Charlemagne Expanded - Unit Roster Overhaul (work in progress)

[Sebidee]

Hi guys!

I've been really busy over the past month working on this mod for Age of Charlemagne, it's not completed yet but it's pretty close and I'll have something to release on the workshop in February.

Like many I found the unit rosters in Charlemagne to be a little underwhelming, for starters they are quite small with some factions only having 15 land units in total. There was also very little progression as many units would be unlocked in the first couple of turns meaning that you would be using the same units from the beginning all the way to the end of your campaign, with only a few exceptions. This obviously effects the quality of the campaign, small rosters are boring and without any progression this problem becomes worse, since the units at turn 300 are the same as the ones at turn 10 there really isn't any reason to continue the campaign into the late game.

I aim to fix the Age of Charlemagne rosters with this mod. Unlike other unit mods I will not just be adding units, I'll be completely erasing the vanilla units and then completely replacing them with newly designed rosters. They will be quite large with just under 40 units per faction, don't worry about roster bloat though - the rosters will be teased out slowly with long upgrade trees so your recruitment menu will never be overwhelmed by redundant units.


Mod Goals:

Here are the main aims of the mod -

• Visual Variety: Units, obviously, will look different from each other but there will also be plenty of variety within each unit. This will be done using incredibly complex unit variants with several times more items of clothing and armour than any vanilla variants.
• Technological Upgrades: Most units will be upgraded with technologies. Some units will have long chains of 4 or even 5 units while other secondary units will upgrade once. This ensures that the unit roster progresses throughout the entirety of the campaign while cutting down on roster bloat.
• Slow Progression: Units will upgrade but not in leaps and bounds, when a unit upgrades it will be a relatively minor change. Their stats will be improved, and so will their variant, but the new unit will be similar to the unit it has upgraded from. This means that progression is gradual and believable as your units will go up step by step rather than suddenly transforming into a new unit as they have in previous games.
• Varied Unit Roles: There will be no duplicate units in this mod, all unit chains will have their own use and separate role on the battlefield. This means you will have to pick your units carefully and tailor your armies to whatever enemy they will face.

Roster Structure:

I've designed a formula for making the new rosters. It's difficult to explain but the gist of it is that there are 5 unit 'categories' which make up each of the rosters.

General Units: These are the general bodyguards. They are powerful and made up of the units most associated with the faction (for example knights for the Franks or swordsmen for Mercia). Like in past games they will not be recruitable and are tied to generals. They will upgrade twice during the campaign.

Levy Units: These are basic units which are recruitable from town buildings. At the beginning of the game they will be pretty weak but they will be cheap and cost effective. Later in the game the levy units will be upgraded to become more organised militia units. They will be lightweight but strong for their price, making them ideal for reserve armies or garrisons.

Primary Units: These will be the rank and file of each faction and the units you will use most often. They will for the most part be the units most commonly associated with the faction (for example the Avars have lancers, horse archers and foot archers as their primary units). They will have long upgrade chains with each upgrading 4 times.

Ancillary Units: These are side units, units that would have been present in the faction's armies historically but would not have been a main feature. They will only upgrade once.

Elite Units: These units are the best of the best. They don't upgrade at all and are unlocked with the final military technology. Elite units will be far stronger than any regular units but will be limited in number.

More Preview Videos

[Heathen Storm]

Good to see you alive and kicking, Seb. Can't wait to see your work!

[Sebidee]

Good to see you alive and kicking, Seb. Can't wait to see your work!

I've been kicking the whole time man

And here's the first preview!


Charlemagne lacks a good selection of light armour. Units tend to go from tunics to mail with nothing inbetween, this makes for very little visual variation and also makes lighter units seem more weak since they have no armour to speak of at all. Well, with the help of model makers Hloric and BigBadWolf we've managed to make a nice light armour piece for light units such as archers, levies and light infantry. It's adapted from the nordic padded mail model so that it displays the padding - but not the mail.

It comes in 3 variants: Leather, quilt and faction tint. Check it out!

[Sebidee]

Did you know it was possible to edit the UI icons for unit? You can even add new ones. One of the features of this mod is an expanded set of UI icons and unit categories. Mace Infantry, Club Infantry and Two Handed Infantry now have their own categories and icons. This makes it easier to spot them on the battlefield and also makes the custom battle menu a little tidier. I think I might even expand it further and make new UI categories for cavalry too, perhaps to distinguish between light and heavy cavalry, I don't know.

Here you can see clubs and maces in the custom battle menu (I censored the mace unit cards, they aren't done yet).



And you can see that the new icon appears above the unit in battle...



... and on it's tooltip!



Come back for another preview tomorrow. What of? Maybe more armour or something, I haven't decided yet.

[Sebidee]

Feeling a bit lazy today so I'll just show off the icon for the mace infantry. It's a bit better than the club infantry maracas.



And there it is on the tooltip of the Lombard's Gastald Macemen.

[Dude with the Food]

I've been waiting for you to take on Attila.

[Knight_Of_Ne]

Impressive work Sebidee, the amount of care and thought you're putting into this is excellent.

[Heathen Storm]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I've been kicking the whole time man

And here's the first preview!


Charlemagne lacks a good selection of light armour. Units tend to go from tunics to mail with nothing inbetween, this makes for very little visual variation and also makes lighter units seem more weak since they have no armour to speak of at all. Well, with the help of model makers Hloric and BigBadWolf we've managed to make a nice light armour piece for light units such as archers, levies and light infantry. It's adapted from the nordic padded mail model so that it displays the padding - but not the mail.

It comes in 3 variants: Leather, quilt and faction tint. Check it out!

Fantastic work! Might I make a suggestion?

Adding the strictly leather is a brilliant idea, and I think you can go one higher with this. Not every nobleman (especially in the Northern and other north-Germanic kingdoms - e.g. the Saxons) could afford chainmail. I've always loved the rich tunics over padding, and AFAIK it has historical basis from one of the vendel age plates. A lot of Saxon reenactors use something like this...



As you can see, not only does it look rich and noble but you can tell there's pretty significant padding underneath there. I've found the "avar overcoats" look rather similar!

[FrozenmenSS]

Fantastic hardworking mate.I was planning some ĺater this year doing some Starting Dates For the AOC campaign like 843, 872 and something around the 900ad with the Arrival of the Magyars in Central Europe (with the units you created for the magyars in BI probably) if I got time to do it.I hope the units you are making in the mod be historically accurate and can be used for those starting dates as well.

Btw what you are doing right now is totally fixing AOC's bad designs as unit rosters.I totally agree with the design approach you are going.

I wish you best of luck my partner from the Barbarian Invasions mod. ☺😊☺😊☺

[Sebidee]

Thanks guys! That's great encouragement

Heathen, that's a great picture! Nice reference and very useful. The Wespthalian units look sort of similar, they're units are mostly light and armoured in furs and leather with plenty of mantles although the late elite units have mail. I think I might end up redoing some variants to make them more similar to that pic.

Frozenman, definitely! I'd love if you used these units for extra start dates

Today's preview will be showing off the progression of units, using Mercia's swordsmen chain as an example. This is a heavy swordsmen chain (the first two units have the heavy battle entity while the next three graduate to very heavy). As you can see the base unit is armoured in a crude leather vest, then upgrades to padded leather and a metal helmet. The third has poor quality light mail and leather coif but that then upgrades to the fourth unit with heavy mail, gilded helmet and mail coif. The fifth unit is the final version of Mercian Swordsmen and is armoured in very heavy mail with metal plates riveted to the breast and topped off with an elite helmet and a long cloak for flair, let me know what you think!

[Sebidee]

Today, I present the first unit spotlight! (or units, although at this relatively early stage it's important to remember that everything is provisional and is subject to, or even guaranteed to change). But let's not worry about that for the moment. I'll be showing off the 3 elites of the Kingdom of the Danes. Elite units are somewhat different in this mod than in vanilla and in a way are more similar to the elite hero units of Shogun 2, though less powerful/super hero like than they were! Elites are no longer simply the top tier of units but a step beyond. They are much more powerful than any mundane, rank and file units, though of course within the bounds of realism. Elites may be considered slightly overpowered but this is offset by their limited numbers. You will not be able to fill all your armies with them and have the choice to either keep them in one elite stack or scatter them through out your forces to back up the mere mortals .

It's worth mentioning that these elites will not come into use until the extreme late game and they will be unlocked with the final technologies. These will be rewards for playing the campaign to the end rather than a major feature of your armies throughout.

First, the Jomsvikings. Members of a semi-legendary order of Viking warriors, they are supreme heavy swordsmen with high all round stats and a willingness to fight to the last drop of blood for their brothers.



Next, the Saga Berserkers. They fight bare chested and draped in treasured bear skins and all the finery of elite warriors, their bravery and ferocity is the thing of legend and it's likely their exploits will be preserved in Sagas for all time.



The Danes are certainly not a cavalry faction. Their limited selection of cavalry will be almost exclusively light weight and inexpert. The Jarl Riders will be the only exception and the entirety of their heavy melee cavalry roster. The unit is made of rich Jarls and their closest oathmen. By virtue of their wealth they can afford to equip their men with fine armour and mounts which can at least compete with the cavalry of other factions. They are relatively poor riders but make up for this with their strength of arms and prowess in close combat.



Did anyone else notice that the animations are a little strange for the Jarl Riders? Melee cavalry usually don't look like that, right? Well, I've learned to edit animation fragments and new animations will be a feature and preview next week, so come back for more!

[Sebidee]

Today I was working on unit cards and have a selection to show you from Westphalia and the Danes. Because I'm removing the vanilla units I'm free to reuse most of the vanilla unit cards, which is a great time saver. However, there will inevitably be units that I can't match vanilla unit cards to. For those I have to make my own but don't worry, that's easy. The new unit cards are virtually indistinguishably from vanilla in style and quality and this is ensured by using vanilla unit cards as a base and then making small edits like recolourings and a little free hand drawing or sometimes by pasting elements copied from another unit card.

Check them out!

[FrozenmenSS]

Well Seb, for those BI units you mainly have to rename some of them and the voice acting for the Bulgarian units + reskining 4 of them.And unit cards for all of them.

[Sebidee]

Haha, easier said than done. But I do enjoy making the unit cards for Charlemagne, they are actually handy enough.

[Sebidee]

I'm really enjoying making these unit cards so I'll show you more today. I made a couple more for Westphalia and for Mercia too. The Charlemagne unit cards are actually surprisingly easy to make, in my opinion even easier than the ones for Rome 2 and the Attila grand campaign.

As you can see most of the new unit cards feature leather armour, that's mainly because the vanilla unit cards completely lack any light armour since light armour on units doesn't exist! Those are the most common unit cards I am making since I( am mostly managing to reuse vanilla unit cards for the mailed units.

Enjoy! Tomorrow I won't post unit cards

[crypt0]

I already sent a massive message about the units and changes I think should be implemented for each faction, and if you want I can search that out and repost it here, but atm, everything looks great, I'd love to see some armour akin to early brig, or splint mail. Or even some more rough leather armour (aka not just brown padded armour) but I don't know how hard that is to implement so I'll just leave it as something on my wishlist.

[crypt0]

Ah, here is my comment from the steam thread, it's fairly long, and anyone else here should feel free to pick it apart/add to it, but I thought it may be helpful to repost it here

"I for one would like to see a filled out roster for all the factions, I appreciate what CA wanted to do with making all the factions different to allow for all possible play style, but that also means people can't play the nations they want, whereas giving all full rosters allows all play styles for all factions, and while it's a tad less historically accurate, it's a whole lot more fun. One thing that applies to pretty much all of the factions (save for the Danes) is that they all really need more Axe or Mace infantry, CA went all out with the new era's more heavily armoured units, but they also cut the hands off of most facitons when it comes to actual countering said armour, we need units to focus on Knights. Nutcrackers, if you will. Most of the Nations also need to be balanced one way or another on the topic of armour, the Franks, for example, need more light infantry, whereas Austurias, the Avars, and Westphalia need more heavy infantry, I understand the want for historical accuracy, but when historical accurcay makes the gameplay less interesting, or less fun, gameplay should come out on top, and for gods sakes, whY ARE THERE NO PIKES?
As for specific faction stuff;

Avars; Bulgarian Units, Slavic Levies, Possibly even some Turkic Arab Units, because the Avars moved into Europe from the Caucas Valley. Definetly Shock Cavalry and Skirmisher Cavalry, and more variations of Infantry, including some Axe/Mace Infantry to be able to combat more armour based factions. I would like to see some Spear Units without shields, made for charging, and shock damage.

Cordoba; More specific Arabic Units, the Umayyad's had expanded to Spain from much further East, and they had brought there armies with them, the possibility of hiring North African units isn't impossible, and would open brand new oppurtunities. Again, Definetly Shock Cav, and some Bow Cav would be nice, even if it's as basic as "Berber Horse Archers" and "Berber Lancers" (CA just titling all the Arab units "berber" was such a cop out) Definetly some Axe/Mace Infantry (Possibly even with Greataxes and Two Handed Maces, as this wasn't unheard of at the time) and more Heavy, tanky infantry, and some eastern crossbowmen.

Austurias; I actually really liked the idea of an ambush based faction with these guys, but CA kinda did a bad job with it, from the units, all the way down to the fact that the "expert ambushers" wear a brilliant camo of bright ing yellow, I think the idea of them being the vengful Christian Spaniards, could certainly come into play much more than it did, Pilgrim based units, and "Christian Guards" are certainly not a bad idea, and they don't have to just have that, Austurius was historically, really pissed off at the rest of Europe for just leaving them behind to fight against the Umayyads, i don't think it would be unreasonable for them to have hire able Arab Mercenaries, from high tier Market Place's and Arab Converts from high tier Churches. As for unit types, Bows, definetly would be the primary concern and then some Shock Cav Knights, if there are any Bow Cav, I would make them Mercenaries/Converts, and lastly, Axe or Mace units.

Franks; Charlemagne, being the center of the campaign and all, is one of the only two playable Nations who feels at least partially fleshed out, though there are some things missing, like any serious measure of Light Infantry, I'm all for the factions having access to Tanky units, but you can't have JUST tanky units, or you have no real battlefield maneuverability, that being said the Franks get some decent Melee Cav, which seems to be CA's attempt at countering this issue. I think they need more light troops, Specifically Swords or Axes, They also need Shock Cav, and possibly Crossbowmen, as I don't think ALL factions should have them, but I tihnk that most of the larger ones would have access. I also think a Two Handed Axe or Sword Unit or two wouldn't be too unreasonable

Mercia; Now, I've seen a lot of people asking for Welsh or Cornish units, in Mercia, and honestly, this is something I DON'T want to see, maybe recruitable as mercenaries, but not trainable at barracks definitely, the reason being that they were Saxons and Anglos, and they hated the Celts, who were, at the time, some of the only people with access to the western Longbow (or Self Bow, if you want to be picky) I think that Mercia and Westphalia should have similar (not exactly the same) troop trees, and that Mercia, being that they left the Mainland and settled through waves of raids, should be much more focused on shock then they currently are, I think they need more Axes, definitely and more swordsman (possibly Two Handed Swords as well), but I also think they need more Skirmishers, and Skirmisher Cav, I'm iffy about Shock Cavalry for these guys, just like I am for the Danes, but I think a unit under something similar to the title, "Lance Raiders" would make the unit of lancers feel more at home with them, other than that, I think maybe some more bowmen, and an aesthetic which shows the development of Anglo-British culture seperate from both Celtic and Saxon culture.

The Danes; The Danes don't sit right with me for a few reasons, primary being the one you've already solved, the lack of Cavalry on the whole was an astoundingly bad choice. I could understand maybe, no Shock, Skirmisher, or Bow Cav, and just Raiders. But no Cavalry at all is just really bad, and also inaccurate, the ing Jutes and Denes were riding Cavalry, nearly 300 ing years prior. They need a varied Cavalry base, probably no Bow Cavalry though, in order to even try to keep up militarily with the other factions, as for there infantry, they could use some Raider Skirmishers, maybe even an Axe Throwing Unit(???). They also need a balancing to there Sword and Spear units, to even it out with the variety of Axes. War Dogs for these guys wouldn't be too bad either.

Lombardy; This is actually the Nation I feel has the most well filled out roster, though boring in appearance (although I don't doubt you will fix that c The only real missing thing are cultural identifying units, the Lombards were a combination of the last of Etrutea, the Ostrogoths, and the Raetic and Venedic Germans. There roster could be much more culturally varied it could have Gothic, and Germanic Units, and Italian Style Spearman. as for actual units, I think they could do with a Spear Unit or Two, I think the "Clubman" unit should be re categorized into the "Axe" section, because Clubs and Maces are far more useful as armour piercers then against soft targets, and I think they could do with a Mace, or even a Hammer, unit, to show off the developement or the Venetians and Savoy, who where famous for there Warhammers, and Crossbows, to show Milan and Genoa's growth. Other than that, I think Possibly more Shock Cav, and one or two Skirmisher Cav, and they would be good.

Westphalia; Last, but certainly not least, I think these Saxons need a full redo honestly, they feel so bland and ad-hocked in, that you would almost think they we're originally going to put in the Theme of Sicily, instead *shrugs*. All lust to play as vicious Imperial Rome aside, Other then the "Seax Warriors" there isn't a single defining or "Saxon" thing about this nation, they just have basic units all the way through, I think they need much more specified Infantry, for example, give them Seax Fighters, but make them something unique, as aposed to just a different shape of a sword, I also think they need far more Axes ( Including Greataxes) and much more Cavalry, Shock, Melee, and Skirmisher. I think it would be nice to see some definably Germanic influence in the troops as well, such as use of the Oval Shields of the Germans, and Two Handed Swords.

Finally, something I would like to see a lot, because we all know faction unlocks are coming (one is already out which is the only reason I'm even saying this here) is even if it isn't a roster change a retexture for the Celtic, Slavic, and Byzantine troops, because at the moment, they literally look awful, they are in no way different form an of the others, and they have no identity. I think the Slavs should have more culturally defined, and Eastern influenced armour, and a focus on larger shields for Spearman, they should have more Maceman, and certainly more Skirmisher and Melee Cav (predecessors of the Druzhinia and Boyars). The Celts could use some unique things, although they already have some unique units such as Welsh Longbowmen (I'm so glad CA gave the proper culture credit for that btw) Irish Kerns and Fianna, and Pictish Units. I think there could be a more focus on Berskr and Axe Units for the Picts and Scots, and the Irish could have a focus on Spears and Skirmishers, and Axe and Bow specialist for the Welsh. As for the Byzantines, there entire ing roster is just variations of the Skutatoi, I think they could definetly use some sprucing up, but I won't waste your time on explaining what they should have, the obvious Byzantine troops (Kataphraktoi, Latinkon, Toxatoi, Ect.)

I hope that's not way too much, and I hope you appreciate my feedback, also, if you need help with implementing anything, or just need an extra set of hands, I would love to help, we're already friends on steam, you could just message me, I may need some pointers on using the modding tools, as I'm used to modding Bethesda games, but I'm more then willing to help, and learn in the process."

[crypt0]

Ah, here is my comment from the steam thread, it's fairly long, and anyone else here should feel free to pick it apart/add to it, but I thought it may be helpful to repost it here

"I for one would like to see a filled out roster for all the factions, I appreciate what CA wanted to do with making all the factions different to allow for all possible play style, but that also means people can't play the nations they want, whereas giving all full rosters allows all play styles for all factions, and while it's a tad less historically accurate, it's a whole lot more fun. One thing that applies to pretty much all of the factions (save for the Danes) is that they all really need more Axe or Mace infantry, CA went all out with the new era's more heavily armoured units, but they also cut the hands off of most factions when it comes to actual countering said armour, we need units to focus on Knights. Nutcrackers, if you will. Most of the Nations also need to be balanced one way or another on the topic of armour, the Franks, for example, need more light infantry, whereas Austurias, the Avars, and Westphalia need more heavy infantry, I understand the want for historical accuracy, but when historical accuracy makes the gameplay less interesting, or less fun, gameplay should come out on top, and for gods sakes, whY ARE THERE NO PIKES?
As for specific faction stuff;

Avars; Bulgarian Units, Slavic Levies, Possibly even some Turkic Arab Units, because the Avars moved into Europe from the Caucas Valley. Definetly Shock Cavalry and Skirmisher Cavalry, and more variations of Infantry, including some Axe/Mace Infantry to be able to combat more armour based factions. I would like to see some Spear Units without shields, made for charging, and shock damage.

Cordoba; More specific Arabic Units, the Umayyad's had expanded to Spain from much further East, and they had brought there armies with them, the possibility of hiring North African units isn't impossible, and would open brand new opportunities. Again, Definetly Shock Cav, and some Bow Cav would be nice, even if it's as basic as "Berber Horse Archers" and "Berber Lancers" (CA just titling all the Arab units "berber" was such a cop out) Definitely some Axe/Mace Infantry (Possibly even with Greataxes and Two Handed Maces, as this wasn't unheard of at the time) and more Heavy, tanky infantry, and some eastern crossbowmen.

Austurias; I actually really liked the idea of an ambush based faction with these guys, but CA kinda did a bad job with it, from the units, all the way down to the fact that the "expert ambushers" wear a brilliant camo of bright yellow, I think the idea of them being the vengeful Christian Spaniards, could certainly come into play much more than it did, Pilgrim based units, and "Christian Guards" are certainly not a bad idea, and they don't have to just have that, Austurius was historically, really pissed off at the rest of Europe for just leaving them behind to fight against the Umayyads, i don't think it would be unreasonable for them to have hire able Arab Mercenaries, from high tier Market Place's and Arab Converts from high tier Churches. As for unit types, Bows, definitely would be the primary concern and then some Shock Cav Knights, if there are any Bow Cav, I would make them Mercenaries/Converts, and lastly, Axe or Mace units.

Franks; Charlemagne, being the center of the campaign and all, is one of the only two playable Nations who feels at least partially fleshed out, though there are some things missing, like any serious measure of Light Infantry, I'm all for the factions having access to Tanky units, but you can't have JUST tanky units, or you have no real battlefield maneuverability, that being said the Franks get some decent Melee Cav, which seems to be CA's attempt at countering this issue. I think they need more light troops, Specifically Swords or Axes, They also need Shock Cav, and possibly Crossbowmen, as I don't think ALL factions should have them, but I tihnk that most of the larger ones would have access. I also think a Two Handed Axe or Sword Unit or two wouldn't be too unreasonable

Mercia; Now, I've seen a lot of people asking for Welsh or Cornish units, in Mercia, and honestly, this is something I DON'T want to see, maybe recruit able as mercenaries, but not trainable at barracks definitely, the reason being that they were Saxons and Anglos, and they hated the Celts, who were, at the time, some of the only people with access to the western Longbow (or Self Bow, if you want to be picky) I think that Mercia and Westphalia should have similar (not exactly the same) troop trees, and that Mercia, being that they left the Mainland and settled through waves of raids, should be much more focused on shock then they currently are, I think they need more Axes, definitely and more swordsman (possibly Two Handed Swords as well), but I also think they need more Skirmishers, and Skirmisher Cav, I'm iffy about Shock Cavalry for these guys, just like I am for the Danes, but I think a unit under something similar to the title, "Lance Raiders" would make the unit of lancers feel more at home with them, other than that, I think maybe some more bowmen, and an aesthetic which shows the development of Anglo-British culture seperate from both Celtic and Saxon culture.

The Danes; The Danes don't sit right with me for a few reasons, primary being the one you've already solved, the lack of Cavalry on the whole was an astoundingly bad choice. I could understand maybe, no Shock, Skirmisher, or Bow Cav, and just Raiders. But no Cavalry at all is just really bad, and also inaccurate, the Jutes and Denes were riding Cavalry, nearly 300 years prior. They need a varied Cavalry base, probably no Bow Cavalry though, in order to even try to keep up militarily with the other factions, as for there infantry, they could use some Raider Skirmishers, maybe even an Axe Throwing Unit(???). They also need a balancing to there Sword and Spear units, to even it out with the variety of Axes. War Dogs for these guys wouldn't be too bad either.

Lombardy; This is actually the Nation I feel has the most well filled out roster, though boring in appearance (although I don't doubt you will fix that) The only real missing thing are cultural identifying units, the Lombards were a combination of the last of Etrutea, the Ostrogoths, and the Raetic and Venedic Germans. There roster could be much more culturally varied it could have Gothic, and Germanic Units, and Italian Style Spearman. as for actual units, I think they could do with a Spear Unit or Two, I think the "Clubman" unit should be re categorized into the "Axe" section, because Clubs and Maces are far more useful as armour piercers then against soft targets, and I think they could do with a Mace, or even a Hammer, unit, to show off the developement or the Venetians and Savoy, who where famous for there Warhammers, and Crossbows, to show Milan and Genoa's growth. Other than that, I think Possibly more Shock Cav, and one or two Skirmisher Cav, and they would be good.

Westphalia; Last, but certainly not least, I think these Saxons need a full redo honestly, they feel so bland and ad-hocked in, that you would almost think they we're originally going to put in the Theme of Sicily, instead *shrugs*. All lust to play as vicious Imperial Rome aside, Other then the "Seax Warriors" there isn't a single defining or "Saxon" thing about this nation, they just have basic units all the way through, I think they need much more specified Infantry, for example, give them Seax Fighters, but make them something unique, as aposed to just a different shape of a sword, I also think they need far more Axes ( Including Greataxes) and much more Cavalry, Shock, Melee, and Skirmisher. I think it would be nice to see some definable Germanic influence in the troops as well, such as use of the Oval Shields of the Germans, and Two Handed Swords.

Finally, something I would like to see a lot, because we all know faction unlocks are coming (one is already out which is the only reason I'm even saying this here) is even if it isn't a roster change a retexture for the Celtic, Slavic, and Byzantine troops, because at the moment, they literally look awful, they are in no way different form an of the others, and they have no identity. I think the Slavs should have more culturally defined, and Eastern influenced armour, and a focus on larger shields for Spearman, they should have more Maceman, and certainly more Skirmisher and Melee Cav (predecessors of the Druzhinia and Boyars). The Celts could use some unique things, although they already have some unique units such as Welsh Longbowmen (I'm so glad CA gave the proper culture credit for that btw) Irish Kerns and Fianna, and Pictish Units. I think there could be a more focus on Berskr and Axe Units for the Picts and Scots, and the Irish could have a focus on Spears and Skirmishers, and Axe and Bow specialist for the Welsh. As for the Byzantines, there entire ing roster is just variations of the Skutatoi, I think they could definitely use some sprucing up, but I won't waste your time on explaining what they should have, the obvious Byzantine troops (Kataphraktoi, Latinkon, Toxatoi, Ect.)

I hope that's not way too much, and I hope you appreciate my feedback, also, if you need help with implementing anything, or just need an extra set of hands, I would love to help, we're already friends on steam, you could just message me, I may need some pointers on using the modding tools, as I'm used to modding Bethesda games, but I'm more then willing to help, and learn in the process."

[Sebidee]

Thanks for that, though the colour is kind of hard to read if you want to edit. There are more leather armour variants but I haven't shown them because they are vanilla and not a new texture. I'll post some pictures of basic leather armour today as the daily preview. I'll address all the factions like you have too, a lot of what you've said has made it in the mod since I saw this message on steam before

Avars: The Avar's primary units are horse archers, archers and lancers. They also have a chain of heavy cataphracts as well as an elite cataphract unit and cataphract generals. Bulgars make an appearance with a 3 unit chain of melee cavalry. Apart from their levy units the Avar's melee infantry are exclusively made up of vassals with Slavic spearmen and axemen and Gepidic swordsmen.

Cordoba: The Cordoban primary units are based off the early Islamic armies with archers, swordsmen and medium melee cavalry. There is a big distinction between Berbers and Arabs in the new roster and you can easily tell the difference between them visually. There is a 2 unit medium lancer chain as well as special macemen. No horse archers (that's more of a Turkish/Persian thing) but there are berber camel archers.

Asturia: They are definitely an ambush skirmisher faction and I think I might end up changing some of the uniform colours. I've made a big distinction in their roster between the Gothic and Spanish people and they'll look and act differently. I haven't given them any Ummayid units but they will have knights, archers and some axemen.

Franks: They will mostly be pretty well armoured but they'll get some light units too in the form of their levies which later upgrade into more organised troops. All factions levies will be light. They will have a 3 unit chain of lancers and a unit of crossbows too.

Mercia: I agree with you about Mercia and I'm not giving them Welsh units since they definitely hated each other. Mercia will be a heavy infantry focused faction with good swordsmen, spearmen and axes. They won't have lancers and will have a fairly limited selection of cavalry though much better than the Danes. They have a 2 unit chain of decent enough archers.

Danes: The Danes will have only a few cavalry units but they will still exist. They are light melee cavalry who aren't much good but still useful. They get an elite unit of heavy cavalry for the extreme late game as well. They have wardogs and don't worry, there will be plenty of variety in infantry.

Lombardy: From my own research I found that the Lombards weren't incredible Germanic at this stage and were quite romanized so I haven't added in all the different germanic nations within their roster but don't worry, they will be generally germanic in nature anyway. One of their primary units is Italian spearmen and their archers are also italian in appearance. They have clubmen levies as well as macemen, crossbows and lancers.

Westphalia: I found the Westphalians to be very bland and generic in vanilla too but I have made them very unique in this mod. Because they a pagans and were engaged in a long, long holy war against charlemagne I've decided to make them quite germanic and exaggerated their status as barbarians a little bit. I've made them more of a light and medium weight faction that engages in raids and guerilla warfare rather than heavy infantry tactics. So they aren't bland anymore, they look, feel and act different to all other factions. I haven't given them shock cavalry but they have decent melee cavalry and skirmishers.

I haven't begun any work on the Celts, Slavs or Byzantines yet. Not even designing their rosters because they are coming after the first 8 factions. But I'll be sure to ask you all about them when it's their turn

[Sebidee]

Here's today's preview. As requested I'll show more rough leather armour which will appear on early units, light units and levies.




If you guys ever want to see a specific previews all you have to do is ask. If I've done it I'm more than happy to show it