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Thread: Fantastic Mod!

  1. #1

    Default Fantastic Mod!

    I'v been playing this most of the day (why I havent posted about it until now) and I'd just like to say how pleased I am with it.

    I played for a few years as the dal riada and took a few undefended pictish towns (and fought a few of those naked pictish guys) and then decided to try somewhere else.

    I played for a while as the isle of man, which was good, but I got my faction leader ambused on ynys mon and he was killed by a massive rebel army, and I sort of lost heart after that, but it's a lovely faction for a challenge because it's so central and yet so isolated.

    My main campaign today though, was as Dumnonia. When it said 'ESTIMATED DIFFICULTY: EASY' I was expecting a fairly gentle start to the campaign, so it was a bit of a shock to find I was 24,000 in debt from the start. And it went downhill from there.

    I had decided that the best way out of debt was to capture a few of the rebel towns between myself and the saxons, so it was a pleasant surprise when on the first turn the saxons came to me offering a ceasefire. 'Great', I thought, 'this way I can take these towns, downgrade my army a little then wait 6 or 7 turns until my economy sorts itself out before taking on the sais.

    HOWEVER, on the 2nd turn I was attacked my my closest ally, Gwent. They laid seige to my northern city with a full stack and it took a last minute rescue by Arthurs cavalry force to save the city. Obviously I was a bit upset, but i had to wait to extract my revenge because Gwent sent another 2 ful stacks that had to be dealt with, then I beseiged Caer Cary and took it (all this without ever being able to retrain any troops, being as Im still more than 10k in debt) I took Caer Cary but then in a small skirmish outside the city against a tiny enemy force, arthur charged a schiltron of enemy spearmen and was killed immediately as the cavalry hit the spears. I won the engagement, but I had sort of been playing the campaign through Arthur and without him my heart wasnt really in it.

    Anyhow, I'v messed about with a couple of other factions since then and I have a couple of questions/suggestions.

    First of all I was playing with the picts just there now, and its annoying that while the picts are roughly half pagan half christian, and therefore at something of a crossroads, I can't build anything to encourage paganism in my country, which makes it hard to drive out the christianity and become a much more fun crazy pagan kingdom.

    The other things are pretty minor too: one is that I take it you don't have sprites? because the game was very very slow in some big battles earlier, and I'v had to turn unit size down to medium to make it playable for me.

    I really love the way you've made it quite a hard mod. nothing annoys me more than a mod where you can expand easily at the start and then just mess around with your huge empire later.

    I also love the way youve given shildwall formation to so many units. after reading the bernard cornwell series about the period it was brilliant to hear my men shout out 'form shieldwall' and so on.

    So yeah, brilliant mod. I wish you all the best with the finishing up of the final touches. One other thing i'd really appreciate is a few more really good custom battle maps, because I enjoy custom battles.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Religion will be a lot more interesting in the future when Celtic Christianity is implemented properly, it's sort of in-between the two religions in there now.

    Also sprites have been made, they just need some tweaking I think.

    Antagonist
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    "If you grow tired of how you live, then follow me, and we will show you a different way."

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  3. #3
    swabian's Avatar igni ferroque
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Thank you for the nice feedback!

    More historical battles are under way. There should be actually 4 but i couldnt get the last changes ready in time. Therefore the 4th will be better than it would be, if it was released in 0.60.

    HA-HA! So you tried to run with the head through the wall playing an agressive opening with Dyfneint. Sounds like if you could prevail this way for some time. Well done, but i think you're going to lose after some more years

    Btw. you should allways demand as much tribute as you can get from other factions, if they come and want ceasfire (allthough sometimes it is a risk, when they say 'shut up' and quit the negotiations). It depends on the relative strength how much tribute they pay.

    with Dyfneint, you should avoid getting in trouble with Gwent, at last at the start. An elegant method would be to avoid alliances with welsh factions (except Gwent, which allready are allies). Try to ally with Rheged and Ebrauc (not Elmet!). This way, there is a bettr chance the big factions will bully the smaller ones in their neigbourhood, which increases the chances for peace with Gwent. This worked at last for me. The rebels can be valuable allies and trade partners! It's recommended to avoid attacking them at the start.

    You can get out of debt, if you distriubute your troops in all settlements, so that you can force more taxes and disband some levy (not elite or highly experienced) troops. Then form as many trade treaties as you can. This way you can get easily 1500+gold per turn after the first turn. Tributes will be an additional acceleration, et voliá, you're out of debt within 8 rounds or so.

    It IS possible to consolidate right from the start. But well... if you have bad luck and the saxons get powerful reinforcements from the mainland (which workes randomised) you can allways have a bunch of dirty germanics appearing in your front garden... or something else happens to your misfortune... one never knows
    Last edited by swabian; September 06, 2006 at 05:34 PM.

  4. #4
    swabian's Avatar igni ferroque
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Quote Originally Posted by Greek Fire 19

    First of all I was playing with the picts just there now, and its annoying that while the picts are roughly half pagan half christian, and therefore at something of a crossroads, I can't build anything to encourage paganism in my country, which makes it hard to drive out the christianity and become a much more fun crazy pagan kingdom.

    But you can, actually. You have to destroy the christian buildings, then you can construct pagan ones. For the Aume Boai, you would need the temple of Lugh.

  5. #5
    Agraes's Avatar Pillar of Prydein
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    For sprites, they will be implemented in the next update. They are done but not codded yet.

  6. #6
    Gavmundo's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    I decided to play as Dumnonia too and was shocked by the level of debt. Its good to add a challenge though. Course after fighting a couple of battles with no chance of reinforcing your armies as there's no ash it does start to look a little daunting. I've moved troops to the towns to put the tax levels up but looks like it will be a long time till I'm out of debt so i best be careful who I annoy and hope my allies stay loyal till i'm in a position to expand.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Well done for creating probably the hardest BI mod in existance!!!!! Nothing worse that getting bored. As im from South Wales the obvious choice was Gwent and after turn 3 i had Powys and Arthur beating lumps out of me left right and center!! So much for an ally hey?????

    Anyways thanks for all your efforts and looking forward to teaching the High King a lesson he will never forget.

    P.S. Any tips for Gwent guys??

  8. #8
    Agraes's Avatar Pillar of Prydein
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    I never tried it. But like Swabian did for Dyfneint, I guess there is some diplomacy tricks to avoid conflict with Dyfneint.

    Im currently playing Gwynedd, and its really nice playing after spending so much time working on the mod! But I got back to my parents today without a computer RTW-friendly. Will have to wait one more week, and after that, we will probably have too much work on the next update

  9. #9

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Well, generally it is a good idea to avoid confrontation for the first few years, if possible, and focus on accumulating gold and slowly building up your infrastructure. However some factions (like Gwent) tend to get attacked very early making peaceful development difficult. What're Dyfed doing? They're stronger then you, but they often get caught up fighting the Deisi and Gwynedd to the north so you might be able to get the drop on them. And I'd focus on Powys rather then Dyfneint if you have to fight both, they're weaker will get you a safer position for a while.

    Wales is definately the most interesting area in the mod right now IMO, the factions there are so well balanced that every campaign unfolds very differently.

    Antagonist
    "is ait an mac an saol"

    "If you grow tired of how you live, then follow me, and we will show you a different way."

    Arthurian: Total War
    Wrath of the Norsemen
    Viking Invasion II

  10. #10
    Agraes's Avatar Pillar of Prydein
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Problem is if you wipe out Powys, you will have to face Rheged very soon... and they are terrible! Probably the most annoying faction, you will fight for sure if playing Gwynedd, Powys, Ebrauc, Elmet, Alcluyd and Ynis Manaw.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    I just remembered about that after I finished. Out of the frying-pan into the fire... It can depend on the game though, often they concentrate on Gwynedd, sometimes they even go North instead. Most of the factions can behave quite differently from game to game.

    Antagonist
    "is ait an mac an saol"

    "If you grow tired of how you live, then follow me, and we will show you a different way."

    Arthurian: Total War
    Wrath of the Norsemen
    Viking Invasion II

  12. #12

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Well, I've played through several decades with Dal Riada on Vh/VH now, and I can safely say now that not only is this one of the best BI mods out there, but one of the hardest too. :tooth:
    Started out trying to keep peaceful relations with Ui Niell, focusing on carrying out the war against the Picts. Since the Picts were focusing on me pretty intently, I tried to just hold back their armies as best I could while improving my economy. Fairly soon though I was under attack from Ynis Manaw coming at my capital from the east, but I managed to subdue them fairly handily by sending a raiding party to the Isle of Mann and taking the capital (conveniently only had one unit garrison)
    Luckily, after that they were too busy fighting with my allies the Alcluyd (name might be wrong. It's the blue one closest to Dal Riada) to continue attacking me, so I had a nice period of building up my economy while dealing with periodic skirmishes with the Picts.
    During this time unfortunately, my one holding in Ireland was taken by Ui Niell. (after a bizzare episode where the Alcluyd besieged the Irish settlement in one turn, then immediately proposed a ceasefire the following turn. Only real change was that they refused to re-ally afterwards)
    Some time later, I finally got the skirmishing under control, having depleted most of the Picts forces in the west, and destroying several stacks from their capital in the east. -_- and I took my one army (really have to praise you guys here for that. It's only financially feasible to have one army at this point in the game, since two armies would easily put you in the red. Makes you really feel that your resources are being stretched to the limit once you are under attack on more than one front) and went on a conquering spree in the central Pictish provinces. While it certainly seemed like I was in the ascendant, this is around about the point where everything fell apart. My army was campaiging about 3 turns distance from my capital when Goddodin, who had recently destroyed the Alcluyd and were now quite powerful, sent a full stack (mostly elites too I might add) and besieged my Capital. I'll just stop the narrative here to praise you guys for yet another brilliant aspect of the mod. Population. In most mods it's painfully easy to get the population in any settlement to a point where even the production of the largest available unit every turn doesn't offset the gain gotten through even 1% pop growth. In this mod though, any settlement with a sizeable population is more valuable than anything else. Considering of all the settlements close enough to my enemies to be logistically viable for quick unit production, all but my capital were hovering around the 500 population mark, my capital (with around 2000 pop) was immensely important. I finally managed to get my main army to the besiegers. Sure, after crushing most Pict resistance, I had every expectation that I would crush this army too. Nope. I got horribly slaughtered. Goddodin took my capital, the only settlement with the capacity to build units is now the Isle of Mann, hopelessly isolated far from the rest of my provinces, and I had only just managed to save my faction leader, sending him to the settlement directly north. On top of this, despite it seeming that the Picts were in a terrible state too, at least 3 mostly full stacks emerged from their hiding places in the forests, and laid siege on all the settlements I'd taken off them (probably a good time to mention that I play with no fog. I like to see how the different factions are progressing without having a 50 gold upkeep for each spy)
    Anyway, I was reduced to the starting provinces minus northern Ireland and the capital (plus Mann), reduced to hiring mercenaries to boost population numbers, only just managing to survive by fighting guerilla wars against two very angry factions. Thank god the elite units have so few men, as it turns out that in my situation, churning out an army of elites with my waning populations is the correct answer. I've managed to fight my way back to my former capital, and my save is directly before the battle to reclaim it. The whole idea of losing one battle, then scrabbling around trying to collect enough allies to stand against the enemy feels a lot like the Robert the Bruce story (though 1000 years early), and I've gotta say, I'm loving every minute of it. Just you wait, I'll show those Goddodin upstarts not to mess with He of the Soggy Chips.

  13. #13
    swabian's Avatar igni ferroque
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Yessss, thank you very much! Its feedback like this, that payes off the hours i figured out how to control the population growth.

    This is one of the very last aspects i have implemented, motivated due to the critique of a betatester (i think i should thank him).
    Last edited by swabian; September 07, 2006 at 09:10 AM.

  14. #14
    Gavmundo's Avatar Senator
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Well I only managed a few turns last night but will play more tonight and Tomorrow before I head for my tunisian holiday on Sunday. I think we can all agree the problem with (certainly the vanilla) many games is its just too damn easy. No one likes to lose but when you NEVER lose it soon gets boring which I've found in many games. Looking at this mod briefly it does seem to limit what you can do early on adn even makes it a challenge surviving more than a dozen turns which I think can only be a good thing. Well no one is going to complain the game is boring are they?

    When I saw my initial 24k deficit when I strted a game yesterday I thought it must be a bug! Then realised it wasn't then realised how tough it was going to be and I wouldn't even be able to reinforce units never midn recruit new ones.

    After thinking about it today I find I'm always complaining that the game is too easy now I find I have a challenge and am now complaining its too hard lol. Typical! I think i'll find I prefer the challenge and its so refreshing to have to total conversion of a game rather than an edit. The only other one I've played like this was Troy which I like but have to say this Mod is closest to my heart .... Britannica Its especially interesting as it what we call the Dark Ages and although we know about the races that lived in Briton at the time the History is not well documented and sparse.

  15. #15

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    lol, soggius chippius, I played an hour or two today as dal riada and your experience matches mine pretty closely. I keep getting attacked! It feels totally different to the usual RTW experience, in this im always just hanging on. In about 4 or 5 years I barely expanded beyond my starting borders.

    One interesting thing about the Dal riada is that most of my battles are taking place in the scottish highlands. This makes it interesting because most of the battles feature steep hills and cliffs, which make them much more tactical than most RTW battles (that and the fact that im always heavily outnumbered).

  16. #16
    swabian's Avatar igni ferroque
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    What do you guys think about the chariots? i'm thinking about raising their morale & mount mass, allthough i allready did after antagonist mentioned their cowardice. It's a bit difficult to have something like a formation braker in RTW, because of the unnatural efficient 'swarm behaiviour' of the soldiers.

  17. #17

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    why cant someone make the chariots have as much spacing as regular cavalry (when using thight formation) and double their size and give them an big morale boost, then i could attack the front with them! muhahahaha!
    “"The robber of your free will," writes Epictetus, "does not exist”
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  18. #18
    swabian's Avatar igni ferroque
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    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    >_>

    well.. maybe area effect and either better defense or more morale. they shouldn't be useless however.

  19. #19

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    I didn't know exactly where I was going to put this, but when I saw the entry Fantastic Mod! it was rather obvious. Mind-boggling might be a closer description...the amount of research, not to even mention the actual work must have taken quite a while. Thanks loads, guys! And by the time you come out with a new and improved version, I hope to have won a campaign, lol!

    Cormaeg

  20. #20

    Default Re: Fantastic Mod!

    Also, had not time to check it myself but...how are my formations working in battles? are you pleased?
    Do you like Arthur's special formation?

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