Ars Gratia Artis - Complete Battle Overhaul, v2.7.2 - Patch 7 ready (updated 15/11/13)

**Selea** · September 30, 2013, 10:31 AM

Team: Selea (main mod). Kymmuriel & Epaminondas + Little Legionnarie (texture addon), Earl Pilar (Steam Workshop manager)

What the mod does:

Ars Gratia Artis is a complete battle overhaul focused on turning Rome II battle dynamics into a more realistic and centered struggle focused on type of faction played, with completely overhauled abilities, stats, equipment and behavior of single units and their factions of appartenence.

This mod turns battle in a more epic struggle where tactic has much more of a role. Units move on the field much more realistically and will respond to fatigue and morale in more consistent ways. Every unit type will behave differently in battle and will move with a different speed and formations depending on their role, abilities used and faction they belong to.

Every faction will have unique positives and drawbacks tied to formations utilized by units, abilities, stats and equipment. Some examples: barbarians will be no more expert defenders keeping formation in the same way as disciplined units and on using abilities that require battlefield strategy, they will instead go at war relying on pure power of destruction to annihilate opposition both on pure battle dynamic and morale. Factions that used alchemy will be able to provide poison to arrows and units that are more civilized and disciplined will be able to use formations and abilities focused on discipline much better. Factions that utilize slaves or have a dictatorship regime will be more keen to force units on exerting themselves to the most, not caring for the lives of their men too much.

All unit types are re-balanced and have a role they are focused upon. All their abilities have been redistributed to enhance this role and render the experience more balanced and tactically focused. Special units in certain factions have abilities that render them completely unique and every unit in the game has been hand-picked and tailored to make you feel like a General really being able to turn the tied of battle with your commands.

NOTE: If you are a new user I advise strongly to read the changes specifics because the dynamics of units and factions are very altered from vanilla.

What's new in this version (2.7.2):

Reworked Roman units

Rebalanced all Roman units stats/equipment in conformity with the reforms
Reworked Roman army caps to allow proper reclutement of Legionary/Cohort troops
Reworked abilities of Roman units: added Repel Cavarly, Form Square, Throw Pila as standard formations plus Scutum Wall (the old Cycled Line) for Legionaries/Cohorts
Reworked all Auxiliaries troops to have Roman formations along their unique capabilities

Redistributed/reworked abilities

Normal sword infantry has now an ability called "To the Death" (the old Rapid Advance) that increases charge and strike power in view of collision with an enemy
Normal spear infantry has the old Pike Square ability
Greek troops have the unique Shield Wall now
Hoplite troops have the unique Hoplite Phalanx plus an ability called "Quick March" that allows them to move faster for a moderate amount of time
Pike troops have the usual Pike Phalanx plus an ability called "Hold the Line" that helps them on holding the ground better by increasing morale and defense
Barbarian spears have now an ability called "Harden Yourself" that increases defense/armor at the expense of attack, plus they now have Frenzy
Created ability called "Throw Javelin" for all melee troops that can use them. With it you can throw Javelins in self-defense by aiming to the direction enemy troops are
The old "Killing Spree" has become "Intense Attack": revisited a little the bonuses but all in all it's the same ability with new name and icon (to render better the meaning)
Revisited all invalid abilities behaviors for better use of all abilities (for example you cannot use "To the Death!" while near an enemy since it is a charge ability)

Improved behavior of troops

Pike units will now properly always carry pikes and switch to swords when in melee fight.
Changed Scutum Wall (old Cycled Line) behavior to be more consistent and to be the only formation that can oppose an Hoplite Phalanx with elite troops (as Eagle Cohorts)
Removed formation behavior from poorly trained spear infantry
Added ability to fire while hidden for Longbow Hunters
Increased vertical spacing for more realism
Increased run speed of heavy/very heavy infantry so that they don't "jog" instead of running
Revisited run speeds of cavalry in general
Improved unit cohesion once more by slightly increasing mass on melee infantry and tweaking some factors

Abilities localization

Added add-on for users using localized version of AGA so that for now at last they can have the correct abilities descriptions in english in view of the future translations

NOTE: Sadly for a limitation of the engine you cannot use Throw Javelin/Pila ability while in a formation, so you must be sure to disable the formation before you use the ability

Overview of the changes:

Battle dynamics (fatigue, morale, speed of battle, speed of units) overhaul. The battles will be more realistic, units will move truer to real life responding to fatigue in believable ways and you will see the difference between disciplined units and those that are not, with either certain characteristics tied specifically to some particular units to make them even more unique.

Units size, stats and behavior overhaul. Every unit type will now have a precise role in the battlefield and stats/equipment tied to that role. Also tweaked are certain unit sizes for better balance on the battlefield.

Factions overhaul. Factions will be completely unique in Ars Gratia Artis and they will dictate which type of abilities units have and the way they behave. Factions will also have unique strength/weaknesses and unique number of armies they can field in the battle.

Equipment (weapons, armors, projectiles etc.) overhaul. All armors and weapon types have been completely reworked for a more balanced experience. Also weapons and armours, as units, will have a precise role on what they are best at.

Abilities overhaul. Reworked all special abilities in the game to be more realistic. Now they play a strong role on render every faction unique and make the General experience more important.

Improved visuals (optional). Some of the best re-textures and visual modifications are included in the mod for the best experience possible because also the eye wants its part.

Changes in the specific:

Battle dynamics (fatigue, morale, speed of battle, speed of units) overhaul

Units size, stats and behavior overhaul

All unit types have been reworked to adhere to specific roles so that the user can tactically plan the battle. I also tailored certain unit sizes for better balance and since patch 4, with the possibility of loose spacing working, I inserted the ability to go in loose formation for all units but Romans that have Testudo. Also here unit roles and factions specifics will make a difference because depending on the type of troop the loose line will be more or less large and so more or less resistant to incoming missile damage.

General changes:

- Reworked experience threshold per faction so that experience bonuses per unit are more specific for every faction.
- Increased experience threshold levels. With the changes in the thresholds tied to the increased time to increase experience every faction will have more definite strength/weaknesses.
- Increased cavalry sizes to 100.
- Increased chariot size to 40 and scythed chariots to 48.
- Increased many units sizes that had no reason to be lower than the 160 standard.
- Updated major factions starting rosters with the changed sizes. I willingly changed the starting rosters only of some factions to help them stand the campaign.
- Added loose spacing to all infantry/cavalry types apart roman units that have Testudo.
- Created different spacings for loose formation so that pikes and spears are more exposed to missile damage even in loose formation.

Roles changes:

Melee Infantry

Sword infantry

Stats: moderate speed, very high attack, moderate defence and high armor.
Base abilities: shield wall.
Role: sword infantry has the highest attack of all units and it is at its best in a close quarter fight, especially by flanking, just beware of cavalry units doing the same to them.

Spear infantry

Base stats: very low speed, very low melee attack, very high defence and very high armor.
Base abilities: spear square, rapid advance.
Role: spear infantry is the highest defence and armor unit and it is very strong against cavalry and to repel charges and as such it is a good impact unit.
Pike infantry

Base stats: low speed, moderate melee attack, low defence and low armor (in a phalanx high defence and high armor)
Base abilities: pike phalanx, steady retreat.
Role: pike infantry is an unit very deadly in a phalanx but very weak outside of it. Its very low speed renders the unit very weak to outflanking maneuvers, however the phalanx power renders this particular unit the best first line unit in the game.

Missile Infantry

Bow missile

Base stats: high accuracy, high range, moderate armor penetration.
Base abilities: quick reload, precision shot, flaming arrows.
Role: the bow unit is the bread & butter of missile infantry; with its high range and good accuracy can quickly thin an unit at range if not highly armored.

Sling missile

Base stats: low accuracy, very high range, very low armor penetration.
Base abilities: precision shot.
Role: the sling unit has a very high range that make it very deadly against low armored units. However against high armored units their efficacy is much lowered.

Javelin missile

Base stats: moderate accuracy, very low range, very high armor penetration.
Base abilities: none.
Role: javelins units are very deadly if they can come close to the targets as their very high armor penetration and damage can make short work of every unit type. Just beware of ammo capability!

Mount units

Sword Cavalry

Base stats: moderate speed, moderate charge, high melee attack, low melee defence, moderate armor.
Base abilities: Fury.
Role: Sword Cavalry is the best cavalry against sword infantry since it can make short work of them in melee. Some units of Sword Cavalry also posses Javelins to make them even more deadly against infantry. Against other types of cavalry, however, sword is the weakest one.

Spear Cavalry

Base stats: low speed, moderate charge, low melee attack, high melee defence, high armor.
Base abilities: Flying wedge.
Role: Spear Cavalry is the anti-cavalry per excellence since it can make short work of every other cavalry type. Apart this, then, it is also moderately good against sword infantry.

Shock Cavalry

Base stats: high speed, high charge, moderate melee attack, low melee defence, low armor.
Base abilities: Gallop.
Role: a pure harassing force, Shock Cavalry is the pure hit-and-run unit in the game with immense impact power while gallopping. Some of the best cavalry units in the game are from this category. Outside of their charge, however, Shock cavalry is weak and fragile apart some very special exceptions.

Missile Cavalry

Base stats: high speed, low charge, low armor and defense, moderate accuracy, very high range, moderate armor penetration.
Base abilities: Quick Reload (arrows only), Precision shot.
Role: missile cavalry is one of the best skirmishers given their very high speed and mobility. What they lack in numbers in comparison to missile infantry they get for mobility and full 180 degree arc range. For the rest they have the same weaknesses of missile infantry, included other cavalry.

Elephants

Base stats: low speed, high charge, high melee attack, high melee defence, low armor.
Base abilities: Kill elephants, Stampede.
Role: elephants are a very powerful and can wreak havock against every other unit in the game; their major weakness are pikes/spears and fire, especially the one of javelins for factions having them.

NOTE: Abilities and/or stats and roles can vary greatly depending on the faction. As such it is important to look at these roles only as generic points because in the specific situation of a faction things can change, even dramatically.

Factions overhaul.

All factions have been overhauled to make them all unique and playing with them different. As in history some factions will be ineherently stronger than others for lack of resources or either general unit power, but everyone of them is perfectly strong in their own merits and it also depends on the user to make the most of them. I willingly gave certain factions more power in resources or unit selection because in this is the challenge: if you are weaker it is your duty to win against the odds, and if you are stronger you must know how to use your strength in an effective way to not be crushed. I also did this because newcomers can chose a stronger faction and have an easier journey while users that like a challenge can choose factions that are a little weaker.

Rome Faction

There is not a conglomerate of Roman factions, Rome IS the faction. It being the largest and resourceful of all factions this is not a surprise as Rome has the more disciplined and veteran units, with an advancement in equipment and battle tact is unmatched anywhere else. Units that Rome lacks can be recruited from Auxiliary camps for resources are not a problem for the largest faction in the game. The great power of Rome, completely on the opposite of Barbarians (and in fact when the two met there's a clash of combat styles), is defense: melee infantry units in Rome are the masters in this style and they have all the abilities to supplement this behavior to the most and come out as the winners.