A Garrison Script worthy of Deus lo Vult

[derdrakken]

DLV Garrisons
All settlements now raise garrisons for their defense when besieged, depending on the faction owner. In fact, every settlement has a unique garrison scheme. The garrison is raised at the time an invading army lays siege so having a spy open the gates or bringing up your own siege equipment does not bypass the garrison. This simulates the idea that the feudal system was basically a system for defense (standing armies being very expensive) and on the approach of an invading army, the knights, yeomanry and peasantry in the settlement and surrounding countryside rally to the defense. The size of the garrison depends not only on the importance of the settlement but the local zeal of the citizenry. [I’ll use the English faction to illustrate.]
Garrison sizes:
·Great Cities (including capitols): 12+ companies [London]
·Homelands (usually starting regions for the faction): 9+ companies [Nottingham, Caen]
·Strongly Aligned: 6+ companies [York, Southampton]
·Weakly Aligned: 3+ companies [Wales, Southern Ireland, Rennes (Brittany), Burges]

Alexandria, Cairo, Edessa, Jerusalem, Antioch…those are all “Great Cities,” so crusading armies’ victories will be hard won. Garrisons are generated only once per siege (at the instant the settlement is besieged), but will respawn if the siege is broken and the city is besieged again later (more defenders pour in from the hinterlands). Garrisons usually consist of early-era units to simulate every able bodied (and some not so able bodied) man being pressed into action. However that doesn’t mean they’ll be a pushover…Constantinople has two hardened companies of Varangian Guards as part of the garrison that will defend the city for the Emperor.

With this system, taking a border settlement will be no great task, but matters will be decidedly more difficult as an invading army drives into an enemy heartland. Using the English again as an example, the garrison only turns out in London when held by the English faction. Any other faction holds the city as an occupying army and must provide for its defense per usual. Border settlements may rally garrisons for multiple factions. York for example, is weakly aligned with Scotland. So if the Scots take York, they will receive a small garrison to defend it if besieged. Iberia is a mess of divided loyalties, so on the Iberian Peninsula settlements receive garrisons whether owned by Moors, Spain or Portugal. A few settlements get rebel garrisons if they were historically hard to subdue regions (Wales, Ireland, Valencia), but in general I’ve steered clear of rebel garrisons so that the AI factions can expand properly…I’d rather have the player face strong primary factions. The garrison script owes much to Niko’s Hard Mod garrison script, but has been streamlined to keep the overhead low.

[eldooardoe]

Hello All,

I'm working on a garrison script for your beloved DLV for the next release. A garrison script spawns additional units to defend a city or castle when it is besieged. Here are some of the features planned for the DLV version:

1. Each city will have it's own unique script ...this allows for some really cool stuff (though it will take a while to program)

2. Garrison strength will depend on cultural affinity...a northern European populace will turn out for a northern European overlord...but will be decidedly unenthusiastic when defending the city for say a middle eastern master.

3. Type of garrison units spawned depends on the buildings (wall/stables/archery range/garrison/city garrison/mason guild/merchant guild/knight orders/race track) and level of these buildings in the settlement. The more buildings, the greater the number of units...the higher the level...the better the quality of those units.
Example: English control York Castle with Knight's Stables and Practice Range (no other buildings). Garrison spawned: 2 Peasants, 1 Mailed Knight, 1 Longbow if the castle were besieged.

4. Regardless of cultural affinity, you can always depend on the merchants/masons, knight orders (assuming your faction qualifies for them) and the nobility (represented by high-level military buildings) to turn out to defend the city during a siege. All these folks had something to lose (property/honor/land) when control of the city was at stake.

5. Great cities & capitols will have extra strong or plentiful garrisons.

6. Middle eastern cities will get an extra boost when controlled by Islamic factions to give those crusading armies an appropriate challenge!

7. Cities at the border between two cultures (ex: Narbonne which borders northern European and southern European) may weakly support both cultures, or strongly support both cultures...this is the kind of cool stuff #1 allows.

8. Cities will have unique rebel garrisons (Welsh longbows for Wales, etc.) when controlled by the rebel/slave faction.

Cheers!

dd

Sounds terrific!!

[Tokus*Maximus]

Another good solid idea from our lord mod general DerDrakken to increase the challenge! DlV should be called the UH/UH (Ultra hard/Ultra hard) play setting!

Aw the best you crazy Deus lo Vulters! TOKOID

[kevincompton]

Would it be possible for the spawned units to disappear after the battle? Otherwise it seems like it would be problematic for the AI.

Also can you make it so that it just spawns when human sieges AI and not when AI sieges AI? Otherwise it will just give advantage to whoever is defending as opposed to really making it more difficult for the Human.

[Odie the King]

I would suggest making the garrison script have more units... much more... only adding a couple of units aint gonna stop me.... I would like to lose some sieges for once...

[Byg]

I would suggest making the garrison script have more units... much more... only adding a couple of units aint gonna stop me.... I would like to lose some sieges for once...

Absolutely agree with that. Nothing less than a full stack, regardless of type or level of settlement would be a challenge. Make us need a double army to succeed...or is that too tough?

Will the garrisons appear as you approach within a certain distance of the city as in SPQR or only when besieged? The former defends against you attacking with prebuilt siege equipment, eg. catapults in the same turn as you arrive.

[Odie the King]

Byg,

no way would that be too tough... I wish it would take 4 stacks of my armies... i have so may expendable resources its pathetic

[Oda Nobunaga]

i think this will be a great idea. is it going to give units every turn you lay siege or will it be a one time boost. i know that was the problem i had when trying someone else's garrison script. i don't know about other but sieges can be tuff if you don't have siege equipment do to the glitches with ladders and towers. my units end up just sitting at the bottom, not climbing and getting shot by arrows. once stack militia or a few good units like knights or a little of both depending on where is what i think would be ideal. but i have a feeling you've already got this all figured out.

[Odie the King]

I would suggest that it would be an every time occurance.. anotherwords, every time you besiege .... the script should activate....... even if there is a full stack currently in the city, it should still spawn troops... they will just be outside the walls and can be reinforcements.. I would suggest spawning a full stack.. yes a full stack....this would add a major challenge to the game... if its only going to spawn 4 units... which is what i thought someone said then .. you my as well not even have it... The AI needs all the help it can get..

[derdrakken]

Updated the post at top to reflect my current plans. Performance hit from my original script sent me back to the drawing board with a more abstracted, but hopefully just as fun garrison script.

@Odie -- script fires every time a city is besieged

@Oda -- script fires when settlement besieged, so it is a one time boost per siege

@Byg -- garrison appears mid-turn (as soon as settlement is besieged) so pre-built siege equipment confers no advantage (by that I mean it doesn't let you bypass the garrison)

@kevincompton -- no way really to clean up units once you've spawned them...AI should be able to handle assuming it wins the siege...if it loses the units are gone anyways

@Tokus -- I think this will definitely amp up the challenge, my friend

Cheers! dd

[Odie the King]

OK,

this sounds great... let me make sure this is correct.

I go and besiege a city, when I click on besiege, the script activiates and the enemy get a certian amount of units.. Lets say I get defeated..my siege fails.... and I am forced to retreat... when I reinforce and go back again the script renews again when I besiege... ?

next question,

Lets say I already have besieging equipment in my army and I assault a city, will this script work even if I go right to Assault??? i hope so

[kevincompton]

Odie, I'm assuming theres no way to turn it off even if they wanted to. So yes it would activate every time you besiege OR assault.

When can i get this magnificent script?

[derdrakken]

OK,

this sounds great... let me make sure this is correct.

I go and besiege a city, when I click on besiege, the script activiates and the enemy get a certian amount of units.. Lets say I get defeated..my siege fails.... and I am forced to retreat... when I reinforce and go back again the script renews again when I besiege... ?

Yes...if a city defeats the siege, it will fire off next time the city is besieged...and again, and again, and again...

next question,

Lets say I already have besieging equipment in my army and I assault a city, will this script work even if I go right to Assault??? i hope so

It fires the instant you besiege...assaulting the same turn whether you have siege equipment or a spy opens the gate makes no difference to the script...you'll still be facing the reinforced garrison.

When can i get this magnificent script?

DLV 2.0 goes live March 2nd...go here for the latest on the script, the mod, everything...http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=84594

Cheers! dd

[Hamburglar1]

Maybe I don't understand totally but:


When the AI sieges the player, does the player get extra units? I feel like this would make it impossible to lose if I automatically get lots of guys.


Also, does this happen when AI sieges AI? I feel like this should not happen since the AI would have a terribly hard time forming an empire, especially if they don't "understand" that the city with 1 unit will turn into 8 units the moment they attack it, and the attackers only brought 4 units to deal with the 1.

[kevincompton]

I was gonna ask the same question, if the AI is faced with this script against each other, it will effectively cancel out any benefit it would provide.

[derdrakken]

The AI does fine. Rebels don't get garrisons (except for a couple of special cases - Wales, Ireland, Valencia). So the AI factions expand nicely, rolling over the rebels. Once they bump up against another major faction their expansion slows...this is as it should be.

Player only gets garrisons in his home territories...so once you expand beyond your sheltered little nest you lose the garrison advantage. Trust me, this is so much better than vanilla, you'll love it.

Cheers,

dd

[kevincompton]

I can see some problems that will arise. The player will adapt his strategy, planning for this garrison script. Whereas the AI will expand slower then before.

[intacepta]

question:

city has full stack, so when besieged does the extra units spawn outside city or do they disappear?

2nd question:

city is besieged, extra units added. ok so what happens when a second stack besieges city, do more units spawn?

[derdrakken]

question:

city has full stack, so when besieged does the extra units spawn outside city or do they disappear?

2nd question:

city is besieged, extra units added. ok so what happens when a second stack besieges city, do more units spawn?

Once a city fills to 20 companies...no further units are spawned. Cheers! dd

[derdrakken]

I can see some problems that will arise. The player will adapt his strategy, planning for this garrison script. Whereas the AI will expand slower then before.

Problems are just another scripting opportunity for some lucky gnome. Cheers! dd