VanillaMod Suggestions thread

[cambovenzi]

oh no
i tried a strategy as billmen against those light cav.
i spread my line down to a 2 man depth, in what turned out to be a very, very, very bad idea.
when the cavalry charged me i lost all but 6 of my 48 men on impact.

[FactionHeir]

Against cavalry its normal to want a deep formation.

Regarding billmen, there are 4 types, from worst to best: Bill militia, billmen, heavy bill militia and billmen.
Their upkeep scales, but not significantly as you require higher level tech buildings to access better versions, and lower versions eventually phase out.
Think of the lesser billmen as peasants with a bit of training and a weapon. Higher billmen as standard heavy infantry.

Non-heavy bills have very little armor and tend to be effective in clsoe quarters against cavalry - they are not meant to take a charge, but rather charge or pin down the cavalry. If you want a unit to take a charge, use spears or pikes - these consequently are slightly less good at killing cavalry in close combat and will fall more easily than bill type units against heavy infantry due to lacking the armor piercing attribute.

To make good use of light billmen, you want to be upgrading their armor using a blacksmith. Or use them mainly in flanking or urban battles. They will only be good against cavalry. Heavy billmen can deal with light-medium infantry and heavy cavalry. They still cannot take a charge, but will have better survivability and not fall to missiles as easily either.

Regarding upkeep for mercenaries, these are significantly higher than those for similar units. I.e. mercenary spearmen cost 180 upkeep while armored sergeants cost only 155. They also cost a lot more to hire, so I would need a precise example from you where you found that not to be the case?

[cambovenzi]

Against cavalry its normal to want a deep formation.

yeah that was just me messin around

Regarding billmen, there are 4 types, from worst to best: Bill militia, billmen, heavy bill militia and billmen.
Their upkeep scales, but not significantly as you require higher level tech buildings to access better versions, and lower versions eventually phase out.
Think of the lesser billmen as peasants with a bit of training and a weapon. Higher billmen as standard heavy infantry.

Non-heavy bills have very little armor and tend to be effective in close quarters against cavalry - they are not meant to take a charge, but rather charge or pin down the cavalry. If you want a unit to take a charge, use spears or pikes - these consequently are slightly less good at killing cavalry in close combat and will fall more easily than bill type units against heavy infantry due to lacking the armor piercing attribute.

To make good use of light billmen, you want to be upgrading their armor using a blacksmith. Or use them mainly in flanking or urban battles. They will only be good against cavalry. Heavy billmen can deal with light-medium infantry and heavy cavalry. They still cannot take a charge, but will have better survivability and not fall to missiles as easily either.

i think part of it is just my perception of the units.
town militia are exactly that, some bum folks from down the street that have been called into semi-organised duty.
i have a hard time believing they should be able to hold their own against somewhat more professional billmen.
thats just how i look at it anyways.

i will have to start thinking of the lower billmen as crappy militia troops who should solely be flankers and shock troops.
they still are massively overpriced.(480 i think?)
they are basically woodsmen with a cavalry bonus.

part of this is my bad.
i just realized they have the same statistics in regular m2tw than they do in your mod.
i could have sworn they were armored/higher defense.
i must have mistaken them for an armored variation.
however, they have a 230 recruiting cost in m2tw.

Regarding upkeep for mercenaries, these are significantly higher than those for similar units. I.e. mercenary spearmen cost 180 upkeep while armored sergeants cost only 155. They also cost a lot more to hire, so I would need a precise example from you where you found that not to be the case?

ill have to get back to you on that.

i noticed it was markedly lower upkeep than in the original version.
its more of a personal preference i guess.
in vmod, mercs are much more playable and usable long term. so much so IMO that it significantly weakens the use of homemade troops. (when you are able to recruit mercs immediately, and ones that might not even be available yet in your provinces[better units], for only a very slight increase in upkeep.)

anyways, thanks for the reply.
i knew part of what you were saying, but it will help re-inforce my knowledge of strategy.

[FactionHeir]

The stats shown on the sheet are similar (not identical) to unmodded for billmen, but I have given all of them also got a boost against cavalry (hidden attribute)

Town militia are no longer cheaper spearmen but actual light infantry. Not great against spear militia, but should do a bit better against other light infantry than spears do.

[oz_wwjd]

I'm not sure if this is a question or a suggestion but here goes:I like to play the eastern natioan (turks,byzantines etc)but I always seem to be having the mongol horde when they appear make a beline for Antioch,take it and then proceed to take just about every other cities and castle around that area. They also seem to wait until they have all there stacks together before they attack. I never have enough time to tech up for them as I need to go to war in order to make cash,and the wars seem to last forever,so would it be possible to mod them down to be a threat,but not a unstoppable horde that lays waste to everything in the area,or give a different target for them to hit simetimes?

[FactionHeir]

Hmmmm I suppose you could remove some lines of script from the campaign_script file to weaken the Mongols.

The behavior for them is intentional though - I fixed them not doing anything

Alternatively, go to descr_events and delay their arrival a few years.

[oz_wwjd]

I just wondered,seeing with your changes,they know enough to avoid forts-lines now if they can help it.if they was any way to restore them to how they were in MTW1,where they where a challenge,but beatable,without a war of attrition,if you know what I mean. Thanks for the suggestions anyways.

[FactionHeir]

As I said, to make them easier, its best to decrease the amount of stacks they send in the campaign_script file

[John_Longarrow]

I am not sure if this is doable, and I'll admit it is not historical, but could you have the Mongols appear someplace other than the eastern edge of the map?

ie, could they show up coming down from the Arctic and overrunning Norway on their way to the heart of the HRE as an option? Or come up through Africa and take out Egypt or Morocco?

P.S. Just started playing with it and it's not the cakewalk I'm use to with Milan.

[FactionHeir]

Certainly possible, though not for mainstream use, but at best as a minor mod request if you really need it.