Invasio Barbarorum:flagellum Dei

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

Underpowered in IBDF 6.5 compared to 6.0

Otherwise, I strongly think this mode deserves a separate forum on the Org, in the "hosted mods" section...For writing guides, campaign stories, asking more specific questions, etc. The admins should seriously think about this....

fortunately we do have a subforum in TWC, where there are guides and campaign stories... we also have our own forum

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

I`ve leave the Sassanians and jump whith some ideas directly into the saxon lands...

Saxons need some work, Irminsul should be added as a unique building to them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irminsul

The saxons from Brittania need to be reinforced, they are tottaly outnumbered by the Romano-British, no chance for them... Theyr commander is also weak compared to the ****Vortigern.

It is a thing rather of troop placement and numbers, as in the custom battles i tested the Saxons seem to be stronger than the RB.

Howewer, they need more numbers in Britain, otherwise they will make peace whith the Romano British or they will get defeated easily.

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

I`ve leave the Sassanians and jump whith some ideas directly into the saxon lands...

Saxons need some work, Irminsul should be added as a unique building to them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irminsul

will refer this to Mylae

The saxons from Brittania need to be reinforced, they are tottaly outnumbered by the Romano-British, no chance for them... Theyr commander is also weak compared to the ****Vortigern.

It is a thing rather of troop placement and numbers, as in the custom battles i tested the Saxons seem to be stronger than the RB.

Howewer, they need more numbers in Britain, otherwise they will make peace whith the Romano British or they will get defeated easily.

true, I was concerned that they would swamp the RB very soon but they should, right? I am thinking maybe scripting the reinforcements also?...

[Neon twilight]

I gave a try to your mod and was surprised how good it is, better than any other BI period mod so far. I've tested few battles to try the challenge, do you use any formation mod ? Also you should give a look to darth vader new findings regarding shooting units as archers who now shot well.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=61739 I've tested it it's quite effective and nice to see the AI archers shooting again instead of wandering like idiots on the battle field.

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

I gave a try to your mod and was surprised how good it is, better than any other BI period mod so far. I've tested few battles to try the challenge, do you use any formation mod ? Also you should give a look to darth vader new findings regarding shooting units as archers who now shot well.

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=61739 I've tested it it's quite effective and nice to see the AI archers shooting again instead of wandering like idiots on the battle field.

IBFD6 uses Darth's version 8.0, I think, I will DL newest Darthdark and update some files (some factions need changing)

[Baryonyx Walkeri]

Hi...nice update really

But I have noticed that the units are really in few number, is there a way to increase them?

cheers

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

Hi...nice update really

But I have noticed that the units are really in few number, is there a way to increase them?

cheers

choose 'huge' unit settings, but this will increase for 'all' units. else open your 'bi\data\export_descr_unit.txt' file. look for the unit u want to increase (sometimes unit internal name is different from screen name)
look for the line:

soldier          german_levy_alemanni, 60, 0, 0.8

the number highlighted is the one u'd want to change, the number there is for normal settings, huge doubles that. 60 is the maximum

[Anoshehravan]

Hi Ramon - Brilliant mod - I've been watching the development of this mod for a while and waited till now (i.e. Version 6) to try it. Been playing it for a few days now with no problems.

Few days ago I experienced regular CTD when I would scroll the campaign map down over Egypt, Arabia and Southern Syria. I avoided scrolling over that area and continued to play but i cant do anything there - I'm playing the Sassanid campaign and have just captured Antioch (not that that makes any difference) but i cant move south after that and its really troubling - Had done a clean install with the 1.6 patch and everything and the map scrolls well otherwise - its only at this point that I get a CTD or when I randomly use a "toggle_fow" command. The links for optional:revert to CA strat models v3 (only install if u experience CTD when scrolling in the world map)- is no longer valid and I cant find this anywhere else.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for a brilliant mod otherwise.

Anoshehravan-e-Adil

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

Hi Ramon - Brilliant mod - I've been watching the development of this mod for a while and waited till now (i.e. Version 6) to try it. Been playing it for a few days now with no problems....
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you for a brilliant mod otherwise.

Anoshehravan-e-Adil

will upload the revert to CA sometime tonight

[Baryonyx Walkeri]

soldier          german_levy_alemanni, 60, 0, 0.8

the number highlighted is the one u'd want to change, the number there is for normal settings, huge doubles that. 60 is the maximum

Hi Ramon thank you, I just doubled up all units from all factions (beside mine) now it's really much more hard to win

cheers

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

@Anoshehravan
I uploaded the files to filefront, I think it'll be safer ther
@Baryonyx Walkeri
great

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

An interesting addition would be the adding of a trait whith nationality to the ERE and WRE... in EB , i`ve heard they made such ancilliaries to the Hellenistic Kingdoms.

For the ERE, we could have the generals which we will addopt (trough the "man of the hour" system) of greek origin, or macedonian, roman, daco-roman (these 2 latin speakers), armenian, gothic, hun, syrian, egyptian, arabian, slavic, etc. Nationality could also impact influence, studies, acumen, etc. Off course, all these can be reflected in influence, management and battlefield command abilities.

The same for the WRE, where there could be also roman, gothic, frankish, hispanian, vandalic, moorish, etc.

Something should also be done to the "steppe horse archers"... they are much to cheap and much to effective, especially against the Sassanids.... you can levy huge armyes of them in no time, without any need of infantry or heavy cavalry...

The Sassanids also have some interesting story whith the Hepthalites... if you make some full stacks of infantry in Merv and Herat, you need nothing more than to wait for one Sassanian general to come from the west whith a decent army and smash every Hepthalite from Bactra up to Jaxarta...

The Hepthalites are unable to siege effectively a city, they send towers and rams manned by infantry, but they are of no use, because they infantry lacks the necesarry numbers to take on the walls and gateway for their mighty cavalry to break in, even if the Sassanians at that time cannot recruit there only but Paighans and Sugdians.Practically, if you are a decent player, you will have absolutely no trouble on any difficulty level in defending the eastern borders...

[kambiz]

Hiya;

Something should also be done to the "steppe horse archers"... they are much to cheap and much to effective, especially against the Sassanids.... you can levy huge armyes of them in no time, without any need of infantry or heavy cavalry...

Agreed ,Its Good point indeed.

The Sassanids also have some interesting story whith the Hepthalites... if you make some full stacks of infantry in Merv and Herat, you need nothing more than to wait for one Sassanian general to come from the west whith a decent army and smash every Hepthalite from Bactra up to Jaxarta...

The Hepthalites are unable to siege effectively a city, they send towers and rams manned by infantry, but they are of no use, because they infantry lacks the necesarry numbers to take on the walls and gateway for their mighty cavalry to break in, even if the Sassanians at that time cannot recruit there only but Paighans and Sugdians.Practically, if you are a decent player, you will have absolutely no trouble on any difficulty level in defending the eastern borders...

Well ,Its not as easy as you say ,Myself had hard time in my eastern border against Hepthalites.The AI creates full stack of armies and attacks my settlements there constantly.I even lost them some time ,But retook them.However ,You are right ,Maybe increasing the number of troops in Hepthalites infantry units can gives them better chance in siege actions.

Regard
-Kambiz

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

Well ,Its not as easy as you say ,Myself had hard time in my eastern border against Hepthalites.The AI creates full stack of armies and attacks my settlements there constantly.I even lost them some time ,But retook them.However ,You are right ,Maybe increasing the number of troops in Hepthalites infantry units can gives them better chance in siege actions.

Here is a good tactic against Hepthalites. You will certainly not loose Herat and Merv.I guarantee 100%.

FIRST TURN:

Build stone wall in Herat, and raise a full stack of Paighans .

In Merv, try to buil arrow practice, train some Sughdians whith Asavaran and many, many Paighans.Numbers are key to a good defence.

Build walls also in Kandahar, and Nishapur. Kandahar or Zarangg might be subject of attack from the Hepthalites very soon (on rare ocasions). Those are rather poorly defended, but anyway, once Buran whith the main army is beyond Nishapur, the Heptalites will leave those settlements which will revolt eventually back to you. Train Asavaran, they are very good against the Hepthalites in open field

You have family member Buran standing at the border whith the Lakhmids. Take him, together whith all the army and move him trough the Iranian Plateau to the eastern borders. You will need a decent army to counter attempt pushing into theyr lands. He will get in time to relieve any siege to either Merv or Herat. You will have just 2 armyes on the western borders, more than enough to counter the weak ERE.

FOLLOWING TURNS.

You will be put under siege, that is for sure. Put the Paighans to make shield wall. Even if (totally unlikely) the Heptalites will capture the gateway and enter your settlement whith the bulk of their forces, their cavalry will be slaughtered at the gate by your Paighans, supported by the war Elephants and any Asavaran you have. I play on HARD the battles and stopped a full Hepthalite stack whith lots of good cavalry and ****general using just Paighans and few Elephants.

When Buran has come, attack the Hepthalites using not just the army of Buran but combined whith the armyes of the garrison cityes. Use the terestrial artilery against the Hepthalite horse archers, and the elephants to support... dont commit the Elephants to the charge, they are usseles as they are much to weak, but they are extraordinary as supporting forces

Once you are in Bactria, and Jaxarta, you have acces to good mercenaries, it will be easy to kill off the Hepthalites, howewer do not forget that they can horde. The Gupta Rebels are very poor, an easy taking, anyway.


And finaly, good luck mighty Pahlavan

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

More on Hepthalites :

http://spotlightongames.com/variant/maharaja/eph.html

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/heph.shtml

More on ERE :

Reign of Theodosius II, , more depth to the life in that period, more on Church Fathers could be added in some scripted events

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...BURLAT/7*.html

http://www.roman-emperors.org/theo2.htm

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

More on Hepthalites :

http://spotlightongames.com/variant/maharaja/eph.html

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/heph.shtml

More on ERE :

Reign of Theodosius II, , more depth to the life in that period, more on Church Fathers could be added in some scripted events

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/...BURLAT/7*.html

http://www.roman-emperors.org/theo2.htm

great info, will pass it on to juve who's making dispositions of WRE/ERE

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

As i am currently playing with the Mauri, they sparkled my interest.... `im currently having with them the best campaign from RTW series (up to 6/7 battles , skirmishes and epic struggles per turn...).Really hard, but once you have mastered the "ways of the desert", you can win even with crap levies vs comitatenese armatus

In a few days, i will came with lots of more info about their units, cityes, etc

[kambiz]

Hi Rex_Pelasgorum;
Thanks for the response.Well ,In fact ,What you written is a guide for sassanians to how with stand aginst Hephtalities.There's a main thread in this forum known as "RTW Guides" which people suggest their own guide for each faction.I want to say ,Of course there's always a way to counter diffrent situations ,but at least I don't use that.Maybe I'm so dumb :P

And finaly, good luck mighty Pahlavan

Thank you very mutch dear mate ,Good luck to you too.
-Kambiz

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

About the Mauri...

When they will be differentiated from the arabian Lakhmids, and i think this could be done just trough skinning. Importing a skinned Desert Infantry from the original RTW won`t be a bad idea.

In making a new skin for the Mauri, one thing needs to be strongly considered. In arab culture, women covered theyr faces, in the Mauri culture, man covered theyr faces !

Here is an image of the tuareg tagelmust : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagelmust

They should not have acces to camels, also ! Camels where imported by the arabs in the area

There was the Donatist heretical christian sect, very widespread in the area. The history of the Donatist sect can be a good source of scripted events to give a more in depth history of the area :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donatist

Another important thing, to add more depth to them , the Sahara Trade Route . Actually, this trade route started to be important on a global scale only after the arab conquest, but it existed before it as the Berbers traded with the Ghana Empire to the south, anyway, more research needs to be done

http://library.advanced.org/13406/sh/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Saharan_trade

http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/ess...de34010104.htm

http://www.smi.uib.no/paj/Masonen.html

Some Mauri should be Christian, other Christian Heretics (donatist), while other Pagans. Mauri should have the option to build some pagan temples:

- to Agurzil, the god of war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agurzil used by Kahina.

- to Ayyur , the god of moon, worshipped until the XIV century http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayyur

More on pagan berber beliefs : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berber_pantheon

And also, why not change the name MAURI to something more historically accurate, such as SANHAJA, or AMAZIGH ?

It would be awesome to implement different stuff to all the cultures to make them as much as possibly accurate. IBDF will be the EB/RTR of the Barbarian Invasion

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

About the Mauri...

When they will be differentiated from the arabian Lakhmids, and i think this could be done just trough skinning. Importing a skinned Desert Infantry from the original RTW won`t be a bad idea.

...It would be awesome to implement different stuff to all the cultures to make them as much as possibly accurate. IBDF will be the EB/RTR of the Barbarian Invasion

GREAT INFO!!! will try to integrate this into game ASAP

[jibosan]

hello all,

installed the RTW BI mod recently (loving it!), but while playing as persearmenians, am crashing at random times (game simply closes and returns to my widow desktop; no save), and also crashing EVERY time i try to go into an actual battle against rome imperial east (not sure on exact name, but they border persearmenians, sassasinds and huns).

can anyone help? it's killing the gameplay!

thanks,

jibosan

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

hello all,

installed the RTW BI mod recently (loving it!), but while playing as persearmenians, am crashing at random times (game simply closes and returns to my widow desktop; no save), and also crashing EVERY time i try to go into an actual battle against rome imperial east (not sure on exact name, but they border persearmenians, sassasinds and huns).

can anyone help? it's killing the gameplay!

thanks,

jibosan

did u install the 6.05 quickfix? there was a missing texture among the Romans causing CTD in battle

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

I tought quite alot about one issue, regarding the balance of armies in the Middle East. The unite named "Steppe Horse Archers", with its 0 turn recruitment, cheap building cost and high eficacity, practically make usseles any infantry or heavy cavalry on the battlefield. I play the battles always on Hard, and i can vanquish with a full stack of SHA any enemy army on the field, even with elite units ! Both the Sassanid and the ERE can recruit this unit, and most of the players who play these 2 faction actually simply just raise full stacks of SHA and send them to attack... if you command personaly, victory is 100% on Hard against either the ERE or the Sassanids.

Howewer, from a historically point of view, full armies of Horse Archers never roamed across the Middle East. Why ?

Because there was a native unit to counter them - the Arab Light Cavaly. The one with the javelins is inefective against other cavalry, it is good just against armoured infantry. Camels are very slow, like in real history, and Desert Raiders are more suited for other tasks than chasing down HA`s.We know how fast are the Arabian Horses and how good is the scimitar in combat. In pre-islamic times, they were a constant presence in both ERE and Sassanid armies. The Arab Light Cavalry actually was one of the main reasons for succes of the Islamic Invasion... it was an extremely mobile unit, and the arabians had it in quite decent numbers. They were fast, they could maneuver extremely well, and they were well adapted to desert fighting. Even in the VIII century, when the Islamic Armies met in battle with the steppe nomads of the Turanian Plains, they managed to defeat them quite easily using the advantages offered by their excellent light cavalry.

So, i suggest making a regional unit, the Arab Light Cavalry (the name could be translated in arabic for more historicall accuracy ), in order to make the game more historically accurate, to have an effective counter to the full-stacks of SHA, and force the players to recruit and use more balanced armyes, composed of different types of units, like in real history

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

I tought quite alot about one issue, regarding the balance of armies in the Middle East...So, i suggest making a regional unit, the Arab Light Cavalry (the name could be translated in arabic for more historicall accuracy ), in order to make the game more historically accurate, to have an effective counter to the full-stacks of SHA, and force the players to recruit and use more balanced armyes, composed of different types of units, like in real history

I remember somebody sugesting an arab mercenary, but this one would be a recruitable unit?... recruitable by the Romans and Sassanids (regionally)? using current Arab sword cav model?... I think it is a good idea...

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

I remember somebody sugesting an arab mercenary, but this one would be a recruitable unit?... recruitable by the Romans and Sassanids (regionally)? using current Arab sword cav model?...

Yes, a recruitable unit....for the ERE, and the Sassanids and the Lakhmids... and for any other civilised faction wich extends its dominion over the Middle East.

Something very fast, capable of outchasing any cavalry unit...
With a decent attack...

But at a high price

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

They should not have acces to camels, also ! Camels where imported by the arabs in the area

can u give me sources of this? source I found placed camels being introduced 3-4 century w/c would mean available in IBFD timeframe
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/...d(DOCID+mr0013)

And also, why not change the name MAURI to something more historically accurate, such as SANHAJA, or AMAZIGH ?

Amazigh might be good
EDIT: rethinking about it, I think sticking with Mauri would be better, as it is a more familiar name, and it is what the Romans called them.
They did call themselves Amazigh but then we'd have to change other factions to names they called themselves (Hephthalites to Chionites, Visigoths to Tervingi, etc. ) would only lead to confusing names

will be doing the arab cavalry

[jibosan]

did u install the 6.05 quickfix? there was a missing texture among the Romans causing CTD in battle

Thanks for the help - I am able to fight the Romans now, after installing 6.05!!

The only problem that remains is a complete system halt (either blue screen of death with disk parity error message or violent screen flutter and freeze in the middle of a battle/map scene) with no prior warning or obvious cause. have you seen this happen before, and is there anything i can do to fix?

by the way, i've been playing rome: total war for almost 2 years now, and have just found this forum with mods and historic battles. it's like discovering the game all over again. great job, all!!

jibosan

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

Thanks for the help - I am able to fight the Romans now, after installing 6.05!!

The only problem that remains is a complete system halt (either blue screen of death with disk parity error message or violent screen flutter and freeze in the middle of a battle/map scene) with no prior warning or obvious cause. have you seen this happen before, and is there anything i can do to fix?

unfortunately haven't encountered such a problem. I have had reports of lines emanating from models, missing textures... most possible reason is system incompatibility (most reports on ATI cards) try tweaking resolution to 32bit have had ppl solve problems just by doing this

by the way, i've been playing rome: total war for almost 2 years now, and have just found this forum with mods and historic battles. it's like discovering the game all over again. great job, all!!
jibosan

and more are coming soon for M2TW

[Rex_Pelasgorum]

Ramon, should we expect a new version for RTW, or you will port it to MTV2 ?

[Ramon Gonzales y Garcia]

Ramon, should we expect a new version for RTW, or you will port it to MTV2 ?

expect a new version for RTW:BI soon.
new features (at a glance)
-buildings redone a bit
-new ancilliaries
-new training scheme
-differentiated Berbers from Arabs (lots of thanx to Rex_Pelasgorum here)
Berbers no camel troops (as far as I have read recently, they had camels by the time but I have not seen any mention of camels used in battle)
new Berber names - based from Numidian
new Berber (and Arab) temples
new Berber troops
-lowered rebellion chance
-new horse (very fast) arabians able to catch horse archers
-new model for steppe ponies (standing mane)
-limites script (limites units are forced to protect the limes)
-sack of rome script (goth AI sacks rome in 410 AD)
-lowered population growth

etc etc