Htw Spin-off Mod - Ancient: TW

:whip: .. Then lets cross the Zagros and on into the Hindu-Kush !! :laugh4:
Seriously Mac - You deserve a well deserved break and enjoy your time on EB (( Europa Barbarorum ? )) when you feel the need to begin im sure us boys here will supply you with enough info to succeed in your next mod .
I'll be trying out Urartu first , only cause I need to turtle along , but at the same token I will be playing a lot of custom battles .
Q ? - Can historical battles be made for the mod ?
Axel if i run into any trouble installing I'll pm you so Mac gets a break .
cheers guys
DTS

Morning all :bow:

@Axel - if you want to extend the game you'd need to open the Punic campaign startpos file (I think it's called Punic_57_26.txt) in the campmap/startpos folder, then change the entry for SetGameEndDate (or something like that, I don't have a copy in front of me right now) which is fairly close to the top. It will only affect new campaigns, once a campaign has been started you cannot extend it. (What would be really cool would be a cheat code for "Add ten years" or something, the same way as you can raise your treasury to 1,000,000 Fl, for instance :yes: )

@DTS - I'm afraid custom battles are a bit buggy, yet - I haven't really sorted out why - some work, but most crash. Historical battles should be possible, but I haven't done any, as they need triggers and victory conditions to be scripted, and I suspect that they probably won't work until the custom battle side is sorted out. One day I intend to do Kadesh, at least :beam: and the Punic campaign gives lots of opportunities (Telamon, Cannae, Lake Trasimene, Zama...) Urartu is a good choice for turtling, as you have to, else you will be snuffed out in the first couple of years. But they have a great defensive roster, and I love the Cascan warband. Used well, they are Urartu's not-so-secret weapon, and Urartu has some good "heavies" (spears and cav) and mineral wealth to exploit.

I was trying out a couple of ideas last night and for the Punic campaign I've added barbarian pikes and a dedicated Celtic chariot (covignos) which is a cut above the usual tribal chariots - better stats, and they scare hastati - I've removed the tribal chariot from the scenario, as really only Celts were using chariots this late. I think the Ligurian chariot should also be replaced by a Ligurian cavalry unit, too, so only Celts (including Celtiberians) have any chariots at all. The next question is, can we justify superior Celtic chariots in the main campaign?

All loaded and sampled .. Ok Custom Battles worked ok for me , i had 4 off them & noticed strange rosters ,, eg Rhodian Slingers appearing in Celt slots and other similiar ones with Greek troops appearing in Assyrian slots etc etc .
I started a Hellene campaign and played about 15 yrs worth , addictive so far , took Macedon after a few years then ventured into Thracian territory . Just getting into the feel of it again so I will report back on how this one develops .
I will start a Urartan one tommorow ...I just love those hopeless single territory challenges .
cheers DTS

Hi mate
is there a limit to change the end date and will it give me problems with the game and the mod???
is it this wot i most change??? :
//========================================
//Start Date
//The year in which this
//campaign will begin
//========================================

SetStartDate:: 230
SetPeriod:: LATE
SetEarlyPeriodStartDate:: 100 // 400BC
SetHighPeriodStartDate:: 150 // 350BC
SetLatePeriodStartDate:: 230 // 265BC
SetGameEndDate:: 354 // 146BC

so i think i most change 354 to lets say 400 or 450 ?
a lot of questions sorry for that mate :shame: i am just learning


dimitrios the samian if you need help just PM me and ill help you in any way i cane :2thumbsup:

Hi
i asked this before on forum about changing money for units see :
Originally Posted by axel
pericles hi mate cane you explane how you cane chance the money to more and where you cane chance it ????i like to give somme factions more money


Hi :)

Here is how to give other factions more florins. It's very easy.

Here's how:

1) Go to this directory in your MTW game:

C:\Program Files\Total War\Medieval - Total War\campmap\startpos

2) Before you make any changes, make copies of all the original text files you see in this folder. This way you can revert back to the original files any time you like. Now open the file for the era you want to play (such as Early_XL, High_XL, etc). In this example, open the "High_XL" text file.

3) Now scroll down until you see this section below. As you can see, the amount of florins given to each faction is listed according to difficulty such as EASY, NORMAL, HARD and EXPERT. In the example below, I have selected to play on HARD (the third column) and have decided to play the Crusader faction. I gave myself 10,000 florins and gave all other factions 50,000 florins.

//========================================
//Starting Treasury
//Sets the amount of cash available to
//each faction at the start of the game.
//you can specify 4 values for the four
//difficulty levels in the order EASY,
//NORMAL, HARD and EXPERT. Specify only one
//value to start all difficulty levels with
//the same size treasury.
//If you don't set this, the default
//is 2000 florins for all difficulty levels.
//========================================
SetTreasury:: FN_ALMOHAD 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_BYZANTINE 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_DANISH 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_EGYPTIAN 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_ENGLISH 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_FRENCH 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_GERMAN_HRE 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_ITALIAN 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_POLISH 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_RUSSIAN 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_SPANISH 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_TURKISH 10000 8000 50000 4000

SetTreasury:: FN_ARAGONESE 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_BULGARIANS 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_GOLDEN_HORDE 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_HUNGARIAN 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_NOVGOROD 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_PAPIST 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_SICILIAN 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_PORTUGAL 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_CUMANS 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_CRUSADERS 10000 8000 10000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_TEUTONIC 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_LITHUANIANS 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_VOLGA 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_SCOTS 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_SERBS 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_ARMENIANS 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_SWEDISH 10000 8000 50000 4000
SetTreasury:: FN_GENOANS 10000 8000 50000 4000


4) Once you have inputted the amounts you want, save the text file, exit and then play your game.

5) You can do this for ALL eras in the game, for any mod, or for the vanilla game. Just remember to FIRST select the faction you want to play, THEN give all other factions more florins. You can give other factions as little as 10000 florins or as much as 2000000 (2 million). DON'T use commas to separate the numbers. This is a very effective way to increase the difficulty level for very little effort.

is this also possible in Acient if so maybe it helps :2thumbsup:

@Axel - the only problems with dates are: if you START before 40AD the start kings will be unmarried and risk having messed-up ages like -65000 years, and if you run anywhere in the "vanilla" game range (actually 1066-1453) then the "historic events" such as inventions and famopus people crop up and spoil the effect. Also with Punic, the action is all in LATE - if you let EARLY or HIGH happen it will break it big-time.

Would recommend you don't fiddle with starting treasuries - if you give any factions more money it will make it too easy for the human. It's especially set so that Rome and Carthage have deep pockets at the start, and to keep the minor factions minor.

Hi Mac ,, Enjoying the Urartan campaign immensely ,, It is difficult ive almost wiped out the phyrgians and after some more building i'll go after the Cimmerians in the north , lucky theAssyrians are allied with me so if i last long enough i'll hit the hittites eventually too ,, but thats some time away still .. more later ......

@DTS - glad you like Urartu; let's hear it for the boys in turquoise and gold :balloon2:

I usually end up fighting the Phrygians first, as well. Either they attack me - in which case some fun defensive battles trying to get their cav to fight my cascans in the woods ~D; otherwise they attack someone else, in which case I make a grab for Casca itself. The Cimmerians are best left until you have the UHAs rolling out, preferably with the weapon upgrades from Urartu's copper deposits, then you're properly equipped to sweep out of the mountains into the open steppes.... Taking on the Neo-Hittites requires quite a heavy army, as those Hittite spearmen can be TOUGH little beggars... ah, I'm getting nostalgic for that little corner of the map again... :beam:

I've started a new early Celtic campaign to test out some new units - I have decided to carry the covignos unit across to the main campaign, and have spread the tribal pikes around a few factions - I'm looking for a bit more barbarian diversity to expand the rosters a bit, so the Celts will get their own pike unit ("mataris" being Celtic for pike). Although I like the tribal spears, I get a bit irritated when the AI decides to skirmish with them. Admittedly they are quite impetuous and will charge, I'm not sure whether they go in to engage at will or hold formation mode for the AI. Hence the pikes, which are tougher and will deploy in hold formation by default. Some factions, I think, will end up with pikes and a javelin unit, but no tribal spears.

I've also been wondering about what we can add to the northeast of the map, as currently the Balts are about the most "generic" faction, with nothing special to recruit. So Baltic axes, Baltic skirmishers (there's a lot of archaeological evidence of javelins - including bone and flint heads, so some variety :2thumbsup: ), and possibly a token "Uralian warband" to represent those tribes the Balts pushed out/subsumed. The Baltic axes I was thinking would be elite, and replace the tribal swordsmen for the Balts.

Also what do you guys think about the tribal hunters - I'm wondering whether they should be upped to a 30-man unit?

And then I also want to check out the custom battle entries in the unit prods, get some sense of order into the faction rosters for that side of things. It'd make testing units easier if custom battles were more reliable ~D

And Axel - thanks for the links - I'm working my way through them, but I've already got some new infopics from them :2thumbsup:

Hi mate
Ok i dont wont to mess up this mod so ill will do NO changes becose i would kill my self if i cant play this mod :skull: its only, its hard to build everything in 125 years mate there are so many nice things to build but they take time and money.
Tribal hunters i love them allreddy :2thumbsup:
i am glad i got help if you need more info just tell me wot you need ill find it

:sweatdrop: .. You are dead right Mac ,, I made the mistake spread myself thin and those Phyrgians came back at me real hard !! Aaahh .. I im loving this mod .
I have V2 thanks to Axel .. Does the patch add names to the territories on the map ?
I also like many of those pretty princesses :yes: ..but ive seen some absolute horrors :skull: .death warmed up ! no way would one of my boys marry them .
Which folder are the Assyrian & Urartan princesses in ? Im gonna start using those utilities .... (( i'll keep you posted on my developments ))
cheers for now back in a few days

Hi DTS, ah, those Phrygians will keep you on your toes until you get some decent cavalry in the field :yes:

The map corrections in the V2.1 patch are just the correct sea borders in the Black Sea, the problem is you have to reload the entire map to get it in (all because I left a layer of my master copy invisible when I resaved the map for V2.0, doh!). I've decided to leave province names off the map for now, because many are still anachronistic, and I might change them later, so I thought no names would look better than wrong names ~D On the Punic map I went a different route...

You should recognise some of the princesses, especially the ones from the Levantine factions :2thumbsup: But you're right, there are some where I think, "grit your teeth boys, dynasty before pleasure" :laugh4:

IIRC the portrait folders are: Assyrian, Levantine, Egyptian, Catholic, Muslim, Orthodox, Pagan and Northtribs, but the startpos sets which one is used for each faction. If there's no PortraitsOverride command then they get the default folder according to culture (Catholic = Helladic / Hellenic; Muslim = Eastern kingdoms; etc)

I took a look at custom battle set-up over the weekend and had a serious "DOH!" moment when I realised why custom battles hadn't been working for me! Yep, you have to play them on default unit size - even though the units are NOT scalable in campaign, they ARE in custom games. As I normally have my development copy set to HUGE size, custom games always caused a CTD. Once I set it to default, lo and behold, it works fine.

So I've now worked through the custom battle faction associations and brought them into some sort of order, and added some more units in the process, as the "gaps in the line" really show up in the custom battle set-up. It was a really confused situation before as a lot of the associations were relevant to the OLD HTW factions, so had no bearing on the new Ancient ones, which was why a lot of factions had hoplites in their custom battle line-up. I've also corrected the missing parchment an the custom menu.

V2.2 patch surely can't be far away :laugh4:

Well done to the creator ! :smash: ... I havn't even got patch 2.1 yet but look forward to any improvements that you have made and are planning on making ,, I notice that a lot of Forts and Stockades etc etc on the Campaign map get called castles when you right click on them or pass over em , Has anyone else noticed this ? I also ported over my first small lot of super alluring princesses and they started appearing and they look awesome !! don't get me wromg I like 70% of your portraits but those stoned face horrors are shocking ... Mac I think Ive got my skills upped enough to handle the TGA's im my photoshop & I'll keep you updated as i work my way to a complete set of all types and send them over to you for a look and approval to include in an updates build .
I also got more years into mu Urartan campaign and just started churning out some cav ,, So I'm not finished yet !! Im going to get those Cimmerians up north eventually and along with my Assyrian buddies assimilate or annialate the Neo Hittites nearby ... more later .
Mac not being picky here but ive trolled the lab & repository and found very little on bifs and bufs .. What i'd like to do is learn some basics to be able to help you as much as i can ,, Ok First how do I use the utilities to get new images into the review panels ? like what you have done with Wheelwrights & Carpenters and others also getting them to appear on the building completed parchment screens ,, Just a start but all good learning for me to help out when you open up the map and begin your other mods in 2008 . :2thumbsup:

Hi DTS - briefly: review panel graphics: 50x50 pixels, create using photoshop or similar, save to BMP 256 colours (forced colour for index 0 = 008000), use ReadBif to convert BMP to BIF. For units, it's best to save a colour table from an existing unit if you want to use faction colours (eg open an existing BIF with ReadBif, convert to BMP, them save the colour table from the BMP file using photoshop). Buildings have 68x50 pics instead, IIRC.

The infopics are a little more involved - best thing is to open some up and have a fiddle with photoshop, again BIF to BMP, then Photoshop, save colour tables etc, you can have "fun" with the transparent/near transparent pixels, so I've evolved my own technique which avoids the irritating black dots that can arise. The building completed parchments are in the infopics/coloured folder. The biggest hassle is always going between RGB and indexed mode.

I could do with a few more princesses :yes: Most of them are still the HTW issue, though the Egyptians are new.

Okay, I'm off for lunch :2thumbsup:

Thanks for the quick response Mac .. I should have told you to post this one over at the Alchemists Lab ... I'll certainly have fun !! :juggle2: playing and creating now .

:yes: ...YES !! Got my first success using bifs & tga's ,, I found a more suitable image depicting the wheelwright and now I have it appearing in the review panel .. I made it 50x50 and its a fraction small as it is 68x50 so i will go back and remake it and then onto modding it larger to appear on the parchment scroll when its constructed ,, I had to use a different sequence to what you wrote as readbif couldn't open the bmp (( message said it ran out of memory streaming ? )) ... more later .

Quote:

---

readbif couldn't open the bmp (( message said it ran out of memory streaming ? ))

---

I sometimes get "memory violation" messages from READBif when I have other graphics packages open, but it usually still loads! The only other thought is did you definitely save your BMP in indexed 256 colour mode?

I beefed up the Israelites' unit roster a bit now, so they have a couple of new units: Hebrew militia (tribal levy, swords & shields, can wipe the floor with Eastern swordsmen ~D) and Judean archers (compound bows + swords, better than eastern bowmen, but still pretty weak in hand to hand), and revised offices "Shalish" ('captain') from wheelwright, and "Sar parashim" (Commander of Horse) from horse farmer (If anyone can correct my Hebrew grammar, please do!) I think a more heavily armoured spear unit is also justifiable from what I've read as well, so maybe do that tonight.

I'm also going to reform the Balts' roster a bit as well, as outlined above, but I got distracted by the new Israelite campaign I started ~D

I took a little side-trip up to the Baltic region last night, and did a bit of reading up of my Marije Gimbutas references, and now have a new Baltic axeman unit complete with double-headed battleaxes and authentic oval shield with solar symbol motif :2thumbsup: They're a bit tougher than your average tribal axeman, and are particularly good at hiding and ambushing :yes: Just as well they come in small units at quite a high price...

I tried them out in a custom battle, set myself up as the Balts, defending against a Slavic incursion, and was pretty pleased with their performance. The Slav warriors approached my line, took a spear volley from my tribal spearmen, then as soon as the Baltic axemen leapt out of their cover the Slavs turned tail and fled....

So these Baltic axemen will be available in a few Baltic regions for rebels, Balts and Slavs only, trainable with a swordsmith. I'll remove the tribal swords from the Balts (not a lot of evidence of swords in the era, they seemed to have more of an axe thing going up there :2thumbsup: ) and give them a javelin skirmisher unit as well. Should liven up the northeast corner of the map a bit and one less "vanilla" barbarian faction.

Good to see you progessing & polishing it even further ... I'm enjoying it immensely .:beam: ,, Gonna rock big time when the Eastern map is created !! :2thumbsup: After all thats where all the Golden Mighty Empires were located in this era ,, keep up the good work Mac and I'll keep developing my skills .

gg mate i am loving this game mate cant waith till the Eastern map is created :2thumbsup:

I instituted a few reforms for the Israelites last night, with Hebrew names for offices and some faction-unique buildings and units. And I've added in a peasant-class unit (just because I found a cool name for them ~D). Then I discovered that the new units were causing dead-body problems between the different unit_prods (it's amazing what else you can test properly when custom battles are working), so I've had to make some deadpage changes too. We're back to 100% dead bodies again :2thumbsup:

Great stuff Mac ... So for those like me with V2.0 will your next upgrade be enough to bring me up to scratch or will I need to go 2.1 then again when you release 2.2 ?

Could we get a run down of what the mod now is covering ?

Hey mac, do you think at the very end we could get a very very early Roman era campaign, as the latest campaign in the mod?

Morning all ~D

@ DTS - well, as 2.2 isn't ready yet, there's still a chance to do a 2.0 -> 2.2 AND a 2.1 -> 2.2, as long as I can disentangle everything. Although, if I incorporate 2.1 into 2.2 anyway, then it won't matter whether you have 2.0 or 2.1 to start with :beam:

@ RA - current full install has 3 "main" campaigns on a modified all-Europe map, with more Mid-East provinces, fewer in Europe (where the barbarians live ~D) and extra sea regions.

Early - Age of Chariots - 1280BC to 1200BC (Late Bronze Age)

Factions: Mycenae, Alisya, Hittite Empire, Assyria, Egypt, Libya, Ammonites, Cimmerians, Balts, Slavs, Germanics, Celts, Prytani, Iberians, IberoCelts, Italics, Illyrians, Thracians, Etruscans, Ligurians

High - The Catastrophe - 1200BC to 980BC (Collapse of eastern civilisations)

Factions: Mycenae, Alisya, Hittite Empire, Assyria, Egypt, Libya, Ammonites, Cimmerians, Balts, Slavs, Germanics, Celts, Prytani, Iberians, IberoCelts, Italics, Illyrians, Thracians, Etruscans, Ligurians, Sea Peoples, Ugarit

Late - The Recovery - 980BC to 700BC (Early Iron Age)

Factions: Hellenes, Neo-Hittites, Assyria, Egypt, Libya, Ammonites, Moabites, Israelites, Cimmerians, Balts, Slavs, Germanics, Celts, Prytani, Iberians, IberoCelts, Italics, Illyrians, Thracians, Etruscans, Ligurians, Phrygians, Phoenicians, Edomites, Aramaeans, Urartu


It also includes an add-on campaign for the Punic Wars (270BC to 146BC) on its own all-new campaign map of the Western Mediterranean.

Factions: Rome, Carthage (duh! :laugh4: ), Syracuse, Epirus, Macedonia (Antigonids), Achaean League, Numidians, Gauls, Iberians, IberoCelts, Illyrians

Though the map area may justify it, I've left out Dacians, Thracians, Germans etc etc as they did not get involved in the Punic Wars, though some of their units are available in the appropriate provinces. There are more historical heroes (as we know more of them by name in this era) - including emissaries, spies etc who will show up in 2.2

Recruitment is heavily homelanded, so various factions can raise various auxilliaries in conquered territories, and of course there are unit types not available in the other campaigns (such as all the Roman ones :2thumbsup: )


@Wladyslaw - hmmm, no plans at present, but I guess to do it justice, it would really need to focus just on Italy and include factions like Etruscans, Samnites, Oscans, Messapians, Bruttians, Greek settlers etc etc and start in 783BC(?? - can't honestly remember the exact date for the foundation of Rome) and run to - what? - foundation of the Republic? Start units - a Trojan refugee and two wolves...:laugh4:

Right now I don't really know enough about the very early history of Rome.

And of course there's still the Alexander/Successors "Eastern campaign" in the pipeline....

:smash: .. Wladyslaw .. The Eastern Campaign is the logical way to progress ! from the Diadochi of Alexanders successors and backwards thru various era's as all if not most of the units & other peices are ready ,, Its the one that deserves Macsens skills ,, But Mac do make sure you get plenty of time for R&R :yes:

Hey, I was checking the forums, and decided this looked like a pretty worthwhile mod. And I was indeed correct. I'm currently having a blast as the Myceneans, although by now I'm getting near the point of cruise control(the only thing really standing in my way by this point was the insanely massive re-emergence the Italics had against the Etruscans, something like 13 full stacks emerging in a combined 3 provinces, and they decided to target me next after they finally finished the Etruscans). A couple questions, though. Can anyone train Phoenician marines? If so, what are the requirements to build them?

Also, I had one slight technical issue. I was using the extremely good mycenean sword unit(can't remember the name off the top of my head) and I found that when I was conquering Egypt and other parts of North Africa, in the battle, the unit was 'flickering'. It would always be there, but the actual visual sprites and formation would flicker between invisible and visible every second. Then when I was using them in the north against the slavs, the visual came in fine with no glitches. Any idea what's happening hear?

Greetings Kamikhaan, glad to hear you're enjoying the Mycenaeans :bow: Good luck with those Italics, but with the power and wealth of the Mycenaean palaces behind you, I'm sure you'll whittle them down pretty quickly ~D

Phoenician marines are only available in Late (ie "The Recovery"), only for the Phoenicians and only in Phoenicia, Ugarit and Canaan. Luckily they are the BG unit, so not quite as rare as they could be :beam: Other units are more widely available once the Phoenicians start settling their historical colonies :2thumbsup: Can't quite recall the build requirements now, but it will be something like Spearmaker's workshop + shipbuilder (I try to keep them intuitive ~D)

Actually there's an outside chance Ugarit might be able to train them if they survive to High - I can't honestly remember now whether they are "turned off" in the early/high unit_prod files. (Ugarit and Phoenicia use the same faction ID ingame, being as they don't overlap historically, and are both pretty much Canaanites at root).

I guess it must be the Myrmidons you're referring to with the flicker - it does sound strange, as it varies with different enemies - usually animation problems are consistent and persistent. It's not something I've seen myself, but I also think I've not actually had any Myrmidons in a battle since I created the Celtic Noble unit from the same animation. For reference, what version of Ancient do you have - you might not even have the latest animation, in which case I'd be barking up the wrong tree... Also, does it affect the unit in all of it's "actions" or just some? ie walking, standing, running, fighting etc? I'll fire up some custom battles and have a look see if I can recreate it anyway. Oh, also, was there any great difference in the size of the battles (ie overall number of men on the field)?

LATEST NEWS: the eastern campaign map is nearly ready, so I'll be able to get that campaign built up before too long (though I seem to recall it took me about a month of fiddling on the Punic map... ~D)

I'm using the 2.1 patch, so it should be the latest available version. And yes, it was myrmidons. Regardless of what I was ordering them to do, the image was always flickering. Although it might be noted that when they were flickering, I did not send them to fight(didn't need to for that battle, thankfully), so I can't say for that. I had to battles I fought with them in North Africa, one of which was a fort assault, and the other a bridge defense. The fort assault was against roughly 200 total soldiers, while the bridge battle was against roughly 1,300. In the northern campaign, the battle was against about 1,400 enemies. So I'm not quite sure what's going on with them, a bit baffled personally.

Oh, and I have more than just the Mycenaean palaces behind me. More like the Mycenaean palaces, and the former Egyptian, Slavic, Assyrian, Hittite, Ammonite, Cimmerean, Illyrian, and Carpathian palaces as well.:beam:

Oh, and speaking of custom battles, I'm rather having trouble getting them to work, as it seems many of the maps don't seem to work in custom battle. So far, I've been getting CTD's when trying custom battles, with only the exception of one which involved the LONGEST brigde I've ever seen.

Thanks for the feedback, Kamikhaan - I'm also mystified by the flickering myrmidons (hmm, great name for a band, though :clown: )

Custom games should all be sorted for 2.2 - I have them working on my development copy now, and have straightened out all of the unit availabilities. It took me a long while to get round to this simply because I overlooked a simple fact - although units are not scalable in campaign mode, they ARE in custom games and therefore you MUST play with default unit size or smaller. Maybe check your size setting and give it another whirl, that should end the custom CTDs.

Obviously I haven't played every map in custom mode yet (there are over 500 of them now ~D) but once I got the unit size and availability sorted custom games have worked fine for me. Which is good, as it now means I can test new units without starting a new campaign, teching up, picking a battle etc etc :laugh4:

Those LONG bridges are original HTW maps, makes things a bit different from the standard "line up your archers here" formula bridge battle - makes you think twice about invading a river-defended crossing too (well it does me, anyway ~D)