The Caravel Mod

[Stazi]

I'm curious why you made Szekely so weak? Now, they are very similar to Horse Archers.

About weak Horse Archer type units in general.
IMO they need at least 2-4 morale to be effective. Have you used them without a good general? I tried to use them in such situation and it was a disaster. I sent them forward at the start of the battle in order to do some shooting. They didn't even get close enough to start shooting. They run away immediately when one of the enemy units began to march towards them. HA get a lot of morale penalties because they have to go far from the general. They have to work alone on the flank of even on the back of the enemy army so they are constantly worried about flanks. When any unit starts to attack them or only shoots at them all of these combined penalties make them run away sometimes even without one men lost. With so little morale (-1) they don't fit their main role and become totally useless. IMO all units should be at least usable without strong general support (or other external bonuses).

[PershsNhpios]

Congratulations brother Gollum on the release of Caravel 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0 and 3.1 - also the stickying of the thread and the translation of the mod into TWC.



I am very sorry for being so absent - I assure you it could not and cannot be helped - and I despair of ever really having time to catch up again before a certain career takes me elsewhere, but there may yet be an opportunity!

I have been following the development here with interest, although I confess that I could not read the entirety of the dialogue between yourself and the industrious Pole, who has assisted you in writing a modification training manual it seems.

The modification, in everything from name, to fanbase, discussion and development, is extremely unique and deserves much attention - you must be very proud.
Thank you.

[Cyprian2]

I, also, would like to offer my congratulations, Sir gollum, on the release of version 3.1. Like our friend Glenn, RL has lately sundered me from the forums (though I'd only just set foot here!), but I've long awaited, and expect soon, to embark on the great

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

that will bring me back to the beloved shores of MTW!

Thanks for all the hard work you've put in!

(I guess I'll have to start another AAR, since the HRE campaign I was writing up was from Caravel eight versions ago!)

[vanitas]

This mod seems really interesting, having read through some of the previous pages, and I look forward to trying it out. I am a long time MTW player but rather new to mods and this one really seems to fit my style of play!

[PershsNhpios]

Do it, O Squire! Throw down the gauntlet unto the Caravel mod and it is you who will be found sorely challenged!

And welcome to our Hall!

[gollum]

Hello Vanitas, welcome to the org and the MTW section, enjoy your stay

I hope the mod adds to your enjoyment of the game.

Glenn and Cyprian2: thank you very much for your kind words; i hope you enjoy a bit more than otherwise MTW with the Caravel mod

Hello Stazi,
Szekely are a statistically superior missile cavalry in vanilla than normal HAs (vanilla and turcomans) although fast. This is counteracted by their availability only from 2 provinces. In the mod they were made available from any province the Hungarias occupy, and i tried to balance their very good stats via increasing their recruitment price. This iteslf proved somewhat bad for the Hungarian AI faction development; Szekely were a fort level unit that costed too much for such and the Huns were often staying behind in development. So i dropped their stats to similar to Turcomans (slightly higher than vanilla HAs) and droped their price and the Hun AI plays better.

As to if the HAs (fast and weak variety) are useless in missile duels, in my view this is simply not true. I have seen them being used to devastating effect both is SP and MP by skilled players and i have written some about HA use in the guides section. Most of what is written there follows either advice i received by or through observing skilled mp players when they played with HAs. Brandy Blue also made some interesting contributions. Perhaps it might be helpful. If interested, take a look here, starting from post #71 and onwards.

Thank you all

[gollum]

Dear all, version 3.2 is now up and available for download. As all versions for ages now it is save game compatible. However you will feel the full benefit of the latest tweaks in a new campaign.

It contains:
-Withdrew the jedai Byzantine Royals. Byzzie Emperors still have the hardcoded extra influence that makes for generaly good stats including command, but their command stats are now in par with other factions'. It makes for a much more fun game with them. They are still tough opponents to beat due to their superior tech and too good units for early and their generals still have command stars, but not 8-9 as a rule.
-Tweaked all missile cavalry AI use parameters including fast and weak as well as slower and stronger. Did quite some playtesting in custom and tweaked then re-tested etc and final values make for better use of these units by the AI.
-Did one each minor tweaks in the Byzantine and Russian rosters; Pronoiar cavs are made again available for All-periods and Rus Infantry are made available from castle level instead of keep.
-Slightly increased the buying price of mercs to reflect the increase of incomes by 1/3 around the map since version 2.8. Did not alter their maintenance costs however, as that was fine.
-Incorporated a fix for the Mongol Faction Leader piece while awaiting. As Stazi found out there was an error in the vanilla game in the naming of the paganpiece while awaiting which made the engine to show the default catholic one. The mod now includes a fix for this.

So this is it, i hope you enjoy