IMPORTANT INFO -Demo: "The Whitecloak War" Info+descriptions+focus on Altara

Recently, I saw someone post that they thought this mod was dead. I couldn’t have been more shocked. The mod is thriving; there have been more posts in the dev forum in the last few days than there have been in the open forum ever. :wink: But I realise, were not giving you fans much to go by, apart from a vague promise about a demo. Well, here it is in a bit more detail. I don’t expect you to be impressed, I expect you to already be expecting this much out of a mod with so much promise:

The Wheel of Time – Total War team proudly present their demo:

The Whitecloak War

Coming soon...

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The Whitecloak war is a set of historical battles forming a historical campaign following one of the very detailed historical events that makes the world of the Wheel of Time so rich. We’ve used some artistic licence, but otherwise we’ve based everything as closely as possible on the books.

You will either take the side of Pedron Niall, the Lord Captain of the Children of the light, and Captain General Geofram Bornhald in their attempt to expand the influence of the Children of the Light, or that of Mattin Stepaneos, the King of Illian, and Tam Al’Thor, the Second Captain of the Companions of Illian in their fight to protect the independence of Altara, Murandy and Illian.

The Whitecloak Campaign consists of three battles, each mentioned in the books by Pedron Niall as he remembers past glories. Each battle is based on the text from the books.

The Illianer campaign follows two of those battles, but has its own first battle based on the ‘Altaran Noon’ Mentioned by Beslan in the books.

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Pedron Niall's study - from the intro video

The first Whitecloak Mission – The battle of Moisen

“Niall studied the banners overhead. Those represented enemies from nearly every land; no one had ever defeated him twice, and few once. The banners were all faded with age, now. Like him. Yet he was not too faded to see an end to what he had begun. Every banner taken in bloody battle, where you never really knew what was happening beyond sight of you own eyes, where certain victory and certain defeat could be equally ephemeral. The worst battle he had ever fought, armies blundering into each other in the night near Moisen, during the Troubles, had been clear as a bright summer’s day compared to the one he fought now.” – Lord of Chaos, Chptr: Plans

In this first battle, you will start in a very disadvantageous position. Your forces are scattered after pursuing the Altaran scum, but a Murandian force has arrived on the field. You must regroup your armies and strike hard, but beware, the Altarans are not broken yet.

The First Illianer Campaign battle – The Altaran Noon

“Ebou Dar isn’t really ours anymore, and the rest won’t be either. Maybe we can’t push them out by force of arms, but we can make the country too hot to hold them. The Whitecloaks found out. Ask them what they mean by ‘the Altaran Noon’” – Winters Heart, Chptr: An Unexpected Encounter

The first of the Illianer Campaign battles represents the period during which the Children of the Light swept into Altara. The Altaran armies were in constant retreat, often surrendering, but although the Children advanced rapidly, they were not expecting the Altarans to resist so hard. Hit and run attacks on camps, arrows fired in the night and ambushes became commonplace. The Whitecloaks soon dubbed this the ‘Altaran Noon’, referring to the heat of the battle. Your first mission is to take your small army of Altarans and Murandians and ambush a Whitecloak supply wagon heading for Ebou Dar. The area for the ambush is ideal, but perhaps not the situation; the Whitecloaks have several camps in the area, and it will not be long before they send out patrols. You must strike hard but fast.

The Second Battle (for both the Whitecloak and Illianer campaign) - The Battle of Soremaine

“Among the banners and pennants lining the cornices of the chamber, Mattin Stepaneos’ Three Leopards, silver on black, hung next to a gold-fringed Illianer Royal Standard, nine bees worked in thread-of-gold on green silk. The Illianer king came out on top in the Troubles finally, at least to the point of forcing a treaty that affirmed the border between Amadicia and Altara where it was at the beginning, but Niall doubted the man would ever forget that he had had the advantage of terrain and numbers at Soremaine and still been defeated and captured. If the Illianer Companions had not covered the field for the rest of the army to escape Niall’s trap, Altara would be a fief of the Children today, and very likely Murandy and even Illian.” – Lord of Chaos, Chptr: Plans

The Illianers have arrived on the scene, bringing with them a mighty army to try and save Altara and Murandy from the hand of the Children of the Light. The remaining Altaran and Murandian forces have rallied to the call of Mattin Stepaneos, the King of Illian. The Illianers, Murandians and Altarans now outnumber Pedron Niall’s forces in the field, and they have the advantage of terrain marching out of the hills, but Pedron Niall is ready for them, can his tactical genius turn this battle?

The Third Battle (for both the Whitecloak and Illianer campaign) – The Battle of Jhamara

“He (Niall) had four rules concerting action and information. Never make a plan without knowing as much as you can of the enemy. Never be afraid to change your plans when you receive new information. Never believe you know everything. And never wait to know everything. The man who waited to know everything was still sitting in his tent when the enemy burned it over his head. Niall followed those rules. Only once in his life had he abandoned them to follow a hunch. At Jhamara, for no reason but a tickling at the back of his head, he had set a third of his army to watch mountains all said were impassable. While he manoeuvred the rest of his forces to crush the Murandians and Altarans, an Illianer army that was supposed to be a hundred miles away came out of the “impassable” passes. The only reason he managed to withdraw without being crushed was a “feeling.” And now he felt that tickling again.” – Lord of Chaos, Chptr: Red Wax

The Illianer army attempts the impossible to turn the battle in their favour. Pedron Niall seems unstoppable, and he now controls most of Altara and some of Murandy. The Illianer army, what remains of it, have as a last resort decided to climb these supposedly ‘impassable’ passes to come out behind the Whitecloak army. Pedron Niall’s forces are concentrated further north, crushing the Murandians, but one third of his force remains to fight till the rest can withdraw. The Illianers will fall on Pedron Niall’s reserves. Can they deal him the deathblow?

A Preview

The Whitecloak War is obviously a preview of some of the nations of the Wheel of Time – Total War, and their armies, but there are a great deal of features not included in this demo. Here I will attempt to summarise a few of them, and I mean a few, I’m only talking about the tactical features:

Recruitment:

One of the great features of MTW was the wealth of units available. In WoT – TW will be increasing the unit count dramatically. Each nation will have its own unique units so that each nation has a personalised and different feel. As well as this, there are the common units. I’d like now to introduce you to the ‘common units regional abilities’ concept.

As you know, all the nations of the Wheel of Time have their own uniforms and their own combat style. In WoT – TW, we will represent this like so:

- Common units will wear the uniforms of the nation in which they are recruited, but the colours of the nations they fight for. For example, should Andor defeat the Cairhienen, so that all of Cairhien is under Andor’s control, Pikemen recruited in Cairhien by the Andoran nation will still wear Cairhienen helmets, and the officers will wear con, but they will wear red and white to represent their fealty. We feel this will add more realism to the game, allowing you to assimilate new cultures as you expand your empire.

- Common units will vary in ability depending on where they are recruited from. For example in tear, all common infantry units will generally be worse than infantry from other nations. This is to represent the preference of cavalry by Tairen High Lords, and the neglect in training the average Tairen soldier has. Also common low ranking units such as militia will have very poor moral as the class gap in Tear is very high and commoners often resent their lords, and so do not have a great deal of motivation to fight. In contrast, common horse units such as Mounted Armsmen and Nobles will have an advantage over other nations, as they will be mounted on ‘Tairen Finest Stock’.

The purpose of these variations in common units is to add realism and a new tactical element to the game. As your empire expands, different parts of you empire will produce different quality troops, and you will be able to personalise your armies more and more. There will be no way better to experience this than in the Late Era playing as the forces of the Dragon, where you will have Aiel, Tairens, and eventually forces from all over the world at your disposal. We hope you enjoy this new aspect of the game!

The size of the map:

In RTW, the map is very scaled down, and this does not allow for much detail, in WoT – TW, we intend to increase the scale considerably. This means greater distances between towns and more detailed forests and landscape features such as mountains. Why? Because the current style of map doesn’t allow for much strategy. In warfare, an invasion into another country represents a serious and difficult undertaking. When defending you lands, it’s not just a case of garrisoning towns. We want to increase the value of defensive forces in the field; we want to increase the value of sending out units to scout, of building watchtower to detect any enemy movement. We also want to increase the value of strategic moves such as avoiding enemy armies to penetrate deep into enemy territory.

More than 2 turns a year:

The several turns a year script was originally designed for WoT – TW. It may end up being an optional extra, but we strongly recommend it. The scale of the map will make the several turns a year script necessary for realism.

General battle tweaks:

We will be tweaking the gameplay somewhat so that you don’t have to install all the extra gameplay mods as well. We’ll be doing stuff like reducing movement speed etc.

The campaign map itself:

Here I feel I should pile on a shovel load of suspense: I’ve got a trick up my sleeve on the design of the campaign map and I think you’ll be impressed.

I could go on forever, but we have to keep back some stuff for the final release, so I’ll stop now, and I haven’t even touched on channelers. Just to tease you with a bit more info, here is the faction description for Altara:

Altara:

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WIP faction symbol

Altara is a nation in the hot lands of the south overlooking the sea of storms, although in truth little unifies it except a name. Most people of Altara think of themselves of inhabitants of a town or village, or of this lord or that lady’s people, first, and only second if at all as Altaran. Few nobles pay taxes to the crown or offer more than lip service, that often slight. The ruler of Altara is seldom more than the most powerful noble in the land, and at times has not even been that. The Throne of the Winds holds so little power that many powerful nobles have scorned to take it when they could have.

Altara has never been renowned for its armies, although its populous does have a fiery and pugnacious nature that has saved their country in times of crisis in the past. Altaran tend to be quick to anger, mirth and sadness. This often makes them good lovers, but unfortunately rarely makes for dependable or professional soldiery. The standing army of Altara consists in practice, only of the armsmen of the Royal House, and the Ebou Dar’s Palace Guard.

For this reason, Altara’s ability to mount military excursions is severely limited, but this does not mean that the Altarans are incapable of defending themselves. They are fiercely protective of their lands, intolerant of foreign rulers, and swift to take up arms when threatened, as the Children of the Light have found to their regret. It may be easy to defeat Altaran armies, and occupy their lands, but controlling them is quite another matter. During the Whitecloak War, the Children of the Light have been known to speak of the ‘Altaran Noon’, referring to the heat, not only of the weather, but also of their reception in many parts of the land.

Altara’s capital is Ebou Dar, a vast sprawling metropolis straddling the mouth of the Eldar. Over the years, trade from the river and the industry of its merchants has fattened the Altaran capital but none the less, much of it remains poverty stricken. The contrast between the more select parts of Ebou Dar on the west bank of the river, with the sprawling disease ridden shanty town of the Rahad on the east bank is striking to any outsider. Yet it is in the Rahad that the Altaran fiery spirit can be seen in its true element. Even during the Whitecloak occupation, the Rahad was never truly pacified.

One feature peculiar to Altaran Culture is the unusual social code and the matriarchal nature of society. In an Altaran court of law, a woman who kills a man is innocent of murder unless she had no valid motive. In marriage, the groom presents the bride with a knife with which he tells her to kill him should he displease her. Women decorate these knives using a specific code of jewellery to represent their family.

Altara is one of the most difficult nations with which to succeed, as it is difficult to rule, militarily and politically weak and hemmed in by Amadicia and Illian. When playing as the Altarans, you will have great difficulty controlling the provinces outside of your capital, so it would probably be wise to limit you military operations until you have established yourself more firmly in your own lands. Some of the land officially part of Altara is not in fact under your control, and you will certainly have to confront the rebellious nobles of the north. On the bright side, your people’s rebellious nature will seriously hamper any invader. The most serious threats to Altaran independence are clear: to the West lies Amadicia, ruled by the aggressive and ambitious Whitecloaks; the East Illian, whose King regards Altara as his sphere of influence and in the past has claimed its lands as his own.

As ruler of Altara your main concern should be controlling your own lands and developing your trade links with other Southern nations. An alliance with Illian is surely beneficial, creating rich trade links and offering some measure of protection against the Amadicians. Altara’s position, sandwiched as it is between two rich and powerful nations, makes expansion risky and difficult. It is safer and wiser to bide your time, developing your economy, securing your grip on your own lands and perhaps making small, well planned expansions at the expense of the free towns on the coast of Shadows, or if Illian is weakened by war with Tear, snatching the border lands to your East.

In war, you must know every strength of you troops, as they generally will be outclassed by the elite military formations of other nations. You Palace Guards and House Armsmen make a solid but unexceptional core to your army. Altara lacks the professional civic armies of other nations, and therefore must rely upon the private armies of various nobles. Most units you raise within your own borders, such as the common units will lack discipline but in some ways this is compensated by the Altaran fiery but fickle nature. The ferocious Altaran charge means that your units are best suited to attack and not protracted engagements, in which their poor discipline tends to let them down. Bandits are plentiful and available as mercenaries in Altara, and recruiting these men can add a tactical variety to your armies. In fact due to the lackings of many of your other units, it is almost essential that you fill out your armies with these versatile and cunning fighters. Altaran bandits can hide in all terrain; their bows and scimitars make a deadly combination for ambushes. Kintaran brigands are mounted and can avoid the attentions of infantry whilst peppering them with light javelins. Altaran armies thrive on disorganisation and it is important that any battles you fight do not settle into lengthy slogging matches between shield walls or battlelines. You must ensure that enemy formations are broken up and scattered to get the most out of your troops. A good tactic is to use fast moving skirmishing units such as the mercenary bandits to break up enemy lines and hurl the ferocious warriors into the chaos.

These contrasts in military units and difficult starting strategic position make playing as Altara a great challenge, and therefore should be attempted only by seasoned Total War veterans.

Unit list:

Tarasin Palace Guard

It is the duty of the Tarasin Palace Guard to defend the Royal Palace in Ebou Dar and protect the life of the monarch. So weak is the Altaran standing army that these few guards also make up the core of the Ebou Dari force in times of war. These men are relatively well trained and well equipped, but few in number and inferior to truly elite units such as Illian’s Companions or Andor’s Queen’s guard. Nonetheless they are capable of dealing with most units they will face on the battlefield and can be relied on to remain calm when faced with crisis. The official uniforms of these men emphasise their high status, gold helmets and breastplates decorated with green marking them out as royal troops. White cords are worn around the helmets, and a rod, gilded with one end sharp, marks officers and the other hooked. They are armed with halberds. Despite the contempt from other warriors that their flashy appearance sometimes earns them, they are professional fighters, capable of forming the core of any Altaran army.

Tarasin Palace Guard are armed with Halberds

Mitsobar Armsmen

House Mitsobar is one of the richer and more powerful of the Noble Houses, and when it came to the Throne of the Winds the first King of the Mitsobar line aimed to consolidate the land claimed by Altara’s borders. Although in the end he did not achieve this ambitious goal, it was not before he had strengthened the armsmen of his House. Mitsobar have better discipline and training than the average Altaran Armsman. Their steady moral are the clear signs of this, yet they retain the Altaran ferocity of the charge. Their armaments, two-handed swords, make them a very hard-hitting unit. Historically, Mitsobar Armsmen have outclassed foreign armsmen, which is rare for an Altaran military unit. They are best used to lead an attack, carving a breach in the enemy line for supporting troops to pour through.

Mitsobar Armsmen are armed with double-handed swords.

Altaran Bandits

The power and influence of the Altaran Monarchy has waxed and waned over the last generations, but not for a long time have they ruled in more than name over the land within the borders they claim. The first of the Kings of House Mitsobar spent his life trying to consolidate Altara, and many historians consider it a great feat that the lands bordering Ebou Dar now pay taxes. The rest of Altara is divided amongst the local Lords and bandits roam freely within its borders. These men travel the country almost unchecked, ambushing merchants and even raiding villages. They can be hired as mercenaries, and are very cunning fighters, but they come at a high cost.

Altaran Bandits are armed with short bows and swords.
Can hide anywhere
Only available as mercenaries

Rhannon brigands

The Rhannon hills are the Easternmost in a line which becomes the great ridge of Garen’s Wall and are populated mainly by farmers. The further west you travel, the lower the hills, and the more frequent the olive groves and vineyards become. Yet further west, where the hills are higher and the soil less fertile, the land becomes less cultivated. Like all but the most densely populated regions of Altara the bandits’ rule is more powerful than the King’s. In this hilly land bandits ride small horses or ponies, and as infantry or merchants guards may flounder in the rocky terrain, these bandits can easily avoid them, all the time pelting their victims with their light javelins. Like most bandits, they also win part of their earnings as mercenaries and are hired across Altara by nobles to raid their neighbours.

Rhannon brigands are mounted and armed with light javelins.
Only available as mercenaries

Ebou Dari Levy

The Ebou Dari pride themselves on ferocity and courage in a duel. Very few men or women reach adulthood without having fought in at least one duel, and these few are ostracised for being cowardly. Across the nation duelling is common, yet the Ebou Dari have taken this tradition to the extreme. Most Altarans are polite and formal, lest they give cause for a challenge. Everything said is subject to challenge unless it is formally said that they may ‘lean back on his dagger’, but in Ebou Dar, most noticeably in the Rahad, men often go in search of a duel, and their provocative nature ensures they are hardened fighters.

Ebou Dari Levy are armed with two long and narrow duelling knives.
Can only be recruited in Ebou Dar

Altaran Seamen

Altara is a trading nation, the capital city, Ebou Dar, is situated so as to control trade on the river Eldar, and sea trade with Illian and Tarabon has gained much wealth for the capital city. Seamen in Altara all belong to a guild either of traders or fishermen. These men often find themselves on land for long periods, as there is an abundance of men ready to go to sea. During the Whitecloak War, many of these men found themselves hired to fill in the ranks of the Altaran army, which was severely lacking in manpower and properly trained troops. Sturdy and tough, they are good fighters, armed with sword and dagger, but they are un-armoured and carry no shield, making them vulnerable to bow fire or combat with armoured troops.

Altaran Seamen are armed with a sword and dagger.
Can only be recruited in costal regions.

Common unit notes:

Common units recruited within the borders of Altara all have a higher charge impact than average, but their formations are less disciplined, less ordered, and have more volatile morale.[/QUOTE]

Re: Demo: "The Whitecloak War" Info+descriptions+focus on Altara

YES
Thats what Im talking about. Thank you.

Re: Demo: "The Whitecloak War" Info+descriptions+focus on Altara

Updated to include the Altaran faction symbol, WIP.

Re: Demo: "The Whitecloak War" Info+descriptions+focus on Altara

I would just like to add that the recruting system also makes for a game that is more realistic in the way that you will not be able too train pikes in the aiel waste, or aiel in the blight. Also the wasteland areas will not be very wanted, since they will give low income and only produce crappy troops, which will centralize the game to the in the books contested areas. Otherwise, you covered it well;)

Also, you missed the fact that in one of the battles your general will be Tam Al'Thor, officer of the Companions, which IMO is pretty cool:)

Re: Demo: "The Whitecloak War" Info+descriptions+focus on Altara

Wow thanks for the detailed post. I almost hate to say it but I don't know what I'm more excited for EB or this mod. WoT just kicks ass and I can't wait to kill some scum with my whitecloaks (even though I hate the bastards, gotta love their army)

Re: Demo: "The Whitecloak War" Info+descriptions+focus on Altara

And you gotta love Pedron Niall too, it's almost a shame his plans never get carried out in the books...