Did EB mod the combat engine?

[HalfThere]

I've seen it implied around here that the EB team has significantly edited not only unit stats, but also the combat engine. Is this true? A lot can be done with stats of units in the .txt files, but it wouldn't surprise me to hear you've gone beyond that. If so, could you describe a little bit of what you've done and (more importantly) how a fellow modder would go about doing the same thing?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

No. The exe hasn't been touched. Stats and formations account for most of the battlefield improvements along with improved animations.

[HalfThere]

Alright, thanks for that. Given that, I have another quick question. How do animations affect actual battlefield action, if indeed they do?

[Teleklos Archelaou]

They have an effect, but I suppose it's small. Some animations are not as effective as others I've been told. I'm not involved with that side of things though so that's all I can add, but you asked how was battlefield action effected and it does slightly affect it.

[Blizzard]

animations have effect and it's not small when it comes about fighting in formations (more exactly how many in a formation efectively take part in active fight while the rest just wait around doing the moon dance)
if you watch with attention how phalanxes perform you will notice the difference
i think the cohesion needs more work out
also I noticed it takes a lot of time for troops with prec thrown weapon to throw their javelins
those are just details but in ansamble it greatly affects the combat engine

[QwertyMIDX]

Animations make a big difference. The overhand spear animation is just the javelin animation from vanilla at the moment and it's not very effective, hopefully the shift to a proper animation will help.