Empire Realism 3.7 Download
After long wait new version of Empire Realism is released. It brings several radical changes to game play, introducing improved realistic battle system for land and naval combat and enhanced versions of ETW Main and Road to Independence campaigns.
Major changes:
Fully implemented Experience system previously seen in Napoleon Empire Realism mod. Units now have starting experience based on level of training and status.
- There will be several experience tiers based on unit status. Militia grade units will start without any experience, regular troops will start with 1 Exp level,while high quality regular troops will start with 2 exp points. Veteran and specialist troops like Grenadiers or Skirmishers will start at 3 exp points. Guard units will start at 4 exp points.
Complete Unit stats overhaul based on unit effectivity and weapons used, as well as received training. Overhaul works closely with new Experience system.
-Infantry stats are based on simple fact that in 18.century armor is long gone for western military, which means only defense soldier has is his skill with a weapon which only defensive bonus provided was thanks to its length (standoff). Bayonet is now very lethal in close combat, anyway due to high attack low defense stats melee will be very short ut highly lethal experience. Melee will also reduce cohesion(fatigue) to minimum very quickly, making units very vulnerable to counter-charges by units in reserve.
Infantry rate of fire was increased dramatically, Infantry will have realistic reload times, which will result in several salvos being fired at approaching enemy,which while not very effective at long ranges, will still reduce morale of approaching enemy. Anyway if you make your infantry shoot for long period of time, their cohesion will go down rapidly and so will the musket fire effectivity. Only few initial salvos will be effective, so holding your fire till the last moment is beneficial. Improved salvo animation allows for very quick responses to orders, so units wont start repositioning and will fire instead.
All infantry units now have historically correct formation based on formations used in middle of 18.century. This is a compromise had to be made, otherwise there would have to be twice the number of infantry units present to simulate move from 4 ranks to 3 rank formation. Unit movement speeds were adjusted and based on historically correct movement speeds. Instead of running infantry moves in double march speed, which was always used for formation changes, or when moving in column, anyway moving double-speed will reduce cohesion a lot. Standard speed doesn't influence cohesion, which is a compromise to make AI less impacted by cohesion changes, as it doesn't know to accommodate this, anyway thanks to this AI will be more effective in attack as its units wont arrive completely disordered (as before) and instead will fight.
-Cavalry stats were completely changed to simulate real cavalry effect it had in close combat. Its main weapon is charge and shock effect. While Shock effect will reduce morale of nearby enemy infantry significantly, cavalry charge will provide high charge bonuses only for limited amount of time, and once charge is stopped, cavalry melee stats are not very high to be able to fight in prolonged melee.Anyway if used properly, cavalry charge will break morale before actual contact is made which will result in complete massacre of fleeing infantry. But if infantry morale is intact cavalry charge will most likely fail, especially if faced by close range salvo from defending infantry, or if infantry manages to form square in time. Cavalry will now be more distinctive in effectivity based on type. While heavy cavalry will be good at charging, and will be able to deliver great impact, it will lose cohesion faster if ordered to move fast. Light cavalry, especially hussars will not care that much about cohesion, will be able to run across the battlefield without cohesion loss (unimportant for them), anyway they wont be able to perform formed charges as heavies will.
-Artillery effectivity was increased. Guns are accurate at longer range,and have more different types of ammo available as technology progresses. While early types of artillery are fixed and unmovable they are still very effective guns with good accuracy, long range but limited rate of fire. As technology progresses, lighter guns will appear with increased mobility and accuracy. Anti-personal ammo will now also evolve, early available light short range canister will be supplemented with late availability of heavy medium range canister. Light canister is intended as defensive ammo with high rate of fire, while heavy canister is suited more for attack, with standard rate of fire. Both type of ammo will be available to all guns and howitzers at the same time (except early culverins and sakers which will only use light canister.
-Naval combat was also enhanced, with several adjustments to morale system. Ships will stay routed much shorter, which means they will fire back when retreating, anyway when that occurs human player will have very limited control of ship simulating chaos on the deck when hit really hard. While gun ranges were fixed to same range for all guns (to prevent some ships firing at longer range just because they have long range versions of small guns on main deck), main difference now is in accuracy at range, and gun penetration power. Large calibers do much more damage at longer ranges, while they are able to cause critical damage at close range to small ships. Light guns now do just minimal damage against Ships of the line.
Improved technology Tree with lots of meaningful technologies which provide important and historically correct bonuses.
All western nations start with ring bayonet, light canister and infantry formations researched at the beginning. Improved logistics increase campaign movement, infantry drills and live fire training improve musket handling and reduces miss fires. Second Artillery tech introduces heavy canister to all guns, while naval technology tree got reorganized with flintlock tech moved down a bit. Also early versions of Ships are now obsoleted by introduction of late versions of ships. Several naval techs now increase operational radius for ships allowing them to cover greater area.
Improved Campaign AI system based on Darthmod AI.
While AI will now try to develop its economy, it will also honor alliances and tries to establish trade relations (not necessarily with player though..) Overall aim is for global expansion instead of trying to expand locally, while AI will keep relevant forces guarding its cities,so blitzing will be not that easy. AI will try to protect its ports and engage mobile enemy fleets, while also raiding trade routes and will send trade fleets to trade areas.
3 turns per year time scale for all campaigns, with 2 summer turns and one winter.
One turn now represents 4 months. This also means building and research times were increased to cope with increased number of turns. RTI campaign use same scale, but countries got Late technology enabled to represent late era properly. Campaign units radius adjusted down a bit, anyway road network now provides much greater movement bonus, which allows units to move to greater distances using road network,but only limited amount of distance outside of it. This represents the requirement to stay close to supply line and also army inability to march through inhabited areas (General Burgoyne could tell...)
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Installation Instructions:
Spoiler Alert, click show to read:
Essential Included submods:
DarthMod AI by Darth Vader
Replenishment mod by T.C
Proper militia mod by Spanky
Firing animations by Lordsith
Battle Formation mod by The Hedge Knight
Large Flags by Primergy
Battlefield Smoke mod by Mech_Donald
Correct Colonies by uanime5
Death Animations by Hofan
Credits:
Development - JaM, DaVinci.
Testing - mAIOR+
Historical Research - Didz
Special Thanks to Darth Vader for his Campaign AI and diplomacy changes. Kaunitz for his work on historically realistic combat mod. Didz for his great historical informations, mAIOR+ for his advices and testing,also big thanks to all who allowed me to use their submods (mentioned above), all who were part of ER Team in the past and of course to DaVinci for all those years of cooperation.
