, they clearly have no structure whatsoever. I prefer to simply start from scratch with those and ensure that it's balanced correctly.

The Muster Field/Inn is necessary for training local units (Woodsmen, Clansmen, Kern, Gallowglass, Celts, Slavs etc) and only requires the fort. I'd rather leave it in, but it certainly should not produce any morale bonuses, those will be removed in the next version.

I'm not sure of the issue with the long names, I'll have to look into that. The names I've added are no longer than those of vanilla units such as "Byzantine Lancers", "Sipahi of the Porte", "Knights of Santiago" or "Trebizond Archers", etc.

I have some serious PC upgrading to do this weekend, but when I get "back" I will be moving on with the mod.

Regards

Caravel

[gollum]

Hi,
i actually had in mind Kavallarioi Pronoiarioi Toxotai - not Dynatoi Oikeitai that are nor a problem nor bigger than vanilla names as you say - 500 years of ring bearing leave their mark.

Perhaps simply named "kavallarioi toxotai" for the reasons outlined earlier with the Pronoiarioi kavallarioi as the appropriate name for the ex-pronoiai allagoion/high-late byz heavy cavalry.

here's a few more:

-Thessaly is actually comprising of parts of Epirus, parts of Thrace, the whole of Thessaly and significantly the whole of Macedonia and has as its capital the capital of Macedonia, Thessalonica. I understand that once you've denoted Thessaly in startpos.txt it will be a pain to rename, not to mention the homelands maneuver. Yet, i had to say it and therefore here i say it that Thessaly is more appropriately named Macedonia.

-The French and HRE behave much better for their own good if set at: CATHOLIC_DEFENSIVE_CRUSADER. You can get a taste of this by the behaviour of the ex-Spanish, by far the most considerate of the catholic lot, because of this setting.

Currently France and HRE are set at CATHOLIC_EXPANSIONIST_CRUSADER, which means that if they have the cash they'll try to expand with crusades - failling of course and suffering from civil wars due to the influence hit- and also they'll jump into landgrabs messing their integrity and development. While this is somewhat alleviated by the 2 rebelliousness that prevents them from jumping the gun all too often, i suggest you consider trying the DEFENSIVE_CRUSADER mode for them. Generally the expansionist mode burns out the AI factions.

All muslims also fare better set at: MUSLIM_PACIFIST (actually this means that the AI will not sail easily in some desperate invasion of doom scenario and will develop his lands - once the "pacifist" is invaded, he turns nasty with the perpetrator). The Egyptians at the moment are set to: MUSLIM_EXPANSIONIST, which somewhat explains their behaviour.

Factions that depend on the sea such as the Sicilians, Danes and Italians fare way more reasonably at: CATHOLIC_CRUSADER_TRADER - the NAVAL_EXPANSIONIST makes them burn out and the CATHOLIC_TRADER makes them pay no attention to defence of crucial starting territories as they build tons of ships and no troops which become their financial doom once they have no ports/no trading provinces.; the Italians suffer particularly from this in vanilla.

Finally the Byzantines might prove a bit more prudent if set at ORTHODOX_DEFENSIVE instead of ORTHODOX_STAGNANT.


!it burnsus!

[gollum]

correction: it is MUSlIM_PEACEFUL and not PACIFIST.

!itburnsus!

[gollum]

Hi,
just a bit more

-The names are really ok after all, they are never longer than the unit mental state description.

-I noticed a few bugs, namely the port of Tripoli is at its old location in Palestine. The Murabitin infantry are tied to the inn that is not permitted to Muslims.

*****Already fixed - please post bugs in the bug reports thread*****


I did a few custom changes, that is allow only a +1 morale from the inn/ribat, and also one from the grand mosque and one from the reliquary and one from the royal palace. In this way on average provinces provide a plus one and in only one unique province after a lot of investing a plus three.

Returned muslim horse and Arab swords to default sizes.

Changed the AI personalities according to previous post.

I aslo did a cheap fix for the 1159 ctd, returning Morea/Finland to the catholic flock so i can play past that date.

Allowed FFKnigths at citadel barracks level.

Then i started a campaign with the Byz on hard, that now approaches the high era. Turks gone and Egyptians suffer multiple civil wars. Currently holding border on Georgia, Allepo, Antioch, Serbia, Bulgaria. Constant skirmish with Hungary for Serbia. Also took Naples and Sicily when the SIcilians went extinct. No other wars.

Have about 230k in the bank with an average of 6000annual turnover.

-Noticed that eastern archer missile troops resist charges from Byz lancer and melee ferociously against them admittedly under good generals (4 stars plus) and yet the same does not happen with desert archers.

-Varangians are absolute killers - something needs to be done, perhaps put them to the extra info pic/sprite provided by ca in VI and nerf their stats -- they are really a high late era unit as they are. Half size units of them kill royal knights harboring kings of equal valor.

The muslim_peaceful is probably not optimal for the Turks as the game stands. Expansionist gives them better chances.

France and HRE fare better with defensive_crusader. More stable, more concentrating efforts of wars.

!it burnsus!

[gollum]

Hi,
its now 1214 and everything is going ok without ctds.

I have now 360k in the bank with an average annual turnover of 5k. That's because i am basically at war with whoever can be at war with me, hence the trade income is substantially reduced (basically black sea only, with the Kiavans).

The CLeonese have taken over Cordoba, Saragossa,, Algarb and Murcia. They've been at war with the French over Navarre (which was a point of bitter contest for much of the early period), that changed hands several times. In the end the war ended because the Frenchrun out of steam when the HRE empire took over Ile-de-France andFlanders from them. In the midst of all this they managed to find the time and money to send a (failed) crusade to Constantinople at 1180 or thereabouts. They have another one reaching Croatia that i hold right now, again for the same objective.

The Aragonese were very quiet all this time however when the opoortunity presented itself they took Navarre from the French and after that Aquitaine, Anjou and Brittany. Now they are building up a navy and are looking good.

The French after kicking out the English from the continent went at war with the Cast_leonese over Navarre as mentioned, currently down to one province Toulouse, been squashed from two sides by HRE and Aragon.

The Almoravids went through several advantures including taking over Vanelcia, making it muslim and losing it in a civil war (currently still rebel), and several civil wars coming at the top, in the end. They are currently holding Granada only in Iberia and all of their native Mahreb (marrackesh, fesh, algeria,tunisia). They have a substantial navy and it looks like they've just won a major defensive battle against Castile-Leon.

The English went into substantial depth and lost Mercia in a civil war after losing their mainland posessions. However, they've recovered over the years from a -13k to +1k currently and +0.5k annual turnover. Nice.

The Danish haven't gone broke yet, they've built a castle and the royal palace among other things. Their Scandinavian neighbours though (currently rebel) look beyond them.

The Italians colonised very early on Portugal and Scotland to reduce the upkeep of their roaming ships (as they always do) and later on Mercia. They've lost Genova during a civil war and now will have a tough time to get it back as the rebel faction seems on steroids. They've just launched a crusade against me (Constantinople). They went to war against me from the sea and now we are duking it out in the big blue.

The Hungarians are currently reduced to Wallachia and Carpathia. I decided to deal with them after the Mongols are no more a threat.

The Poles are sending large stacks of Slavs,from Moldavia every now and then across the river to Bulgaria, hence my valour 6 crossbows there. They hold Pomerania, Prussia, Poland and Moldavia and look dangerously sandwitched between HRE and the Kievans.

The Germans took over the French and even the Kaiser got a bit of influence. They've assisted the Hungarians in various epic battles over Hungary against me but they hadn't any luck there yet. They hold all starting provinces plus Champagne, Flanders, Normandy, Ile-de-France.

The Kievans killed off Novgorod and currently look scary - yet i give them little thought for in another 15 turns they'll have their hands full .

The Fatimids managed to inflict a nice defeat on me in Damascus where their massed Gulam BGs and the desert tiped the scales against me. Since then i was busy in the balkans and so i simply strengthened the frontier armies in Antioch-Allepo and made no further move. Even with 2 provinces left (Damascus-Egypt) after a string of civil wars the Fatimids recovered, and gradually took Jerusalem and now Tripoli from the rebels. It seems that we'll meet soon again...

And finally me, Byzantium. I further conquered Hungary and Croatia and currently building large armies that i keep in Thesasly/Constantinople as a central reserve to act against the Crusaders and Fatimids and later on the Mongols. Have build up infrastructure to the satisfying point that i can raise three fullstacks of all goodies i have in good quantities in 5 turns. I naturally dominate the seas east of the strait of sicily.

A few more impressions/suggestions/observations:

-BUG: the rebels of the civil war in Tripoli and Allepo were building western knights from the courts as well as Turcopoles from the stables. It seems that the rebel AI recruits catholic units in the levant, even though the unit leaders have arabic names. perhaps some limitation is required to fix the problem in the knights.

*****Not a bug, but a limitation of the game engine. The culture type remains the same but the religious percentage in the province is also a factor, this causes the strange combos that you see in provinces such as Pomerania and Prussia in the vanilla game. The only safe way to stop the rebels producing such units is to define more culture/faction/province resrictions*****



-The Byzantines should be able to recruit Turcopoles in the Levant like the catholics - after all, as the Turcopole unit info card says they were Christianised Turks that the Byzantines used regularly. Turcopoula (Turcopoles) actually means "sons of Turks" much like Archondopoula means "sons of nobles", for those who play M2tw. It makes sense given the local units system of the mode, not to mention that it would be a welcome addition in the emperor's army!

-SUGGESTION: i noticed that the mod introduces plate armoured units, with the very heavily armoured description (presumably +9 armour as in vanilla?) at 1204. This is ahistorical (as vanilla is) - actually the 1204-1320 era is the golden era of scale-mail armour. Plate armour was introduced from 1320 onwards and replaced scale mail after 1400. It is also bad for gameplay terms as it makes the transition of eras sudden - quickly units are obolete. I suggest that no high era unit has more than heavily armoured description (+7 armour).

- Archers as i noted earlier, desert archers, eastern archers, can indeed fight well in melee against medioum cavalry with lances like the Byz lancer, that is somewhat counter intuitive. Yet i recockgised that given that the Ai uses tones of missiles and protects them poorly it might be a welcoming measure.

Things that i really liked:

-Recruitment system and relevant tech tree - nice work.
-Strict Homelands.
-Slow pace and meaningful use of agents due to high rebelliousness.
-Reworking of missiles - now can fulfill their independent use from the Ai as they can set up ambushes. Probably you have reqorked the skirmish use in crossbows - and AI unit took a shot in the face of my charging (bought) knights causing heavy casualties. Nice.
-The map - very good job. Historically and gameplay wise.
-Making rebels develop quickly (somehow rebel Georgia is making 600fl!?). Its risky now to leave the rebels on their owndevices for too long.
-Buildings construction times and prices - good balance between investment of strategic choices and dynamic play.
-Naval units construction times and prices - good balance between investment of strategic choices and dynamic play.

Overall: a promising piece of work - good luck!

!itburnsus!

[gollum]

Just forgot to mention that the Pope joined the catholic anti-Byzantine league of HRE, Hungary, Poland and Castile_leon the same year as the Italians making a walk into Naples with some seargents and piles of crossbows. The Norman knights serving the Basileus there - relics of the house of Guiscards bribed a century earlier when their lord was no more, actually bet before the battle who would catch the most prisoners - it was tough competition, but in the end the unit of Isaac Orphanopoulos won with 185 heads, only 5 heads ahead of the runner-up. However the true star of that day was the Alans that captured the holy father himself:. He was graciously allowed to live and return in Rome with his brand new 1204 armour for only 14.5k florins. As for his offer to reunite the churches in exchange for his life as soon as he was brought in front of the emperor in person - it is still a favorite tell-for-laughs in Byzantium.

!it burnsus!

[gollum]

Hi, another one. Sorry for the barrage, but i try to do it while its all still hot...

The Mongols came and appeared ok. They have plenty of everything including the new steppe cavalry like mongol auxilia. Played the first battle and got the usual 3k approx kills. All is good except that some of the initial punch is lost due to the small sizes of MHC. I appreciate the intention, that in the long run the horde plays better without relying on them too much though.

BUG. After the battle i did a rightclick on the info card of what i guess must have been the mongol aux cavalry unit card, and got a ctd.


*****Missing info pic - FIXED 16/12/08*****


BUG. Denmark in high can built a lancer icon/unit card heavy cavalry unit entitled knights (i guess the knight late version). Could it be that the unit has escaped restriction for high and comes out of the baronial estate?


*****Not a bug - already fixed, the era restrictions were wrong for the Late era Knights (Lancers)*****

Observations/Suggestions.

-Its now well into the high era 1232, and i noticed that the catholics do not have a prpoer selection of units in their provinces. The new seargents are a barracks up from the early ones and so can be built in surprisingly few provinces. Chiv Foot Knights on the other hand are more common than foresters it seems as they are only tied to the royalcourt2 unlike feudalfootknights that needed the fortress barracks too. I suggest again that men at arms are lowered and chivfoot knights tied to citadel barracks. Its unnatural to have more availability in foot knights that men at arms.

-Perhaps turning Wallachia and Moldavia pagan at the beginning of the campaign is more historical and better gameplaywise. I think that the Cumans/Quipchacks occupied that area in 1087. It might also prevent the Byz ai running after Moldavia.

-I also suggest to reduce the cost and time construction of the royalcourt line of buildings as they are not tied to castles and the AI builds them to completion - yet this is not always worth it.

!it burnsus!

[gollum]

Hi,
some further ideas,

regarding spliting Turks and Egyptians, another possible way;

Antalya, Nicaea, Konya; Sultanate of Iconium
Sinope, Rum, Armenia; Sultanate of Rum
Allepo, Mosul, Edessa, Antioch; Great Seljuks
Damascus, Tripoli; Damascus
Palestine, Egypt; Fatimids

Although this is simply an idea and for the future too, its quite easy to do (apart from adding faction icons/colours of course), as all Turks and all Arabs may share common rosters, homelands etc that are ready.

- The English AI course is very predictable - inevitably put at severe disadvantage as it tries to desperately defend Aquitaine. Giving that and Anjou to the French might prove a long term benefit to the English AI.

- The Italian roster is very generic and same with that of all the other catholics. This is somewhat of a shame as the Italians can have a more distinct roster with emphasis in polearm/spear heavy infantry, crossbows and light cavalry.

!it burns us!

[caravel]

Some great ideas once again gollum, thank you for your input.

Can you please report suspected bugs separately in the bug reports thread? This enables us to keep a log of everything that needs urgent fixing. I will be working on the mod again soon when the memory arrives for my PC (I'm currently running on 256MB and it's not much fun). I will then go through everything in detail and begin to action the needed changes.