Darth-Sinuhet Formations Mini-mod

[Seer7]

Hi everyone,

I was looking into formations to fix something that annoyed me. I always thought they had the tendency to spread the phalangitai ranks out so the formations were not very deep. This was a problem with my EDU mod, because the reintroduction of the spear attribute for some units ensured that it was easier for such units to disrupt phalangitai, and hence augment their killing power. More generally, strong cavalry and large masses of infantry could also overwhelm such shallow formations and rout phalangitai more easily. A way to mitigate this somewhat was to ensure that phalangitai formations had a maximum width, and I settled on 24-30 men. The limit ensures there are one to three rows of men waiting in reserve to jump in when the casualties start piling up, allowing them to absorb more punishment and better resist strong charges. It also makes phalangitai formations in general less unwieldy, and in the handful of tests I've conducted the AI seems to have responded positively (Alex.exe).

Consequently, this is a mini-mod of a mini-mod. Lysander13 did everyone a great favour when he introduced compatibility for Darth and Sinuhet's formation mods for EB, and this mod builds on their work. For Darth's formations, I modified the Greek Theban, Epigonus, Macedonian, and Carthaginian battle formations. Most factions that utilise phalangitai en mass, like Makedonia, use the limit of 24. The outliers are Koinon Hellenon and Karthadastim, who are limited to 30 and 24-30 respectively, because their formations are different to 'proper' Hellenic factions and they need some more length. The Carthaginian formation was also modified to make it more compact. This helps the AI by ensuring their cavalry isn't a good run away from the battle, and their missile and skirmisher infantry can engage more effectively. For Sinuhet's formations, I made liberal use of 'max_unit_width' in phalanx line entries and they are universally set to 24.

I would recommend this mod for those who have downloaded my EDU mod, but it would be compatible with any version of EB, and of course it is save game compatible. To install, simply unrar the files to your root Rome directory (eg. C:\Program Files\Rome: Total War), but please back up both the descr_formations and the descr_formations_ai files (EB/Data) before you do so. For Sinuhet's, technically only the descr_formations_ai file needs to be backed up but I included the stock EB descr_formations file just in case you're switching from Darth.

Any feedback, positive or negative, and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

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Update: I wasn't satisfied with how I handled the Koinon Hellenon & Karthadastim formations in Darth's modified release. I was thinking too narrowly, looking at how they worked with phalangitai only. Consequently, when I came back to it later and had another look with other armies the result was unacceptable. KH and KHD formations need to be flexible over a variety of army types, and so I did some tweaking and I've come up with something that satisfies me. For KH, phalangitai formations now cap out at a width of forty men; this was to facilitate mixed armies using classical and Iphikratous hoplitai.* As the Greek Theban formation is 'weighted' with one end deeper than the other, the shallowness of phalangitai formations is offset by this...initially at least, what the AI does afterwards is its own business. For KHD, there was a similar dilemma, and they cap out at thirty to fourty men.

I also fiddled around with the the Epigonus and Macedonian formations. Just some minor tweaks that have to be seen to be appreciated, such as the first line needing a minimum of seven units rather than eight, compacting heavy infantry on the flanks somewhat, tweaking cavalry depths, etc. All in all, it tidies up the formations a great deal. I also placed Pontus on the list of factions that uses the Epigonus formation, as they are a Hellenic faction and it didn't really suit them to use the generic 'Asian' formation with the Saba.

I am considering having a look at other formations, just to see if I can do some housekeeping (no offense, Darth) and tweaking. The Romani seem fine to me, and I've done just about all I can for the Hellenic factions and KHD, so that leaves 'barbarian' and 'Asian' factions. If any progress is made, I'll update again. I'm not sure if I'm going to go through Sinuhet's formations as I'm not very familiar with them, so I'll put that on the 'maybe' pile after I'm satisfied with tweaking Darth's formations.

Once again, any comments are welcome.

*That probably doesn't make sense to you if you don't know how Darth's constructed his formations, so just take my word for it. (All of this was new to me a few days ago as well).

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Update Two: I ended up having a look at all the other Darth formations after all. I won't bore you with another long update, suffice to say I am satisfied with the result. In brief:

• Skirmishing formation: lengthened flanking infantry, ensured most foot missle units were placed at the back (now after four they get stuffed in the front line by the AI, whereas before only one was in the back).
• Barbarian Onslaught formation: If you remember a solid block of infantry, you might be surprised at how the AI has rearranged itself with new width values. The formation I've been seeing is more spread out, allowing the AI greater maneuverability, so rather than just a lump of infantry it's more like a line army. Will hopefully be more dangerous as a result.
• Semi-barbarian, Asian, Nomad and Roman formations: Resized and neatened formations as necessary. Doesn't sound like much, but it makes a difference. The average Nomad army should fit within the deployment area now, for example, rather than being mushed against its borders.

Also, I did all of this using Huge unit settings, so I have no idea if this is looking as good for folks on lower unit sizes. The good news is I'm done with Darth's formations, so go ahead and download with confidence, without feedback there's not much point to further tweaking. I like the result, I hope you guys do too. As for Sinuhet's formations? I'm still not sure. At the very least I might just neaten unit widths and so on, but that'll happen when it happens. Could be tomorrow, could be later next week, who knows.