Custom Battles

[RubiconDecision]

One of the aspects I'm working on is custom battles. Included with that is a manual (now over 70 pages) which describes some various tactics and formations to try and achieve better battle results. It's hoped that this will add a whole new dimension to Rule Britannia and additional reasons to play it, but also make better generals for the campaign.

These battle locations are being chosen based on really strategic locations for all the kingdoms in Rule Britannia. In addition, there are also impossible locations on impassible mountain plateaus, dense forests, rivers that you should not be able to cross, isolated Scottish islands, etc.

When the custom battle locations are released in a new version, I would love to hear the results from the battle locations and based upon the armies that fought there and under what conditions. I can imagine something akin to a "high score" list for the top ten players based upon a standard configuration. It would be a little diversion to see who rocks as a general, and entirely based on taking screen captures.

Your screen captures would show what formations worked for you and why. It would be very interesting to see the effects of certain kingdoms doing better in certain battle locations too.

Write back if interested.

[RubiconDecision]

One interesting aspect about battlefields is that the same one might be fought on again and again in history. A farmer digging down into the earth to plant, will find not only ancient tribal artifacts like flint knapped arrowheads, but later ones made through metallurgy of various ages.

It might be chosen as the ideal place to defend from, or it might be the natural launching area for an invasion.

It might be the place a border incursion happens so often, that eventually both sides decide to place fortification nearby. This causes a military buildup, and either side try to extend their spheres of influence.

An enemy might attack, and the defenders counterattack. The enemy retreats to what they think is better ground, and the final counterattack occurs on that new map coordinate. A wise commander might deliberately feint a smaller army in this way to lure the enemy back to this second better battlefield.

All of these places will reveal themselves on multiple turns of playing Rule Britannia, and they can be made into permanent custom battle locations so you can experience the joy of fighting there.

If you find such places, pull up the command console by hitting the ~ and then click on the map coordinate site and type into the console show_cursorstat . Then write an entry about your battle. I can then add it to a future release of Rule Britannia custom_locations file.

[RubiconDecision]

Note that if you set the custom battle for all periods, and not just early, then you can play all of the included rosters, so that means playing Ireland versus the Mongols and on the lands and invaded lands of the Irish, Scottish, English, Baron's Alliance, Welsh, Danish, and Norwegian...which is way cool for a custom battle freak like me, and I hope you too. Ack the Mongols have invaded the swamps of Ireland!

[RubiconDecision]

I added a new poll. Whether you have played through battles or not, please vote what kind you would like to see. It might influence things like the manual I am writing or the custom battle list or future changes to maps, or whatever. You can pick more than one choice, so if there's something that most appeals to you in more than a few areas, then please vote for all of them.

Thanks for participating.

[y2day]

After three voters the results are pretty spread out. I'm pretty curious how this poll goes. I do enjoy some custom battles from time to time. I'm not the best general out there and have used the Custom Battle to sharpen my skills a bit.

[AJStoner]

Wow, this poll really took off. Outstanding.

[RubiconDecision]

I can't vote as I like them all. I even like fighting in places just for the vistas. There are usually lots of places where you can fight in mountain tops or islands and it's beautiful to look around especially is you're using "bloom" and have the skies animating. Or I like atmospheric night battles. I've turned down my soldiers torch light to really limit the location of enemy movement. Just aesthetics can be enjoyable.

The only way to get better at battles is to play more of them. As I have written in my manual, which is now 100 pages of formations, tactics, and reading terrain for best effect, "Fighting battles is like a moving game of billiards." The enemy is moving dynamically on the field, and you both are negotiating for contested terrain. This means constantly adjusting and forming up multiple attacks and defense simultaneously. That's what command is all about versus just moving around chess pieces on the campaign map and autoresolving.

Once the custom battles are in, you can do a quick battle if you don't want to set it up, and the computer will randomly assign you to a custom battle location, and you'll no idea what kind of army or location you'll be in. That will be very tough and for better players to attempt.

Otherwise, you can build a better army for yourself than the enemy and start out slow with tactics and formations, and eventual work toward small armies attacking larger ones in ambushes and in regular field battles. Ambushes are very fun, and if you follow my tactics, your small force can overpower the enemy since they'll no idea where you are. Of course those are largely ranged shoot-and-scoot attacks, but special units like the Irish Fianna Eireannae are especially suited for those attacks too. Making this a night forest battle can give a sense of how vulnerable an moving army would be traversing it. That can negate the effects of size.

[RubiconDecision]

Tomorrow I'll be uploading Beta 0.7 of the Custom Battle and Tactical Manual. We're still honing the map to maximize your deployment of troops, however this edition will still have ~100 pages of tactical methods for dealing with the enemy. It's applicable for any mod or the regular game. As it is beta, it won't be made directly available...yet. However, by clicking on my profile, and going to the download section, you'll see the beta version and can start reading it.

[IrishHitman]

Seashore, has an excellent mix of flat and hill terrain usually.

[RubiconDecision]

Seashore, has an excellent mix of flat and hill terrain usually.

...and whoever has their backs to the seashore is doomed. You can easily be crushed there by cavalry chasing you into the sea. You must take that hill somehow. I truly like seashore battles, and naturally with all of the islands off of Scotland, some natural places to fight.

Have you seen this relief map of the UK?

Relief map of a portion of the UK

It shows only a portion of the UK. Note the shorelines. Much of them is not flat, but hilly or mountainous. That makes for a very difficult seashore battles based on map coordinates.

[IrishHitman]

and whoever has their backs to the seashore is doomed.

Not necessarily, it refuses the enemy a rear attack in game mechanic terms, because your soldiers can't exactly enter the water and drown in-game...

[RubiconDecision]

Not necessarily, it refuses the enemy a rear attack in game mechanic terms, because your soldiers can't exactly enter the water and drown in-game...

True, no flank attack. Usually water lies lower than the land. You must rise to the enemy upon that terrain. You begin at a disadvantage. Lingering on the seashore is seldom a good idea.

[RubiconDecision]

The latest version Beta 0.7 of the Custom Battle and Tactics Manual has been uploaded. It features some new formations and description of tactics. It is very much a work in progress. It can downloaded here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=3552 As soon as the map has evolved into its new form, you will have new battlefields to fight upon.

Taking the manual off-line until the new map is complete.

[RubiconDecision]

Hey everyone, took a few light days of quasi-vacation. Back now. I think the "flat meadow" is popular with many folks. It's something that the STW2 folks are asking for multiplayer. I can understand why as sometimes you just want to fight on a football field, simple terrain with no advantages or disadvantages, and see who win. They'll definitely be those in there.

I know that many people don't have the time to fight things through in the campaign. Fighting custom battles on occasion will allow you to test some things you'd like to play out. You might get addicted.

[RubiconDecision]

Got a report of a user having difficulty opening the compressed manual from my download list. I just downloaded it and opened it without issues. If you have any difficulty, make certain you're using Adobe Acrobat 9.0.

EDIT: For folks who don't know, often files must be compressed to be stored on the forum. You can download winrar for free, then open it with a pdf reader like Acrobat.

[RubiconDecision]

Taking the custom tactics and battle manual off-line until the map is developed.

[Kjertesvein]

Will there be any pictures?

~Wille

[RubiconDecision]

Will there be any pictures?

~Wille

Yes, tons of pictures, but only in the custom battle and tactics manual. You'll be able for the first time to actually see the terrain up close in the pdf, and then choose which area you wish to attack or defend from. Personally I like way more battles and less time spending on building infrastructure and troops.

I took the manual down because while it explained tactics well, it had very few custom battles... yet. Right now we're in the midst of a map update. When that happens, the map coordinates will change dramatically, so there's not much sense in documenting a certain map coordinate (appearance mostly) and then having to redo it all.

Expect all of the kinds of battles that were listed in the poll... and then some. Presently most battles happen during sieges, but the most varied battles are ones in which the terrain causes challenges. Say for example that you get pushed back around Wales into the mountains, you have to fight your way out in one: it's the only way to get back home as there is one location that only has one exit.

Sometimes you're fighting in knee or chest deep water. Maybe you're fighting in total woods, and you can imagine trying that at night and on cavalry. The way the battles are configured, the battle won't be locked, which means you can vary all the parameters.

Sometimes the terrain is very unfair, and in real life, only a fool might fight there (or the most brilliant tactician). The first to arrive at a battlefield got to choose the terrain, but of course that didn't mean that either side would engage. Battles were enormously expensive, and the longer you delay in the field, the more supplies get used up, and the men get "fat and lazy" [from the movie Gladiator].

Once the map gets locked down, I can include some pictures here. I did that before from two angles from the attacker and defender perspective. Actually within custom battles you can set it such that both parties are attacking, which is a lot more fun, but generally not always great for the AI. You want to mix it up so the AI (or you) can ambush and that means defending some.

At 4 pics per battle and probably way more than twenty, that's a lot of pictures. You additionally get the chance to fight on every settlement site, which means playing London as a field battle or any kind of fortification too. The only thing I can't do is program the special Britannia forts in the custom battle menu. Too bad as that would be awesome.

[RubiconDecision]

Since the map is staying in its current incarnation for awhile, I'll be posting some example custom battles here in the next few days. Look for a preview of the site characteristics and commentary on the challenges of the terrain, and some examples of how to deal with them. Then if you have your own ideas on how you would best deal with attacking or defending on one side of the terrain, post your own commentary. Obviously things like the unit composition, the era being played, or the use of ambush tactics will all facilitate a "win".

[RubiconDecision]

I found a bug for ranged combat, at least for archers/crossbowmen across all mods that I have tested so far. It's my guess that it's a limitation of the engine. In areas where you have archers/crossbowmen at a high elevation, and they could legitimately loose their arrow/bolts, the range might exceed the engine's depiction of them. Even though the ranged fire unit cards show that they are targeting, the actual unit animation doesn't. It also isn't using up their quarrels either, so nothing is essentially happening. If you encounter it, move your ranged units closer to their designated target and they will actually begin ranged combat at that point.

Naturally elevation offers a range advantage as it perpetuates the flight characteristics and lessens the affect of gravity to diminish the arc of it. It should in theory increase the velocity as they plummet downward, but since the descr_projectile has velocity limitations imposed, it probably doesn't. Too bad.

I'm sure that most experienced tacticians know this, but you should inch your archers up when their range exceeds the ability of the enemies. Watch carefully for the "green target in range" to switch from the red one. Halt your troops and deliberately choose which unit to target. Generally the AI is programmed to bring their ranged combat forward, and this means you should probably target them initially.

As long as any units are on the walls, ballista/cannon towers and robo archers will continue to pelt your troops. That's how it's programmed. The best strategy is to eliminate any units on the walls, and then pass a unit through the gate towers. At that point your troops have "taken the walls". A cavalry unit that is close enough can still activate the robo archers (unfair, I know), and so it's important to bring your own archers to target any cavalry at the base of the main gate.