I'm one step closer to fighting a realistic medieval battle

[Cos3]

I've been messing about again with unit stats to try to create a more realistic battle. Still have a lot more testing to do in custom battles (and fun it is!), but I'm very happy with the results so far.

I've only changed English and French "High" units for these tests and the results have been fantastic (from my point of view as someone who wants long drawn-out low casualty battles)

Ok, the changes in case anyone else wants to give it a go.

Mounted Knights are now set to unit size 16 (40 on huge) This is a far more realistic ratio for mounted heavies vs foot infantry.
Generals set to 12 (30 on huge)

All primary and secondary attack values for melee weapons (including lances) has been halved, rounded up, +1.
Armour value +3 on units that have an armour value
Defence skill doubled
Infantry and mounted knights hitpoints set to 2 (not including archers)
Morale doubled

Simple yet very effective changes.

Now men actually fight, it doesn't look like a game of ten pin bowling where men are being slaughtered left right and centre (which didn't happen)
A few men will die in the initial charge, few more than that if it's knights that are charging, but after that it is a true brawl where men are fighting for thier lives and not dropping like flies.

For the first time playing M2TW I'm having to watch out for exhaustion, because that unit will be close to breaking and running, even if they have only lost 30 men.

I'm absolutely loving custom battles again, playing as the English or French in high period. I actually lost a battle as the French and had 3x as many mounted knights as the English. 20k point battle on VH. Believe me, that never happened before; I'm overjoyed for losing, even more so because at one point I was winning. The English even had 5 units of longbowmen, which they don't use very well...

If anyone is interested I'll post the file when it's completed so you can add it to your mod folder and give it a try.

BTW, I'm using darth mod with it for the battlefield movement reductions.


Edit: I still lost half a unit of basic billmen to a good charge from 40 chivalric knights. Armoured sergeants and armoured swordsmen fare much better, only losing 5-10 from the initial impact from the front, likely injuring more. The A.I is also smart enough to withdraw, if it can.

[Jagger]

I did very similiar changes.

I increased all defensive skill and armor values by 5. I increased all charge values by 5. I didn't touch hit points, morale or unit size though.

Losses are substantial lower, exhaustion occurs during extended battles and victory takes a bit longer.

The most interesting result is units will rally after breaking. You may break a unit after it losses 20 or 30 percent of its troops. The unit routs a hundred or two hundred yards, rallies and returns to the battle. A army without a second line to fill the gaps in the first line is taking a lot of risk.

I like the changes as the battle feels much more like a slogging battle instead of a panzerblitz.

[The Stranger]

im working on that too... ive made a layout... it has been used in several RTW mods... im looking if it also works with M2TW

[Eltharon]

I'd like to see the desrc_strat file when you're finished. It would be nice to have long battles for a change

[Malachus]

descr_strat?

Perhaps you meant the export_descr_units.txt file?

[Eltharon]

Whoops.

Yes, I meant exports_descr_units.txt.

[Cos3]

Does anyone know the full list of units that have had the 2h animations fix? I'm having to play with and balance these units since they're incredibly efficient at killing with thier current attack value + the fix.

[Eltharon]

The list of bugged 2-handed axe units is:
Varangian Guard
Tabardariyya
Berdiche Axemen
Dismounted English Knights
Dismounted Noble Knights
Dismounted Portuguese Knights
All Billmen units
Norse Axemen
Free Company Men at Arms
Galloglaich
Woodsmen
Croatian Axemen

And possibly:
Mutatawwi'a
Religious Fanatics

[Cos3]

http://files.filefront.com/export_de.../fileinfo.html

It's now fairly well balanced, but I'd be interested in seeing peoples opinions.

Mods:

Armour and defence values uniformly increased.
Morale doubled except for peasant units.
All primary and secondary hand to hand weapons have had thier attack values halved +1
Missile attack values decreased by 1 in most cases.

All units except peasant/peasant archers have increased hitpoints by 1. For reasons of balance, general units remain at 2 hp- yet will still beat all other cav 1 v 1.

Heavy cavalry units reduced to 40 men on huge settings.
Light cavalry reduced to 60 men on huge settings.
Generals guard cavalry reduced to 30 men on huge settings.

-Heavy cavalry are still deadly when they perform a formed charge against all but your heavy armoured and shielded line troops.

The non-militia pike units (i.e, the well trained pike) have had thier secondary swords removed. They are now far more effective.

Field artillery unit cost in campaign increased significantly to lower A.I's field usage of them (won't work on VH as the A.I is given far too much money)

All foot missile units have had thier costs increased to help the A.I balance the forces it purchases.

Best played with VH battles.

Feel free to comment and suggest.