A feature I'd love: choosing how a unit fights

[QuintusSertorius]

This is a wish list item that I'm pretty certain is impossible within the M2TW engine. That being able to choose on the eve of battle how a particular unit fights.

Note not every unit would have this option; generals and their bodyguard would be the most common. You could choose whether they fight on horseback or on foot. Obviously if on horseback you have some awesome cavalry. But if on foot, they'd give their own infantry a morale boost, since the general and the elites don't have the option of just riding away if things go bad.

Furthermore, certain regular and elite units (not levies) might be able to fight in more than one configuration. For example, Pezhetairoi could be deployed either as pikemen or Peltastai (as Phillip intended, training his phalangites to be able to do both). Same goes for Hoplitai.

It would mean greater tactical flexibility and give certain units just a little extra. Plus there's something cool about being able to choose, based on how you think the battle might go, whether your general is mounted or not.

[TheHolyRoman]

I've always wished for that. Especially for sieges and whatnot. It would be a revolutionary feat. There's a submod for Third Age that lets you choose what unit you want a general to be. And I think you can change it back, but not anymore after that. Those are just the mod rules though, I think, to avoid exploitation.

So maybe if every unit was recruited as a "general" unit, that might be possible using a similar script. Some things to keep in mind would be the name pool and portrait; every unit would have to have a separate one, corresponding to what unit they are. So you'd need 200 or so separate 1-name and portrait lists, which might have something to do with the culture text file. But with hardcoded limits being bypassed, it might be possible to create that many.

But then you have a general in every unit. Something would have to be done to remove him, lest the unit be disbanded on his death. And then of course there are traits and ancillaries, and I believe those also have something to do with the culture text file (my thoughts based on how only some factions can acquire certain traits).

This might be a really awesome thing though, 'cause then the unit can acquire these traits and ancillaries. They could be things such as war medals and captured loot that increase morale, veteran status that give a movement point bonus, newly issued armour (like the armour ancillaries in vanilla) that give an extra hitpoint. If traits and ancillaries could directly affect attack and defense values, or even experience, that'd be better.

There are obviously other issues, too: retraining, aging, marriage, the actual generals, etc. Anyway, I expanded on the topic a bit.