[RS 2.1] Shieldwall for roman hamata and segmentata legions rome 0-turn and 1-turn Updated
Welcome guys...
The truth is that I gave this thing a long thought and if this would be of any interest for other players but then I flimsy remembered a thread where this was mentioned and I think that I recall a few who where not unkeen of having this for their Roman Legions so since I have finished it I thought I share it with those who are interested.
History HISTORY:
One of the great advantages of the Roman Legions where their training, discipline and equipment.
They fought both in tight formations,where the men had direct contact with their neighbour, and in opposition to the rigid phalanx, in more loose formation which enabled them to outmaneuver the unflexible phalanx formations for example kicking some serious ass in Greece and take over the entire thing.
The vanilla "default" formation represents more the ancient loose formation than a tight formation where men are in closed ranks...on the other side the vanilla "loose" formation for Legionaries is probably the most useless feature in the game as I dont know of any player ever to use it for whatever reasonable purpose and probably they never fought that way,too. LOL.. being ambushed is a different thing of course...
Game Related GAME RELATED:
While Shieldwall became available with BI.exe all players with either TW.exe or Alex.exe could not make use of it and even if implemented in BI.exe for Roman Legions they had to give up on the Testudo Formation as there is just one button for the special ability. Something which is sort of an unacceptable compromise as Testudo is part of the Legions way of fighting and maybe one of the most famous ancient formations...not to mention that it probably will come in very handy in the later game when facing Parthians
Why only Legions,Praetorians and Triarii ? WHY ONLY HAMATA SEGMENTATA, PRAETORIAN TRIARII WILL MAKE SHIELDWALL ?
This is meant to reflect that with the Marian Reforms as well Roman Battle Tactics evolved and that from this moment on the normal heavy infantry would make use of advanced tactics which in the Polybian System only where used by elite units like the Triarii.
What have I done ? WHAT HAS BEEN DONE ?
I implemented a "fake" Shieldwall Formation working with all .exe for the Hamata and Segmentata Legions, Early Praetorains, Late Praetorians, Republican Triarii ( In BI.exe the Republican Triarii have Shieldwall anyway) and Allied Triari while maintaining the other important Formations like Testudo, Guard or default Formation.
IMPOTANT TO NOTICE:
This Shieldwall is not the one implemented with BI.exe and therefore units will not hide permanently behind their shields. This is only permanent in the implemented special abilitys like "Testudo" or "Shieldwall for BI.exe" but once the enemy gets close enough they will forward their shields and from then on it works in the same way as the original and gives a few nice advantages when used properly, especially to such highly trained units like the Numbered Roman Legions.
Only "loose" Formation will not be available anymore for these units....I dont think its a great loss...
The RTW Veterans know that this has been used many times before in the similar manner in other mods like SPQR and is not new stuff but I wanted it for RSII. Unfortunately there is no tutorial on this particular issue so I really had to have a close look and eventually found out how this could be done.
Its not a great deal (if you know how,of course) but it can bring another great facete to the tactical tools the player can use during battle.
As well I implemented a new button to the User Interface replacing the
"tight" and "loose" Formation button with a new button with three overlapping Roman Shields
referring to be in "Default" or "Shieldwall" Formation or "tight" and "loose" for all other Roman and Aux. Units.
So for the Units able to make use of this ability the highlighted button means Shieldwall activated and if grayed out Shieldwall Inactive=Default Formation.
As there is only one interface for all Roman units this means that ALL other Roman Units have the Shieldwall button highlighted when setted to loose.
Grayed out is the deafult position for all other units.
In the following for Shieldwall "On" or "Off" I will refer to this as zipped or unzipped.
1. Formation 1. FORMATION
Lets have a look at the different size for the unit when zipped or unzipped....
I used Legio I Germanica. Left picture is default Formation and right picture in "Shieldwall" when the enemy is closing in.
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Its really nice to see how their Gladius stick out of the wall of Shields and that Legionaries are shoulder on shoulder.
This Formation can withstand a 3:1 superiority without being pushed back as the second line is forwarding its shields into the back of the first line and so on herby duplicating the mass of the front units.
Very handy especially against swarming Units of Barbarian Factions who normally manage to slip into the cohorts ranks and pushing them back when outnumbering them.
As well it gives a nice additional protection against arrows or javelines thrown at them...so your casualties through shelling will drop considerably.
2. New Interface 2. NEW INTERFACE
I think we all know the buttons and will see the difference instantly.
The "tight" and "loose" Formation button on the top left of the "Testudo" button has gone and there is a new button. "Shieldwall" or "Shieldwall off" respectively "Default Ranks" or "Loose" (for all other units)
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
3.Quickguide 3. QUICK GUIDE
When arranging for battle get in mind that when you zip the units they will be alot smaller.
A line of 5 zipped or unzipped cohorts may look like this:
-------zip------------zip------------zip------------zip------------zip--------
----unzipped---unzipped---unzipped---unzipped---unzipped----
I usually group the first line with 5 Cohorts in proper distance and then zip them...
the second line goes with 5 cohorts unzipped.
Remember:
Only because the unit is zipped it does not mean that is is unflexible or slow like in Testudo.
When zipped they can run as normal.
Another advantage of moving zipped units during battle is that their size is smaller and hence the possibility that they will get stucked in a fight while trying to outmaneuver another unit.
Especially usefull is Shieldwall against Barbarian Factions.
My default battle Formation for them is as follows
First line -----------5 Cohorts------ Shieldwall,Guard,Fire at will
Second line---------5 cohorts-------Default Formation, Fire manually once first line is in melee
Third line--Speer/Aux--Skirmishers---Speer/Aux---- Default,Fire at will,Guard
Have a look here:
1. Battle Formation Against Barbarians
2. Barbarian Charge into the center.
3. First line heavily outnumbered but cant be pushed back thanks to "Shieldwall"
4. Outflanked the enemy and starting with Cavalry charges into his back to root the first unit. At the same time I sent the second battle line to attack. In the moment the first unit routs because of cavalry charge into its rear and the neighbouring units getting massive pressure by now approaching Cohorts their morale will drop to zero and the entire army starts to root.....happy slaughtering initiated...
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
4. Unit response on changing formation 4. UNIT RESPONSE ON CHANGING FORMATION
There seem no easy way of making the unit respond with "Shieldwall" as this apparently would need a total rewriting of export_descr_sounds_units_voice as all units with the tight-loose button are tied to the same response. If I would tie the "Shieldwall" response to the Legions all other Units like Velites would give the same response too. So I let it with the original which has the donwside that once you activate Sheldwall Legionaires will respond "loose formation"....yeahhh...I know...I wish I could do something about that.
If anybody knows of a way to make the units response "Shieldwall" when activated and "Tight Formation" when deactivated without affecting all other Roman Units with the Tight-Loose Button response....please let me know. I would be more than happy to take that on...
INSTALLATION 1TURN AND 0TURN
INSTALL FOR PLAY_ROME_ONE_TURN:
Unzip file:
Copy BATTLEPAGE_2 to the following folder overwriting the existing one:
Activision/ Rome-Total War/ Data/ UI/ ROMAN/ INTERFACE
Make a backup of your original file just in case.
Copy export_descr_unit and copy it to the following folder overwriting the existing one:
Activision/ Rome-Total War/ Play_Rome_One_Turn/ data
Make a backup of your original file just in case.
INSTALL FOR ROME 0TURN:
Unzip file:
Copy BATTLEPAGE_2 to the following folder overwriting the existing one:
Activision/ Rome-Total War/ Data/ UI/ ROMAN/ INTERFACE
Make a backup of your original file just in case.
Copy export_descr_unit and copy it to the following folder overwriting the existing one:
Activision/ Rome-Total War/ Play_Rome/ data
Make a backup of your original file just in case.
I tested this with 2.1 and my advanced One_Turn_Campaign from 2.0 playing as Rome and it is savegame compatible and obviously 2.1 compatible.
If there are any issues let me know and I try to fix it.
I really hope that this will add a bit to the great fun this mod has been for me so far... even when I was more busy in studying tutorials the last 10 days to make all my little submods rather then playing the game......but this has been fun too
UPDATE 1 24.11.2010: I turned the system to opposite setting as this is more user friendly.Units will now load in default formation to the battlemap and have to be setted manually to "tight shieldwall". Just download the new files and follow Installation Guide.
UPDATE 2 24.11.2010: Included Shieldwall Roman 0Turn. New File Uploaded
UPDATE 3 24.11.2010 Rome One Turn should now work properly. New File Uploaded
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Originally Posted by jerichoo27
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