Anybody fancy co-operating in a balancing mini-mod for vanilla?

[Woad Warrior]

You could give Carthage Scutarii, theres a skin for them.

Also, I find Dacia does far too well, often defeats Germans along withe Britannia, then expands north and rolls over Scythians. Perhaps you could reduce attack of Falxmen and reduce starting money and armies.

[Byzantine Emperor]

I am experiencing no real change to Carthage using those ideas.

[Barbarossa82]

I have come up with a package of changes to Carthage which may have some effect, although I haven't had an opportunity to test them yet, and I'd appreciate anybody's help in doing so. Basically, what I have done so far is:

* Increase starting funds from 7k to 10k
* Moved Admiral Timasion's fleet to northeast Sicily, made him a four-star admiral and given him four biremes
* Made the other Carthaginian admiral a two-star admiral
* Moved the spy on Sicily to near Messana in order to avoid early Carthage-Sicily war
* Taken Carthago Nova from Spain and given it to Carthage, moving the Spanish general and his army to just south of the Pyrenees
* Added Carthaginian army to Carthago Nova - town militia, Iberian Infantry, cavalry and peltasts
* Slightly reinforced faction leader's army on Sicily with one unit of Iberians and one unit of peltasts
* Increased Iberian Infantry defensive skill from 2 to 4

Thanks for letting me know that there's a Carthaginian Scutarii skin already in the game, Woad Warrior. Adding them to the Carthaginian unit roster is a real consideration, although a unit card would have to be created which would somewhat increase the scope of this mod. Still, I'm not averse to doing that.
As regards Dacia, I find that when the Britons are not a factor on the continent in early game, the Germans tend to forestall Dacian expansion. However, that's my impression from only one campaign so I'd like to test some more and if Dacia are still running amok a bit I might well take the Falxmen down a peg or too.

[Barbarossa82]

Just tried the Scutarii and there are some pretty major problems with the Carthaginian version. It has no sprites, so uses those of the mercenary scutarii; and also seems to be missing some of the models so that all the men in the unit are pure white at most distances. Way beyond my modding skill to put that right, although if we're still stuck for ways to boost Carthage, we could let them recruit Mercenary Scutarii directly.

[professorspatula]

For the Carthaginian Scutarii unit cards:
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=65668

There's no sprite though, but sprites are easy to make if you can be bothered to take the time, which isn't that long at all, but I'm too lazy.

I'm working on my own similar RTW-Vanilla mini-mod too. I got fed up with trying to overhaul the game completely and gone back to basics. Regarding Carthage's AI stance, I changed it from 'Balanced Smith' to 'Trader Stalin'. Trader is a pretty good bet for most factions as it ensures they try and build up some money. I'm not sure about Stalin though, I just thought I'd try something different; Stalin results in heavy infantry and mass troops, which is something Carthage won't have until they become big and self-sufficient, and then hopefully they'll churn out loads of Poeni infantry and Sacred band! I think leaving it at 'Smith' is probably as wise a move as any though. They got a fairly wide range of units afterall so a good mix is as good an option as any.

[Byzantine Emperor]

I have come up with a package of changes to Carthage which may have some effect, although I haven't had an opportunity to test them yet, and I'd appreciate anybody's help in doing so. Basically, what I have done so far is:

* Increase starting funds from 7k to 10k
* Moved Admiral Timasion's fleet to northeast Sicily, made him a four-star admiral and given him four biremes
* Made the other Carthaginian admiral a two-star admiral
* Moved the spy on Sicily to near Messana in order to avoid early Carthage-Sicily war
* Taken Carthago Nova from Spain and given it to Carthage, moving the Spanish general and his army to just south of the Pyrenees
* Added Carthaginian army to Carthago Nova - town militia, Iberian Infantry, cavalry and peltasts
* Slightly reinforced faction leader's army on Sicily with one unit of Iberians and one unit of peltasts
* Increased Iberian Infantry defensive skill from 2 to 4

Thanks for letting me know that there's a Carthaginian Scutarii skin already in the game, Woad Warrior. Adding them to the Carthaginian unit roster is a real consideration, although a unit card would have to be created which would somewhat increase the scope of this mod. Still, I'm not averse to doing that.
As regards Dacia, I find that when the Britons are not a factor on the continent in early game, the Germans tend to forestall Dacian expansion. However, that's my impression from only one campaign so I'd like to test some more and if Dacia are still running amok a bit I might well take the Falxmen down a peg or too.

Im on it! Ive already used most of your balancing tweaks for the other factions. About the Carthage tweaks:
*Money increase: Yep
*Navies: On it
*Spy: Is that necessary?
*Carthago Nova: Done it already
*Reinforcements: Done it
*Stats: Good idea, on it.

I also think Greece/Macedon need a little balancing, one or the other is always blitzed and eliminated.

[Byzantine Emperor]

Ive done everything on your list, bar the spy, and added Scutarii for city barracks. Test tomorrow. Greece ideas:

*Athens needs a bigger garrison to stop it being captured so easily.
*Spartan's power needs to be regulated. Greece steamrolls people with them.

Segesta and Appolonia need their garriosons increased so as to slightly hold back the Romans.

[Barbarossa82]

The spy movement was in response to something said by one of the moderators over at the .com, who reckoned one of the reasons Carthage loses out in Sicily is because the go to war with the Greeks before the Romans as a result of seeing Syracuse before Messana, and that moving the spy could alter that. Although I've made all the changes I've mentioned, I haven't tested it yet so I don't know how it will work out.

As regards the Greek situation, I agree with your ideas, especially about Athens and its garrison. In my games the Greeks tend to mangle the Macedonians before getting chewed up by the Romans, with Macedon rarely becoming a true power. The problem is that Greece does need a solid base because the remainder of its settlements are so spread out. Perhaps we should boost the Apollonia and Salona garrisons first to see how the Greece/Macedon situation resolves itself with a slower Roman conquest.

professorspatula, thanks for sharing the unit cards. I'd love to get the Scutarii into the game for Carthage and I think I can make the sprites as well. Did you encounter the same problem with missing 3D textures for the Carthaginian scutarii? I get plain white men at all except the closest views. Victims of the deadly Roman Duluxarii perhaps.

[Woad Warrior]

I can't understand whats causing the men to go white, its nothing to do with the model as its the exact same one as for the Spanish and Mercenary Scutarii. It also can't be anything to do with the skin, it applies at all distances until the sprites come into use. As for the sprites, just give them the Carthaginian Iberian Infantry one if a new ones to difficult to make, no-one will really notice.

Another idea to balance Carthage, give Libyan Spearman Phalanx ability, it only requires text editing and will make them much tougher. Also, because Carthage relies heavily on Mercs, you could make Numidian Javelinmen and Cavalry a bit cheaper. Also, I think Numidia has too many provinces for such a insignificant faction, I reckon you could give one or two of them to Carthage. Also, perhaps you could upgrade the infrastructure of Carthage, its not really as developed as it should be, having Elephants available from start would be a big advantage.