OT: Mod-to-play suggestion: Arthurian TW

[Equilibrium]

Well, I've played ATW for some hours now and had some of the most intense playing experiences I've had since I'am playing RTW. Great gameplay, great campaign map, great factions and great units. For those of you who don't know it, the scenario is the dark age in england/anglo-saxon invasions after the roman withdrawal. The map contains England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the north of france(brittany and normandy to be exact. The scale is comparable to the RTW tutorial campaign map size, probably even bigger. The Mod is for RTW:BI 1.6 though, so you'll need the addon; but I think everyone of use has got it So if you're looking for a great mod to play(other than EB of course) then by all means try this one.

Here's a link for all interested guys/girls:
http://twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=107

PS: Some us EB'ers are part of the development team, ranika and anthony as far as I know, so quality is not a question

[Dayve]

Thanks for that Equil... I'll definately try it out later tonight when i get home.

[Dayve]

Well i have to say i played this mod for a good 6 hours yesterday and it's VERY entertaining. I don't know about it's realism aspect because i don't know anything about dark age Britain, but it certainly is a brilliant mod. The unit skins are top notch, unit descriptions are good, a massive choice of factions... I'm even having a hard time playing as the brigantes... (That red faction in north west England)... Just lost 3 cities to the south and east because i got attacked simultaneously...

I can highly recommend this mod to everyone here. Britain is absolutely huge on it, not just a tiny insignificant island like in the proper RTW and other mods, ireland is huge, there's even a large part of the continent of Europe with a faction starting on it...

9/10

[Discoskull]

Britain is absolutely huge on it, not just a tiny insignificant island like in the proper RTW and other mods, ireland is huge, there's even a large part of the continent of Europe with a faction starting on it...

9/10

Britain isn't so insignificant in EB though...if you own the islands, you can quite easily become the richest faction in the northwest portion of the map.

But I'm going to try out this mod just the same, since it looks so freaking cool...

[Musopticon?]

I'd try to this, I actually have had it downloaded for quite a while, but RTW Gold doesn't want to reinstall. It keeps complaining about my comp having an already installed RTW. Which I don't have, obviously, or else I'de be already playing this.

Argghh, I should have installed mod switcher before installing Invasio Barbarorum: Flagellum Dei, that mod did something, to the registry perhaps, and now that I've uninstalled Gold along with it, I can't reinstall anymore. I've never had this problem. In fact, I uninstalled modded Gold before to be able to get a fresh installation for Flagellum Dei. Fat lot of good that did for me.

[Justiciar]

I've been following that mod for quite a while, but sadly I lack BI, so I won't be playing it any time soon.

[Dayve]

I'd try to this, I actually have had it downloaded for quite a while, but RTW Gold doesn't want to reinstall. It keeps complaining about my comp having an already installed RTW. Which I don't have, obviously, or else I'de be already playing this.

Argghh, I should have installed mod switcher before installing Invasio Barbarorum: Flagellum Dei, that mod did something, to the registry perhaps, and now that I've uninstalled Gold along with it, I can't reinstall anymore. I've never had this problem. In fact, I uninstalled modded Gold before to be able to get a fresh installation for Flagellum Dei. Fat lot of good that did for me.

Uninstall everything, go into program files and delete all your TW folders, then go to start - run, type in regedit, go to hkey local machine - software and delete any RTW/BI related folders, then restart and try to install again.

[Musopticon?]

You sweet angelic being of pure grace and guile! I'd kiss and rep you silly if this was TWCenter. Now you just have to make do with a simple "thanks".

Thanks, works now.

[Dayve]

I've been following that mod for quite a while, but sadly I lack BI, so I won't be playing it any time soon.

All i can say to this is... Go and get BI.. BI out of the box is almost as plain and boring as RTW, but this mod alone makes BI well worth buying... Knowing what i know now after playing this mod for a few hours, i'd go out and buy it tomorrow if i didn't already have it. I'll post some of my own screenshots for you and everybody to see just how good this mod actually is.


All the factions on the British Isles.


My small and currently not so powerful kingdom.


The units my faction (Rheged) can recruit from my capital city.


The midlands.


The south.


The north


Ireland


The only part of mainland Europe in the mod.


Some of the units of the Rheged. On the left, the elite troops of the Rheged,
heavy swordsmen, small in number but hard as nails. On the right, heavy
swordsmen recruitable to most midland factions, good morale and well worth
having in your army.


Tough spearmen recruitable to most factions.


Levy spearmen available to everyone, can make shield wall, huge numbers,
useful as cannon fodder, and archers on the right.


And lastly, some cavalry.

I really suggest you all try it, great fun.

Except for the EB people, you all must continue to slave away making EB!

[Earl of Sandwich]

I'm playing it right now as the Saxons. I've reached a difficult point where I'm fighting both Dyfeint and the Jutes while over 20,000 denarii in debt, though I did conquer 4 settlements before that point.

[Dayve]

Oh it can be very tough... I'm playing as the Rheged and i'm surrounded by 3 factions... 2 of which i'm at war with... I have very little population and very little money and a very small army... The only reason i'm able to keep it together is because the Rheged elite units only have 37 men in each unit and are very tough, so they only drain a little of the population when recruited... I'm looking forward to forging a kingdom that splits the island in half down the middle, and converting back to paganism.

A tip for new players though... Don't recruit levies for battle until later on. They have 201 men in each unit and will drain your already tiny population very quickly as they need to be retrained a lot due to them being crap on the battlefield...

[Dooz]

Yowza, I love this mod. Playing for the past two days as Arthur's faction. I spent the first 4 years just trying to stay at peace and get out of debt. My southwestern-most city revolted and my only battle for a good while was taking it back. After getting out of the -24k debt, I was ready to take on the Saxons.

They had a huge army hanging around in a small but experienced fleet, so before any aggressive action, I built up a huge fleet of my own. In a few years, bam, I launch my attack. I sunk their boats along with the large army onboard and took their western cities. Had some excellent battles with huge armies, and how they're pretty much done for. Their main armies defeated, I just need to take their cities as I please. Great fun so far, been about 15+ years. Long live King Arthur!

[Tuuvi]

wow that makes me want to go out and but BI. If only I had some money...

[iberus_generalis]

im sure to try this mod...but one question...is there Camelot? is it just a model? and is there a unit called "THE-KNIGHTS-WHO-SAY-NI"?? is there a province called Karrpennon? How much is a shrubbery? will the anarcho commonalist society be featured?? i want to repress those old ladies..sorry men... and is there a wardog like unit, composed of White rabbits? or african Swallows? lol
will there be taunting french soldiers? or a rabit of troy?? Fetchê la vache... and heros like sir lancelot the brave, sir robin the not so brave as sir lancelot, who nearly fought the dragon of angnorr, almost stood up to the vicious chicken of bristol, and personally wet himself at the battle of Baddon hill...will there be swamp castles? will there be eateble minstrels? can we kill historians? and dismember black knight? can we weight blond girls and burn them, because they are witches, and witches turn us into newts...and we got better..."and what else burns besides wood? MORE WITCHES!!! BURN THE WITCH!!!"....

i know!! will there be a Bridge of death in the battlefield?

LoL those would be the needed features for a new kind of vicious highly addictive mods...the Comedy mods for RTW...the most old school guys already know what im refering by the said features...That mod would be priceless to play until you could not laugh anymore=))

will the Vikings from the Green Midget cafee be featured? with their characterisc warcry? SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAMANEM SPAM SPAM... after a good eggs spam spam bacon and spam...and the killer joke...and the feature that shows us the importance of not being seen....

Come on patsy...lol
sorry for the little spamming..but arthur king of the britons was deep in my brain after so many years burried there, and now with a arthurian mod, jumped out, into my life...got go see his movie, and laugh my ass off

[Dayve]

Yowza, I love this mod. Playing for the past two days as Arthur's faction. I spent the first 4 years just trying to stay at peace and get out of debt. My southwestern-most city revolted and my only battle for a good while was taking it back. After getting out of the -24k debt, I was ready to take on the Saxons.

They had a huge army hanging around in a small but experienced fleet, so before any aggressive action, I built up a huge fleet of my own. In a few years, bam, I launch my attack. I sunk their boats along with the large army onboard and took their western cities. Had some excellent battles with huge armies, and how they're pretty much done for. Their main armies defeated, I just need to take their cities as I please. Great fun so far, been about 15+ years. Long live King Arthur!

Sounds like you're doing well... My campaign isn't going as swimmingly... I'm playing as Rheged and it's 497AD... My little kingdom has become pagan thanks to my christian king dying and his pagan heir taking the throne... But enemies to the south and east will not let me rest. My kingdom is tiny... 2 cities with a high enough population to recruit from and 3 tiny ones that are just taxes... A huge Pictish kingdom covering all of modern scotland lies to my north, i dread that they may attack me anytime soon as we are currently only neutral and they won't agree to alliance.

To the south i have lost 2 cities that i started with to the faction with the brown banners... (i don't know the names yet) But they lost thousands and thousands of men in the war so they aren't much of a threat anymore... To the east i have taken, lost, re-taken, lost, re-taken and once again lost a small town called Dent to the faction with yellow banners... I have barely any money but just enough to upkeep a moderately powerful army, and my cities are so lightly garrisoned that i daren't move my army anywhere for fear of a city being sieged... And i'm only playing on VH/M! I'm thinking of just taking my army and marching east to ransack the yellows and grab some land as quick as i can because everyone else seems to have expanded except for me...

This is awesome, i've never found myself in such a dire situation before in any mod i have ever played... I am playing as a vulnerable faction though that starts with a 32k debt.

[CountArach]

Sounds really good.

Just interested, is there a ZoR in this? If not, I won't download it, because I need that feature.

[Equilibrium]

I think there are regional-specific units in this mod, but I'm not sure; I'll probably need to play more. But you should really give it a try, it rocks!

[oudysseos]

Let me just join in and say that ATW is brilliant. I've been playing as the Ui Niell (The Red Hand of Ulster) and having a great time, although since I'm from the south of Ireland and a die-hard republican my attachment to Ulster is a little weird. I'm playing on H/VH with Large (not Huge) armies, because the battle turn lag was too much for me on huge settings.

I wish that I had set my campaign to VH as the devs suggested because so far I've had a pretty easy time of it. It's the year 500 (19 years in), I have conquered all of Ireland (ni siochain gan saoirse!), and I have €200,000 in the bank with three full stacks of elite troops ready to invade Scotland. Of course I haven't faced any of the advanced troops of Dumnonia and the Saxons yet- maybe that'll be more of a challenge.

But actually I'm only posting because I think some of ATW's stuff could apply to EB, in particular I have noticed that large battles (for the first time ever in RTW, as far as I know) can be truly decisive, due to the overall low populations. I had one great (four full stacks in total! epic!) pitched battle against the Munster faction from southwest Ireland, won the battle, and that was it: just had to mop up the cities (which all had only one unit of levies in them). Sorry, I don't know how to do screenshots.

In comparison I am currently playing IBFD6 as well, which visually is equally as impressive as ATW, but with high populations and zero recruitment times for most units, it doesn't matter how many damn Roman stacks I wipe out (I'm the Sassanids), the next turn there's always three or four more. ATW has a definite edge, campaign wise, over IBFD (sorry, Ramon).

For me a decisive strategic result to a great battle makes it all the more worth while. If you just have to repeat your epic battle over again it does get a little boring.

SO for EB- it'd be nice to see, somehow, the possibility of decisive strategic results to your epic battle- maybe ATW has shown the way?

One last comment- ATW is known on its own forums for laggy performance on the battlefield. They don't have sprites activated yet and the units are so detailed that large battles can turn into slideshows.
There is, I have found, a massive silver lining in that somewhat dark cloud: the worst lag occurs when you have zoomed out and have more units onscreen. For my epic four stack battle against the Men of Munster (how ironic for the GAA), i had to zoom in to ground level and then everything ran fine, no lag at all. As a result, I fought the entire battle from the general's pov, never had a clear idea of what was going on, and was actually surprised when a bunch of armoured swordsmen burst out of the trees at me. The best battle of my life!!! I know that you can do this all voluntarily, but really, who does? If the possibility is there to zoom out and see exactly where all the enemies troops are, most people I think would tend to use it. SO can anybody tell me how to restrict the camera?

[Meothar]

Game Options, choose "General's View" there and "Restrict Camera".

I played the mod myself but it became boring after some of my cities reached high populations so they rebel, have to be conquered again, rebel again...for this I nearly need every soldier, so I can't fight against other peoples.

Perhaps, I will give the mod another chance.

[Dayve]

My cities don't get a chance to rebel... I'm too busy recruiting from them every turn. My highest is 2400, and that's in 497AD!

[Musopticon?]

I'm currently playing as Dyfed and giving Gwynedd some major headache, the Ylin axemen are a blessing, not that great attack value compared to the other axe elites, but their armor is great and the other boni offset their slight lack of attack stat. Really powerful against armored infantry and even heavy cavalry and if they face huge odds, charging the unit can sometimes cause a mass route, hehheh.

I was contemplating on choosing the Angles first, or perhaps Ynis Manaw, but Dyfed have such a nice location and good unit roster and since they only one real enemy at the start, if I fumble around a bit the game won't instantly became unwinnable.

I'm really dying to get money, however.

[Dooz]

Sounds like you're doing well... My campaign isn't going as swimmingly... I'm playing as Rheged and it's 497AD... My little kingdom has become pagan thanks to my christian king dying and his pagan heir taking the throne... But enemies to the south and east will not let me rest. My kingdom is tiny... 2 cities with a high enough population to recruit from and 3 tiny ones that are just taxes... A huge Pictish kingdom covering all of modern scotland lies to my north, i dread that they may attack me anytime soon as we are currently only neutral and they won't agree to alliance.

To the south i have lost 2 cities that i started with to the faction with the brown banners... (i don't know the names yet) But they lost thousands and thousands of men in the war so they aren't much of a threat anymore... To the east i have taken, lost, re-taken, lost, re-taken and once again lost a small town called Dent to the faction with yellow banners... I have barely any money but just enough to upkeep a moderately powerful army, and my cities are so lightly garrisoned that i daren't move my army anywhere for fear of a city being sieged... And i'm only playing on VH/M! I'm thinking of just taking my army and marching east to ransack the yellows and grab some land as quick as i can because everyone else seems to have expanded except for me...

This is awesome, i've never found myself in such a dire situation before in any mod i have ever played... I am playing as a vulnerable faction though that starts with a 32k debt.

Heh, sounds hectic, I love it. I know exactly how you feel about being scared to move your army away and all that. But I think you're best bet at this point is to sack a few towns as you mentioned. Of course, that'll leave them open to attack by the Picts possibly, which won't be good, but you need money and maybe then you can take a few other towns you can actually keep. Controlling provinces is very important in this mod for income. I lost one town to rebellion early on, and I went from postive income to not so positive. So the more you can hold on to, the much better for you. Good luck! Keep us posted!

As far as my campaign goes, your Rheged kingdom is the most powerful in the land, 500 A.D. I had kicked the Saxons out, expanding east nicely. There were 3 cities left to the east, along the southern coastline which I planned on taking to control the entire south of Britain. My army was regrouped and ready to go after the hard war with the Saxons and wouldn't you know it, my "allies" of the Gwent kingdom attack! And they're quite powerful indeed, probably the second or third most powerful on the mainland. The Picts are pretty huge to the north as well.

So now I had a dilemma on my hands, to go north and take care of Gwent or try and achieve my original goal of completing my eastward expansion. I figured Gwent is already too strong so I need to do something about it. I went up there, and bam, the guys from the east I was gonna' conquer hit me. Yikes. A two front war is near impossible. Well I took a Gwent city and was able to fend off the siege to the east. Then I find a Gwent army had moved past all my northern cities and sieged one of my towns to the south. I pulled my army out of the newly conquered city but wasn't able to reach the attackers the same season, for it was winter, marching's tough. Then before I could attack and lift the siege, they retreat to a city of theirs that's in bad shape, all kinds of rebellions.

Now here I am, my army under Arthur, half cavalry half infanty, stands along the south coast of Britain, right in the middle. Three sizeable armies of the dark blue guys from the east have moved in, would make it tough to take their city, and Gwent is pushing more troops down from the north. I couldn't make up my mind what to do last night so I left it for tonight.

But now, it's off to the beach with my lady .

[Dayve]

At least you have the south of Britain to fall back on... Look at what i have.



I went on a rampage to the east with my army, took Dent for the 5th time and the city next to it, then the Picts attacked so both had to be abandoned to keep my kingdom close together in these times of crisis. I've split my army in two.. My legendary 10 star pagan faction leader is left to defend the kingdom while the other half marches south to sack the Gwennyd capital and put an end to the war once and for all.

War on 3 sides is simply bad news for my kingdom... I can't go anywhere, my only trade link is Ireland, no population and no money... It seems my neighbours don't like my kingdom reverting back to the old Pagan warrior culture... But if they wish to stop it they're gonna have to fight for it...

[Antagonist]

Glad to see people liking this mod, I've been a very long-time fan and a beta-tester for it. I think it's a very interesting era to simulate (the military is suprisingly diverse, arguably much more so then in the later Anglo-Saxon period) and in some ways one which is naturally suited to RTW (Unit scale for example, most battles in this era were quite small with only a few thousand soldiers per side at most, so on Huge units it's pretty much as it really was) Even some of RTW's flaws can work for it (the treacherous and often seemingly random diplomacy, for example, is somehow appropriate for the British kingdoms whose disunity and jostling for supremacy was as much their downfall as the Germans) Okay, maybe that's going a bit too far, but it feels nice.

Please note, however, that development is still very much ongoing and many other features (such as traits, buildings, religion etc.) are being planned or developed, as well as quite a few more units. One thing which is still being tweaked is economy and population (the latter will definately be changed, at the moment some settlements lose to much and others gain rapidly because of the Food resource and other issues) The rather punishing economy (with some powerful factions starting the game heavily in debt) is there, amongst other reasons, to allow the AI to get into it's stride and prevent the player pumping out massive armies and blitzing (which is a more serious issue with a more concentrated map) So it's a good idea to try and spend the first few turns getting out of the red, especially for the Britons.

Just interested, is there a ZoR in this? If not, I won't download it, because I need that feature.

Not for the moment I'm afraid. Although ATW has the full number of factions there are only 4 distinct cultures (Briton, Germanic, Pictish and Gaelic) and all factions of a given culture consequently have the same unit roster. Each faction does have at least one unique unit, sometimes more, but recruitment is the same everywhere right now. I believe a ZoR type system will be present eventually though. One again I'd stress that development is ongoing.

I think you could expect a small patch soon(ish), tweaking the economy and population system, but most importantly adding sprites and maybe LOD models, as a significant minority of players find performance unplayable currently. Maybe some historical battles as well. Stay tuned.

Still, try not to forget about EB, eh?

Antagonist

[Wardo]

Looks interesting.

I might actually buy BI to play this. I'm currently holding on BI for MTW2.

If MTW2 is good, or at least better than RTW, I'll buy both BI and Alexander just to support CA, even if I won't play much BI at all and Alexander probably never.

[Musopticon?]

It's generally a good idea to switch grass to low.

Helped loads with framerate. My Angle army was moving like a diashow before that.

Ah, angon-throwers, how I love thee.

[Taliferno]

Also have to add my love for Arthurian TW!

Having a cracking game as the Dal Raidens (It was a toss up between them and the Ui Niell, my families land was divided between the two, went with the Dals for the more interesting stratigical situation). The Picts have been engaged in a long war with me, with who would win being more or less decided on if the Picts run out of population before I run out of money. I have been able to get the upper hand, taking two cities, but the Dyfed, fresh from their conquest of eastern wales, have landed two stacks in my Ulster province which could spell disaster, as thats my richest provence. Maybe they will go for the Ui Neill instead, but its not bloody likely

[Stormy]

It's absolutely a great modification. The map is beautiful also, along with the units. I like the Gwynedd's and the Engle's.

[monkian]

Amd now theres a performance improving patch out - with some sprites

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=62492

[Agraes]

As mod leader, thanks you very much people for such massive positive feedback

Like it have been pointed out, two patchs are out and the last one includes most of sprites, and two big updates at least are planned, featuring a "vassal" system, for exemple Britons will be able to recruit Deisi Gaels or Germanic Foederati in an appropriate structure, but also Celtic Christianism as a third religion, new units, more historical battles and such.

Ranika and Anthony, are massively involved in the development, and EB fans know them too as the "Celtic specialists"