Need an Idiot's Guide for EDU fiddling

[J.Alco]

The title pretty much says it all. I've downloaded an EB mini-mod (Cirdan Dharix's, you can find it in the unoffical modding section) which allows me to play custom battles without having to do the whole EDU-switching (which works for me because I'm hopeless when it comes to anything technical).

Trouble is, the unit selection in the Custom battle menu is missing a few units that I like, one example being that the Romani can use Samnite medium infantry, but not heavy infantry (the Samniti Milites). I mentioned this to Dharix and I was told to fiddle with the EDU in the EB folder to change it.

I've been fiddling for a while with the EDU folders, and I've gone to all three (the mp edu, the sp edu, and a descr_unit file in the EB Data folder). I've bumped up units higher up in the edu and done just some general fiddling, all to no avail. Evidently I'm doing something wrong, and I can't figure out just what it is.

So I need an idiot's guide to explain to me how to fiddle with the edu to get those units I'm missing in the unit selection menu in EB's singleplayer custom battle. Yes, I DO need to have these things explained one step at a time, I'm hopeless with anything vaguely technical, so please, help me out.

Oh, I have checked the FAQ, but haven't found anything regarding this topic, besides telling you how to switch edu's for custom battles.

[Tellos Athenaios]

A) You have not really been doing something wrong, you're just on a dead end: the game picks it's units quite randomly from the EDU with a maximum of 100 or so; but it does strongly favour the above section of the EDU to the below section. At least: AFAIK.
B) It remains a matter of swapping files.
C) The custom battle EDU might not contain this particular unit you have in mind (essentially the custom battle EDU is a light version of the bigger campaign edu, to ensure the regionals are nearly all left out from selection and the factionals are all in). In which case it would be a matter of copy/pasting the stats of the desired unit into the EDU (at the possible cost of losing another unit from selection)...

[J.Alco]

C) The custom battle EDU might not contain this particular unit you have in mind (essentially the custom battle EDU is a light version of the bigger campaign edu, to ensure the regionals are nearly all left out from selection and the factionals are all in). In which case it would be a matter of copy/pasting the stats of the desired unit into the EDU (at the possible cost of losing another unit from selection)...

Well, seeing as how the unit selection in the custom battle menu still has regional units alongside factional ones (i.e in the KartHadastim unit page you'll find Campanian cavalry along with Liby-Phoenician cavalry) is there any way that, using the process you mentioned above, I could choose which unit I lose from the selection (basically 'replacing' one unit I don't use, such as Vigiles or Pantodapoi with one I DO use in custom battles, in this case, the SM).

If this is possible, how exactly does one go about it? If not, well I'll give it a shot anyway and risk losing a unit.

To which folders should I do the copy/pasting of the unit's stats? From the mp edu to the EB data file? Or do I only have to do the copy/pasting within the edu file (whichever one) itself?

There is one thing I'm wondering. If the file favours the units in the above section of the EDU than those in the below section, how come ships appear in the top section on all three EDUs? I would have figures that for custom battle they'd've been redundant and would've been removed.

[Tellos Athenaios]

You could simply copy/paste the unit of choice into the EDU provided it's not already contained there. Keep in mind though that there's a limit of units you can use in the EDU total, and per faction. 500 and 100 respectively, IIRC.

Also keep in mind that to dump unit of faction x and replacing it with unit of faction y might work for faction y, but might not produce any results at all (besided cutting the roster of x) since the engine apparently selects the units at random. That statement was made with no real, hard, inside knowledge of the engine at all so you might want to wait for the input of other forum members as well.

[Dol Guldur]

In the custom-battle selection screen light units will appear first, followed by spearmen, then heavy and finally missile (after being sorted by category in the order: infantry, cavalry, siege) and then units are sorted by EDU order of appearance.

Paraphrased excerpt (emphasis added) from my tests incorporated into Aradan's 'Complete EDU Guide' in the Scriptorium.

This may be for some use, depending how much you want to change it - but remember that if EB uses recruitable generals then be sure to keep the family bodyguard GU listed first in terms of faction ownership.

[J.Alco]

Dol Guldur, that stuff you've posted looks quite handy. Could you maybe post a link? I've been searching for the post on this forum to no avail and any help I can get with this is really needed and appreciated.

[Dol Guldur]

Here:

The Complete EDU Guide (Fourth Age Research Dept!) - by Aradan
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=88859

[Aradan]

Damn, Dol beat me to it... Can someone plz delete this? Thx

[J.Alco]

Great, thanks. This is a huge help.

[Dol Guldur]

That's OK, though do remember if looking for a Guide it is always good to look in the Tutorials and Guides of the Scriptorium first - that's what it is there for ;)