VANGUARD
MEDIEVAL II TOTAL WAR MOD
INTRODUCTION
The purpose of Vanguard is three fold. Firstly it is designed to create historically proportioned armies, which it achieves via a brutal force method of limited recruitment pools.
Secondly, it aimed to balance all units to recreate their historical effectiveness, by using a consistent methodology inspired by Point Blank's work.
Lastly and perhaps most importantly Vanguard was designed to be small. I wanted to create a mod that could be downloaded and played quickly.
EXPERIENCE LEVEL
One of Vanguard's design features is to primarily use unit chevrons or 'experience level' as a means to differentiate the quality of troops, rather than using various bonuses and penalties in the base stats of the EDU file.
0 chevrons Levy and Militia
2 chevrons Professional and Mercenary
4 chevrons Veterans and Men-At-Arms
6 chevrons Elites
With the building and mercenary recruitment pools generating units with these respective experience levels accordingly. This means the number of banners a unit has on the battlefield immediately gives you an idea of how resilient a unit is. Additionally it creates an upper cap on the creation of 'super-units' since elite troops can only gain an additional 3 chevrons after being recruited rather than gaining a whole 9 and becoming unstoppable killing machines.
Three types of unit however are recruited in the game without any means to reference their experience level.
The first type are the General's Bodyguards which have been dealt with by boosting their base EDU stats to professional level, allowing them to become the strongest unit in the game should they accumulate enough chevrons, which does not seem inappropriate.
The second type are re-spawning rebels, whom I have simply ignored. While units in such armies start with no chevrons, don't underestimate them, their fighting prowess is only partially diminished. The last type are unscripted Horde units, which are similarly ignored for the time being.
MELEE WEAPONS
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(Units classed as poor horsemen, such as later English and German knights receive a -1 to their lance attack value.)
I'd like to say that these values were arrived at via historical research and scientific experiment. Unfortunately they are largely arbitrary, and are based on my own views of medieval combat, or borrowed from other Wargames Rules. The best I can say of them is that they seem to work.
'Improvised Weapon' covers such things as Archer's Mallet (improvised mace), Aztec Obsidian Edged Swords (improvised sword), and Farming Implements (improvised spear).
MISSLE WEAPONS
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Happily these values have a stronger foundation, and are arrived at by determining the kinetic energy of the projectile (an approach used in modern ballistics). The exception to this being the Naphtha Bomb which has been given an arbitrary value.
Since medieval bows and firearms varied greatly throughout the era, the muzzle velocities and projectile masses used are best estimates.
Effective ranges are mostly taken from ancient and medieval army manuals, with the exception of Javelins and Naphtha Bombs, whose animation delay requires a range well over their historical effective range, but far short of modern Olympic throwing records.
Though not documented here, the various artillery values are likewise determined by kinetic energy for damage-vs-troops, while damage-vs-buildings is modeled using momentum.
ARMOUR AND SHIELDS
( Units belonging to factions with snow in winter: Additional Heat +1. )
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Perhaps Vanguard's largest departure from other mods is in it's division of armour values for infantry versus those for mounted troops. This is primarily done to simulate the historical vulnerability of cavalry to massed archery, and is achieved by considering the horse and rider as one combined target. Conversely well shielded or armoured infantry have excellent resistant to missile weapons.
Another departure is the balancing of large and small shields in melee, where the effects of a slower heavy shield with larger coverage versus a quicker small shield largely cancel out. Additional effects include the heat fatigue and weight of heavier armour.
MASS AND CHARGE
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Mass is rated in units of 100kg and is used to determine charge values, with the exception of elephants who are scaled back considerably. The values for mass are taken from real life averages of those breeds still in existence such as the Arabian and Mongol Horse, the Indian Elephant and Dromedary Camel, and researched estimates of lost breeds such as the Destrier, while taking into account historical breeding programs which over time increased the size of the medieval charger.
Charge values are given for lance first and other mounted weapons second where appropriate. Only cavalry units riding Destriers or equivalent highly spirited chargers may count as impetuous. Additionally Cavalry units always have their stamina and heat rating determined by their mount.
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These values represent the minimum distance needed to count as charging in the M2TW engine. Impetuous troops receive a high charge bonus but require longer run-ups, while more disciplined troops can charge from shorter distances.
FORMATION ORDER
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In summary, phalanx and cavalry are disadvantaged in rough. Loose infantry are able to exploit difficult going such as forest. Camels are naturally adapted to crossing sand, while Elephants can bulldozer their way through scrub.
Western Lancers, Eastern Cataphracts and Phalanx receive can_formed_charge.
Mountain Troops include Highlanders, Welsh and various hill and mountain peoples such as Lusitanian Javelinmen. Desert Troops include most Berbers, Bedouin, Nubian and Sudanese.
