Ultimate Challenge Mod: I - Brutii

[Maltz]

Dear friends:

I've heard a lot of veterans complain about the game being too easy, so I had this idea of "ultimate challenge mod". In a nutshell, by modifying the starting armies/cities/generals, I make a faction that is "seriously screwed" at the beginning of the campaign. Looking like there is no sunrise tomorrow, you must strive very hard for victory this time.

The first installment is a very simple modification - Roman Brutii. Here are a little background story.

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As you know, the Senate always ask Brutii to take the little town of Apollonia. Unfortunately, the entire green fleet was wiped out by storm "Maltzius", yeah. So you lost all of your nice starting army.

Your faction leader woke up on the shore of... Apollonia! Most of your Brutii family members went missing, probably eaten by sharks. The only survivors are your faction leader, his heir and the heir's offsprings. Having been drifting on the ocean for a few days, your family members also suffer from post-traumatic nightmares. They don't want to remember their past, so essentially they lost all their skills, retinues, bank account number, - and their starting cities! (given to Julii & Scipii) The good news is you can make them into any kind of character you want.

The 900 locals of Epirus (the area of Apollonia) were nice enough to offer their town to harbor your family. The town has... no builiding at all. The original garrison also offered to volunteer in your military service. They are equivalent to 4 units of Roman... peasants.

So here you go! I tested it myself and it is by far my most enjoyable campaign of RTW.

http://protein.biochem.queensu.ca/~d..._challenge.txt

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How to "install":

(1) Download this file. Right click on the link above, and save it to your harddrive.
(2) Go to your RTW directory, then ./Data/world/maps/campaign/imperial_campaign/
(3) Find a file called "descr_strat.txt", make a backup of this file. --- very important!
(4) Now, replace the old "descr_strat.txt" with "descr_strat_brutii_challenge.txt". You will need to rename "descr_strat_brutii_challenge.txt" to "descr_strat.txt", obviously.

Then start the game and begin a new imperial campaign - and choose Brutii. You can decide your own difficulty & other settings as usual.

Note: My "descr_strat.txt" is made from the original game (vanilla) patch 1.1. So it might not be compatible with another mod that also modified "descr_strat.txt".

If you have any question or concern, please feel free to state below. Thanks for using my mod!

[Bacchon]

That's an excellent idea. I'm going to have to give this one a try.

Just a thought, what about starting all factions off at this level? Really give the AI a test. Although it might just result in isolated factions, like Brittannia and Scythia, exploding whilst more cramped factions, (like GC and Macedon) getting screwed for territory. *shrug* Be a hella interesting game, though.

[Maltz]

Thanks for your opinion. The beginning 5-10 battles are among the hardest & funniest battles I have ever fought.

Peasants rush saved many days - Cretan archers, Spartan hoplites, general's bodyguards - peasants is all I have. I was very excited to grab Thermon (with my peasants). Not until I get Sparta could I produce my first ever hastati. One single unit now looks so precious.

Now I have progressed into mid game, and things look a little too familiar with other Roman/Greek campaigns. Income can hardly be spent before end turn. Armies are full-stack and archer-rich. So it is just a matter of time of crusing through the continent, as in all other previous campaigns.

I am thinking to improve this series of mod further by imposing stronger challenges throughout the campaign, especially mid and later game. I think will help to give more distant factions more advantage at the start, such as lots of cash, units and population. I will try to make up the 2nd mod soon.

[Turbo]

Another way to increase difficulty is to limit yourself to one city and give the rest to the Roman senate (if you are Roman) or to the rebels.

[Maltz]

Yeah exactly. But that wouldn't be an "ultimate challenge" as the real purpose of this mod serves. Actually I have tried to give 0 city to start (as in the tutorial campaign) but the game immediately declares a loss to the player. So, too bad.