Empire Light Cavalry for Call of Warhammer: Beginning of the End Times

[Hirundo]

Hi!

This is the first submod I share, and it is a very simple one. If you play any Empire faction, you do not have a light cavalry unit. Of course, there are Pistoliers, but you can not use them in close combat, and it takes a lot of turns to have access to knights. So from Rage of Dark Gods I got "Empire Mounted Sowrdsmen", the perfect unit to fill this gap in the unit roster.

Screenshots:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

These valiant horsemen are good for flanking, disabling enemy missile troops and hunting down fleeing enemies. Their recruitment is the same as the Pistoliers', they are available for all Empire factions, both in campaign and in custom battles.

For installation you have to copy the two attached .txt files to "Medieval II Total War/mods/COW_Beginning_Of_The_End_Times/data". Don't forget to make backup files of the original ones!

Good gaming!

export_descr_buildings.txtexport_descr_unit.txt

[27731300]

Nice idea! I likehow for each Empire faction's mounted swordsmen unit has their ownprovince's uniform, which I think is a great thing despite it beingonly a tiny detail. Keep it up!

[WhiffOfGrapeshot]

Great job, glad to see you made this.

[Mr_Nygren]

This model is the old cavalry unit for the Grand Theogonist-faction in COW though.

[iwspartan]

Great use for that ol' unit!
Might not be the most lore correct thing...But I definitely added those into my campaign for RP and convenience :p nice idea, hirundo!

[Julianus Flavius]

Lore-wise they do fit in I think. There's nothing saying that the Empire isn't allowed to mount up some of it's state troops. There's no tabletop equivalent, but same for all the unique factional Empire troops (eg. Altdorf Company of Honour) as well as the dismounted Reiksguard.
I think they make a good filler unit for the Empire. As it stands they don't have any low-tier cavalry apart from Pistoliers which aren't much good at melee, to the point that some factions' skirmishers can fight them hand to hand.

[iwspartan]

Mhm Indeed true, might not be table top units of them but you do make a great point!
it does make sense that the empire would have melee mounted forces as well rather than rely solely on the knightly orders.

[Julianus Flavius]

I imagine there's no tabletop version of this unit as they'd be rather pointless. Knights are Troops choices and therefore aren't that hard to come by, unlike in this mod where it takes a while to get any non-general melee cav.
But think of this: The Vampire Counts have access to Mounted Skeletons, which are non-knightly riders raised from the dead. On their gold-tier armour upgrade they look like Empire state troops on horseback, but... dead. These troops must be raised from something haha

[iwspartan]

Haha, that is true xD

[tarenor]

makes more lore sense then Bretonnian cav archers and i love em! its the beautiful thing with mods and sub mods, download what ya want or pass over. good work!

[Nichita]

Altough the idea is creative I would rather not have them. The Empire factions need to have their weaknesses as they already have some pretty good strenghs in terms of rosters.

[Julianus Flavius]

I can see your point, Nichita, but in Medieval 2 a lack of cavalry is a severe hindrance to a faction, and one that I don't think the infantry available can make up for, especially in the campaign where dismounted Reiksguards take ages to become available. In the multiplayer arena, these light cavalry aren't anywhere near as needed, but in the campaign I think they are needed for balance's sake.

[dazr0b]

I love these mounted swordsmen and think they are something that the Empire would have used.

I also think the Knightly orders come way too late in the game. Because of this, I've incorporated your Swordsmen for level 1 stables, but then made Knights Panther available for all Empire factions with level 2 stables (apart from Middenland, which I've given White Wolves). Then made White Wolves available for level 3 (and Knights Panther for Middenland).

The more unique orders still come later in the game, to give certain regions more individuality.

Files below, if anyone wants to use them.

export_descr_buildings.txtexport_descr_unit.txt

[icenii]

Small glitch, copied 2 new files to correct location, checked they're both there but units don't show up in game or building browser or custom battle, what have i done wrong, have back up of original files so no problem there, V 1.5 beta. 08:25:08.710 [system.rpt] [always] CPU: SSE208:25:08.710 [system.rpt] [always] ==== system log start, build date: Sep 5 2014 version development ===
08:25:08.710 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_0.pack
08:25:08.710 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_1.pack
08:25:08.710 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_2.pack
08:25:08.710 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_3.pack
08:25:08.710 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/data_4.pack
08:25:08.710 [system.io] [always] mounted pack packs/localized.pack
08:25:11.404 [script.err] [error] Script Error in mods/BOTET/data/export_descr_unit.txt, at line 1797, column 1
Could not find soldier battle model for unit type 'Pirates'.


08:25:11.404 [data.invalid] [error] DATABASE_TABLE error found : error reading record from file mods/BOTET/data/export_descr_unit.txt. Ok i now get this error log, was the "Pirates" model removed in 1.5 so this will no longer work right, guess I'll just add back the original files.

[dazr0b]

I got errors with Hirundo's export_descr_buildings.txt file. My edited one works on 1.5. If you don't want Knightly orders earlier in the game, you could delete these out of the relevant stables.

[icenii]

I got errors with Hirundo's export_descr_buildings.txt file. My edited one works on 1.5. If you don't want Knightly orders earlier in the game, you could delete these out of the relevant stables.

Thanks @dazrOb i'll try them soon can't try for a week or two but if yours work all good.