Stockades & Wooden Forts Mod (S&WF) (1.5 Compatible)

[♔Dignan♔]

S&WF 1.3 - UPDATED 9 FEB 2010. Version 1.3 changed some occurences of Stockades to Wooden Fortress. The reason for this change is that the stockade only holds a medium to small sized army. It is best suited as an outpost fortification built by a general to watch a remote part of your border. When used as a settlement fortification, it was too small to hold the large armies that defended a town. Now you will only see Wooden Forts as settlement defense. Upgrading this settlement fortification will get you better artillery in the fort so there is still an incentive to upgrade.

What is S&WF?

Are you tired of the long and frustrating siege battles? I found them to be too often, not all that historically accurate and frustrating. S&WF mod changes all forts and settlement fortifications to stockades or small wooden forts. All occurences of large stone forts and star fortresses have been removed. Regardless of what the campaign map icon says, you will only encounter these small fortifications in siege battles. The structures used are the small stockade (small fort) and the wooden fort (larger fort). The wooden fort now also replaces all settlement fortifications. This mod applies to all theaters in ETW. It is probably best suited for the American theater and parts of Europe as wooden forts were more common in North America.

AI Behavior:

The AI appears to handle these structures better than the large fortresses which were hard to defend and made the AI do screwy things. With the S&WF mod loaded the AI will more competently use the fort to defend and will even deploy artillery outside the walls. It will also sometimes sally out and form a line in front of the fort.
When you are defending you now have the option of deploying most of your forces outside the fort to conduct a more "traditional" ETW era battle. However, you can still deploy things like mortars and rockets inside the fort to protect them. Or if you want, line the walls with your infantry and defend the fort from inside. Now you have options. I can't gaurantee that the AI will always act normal when attacking or defending but it seems to be a bit improved when using smaller fortifications. NOTE: AI will still deploy outside the fort sometimes. Not sure why this happens.

Installation:

Just download the file, unzip it and place mod_S&WF_13 it in your ETW/DATA folder. It is in 'mod' format so it will not overwrite any files permanently. When done or if you do not like it, just remove the file from your DATA folder. This is Mod Manager compatible. NOTE: I have not done EXTENSIVE testing on this but at first go, there do not appear to be any issues in custom or campaign battles. Please let me know if you find any bugs or imbalances. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD S&WF_1.3 http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=2594

Below are the fortifications you will encounter in S&WF_1.3.

1. Stockade - This has replaced small forts that can be built anywhere on the map by a general. Note: This fort is SMALL...you will not be able to fit a large or even medium sized army inside. Plan your campaign strategy accordingly. However, if used properly a small force can hold off a much larger attacking force.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

2. Wooden Fort - This model has replaced all advanced or 'large' forts that can be upgraded by a general. This model is also now used for all settlement fortifications. Upgrading settlement fortifications will get you better artillery so there is still an incentive to upgrade. This is the largest fort that you will encounter with S&WF mod.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[carricanta]

Any screenshot?

Thanks

[lordhedgwich]

Yes we want screenies

[♔Dignan♔]

I will enter into the ETW "Matrix", get the screen shots and be back.

[GODzilla]

Just remember: If you die inside the ETW matrix, you die for real!

*hehe, what a great idea to hide my actual interest in this mod <subscribing to topic>*

[♔Dignan♔]

Just remember: If you die inside the ETW matrix, you die for real!

*hehe, what a great idea to hide my actual interest in this mod <subscribing to topic>*

Ha! Glad someone got that reference.

Screenies up in a few minutes.

[♔Dignan♔]

For anyone using this mod please give me feedback on what you are experiencing. The reason I ask is that I may be altering it.

Both the stockade and the Jamestown settlement fortification cause the AI to act very poorly when attacking. The Wooden fort seems to be fine but the other two seem to be causing problems. I may be replacing ALL fortifications with the wooden fort model. It seems to be the most compatible for an attacking enemy AI. Not sure if this is just vanilla BAI or some weird reaction to these forts. Any feedback and confirmation of this is appreciated.

[Dragonclog]

nice but only for American Campaigns in Europe you found other Forts

[Officerpuppy]

nice but only for American Campaigns in Europe you found other Forts

Yeah for the Americas this is pretty cool

[Mooncabbage]

I kind of like it, much less boring and symmetrical. I don't understand why CA went with that, star forts tend not to be symmetrical anyway. How do you get your cavalry out of the stockade?

Are there other more interesting stone forts available?

[GODzilla]

Cool screenshots. Are the other fort variantes even used in the game? I'd like to see a mini map making it random which fort is used...

[carricanta]

Awesome screenies!

Thanks

[T.C.]

Nice mod!

[|Quintus Sertorius|]

This is excellent! Perhaps, if it's not to much to ask, you could add some "fixed" star forts on historical locations. I know in Europe there where a few.

Keep up the good work anywats!

Regards, Quintus

[derbiber]

Playing IS 2.04.


I play as Italian states and rome is besieged by a Genoese army. The battle starts and I have the triangle fort.

the problem is the genoese army has brought no artillery with them. Only infantry lines. They stand lined up and don´t know what to do, because the walls can´t be climbed. you simply have no chance without artillery.

hm, also I thought rome should have the largest wooden fort...

maybe you could make only those large wooden forts enabled because that is really an issue.


thx and regards

biber

[Bose]

For anyone using this mod please give me feedback on what you are experiencing. The reason I ask is that I may be altering it.

Both the stockade and the Jamestown settlement fortification cause the AI to act very poorly when attacking. The Wooden fort seems to be fine but the other two seem to be causing problems. I may be replacing ALL fortifications with the wooden fort model. It seems to be the most compatible for an attacking enemy AI. Not sure if this is just vanilla BAI or some weird reaction to these forts. Any feedback and confirmation of this is appreciated.

i attacked the mugal city of hyderabad and encountered a stockkade.i had two units of bagirs one of hindu musketeers and a unit of hindu warriors,suppored by four units of silidar lancers.as a aproached the ai made good use of the stockade,firing at me and sent two units of islamic swordsmen to attack my bagirs.I beat off this attack and ordered my troops to attack the stockade.as they gained a foothold,the enemeys cannons began to fire cannister into the two groups of men,killing lots of troops on both sides.i'd say the ai knows how to work a defense.

[♔Dignan♔]

nice but only for American Campaigns in Europe you found other Forts

This is true. There were more elaborate forts in Europe and India. It is possible to make the Indian and Ottoman forts go back to the old models but I would have to alter the file. I may release this in the future. It isn't hard to do though if you open the mod file using the PFM manager.

[♔Dignan♔]

I kind of like it, much less boring and symmetrical. I don't understand why CA went with that, star forts tend not to be symmetrical anyway. How do you get your cavalry out of the stockade?

Are there other more interesting stone forts available?

Your cavalry are stuck in the stockade? They should exit through the main gate if you click outside the walls just like in other forts. I haven't had this problem.

GODzilla,

I would like to see a random fort map too. I'm not an expert modder so I wouldn't know how to do that. Its a wonder I created this one.

[♔Dignan♔]

This is excellent! Perhaps, if it's not to much to ask, you could add some "fixed" star forts on historical locations. I know in Europe there where a few.

Keep up the good work anywats!

Regards, Quintus

I will look into possibly doing this. I may release a second version that keeps the vanilla European, Ottoman and Indian fort models. Would that be desireable?

[♔Dignan♔]

Playing IS 2.04.


I play as Italian states and rome is besieged by a Genoese army. The battle starts and I have the triangle fort.

the problem is the genoese army has brought no artillery with them. Only infantry lines. They stand lined up and don´t know what to do, because the walls can´t be climbed. you simply have no chance without artillery.

hm, also I thought rome should have the largest wooden fort...

maybe you could make only those large wooden forts enabled because that is really an issue.


thx and regards

biber

Biber,

I noticed this issue last night. Thanks for confirming. I am going to look at trying to make the triangle stockade a "climable" structure b/c right now troops can't scale the walls like other forts. And you are right, without artillery there is nothing you can do. If I can't alter characteristics for this fort then I will just replace it with the common square wood fort.