Byg's Grim Reality - Supply and Command (BGRIII, BGR IV & BGRIV Enhanced)

[Byg]

Byg's Grim Reality Enhanced Realism Mod

Featuring

Supply System, Field Morale, Command System

Dynamic Religious Area of Recruitment, Recruitment by Rank, Factionwide Zeal Effects

Dynamic Difficulty Level & All mod (Kingdoms) Compatability

(V2.0 In SS4/5 and DLV by Default*)

*features vary in different mods

NEWS

The main BGR Thread @ TWCenter is here (in the Stainless Steel Submods thread)

BGR IV & IV Enhanced now available. Here

BGR 2.5 Final. Released on the BGR Testers Forum (now open to guests).


BGRIII released: version 18-02-08.

Now compatible with all mods (Please contact about how to adapt BGRIII to any mod)

Contains new features plus reworked previous version features.

All known quirks fixed.


The BGRIII standalone installer is available in the BGR Testing Forum here. However If you have Stainless Steel 6.1 you can install BGRIII with that instead, but remember to install the fix from here afterwards.

Important Note
If you installed BGRIII using the Stainless Steel 6.1 installer you NEED this fix. It is at the bottom of this post, called "data.zip".
Simply unzip it and place the resulting data folder here:C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\Stainless_Steel_6\ , then start a new campaign.

As of 27/05/08 this file also contains updated descriptions and improvement tweaks. If you are already deeply into a good campaign with the previous fix then you can still apply this updated fix and get most of the new improvements. The rest of the features will only appear in your next new campaign.

If you want to use BGRIII+RR+SSTC :
Install SS6.1 with BGRIII and RR ticked
Install BGRIII update from bottom of this this page (as mentioned above)
Install SSTC mod from their site
Install latest RR mod (SSTC compatible) update from here

If you want to use BGRIII+RR :
Install SS6.1 with BGRIII and RR ticked
Install BGRIII update from bottom of this this page (as mentioned above)
Install latest RR mod update from here

Here is the full description for the new features of BGRIII. Old version features are still included and you can read about them below this section.

First a note on the difficulty of this mod, which classes a standard game on vh/vh as EASY for the purposes of this description and assumes you are a regular player on vh/vh, finding that too easy and/or looking for a new challenge and much more depth making more decisions critical to your game.

Difficulty Rating System

EASY
Standard Stainless Steel without supplies on vh/vh

MEDIUM
Stainless Steel + supplies on vh/vh

HARD
Stainless Steel + BGRIII stepped back to BGR2.5 on vh/vh

VERY HARD
Stainless Steel + BGRIII on vh/vh

EXPERT
Stainless Steel + BGRIII + Real Recruitment mod (by point blank)

Expert Expert
Stainless Steel + BGRIV (test files available)
Contains individual wealth system & estate ownership
Variable supply and forage consumption
Resupply In Camp
Resupply Train
Crime & Punishment System

BGR IV Now available for testing. Here

BGRIII Tutorial

To be updated further.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

BGRIII Guide.

This Tutorial Campaign has now been replayed using Lusted's Battle & Campaign AI available from the submods section.
This was to ensure at least the possibility of being backstabbed by allies to encourage fear in the player.

Using Stainless Steel 6.1/Real Recruitment/BGRIII

Example campaign Late Era/ Kwarezmian (K) / VH/VH

The first thing you will notice as K is that you are at war with Mongols and a little spying soon tells you that you are probably going to lose unless you plan every move.

Turn 1

You will see at the start of the game, via the announcements, which generals are in your faction's War Council (WC). These are your most important generals. They have or have the potential to be superior governors & commanders. Try to keep track of these and plan your campaigns around them.

There are up to 3 WCs. A general with at least 3 stars, 4 loyalty and 4 piety will become a WC if there is a vacancy in the War Council and he does not posess the Negligent trait. A general can acquire Negligent by repeatedly allowing a town he controls to become besieged. A general can become less negligent by fighting in the open. The greater the enemy the better.

The King is in the WC by default, listed as a trait. The other 2 WCs have a transferable ancillary. If a WC becomes King he can then appoint another member of the WC by transfering his ancillary to any other general of your choosing.

In a small faction (relative to other factions) the King has and needs little control of his subjects and so allows/has to allow all generals the Right to Knight. This can be viewed as a factionwide trait in your king's traits list. At this point, though the WC exists, they are no greater than any other general except in logistics.

As the faction grows the King increases his grip on the reigns of power, giving more power to his loyal WC at the expense of the rest of the nobility. He is gradually creating a professional, then centralised system of command.

The levels for this then are Universal Right to Knight (all generals have equal recruitment ability), Right to Knight Restricted (Good troops recruitable by WC only, other generals get medium troops only), Professional Recruitment (Good and medium troops from WC only) and lastly Centralised Recruitment (Only the King and Heir can recruit good and medium level troops and the heir must be in the WC). By this time your faction will be the largest in the known world or close to it.

Examples of good units are Knights and The more powerful siege equipment, Sergeant (medium) level units are typically recruitable by all generals.

Captains can only ever recruit low level units like militias & peasants.

With some exceptions you will broadly find that these 3 groups of units each contain categories of units as defined in the Real Recruitment mod which you can optionally use with this mod.

WCs Can usually recruit all available units once fully supplied, subject to other restictions. One restriction may be the region's religious support percentage.
Click on a priest and hover the mouse over a region to check that region's support level. Your regions need an increasing minimum level of support for your religion for them to provide willing, capable recruits of worthy quality. The % required starts at 75% and increases with faction size to 80% and finally 90% as your sprawling empire becomes harder to control. The % required at any time is represented as the Faction Zeal trait. Reduced Faction Zeal levels have a serious impact on the ability of all generals except your WCs.

All Traits with factionwide effects, like Faction Zeal, can be seen in your Leader's traits and changes are announced each turn in a pop-up message so it is important to read these.

There are no recruitment restrictions on turn 1 so as I am starting at war with the mighty Mongols I need to ensure availability of decent recruits as a top priority. The Kwarezmian faction (K) is very large at the begining so this will lower the faction's Zeal quickly. All factionwide effects move in levels at a rate no greater than one level per turn. We therefore have a few turns before Zeal affects recruitment at game start. You can get a similar period of high zeal when a new faction leader is announced.

I train all available decent units in each of the castles.

The best recruits at this time are from castles so I now check the support levels in those regions. I want to bring those important regions up to 90% to create a solid core for recruitment in the future. Some castle regions are too low so I send all available priests there and commision more from any cities with good religious buildings. Upgrading religious buildings in those areas is important too.

At the same time I now choose two of my WCs to send to the two best castles to oversee the recruitment drive. I must try to recruit the best available troops each turn. But, I must not overburden my faction with too many troops for it to sustain.

If I over recruit then my supply of good men will dry up Your leader will show the factionwide trait of Recruitment Limit Reached. This happens when your faction's military power exceeds your faction's size relative to the other factions. You can and should check these levels from time to time by viewing the faction score graphs. You can also get an idea from the status report at the start of each turn.
It is therefore best to have a small powerful army, as weak units will contribute to your total military power. If you over recruit, then individual generals will show Impaired Recruitment Ability (A general may show impaired recruitment ability for other reasons too). You can re-enable recruitment yourself by disbanding units. Disbanding weaker units then gives you the option to recruit better ones (effectively promoting units).

Recruitment of worthy men may also become restricted or re-enabled by the relative power shifts of other factions. E.g if the other factions lower or raise their troop levels then this creates a new standard for maximum recruitment levels.

Back to the campaign. My other WC, the King is at the front line next to the Mongol forces, he will be my fighting general for now. However, he has a small, weak army and is in a city with little recruitment potential so he takes the best units with him and runs away to help with recruitment and join with a larger armer behind the lines.



Turn 2

The Mongols attack and besiege the abandoned city now held only by weak militias who were left to buy time.

The King's two WCs, having arrived at their respective castles begin to recruit quality units, if available.

This turn the all important 'Has Full Logistical Support' traits are issued to the WCs. This means that as the chosen elite generals they have been trained for and are given better logistical support. This has a big impact on supplies.

You wil notice that all generals begin the game with the 'Fully Supplied' trait. Time spent in the field gradually reduces these supplies. Running out of supplies has a serious effect on morale, which also simulates the effects of starvation weakness and disease.
You will be notified when supplies approach critical levels and the trait will always tell you how much you have left and how long it could last.

A general can keep from using up his supplies by foraging/pillaging the territory he is in. He may forage a region for so many turns then, before that region is exhausted, move to another region to fresh foraging ad infinitum. Of course, doing this in foreign territory is not going to please the owners. Neither will it please your own people, but you will find that foraging is easier in home territory and you can last twice as long there. If a general remains in a single territory too long his supplies are reduced a little because the army must consume these reserves when it cannot forage. This can cause problems in long sieges, making it best to finish sieges quickly!

WCs, being better at logistics can carry more supplies/make supplies last longer, which is a very good reason to use your elite WC generals for all your conquests. WCs with this ability can also resupply faster than ordinary generals.

Resupply can be facilitated by boarding your general onto a supply ship (any type) to oversee supply distribution. Remain there until fully resupplied or leave early with less.

Generals require a full store of supplies in order to begin recruitment of quality armies.

Apart from supplies, a general must keep an eye on the morale of his troops. Continual service without rest and relaxation serves to lower morale over time. Armies have the trait 'ready for action' indicating default morale levels.

Settlements with supportive populations ( greater than 50% of your own religion) provide armies with supplies.
Castles need 50% religious support before they can provide R&R to boost morale. Cities however can provide R&R regardless of the support of the population.

Armies can replenish supplies & boost morale by defeating and taking supplies from an enemy army. Conversely they may lose supplies and morale in defeat.

Foraging is prevented by initial close contact with the enemy and neutral armies. This forces the army to consume supplies faster.

Captains do not have logistical ability or support and are left to scavenge like an unruly mob from the territory, lowering their loyalty and reliability and making them sometimes rebel unpredictably. Losing a large captained army could be a fatal blow in critical times.

As my King, who was retreating into the hinterland, is a WC with Full Logistical Support and is Fully Supplied he will have no trouble reaching the nearest castle 2 turns away. Had he needed to use up supplies on the way or lost them after a defeat, then as the castle is 80% supportive he would have been fully supplied after remaining there for one or two turns.

Having now arrived at the nearest castle to raise recruits the King faces a new threat.

Two more mighty Mongols armies have appeared from the south east in the middle of his Kwarezmian territory.

The king unites his army with his only full army, which has just reached him.
All other troops which were heading for the king now about turn and head back before they are caught alone by the Mongol's southern army.

The King now sheds the weaker units to hold the castle and again begins a humiliating retreat south before the two pincers of the mongolian horde draw together.

The Recruitment Limit has been reached so all garrisoned, spare militia are disbanded to make way for better troops next turn.

NOTE: Whenever BGRIII suspends production of any unit type you will see the unit card in the recruitment greyed out. The number of turns remaining before recruitment will not now improve until the conditions for recruitment arwe again suitable.

Turn 3

Troops are available for recruitment again!
Khiva falls and the Northern Mongol army immediately advances on Konjikala, the castle the King just left.

The king is now caught equidistantly between the Mongol Northern and Southern armies and vital war machines have yet to arrive and in any case is now cut off. These were essential if he was to take on the mongol rocket launchers.

Turn 4

Faction Zeal is low and the family members are getting corrupt and fat and so the King has implemented a system of professional recruitment so only his trusted war council generals can recruit worthy units.

A diplomat reports a successful meeting with the Seljuks who have become allies with trade rights and a tribute to boot.

A jihad is called by the senior priest to lure away some of the mongol forces to Vienna.

South of the king, his army abandons a fort blocking the Southern mongol advance in the vain hope that it will pass through uneventfully, which would leave only 1 mongol army in the south for the War councillors to deal with.

The king, still trapped in the north, retreats into the mountains to make a stand.

Turn 5

A very loyal, military minded candidate comes up for adoption and is the first to be accepted, based on this attribute alone.

The King's army is now weary, but still with full supplies is still trapped between 4 armies. His position overlooks the castle of Konjikala and if weak mongol forces attack it he can rush to their aid.

A fleet is commisioned at a nearby port to aid an escape by sea if needed in the future.

Turn 6

Konjikala Castle besieged by a strong Mongol army. All governors of trapped provinces now escape by sea.

The king decides he can take no more humiliation and launches his attack on the single besieging army directly from behind. When they turn to face him in battle, the garrison will be attacking the mongols from behind. his priority is to take out the rocket launchers.
The garrison attacks first in poor order with the mongols maintaining the high ground. The King entered battle furthest away. Commiting first his horse archers, then his cavalry the kings army forces its way up the hill losing many to arrows. He seems to have the upper hand for a moment before his army splinters and routs with few survivors.
The garrison is eliminated and the remains of the kings army now stand impotent outside the walls of the castle. Half of the supplies were stolen. All prisoners were executed.

The Southern mongol army now besieges a fort protecting Gorgon. The commander evacuates Gorgon and slips past the Mongols into the south with only his bodyguard. He then takes all the siege hardware and troops which had never reached the king and puts together an army. Though he is not in the war council he still shows promise and must take command as the WCs are busy recruiting. He awaits the mongols in the hills. He is the only force now protecting the capital and the rest of the faction.



From distant Alamut fortress possibly the faction's only hope is the formation of new cavalry forces on completion of their training ground. Infantry have proved entirely useless against the Mongol horde.

Troubleshooter

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Q: I have installed the update data.zip correctly & started a new campaign. Are there any known issues with BGRIII?

A: No, every issue reported so far has been due to incorrect installation. Other than that I often update the game playing instructions whenever I hear of multiple users confusing errors with features, which is understandable in such a complex game. Even I need to check the instructions once in a while.

Q: I have read all the game instructions, but my Faction Leader still cannot recruit any good units, why?

A:
1) You did not install the data.zip (at the bottom of this post).
2) You did not start a new campaign after installing the data.zip.
3) You did not install the data.zip into the correct stainless_steel_6 folder (watch out for old versions' folders).

Q: Why are some of my recruitment unit cards greyed out?
Q: Why don't the number of turns until unit available numbers count down?

A: Whenever BGRIII suspends production of any unit type you will see the unit card in the recruitment greyed out. The number of turns remaining before recruitment will not now improve until the conditions for recruitment are again suitable.

Within a turn of starting your campaign you will see:

Effects on recruitment are announced in the faction announcements scroll,

King's Orders affecting recruitment are announced and in his traits list,

General's received orders and other effects on his recruitment are listed in his own traits list,

Generals have a summary trait for quick viewing of recruitment ability, e.g. "Minimal Recruitment Ability" tells you that he will only be able to recruit basic and militia units. There is also an "Average Recruitment" indicator and a "Full Recruitment" indicator. If your generals do not have one of these trait levels within a couple of turns of starting your campaign then you do not have the update data.zip installed.

(See instructions here for the various recruitment effects, which are dependent on religion and faction zeal, population/army size ratio, the orders and rank of the general governing, factionwide orders issued by the king, lack of supplies etc)

Q: The AI turns can take almost twice as long as I'm used to. Is this normal?

A: Yes, BGRIII has 45,000 extra lines of code for the recruitment effects. If you don't want to use the spare time to plan your next moves then you can try BGR2.5 instead. BGR2.5 is the same as BGRIII, but with no slow ai turns and no recruitment effects.

Q: How do you boil potatoes?

A: Place potatoes in a pan and cover with water. Bring to boil then simmer with lid on. Give them 10 to 20 minutes depending on the size, prodding with a fork to check when soft enough.

Overview

BGRIII introduces a number of new effects primarily affecting how, where and by whom your units can be recruited. It also contains a dynamic religion based AOR (area of recruitment)

This version attempts to represent the effects of the faction's status on the individual and the individual's (your Leader's) effects on the faction.

The general effect you percieve will be an increased depth of decision making, whilst making formerly easy, large factions as difficult to play as small factions.

The idea of my mods in general is that you know about causes of effects and then use your skill either to avoid those causes or seek them out depending on their benefits or penalties. My idea is not to dump some terrible or great effect upon a player for no good reason or at random.

The factors I have introduced are based on factors that were present in medieval times (and throughout most of history) and had to be dealt with by Leaders of that period.

You will see the extremes of the new effects when playing as a small or a large faction. There are graded levels in between.

Playing a small faction

A small faction is a tight, unified, cohesive population and fighting force.
There is great religious & military zeal affecting piety, command and loyalty amongst the nobles and the population.
The nobles are great men themselves and may rival the faction leader in generalship and prestige.
The population is easy to control in religious and military matters.

Playing a large faction

A large faction requires greater skill and determination to hold it together.
Zeal, both military and religious are more desirable, yet less attainable. This lowers loyalty, command and piety for ordinary, non War Council generals.

In a large empire the leader's grip on the reins of power must be firm. He increasingly dictates from the centre, drawing power away from the provinces & lesser nobles. He increasingly relies upon fewer, trustworthy, selected professionals in both matters of governance and war.

Specific Gameplay (causes and effects)

On starting your campaign, after a turn you will get a report on screen informing you of your faction's zeal level and how your king intends to rule, regarding his distribution of command within the armies.

(This information is always viewable, after his first turn in power, in your faction leader's traits.)

Don't be put off by the apparent complexity. Much here is intuitive or will soon become so because everything is based on a logical system. Informative traits, ancillaries and messages keep you up to date as you progress.

Recruitment Ability

This is an indicator of a generals ability to recruit certain levels of units. This does not tell you specifically why though and any of the following causes may be responsible, directly or indirectly. This feature has been improved with the May update, revealing Full, Average & Minimal Recruiting ability: Full means all units, Average means no top tier units and Minimal represents militia level units only. If you do not see these traits after a couple of turns then you must install the update.

FACTION ZEAL

As your faction grows geographically, your people are exposed to new ideas, beliefs, financial rewards and associated corruption. They become less insular, more cosmopolitan, more self-serving and less united.

Zeal levels decrease as your faction grows at a maximum rate of one level per turn.

This has a factionwide effect on loyalty and religious & military zeal: faction zeal. Usually your War Council Members are immune to the effects of Zeal because they are the system.

High Zeal

Your default level at game start or when a new leader comes to power, the people being boosted by the inaugural pomp and ceremony. Expectations are high.
Good loyalty, command and piety are widespread.

Moderate Zeal

You would be wise to favour your most loyal generals and your War Council generals.

Low Zeal
As with moderate zeal, but with more pronounced effects

Very Low Zeal
As with low zeal,but with more pronounced effects

Abysmal Zeal

You are now either the greatest existing faction or in close contest for that position.
Your leader would be extremely unwise to entrust a large army to any general outside of his own, elite war council.


CENTRALISATION OF RECRUITMENT & COMMAND

A representation of the Leader's grip on power and the effects of his policy on recruitment and command.

These levels often, but not always run in tandem with faction zeal and size, reflecting the movement of power from the provinces and the nobles to the Leader, his senior generals and the capital.
The greater the faction's size and the lower the faction's zeal, the greater the grip on power required by the Leader and the centre. This is due to:

Fear of loss of control to the enemy within.
Desire and need for a more efficient, centralised command structure.

All generals and ungoverned settlements can recruit most militias,(rural & urban units) at all times, subject to standard game recruitment restrictions.

The War Council consists of the Leader, and up to 2 other Generals.

Minimum requirements to be automatically awarded war council member ship are:

1) Usually Command 3, Loyaly 4, Piety 4
Requirements are lower for the Heir and during "Very Low Zeal": 2 command, 3 Loyalty, 3 Piety).

2) A general must not have the Negligent trait. Negligent shows in the traits list as either: Neglected_Border_Defences,
Negligent or Completely_Negligent ( it is acquired by generals who repeatedly allow their settlements to become besieged).

War council members always have greater logistical ability.

Additionally you may transfer your war council ancillary to whoever you like.

If a general becomes king, he can nominate another, i.e. you may transfer his ancillary to another general because the king always retains War Council membership regardless of the ancillary.

The Heir has an increased chance of getting into the war council, but it is an uncertain world. When your faction leader adopts "Centralised command" only your King and Heir can recruit the best units, but the Heir must also posess one of the war council ancillaries, so give him one.
If other generals posess both of the ancillaries they will have improved recruitment, but it will not match that of the Heir or king.

Categories of units are closely based upon those defined by Point Blank's Real Recruitment mod, see instructions about installing both mods together at the BGRIII testers forum. Neither mod is essential to the other. It is your choice. I would personally install both (RR 1st).

Categories & Examples
A
Late Professionals (Byzantine Spearmen)
Feudal. (Knights)
Religious Order (Knights Hospitaller)
Urban Professionals (Hand Gunners)
B
Early Professionals (Armored Sergeants)
Local (Highlanders)
C
Rural (Peasant Archers)
Urban (Militias)

Unit category details here

Universal Right to Knight
Rank effects:
1} The Leader - can recruit all unit categories (A,B & C)
2} War Council - all
2} all other generals - all
The leader and his nobles are close in power. They have equal recruitment ability and command potential. Members of the war council have greater logistical ability. Generals are bound to him by their high zeal.

Right to Knight: Restricted
Rank effects:
1} The leader - all
2} War Council Members - all
3} all other generals - B, C

Professional Recruitment & command

1} The Leader - all
2} War council - all
3} other generals - C

Centralised Recruitment & Command

1} The Leader - all
2a} War Council (and is the Heir) - all
2b} War Council (if not the Heir) - B, C
3} other generals - C

Other Effects on Command & Recruitment

Supplies Only once fully supplied can a general begin to recruit an army, subject to his rank and other factors.

Religion All generals/governors must maintain a minimum level of religious support in their province in order to sustain recruitment to their cause.

Required Minumum Religious Level in Province.
1) 75% if faction Zeal is moderate or high.
2) 80% if faction Zeal is low
3) 90% if faction Zeal is very low or abysmal

Distance to Centre of Power

This feature only affects non War Councillors.
Whilst the Leader's recruitment restriction orders are in place, but non WC generals can still recruit category B & C units (i.e.Right to Knight: Restricted), when too far from the Capital these generals will find they are only empowered to recruit militias (category C) under their governorship, not category B.
Of these non WC generals, those with a command ability of 4 stars or greater are unaffected.

Recruitment Limit Reached

Your empire cannot sustain a size of military force which is too great compared to the size of your empire.
All recruitment for all generals, with the usual exception of militias (category C) is restricted.

If you have only just been notified of this restriction and have only just exceeded your maximum recruitment level, yet you need a better army, disband as many weak units as you can spare. Next turn, if you disbanded enough and your recruiting generals are in position to recruit, then with all other factors being ok, recruit as many powerful units as you can muster before you again reach your limit.
You have effectively promoted the old units.

Mercenary units are your other option as they are always recruitable, subject to standard game conditions.

Tips

Your Leader and his Heir are often now your main generals and are usually both members of the War Council. To get a third member he will need to have high command (3), loyalty (4) and piety (4). Such generals are rare in a large empire. Try to nurture at least 1 general besides your FL and Heir. The King does not require a badge of office for his War council so if he rises to the position of king from the war council he may nominate another general (transfer the ancillary).

As part of the update, the Heir too must earn War Council membership. War Council membership requirements are lower for the Heir always and for other generals when Zeal is "Very Low": (2 Command, 3 Piety & 3 Loyalty).

You can also transfer the war Council ancillary from any general to any other. Upon receipt of this honor the new War Councillor has higher traits and the old one, lower traits.

Getting an ageing general to pass on his WC ancillary, nominating his own replacement, is a good idea. If a general dies holding a WC ancillary the King will only appoint a new one to very worthy candidates.

Apart from faction announcements you can view your factions current zeal level in your faction leader's traits. Here you will also find where he stands on professional, feudal and centralised recruitment and command.

Don't forget that when The King gives the Order: 'Centralised Recruitment' your king and your heir are the only fully operable war councillors and the heir must be given a war council ancillary from anothe general or built up by you to get awarded one automatically by the king/leader.

If you are adopting or bribing, go for high loyalty before anything else. This was historically the most important trait in a time when brother fought brother and father fought son.

An easy faction to play would have heavily religious settlements. If they are not then make them so.

Starting with a small faction will be easier than a large faction in some respects.

A new Leader will briefly boost your faction's zeal and citizens may wish to fight for him even if they would not do so for the previous leader.

Always keep an eye on each regions religious level. If your people start to stray too much they may not wish to fight for you. An army of priests of another religion and even local heretics may do more than a regular army to topple a settlement or even an empire.

If you reach your population's maximum recruitment quota you may be able to get more knights next turn by disbanding some weaker militia (C) units, for example.

Repeatedly fighting weaker enemy armies is ultimately bad for morale. The greater the army you fight the better this will reflect upon your generals.

Settlements and troops will not thank any general who allows them to become besieged. Field battles are the true path to glory.

NOTE
If you are happy with modding you will see 5 triggers at the end of the character traits file. Enable them at any point in the campaign. They give you the ability to recover from internal rebellion by great deeds performed by your faction Leader or potentialy rebellious generals. These are disabled by default because they only work if BB&B mod is installed (it is in SS5.1 & SS6.1). I have enabled them by default in the update at the bottom of this post.

BGR2.1.

Contains new features plus reworked previous version features.

It is apparently free from error, but may now be delayed to be released with version 3, which will contain a new recruitment system as discussed in the posts.

BGR2.1 Introduced these Features:


War Council

• Up to 3 of your generals will now be your main generals. Your Faction Leader, his Heir and the Leader of the Council of Nobles (once nominated).
• Each receives a new "Good Logistician" trait.
• They receive full state support and training, improving army health and morale.
• They can resupply faster, carry emergency reserve stores and even organise supplies in unfavourable settlements.
• Encourages realism and roleplay.

Total Reworking of some previous Trait Systems

• No permanent Traits.
• Traits continually monitor your actions.
• Traits take more instances to aquire and are reversible through opposite actions, usually through playing honorably and aggressively.

Encourages Great Battles

• Benefits for fighting large, glorious field battles rather than continually defending sieges or only fighting small AI armies.

• Account taken of feedback, some traits reworked. e.g: No loss of stars without cause and causes are just and realistic.

Further AI benefits

• You will meet more dangerous, more enduring and more suprising enemy armies. (I lost my first test battle in Kingdoms and My Capital City in Stainless Steel).

Testers

Please contact me, by posting here or by pm, if you would like to test the new version. It is intended to work in ANY mod, including Kingdoms. It can work with your modded files because it adds the code rather than the files. (due to the genius of Nerazzurri who also created the testers forum)

Ideally when testing:

Some modding experience would be useful for reporting, but not required.

You would check out the traits as your generals progress through a campaign, making sure the traits act as they are supposed to, perhaps putting generals in unusual situations too.

Feedback! epecially on your battles before and after posessing traits is useful.

This first test version is recommended for meticulous experts who play on vh/vh, but anyone is welcome. A less harsh version will follow.

You will be refered to a private forum for download and testing feedback.






* Byg's Grim Reality 2 contains all that was in the original plus a complete supply system and many more additions listed below. (Originally created for SS3.2 onwards)

Byg's Grim Reality 2 Setup.zip is an automatic installer/uninstaller (for SS3.2) and it makes a backup of the files it replaces. It requires you to first uninstall any previous version. it is at the bottom of this post.
If you encounter a problem with the auto installer then just use Byg's Grim Reality 2 - Supply and Command instead.


(Byg's Grim Reality original version for ss3.2 (my first version) is available as before and has had no reported errors or problems.)



*Byg's Supply System


*Supplies are carried with armies, which decrease with time spent in the field.
Supplies decrease in 1/4 chunks.

*Resupply via settlements and Supply Ships. Marching along the coast being supplied from ships is now a reality.
Resupply is at a rate of 1/2 per turn.

* Conquered settlements will only provide supplies once their population is at least 50% supportive of your religion.

A newly conquered settlement only supplies an initial resupply of 25 to 50% which you steal from the population.

Send in your priests, ideally in advance and build churches fast.

Meanwhile your army can sustain itself by remaining in the city, it just can't get enough supplies to replenish its stores.

*Foraging. Before you need to consume a portion of your armies supplies you may live off the land - foraging for 2 turns in foreign region and 4 turns in one of your own regions.

Each region has a limit to how much pillaging (foraging being the polite word) it can sustain. You may for example forage for 1 turn in a foreign region then move to another indefinitely and thereby avoid consuming your own supplies.

A region will replenish its foraging capability either by the general leaving it for 1 turn or by consuming his own supplies for 1 turn (automatic)

Sieging and long marches in the same region will cost you the most in supply terms.

*Capture enemy armies' supplies to sustain yourself longer in the field.
Simply win a battle against an army of at least half your army's size and steal their supplies to top your own up.

*Realistic penalties for running out of supplies
No one likes to go hungry. Your generals will get the blame if they run out of supplies. Your troops will become weaker, less loyal and undisciplined as they desperately forage for scraps to survive on.

*The enemy can prevent you foraging, causing you to use up your supplies.
The enemy can do this on first contact with you. i.e. when he holds up your movement for a turn.
If the enemy or any army prevents your movement, foraging will be prevented for a turn.

*Lose supplies to the enemy when you lose a battle- this is designed so that if you quit the battle in time then you may retreat with supplies intact. Some random factor is used here for how much you lose.

*Plan your supplies in advance. An enemy region with a vast hinterland could become your toughest target as was so often the case in history. Will you or can you use supply ships? Will your supply train last the distance?


*Byg's Command System

New additions:

*Poor Logistician. A general will gain this trait if he does not take care of his supplies.

Read on for the details of the rest of the traits.



Byg's Grim Reality original version (Originally for Stainless Steel 3.2)

THE AIM OF THIS MOD

The aim of this mod is ultimately to make the AI win a campaign. Then we can start discussing how we can beat it rather than the other way round.

Changes are intended to add realistic effects to the human player, which make him weaker and to the AI , which make him stronger.

I hope I have introduced a stronger advance planning element.


Old Version Installation:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I will be very pleased to receive feedback on this Stainless Steel compatible minimod

All in one Automatic Installation and Uninstallation and Original file backup File

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=6HENYJOJ

*Many thanks to nerazzurri for the installer work.*



Manual Installation:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=0BGQCWGG

The above link also contains a save game file to view the later game.

The files on the link at the bottom of this post are for manual installation and do not have the save game due to size limits, but otherwise the files are the same.
1) Unzip the files to desktop and place the files as follows:

Open the Stainless Steel folder

a) If you want to try the saved game provided, place it in the saves folder. This is just after the arrival of the Timurids and though your empire is huge you will get a good idea of late campaign playstyle. You will need to use all the provided files to use the saved game.

b) The units, buildings, export descr character traits and export descr vnvs enums files go directly into:

C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\Stainless_Steel\data

c) The regions file goes here:

C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\Stainless_Steel\data\world\maps\base

d) The Strat file goes here:

C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\Stainless_Steel\data\world\maps\campaign\imperial_campaign

e) Export vnvs file here:

C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\Stainless_Steel\data\text


Notes

1) Delete the map.rwm file to enable the resource changes for the Templars. It is here:
C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\Stainless_Steel\data\world\maps\base

2) If you don't want the Templars to be made extra hard and have a limited area of recruitment, use manual installation but omit the Buildings file and the Strat file. You can then use 1 year per turn or two as in the standard SS installation.

3) For automatic installation, the Campaign is set for 1 turn per year. It can currently only be used like this, but could be adapted. This is because I have only altered the buildings txt and strat file for this time period and not due to any limitation.

Gameplay


This central part if this minimod was based around my observations of Hannibal, Caesar and Napoleon. How do armies survive a long time in the field and remain an effective fighting force and when they don't, why don't they?

Hannibal kept his army in hostile territory for 20 years. I believe he achieved this by continually winning battles thus keeping morale high. He also brought some cities round to his side to recuperate in or support his army.

Napoleon had to retreat from Moscow because his enemy denied him battle and destroyed Moscow before him. Morale collapsed because there were no major victories and no
place to rest in such a harsh environment. Also Napoleon suffered greatly from overconfidence and thus ignored all advice against the invasion.

Caesar, rather like Hannibal inspired great morale in his troops via many victories, but he reached such heights as to become a danger to his own people.


The changes do the following:

Templars made especially difficult to play. (For old SS3.2 version only, though most other features are in all later versions)

All strong units above militia now only recruitable in 5 towns on the map (nearest to Tortosa).
Further from home you will need a Chapter house to create decent units (e.g.hospitallers) or use mercenaries or send your armies and reinforcements from your home towns. This gets rid of the unrealism of raising troops from newly conquered cities and adds a tough advance planning element to wars. Your costs are effectively increased by this.
(buildings and regions resources files altered. Therefore these changes require a new campaign)

Battles Harder

Battle (actual fighting) times increased and routing made more difficult via simple morale increases for foot, missile and horse
(units file altered so save game compatible)

Battle Readiness 'yo-yo' Traits added.

I don't like awarding bonuses to human players because we don't need them, but we do like a reward to make things interesting.
This set of traits indicates an army's condition. It runs through a series of levels increasing every 4 turns that an army is in action (i.e away from any town or a castle with at least 50% compatible religious population) In essence, your troops become more weary the longer they are away from home. The levels are:

Ready for Action (default when born, adopted, recuperated etc)
Troops Weary (4 turns away)
Troops Despondent (8 turns)
Troops Undisciplined (12)
Troops Desperate (16)
Troops Mutinous (20)

Each level attained initially brings penalties to Command, Troop Morale, then later unrest, Loyalty and Influence too. The traits lists warnings to you to get the troops home to recuperate.

And there's more. From Ready for Action or any other level, the battle readiness levels can move in the other direction. So:

Ready for Action
Eager to Fight (adds a little morale)
Bent On Glory (adds morale, reduces loyalty)

Movement of levels in this direction is attained by fighting and winning battles.
Any victory has the effect of reducing the effect of time away from a settlement i.e if your troops have just become Weary (4 turns away), but you fight and win a battle, you go back to Ready for Action (2 turns away) so in 2 more turns you will be weary again. So battles won temporarily regain morale before it starts to slip again.

Heroic victories or Major victories and taking an enemy settlement will have 4 times the above effect so fighting and winning against large AI armies will do your men more good (morale wise) than fighting minor easy battles. Keep fighting and winning and you can stay in the field longer without having to recuperate in a settlement.
Recuperation recovers morale at 4 times the rate at which you lose it.


Major victories Battle and Kills Counter Trait.

50% kills are required in a battle against greater odds to get a major victory.
This trait counts and updates for every Major battle you fight up to about 150. It also takes an educated guess at your cumulitive kills for each of your generals. Obviously using 150 trait levels would be too much effort so I use a few traits a bit like an abacus.

Major Victories are recorded on monuments erected in your generals honor. One two, three and four victories are announced and recorded as they come. The fifth victory entitles you to a Great Monument, then whilst keeping this monument it counts one to four again, then you get Two Great monuments. Five of these gives a Spectacular Monument and so on. In this way you can easily reckon the total battles and by adding up the kill totals on the three types of monument you get your generals total kills during his lifetime (rough estimate).

Major victories are counted for AI generals too. I liked the idea of spying a hugely successful general heading for your territory, fearing him and knowing his history. Now you will.

Sadly, because AI generals' armies do not retrain (as far as I've ever seen) they don't last too long. Therefore I rewarded successful AI genarals with the following trait.

Battle Hardened Trait (may rename as Cohesive Fighting Unit)

Healing Increase for AI Armies.

The idea being that they work well together and take good care of their injured.
For this trait I assumed there was not a limit on healing values after battles. All being well, this massively heals AI armies if they win. The idea was to keep good ai armies going. They don't have the advantage of retraining as we humans do. This levels the playing field.

Over Confidence Trait.
Changed system from v2.1 onwards.
Old Method:
If you like reading historical accounts of ancient battles it becomes clear that overconfidence is probably the greatest cause of major lost battles.
I use this description to give a trait to the human player only, which in a complicated way will prevent your generals from getting too many stars. If you do get too many you wont have them for long, so make use of any high star general whilst he's at his peak.
New Method:
Repeatedly fighting armies less powerful than your own will falsely boost your confidence making your army overconfident. Your general and his troops may not be up to an equally matched enemy when eventually they meet one.
Fighting mighty armies reverses any overconfidence gained.

Tweaks

A few mods, including Deus Lo Volt and SS, incorporate BB&B mod, which gives the Offensive to Nobles Trait to Faction Leaders, causing rebellions and civil wars (I absolutely love this idea as the next best thing to having a shadow faction where your rebels become a faction.)
I wanted there to be a way out of this for our faction leaders that was not random, but rather had to be fought for.
This tweak enables an offensive FL to personally lead an army and conquer a city to rid himself of this trait and redeem himself to his people.
Your leader can also achieve the same by fighting and winning a major victory.

Your generals who are negatively affected by their faction leader's offensiveness can recover their loyalty too by being sent successfully against a settlement.

Finally, I reduced the recurrence of random rebel armies appearing on land, as in vanilla M2TW. They are more annoying than challenging in my opinion.

SCREENSHOTS

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

A general making the most of his brief possession of 6 stars




EDIT: Below now requires you to resupply in a settlement, not unravaged land.

Uninstallation (for SS6.1)
Reinstall SS6.1 (not the whole of Stainless Steel) and don't select this mod.

Data.zip: Important Note
If you installed BGRIII using the Stainless Steel 6.1 installer you NEED this fix. It is located in this link, called "data.zip".
Simply unzip it and place the resulting data folder here:C:\Program Files\SEGA\Medieval II Total War\mods\Stainless_Steel_6\ , then start a new campaign.

As of 27/05/08 this file also contains updated descriptions and improvement tweaks:

Traits explaining each generals recruitment ability and many more helpful descriptions.

Requirements for the Heir being awarded War Council ancillary by the King are lowered to 2 command, 3 piety & 3 Loyalty.

Requirements for ordinary generals are lowered to the same amounts as the Heir, but only during the Order: Centralised Recruitment (when your faction is the largest or close to it).

If you are already deeply into a good campaign with the previous fix then you can still apply this updated fix and get most of the new improvements. The rest of the features will only appear in your next new campaign.


Latest versions are available at the BGRIII forum in this link

Only older versions are attached to this post below:

Byg's Grim Reality 2 Setup.zip is an automatic installer/uninstaller and it makes a backup of the files it replaces. It requires you to first uninstall any previous version of this mod.
If you encounter a problem with the autoinstaller then just use Byg's Grim Reality 2 - Supply and Command instead.

Byg's Grim Reality Traits small file.zip is for manual installation of the 1st version of this mod. Byg's Grim Reality Traits Setup.zip is an autoinstaller version.

[ME2_junky]

Told you "Grim Reality" has a nice ring

[Gen_Lee]

Really impresssive.
will iYou ntend to release a Mod's version (meaning 1 that can be adapted to any mod?)

[Byg]

Told you "Grim Reality" has a nice ring

Ha ha, almost convinced me, but its full title is "Byg's Grim Reality 2 - Supply & Command", which is actually longer and any future version will have a significantly longer title still...

Really impresssive.
will iYou ntend to release a Mod's version (meaning 1 that can be adapted to any mod?)

Yes, I think so. I have to be a little careful as my changes are scattered throughout the traits system and some link to stuff in Stainless Steel (SS).

That said, as I know what and where they are all should be ok.

The main reason I have not done so yet is that I am waiting for someone to find an error whilst using it in SS.

So far, no one in my main forum has reported any errors and I haven't found any myself.

It is also possible that I may interlink the supplies system with the army morale system, which I would do before any other mod.

I'm sure there is a program somewhere that would automatically just add the core of my traits into any mod by merging txt files, but I haven't looked yet.

ps. If I had the new DLV files to hand I might slip my mod in in a spare moment, but no date on that.

[ME2_junky]

Perhaps a bit primitive but still easily done...load a file compare with something like Total Commander & just copy paste the stuff that is missing

I know, I know, I'm a genius

[Byg]

Perhaps a bit primitive but still easily done...load a file compare with something like Total Commander & just copy paste the stuff that is missing

I know, I know, I'm a genius

Well quite right, but there's probably hundreds of mods. Far better to make an auto installer that is universal.

[repman]

In DLV there are already small distance loyality traits from the BBB mod inside, so we have integrate it carefully

repman

[ME2_junky]

Well...there is an idea! creating an automated mod integration script/program!

But uhm...somethings tells me it will not be like spreading butter on salami.

After all, what if I REPLACE certain content rather than add/subtract? an automated integration can only go so far...it has to have a certain pre-known install base...which means you could do the same with a self extracting archive.

[Ieuano]

Really impresssive.
will iYou ntend to release a Mod's version (meaning 1 that can be adapted to any mod?)

please do this

and is it just the traits which have the supply and demand effect?

[Pnutmaster]

Saved me the hassle of creating similar traits

Would you mind if these traits were integrated into a future BBB build? I would like to base the BBB health traits on constant supply traits, giving the player more control and less headache over his characters.

Fantastic work, btw.

[beezneez]

this sounds awesome. i'm going to give it a try w/ the new SS 4.0.

[Byg]

please do this

and is it just the traits which have the supply and demand effect?

Supply and Command, yes.

And now for the more complicated answer for modders:

Potentially the traits will be better with the higher morale of my EDU. Unsure of effect without this. My EDU adds 10 morale so if one of my traits knocks off 10 the effect vs the enemy will slightly wieghted against someone not using the EDU.

Also if morale bottoms out at zero and there is no such thing as negative morale things are altered even more.

So, if a trait reduces morale by 12 for example then a generals morale value is affected thus:

11+10 (with morale boost)-12 = 9

if there is no negative morale then it is the same
11+10(with morale boost)-12 = 9

but

11 (no morale boost) -12 = -1

or if morale does not go negative:
11 (no morale boost) -12 = 0

So an enemy general vs your trait effected general will see this with the morale boost:

21 vs 9

and without the boost

11 vs 0 or -1

I think the figures speak for themselves that the effect may be different.

A simple battle between two similar units in a custom battle with altered morale values should help you decide whether you need to tweak these values in your mod.

Saved me the hassle of creating similar traits

Would you mind if these traits were integrated into a future BBB build? I would like to base the BBB health traits on constant supply traits, giving the player more control and less headache over his characters.

Fantastic work, btw.

I love detail, how would you work that? Are health traits about illnesses for generals? Perhaps so their illness gradually gets worse with time, but can be healed in a city or something? Or do people get more unwell when low on suppies?

[Cururu]

Byg,
Do you really need this morale boost? Why not choose to decrease the traits by a smaller amount? I imagine you did this to increase the range of points that could be subtracted from morale depending on a trait.. Is that right?

[repman]

@byg
it's included in DLV 3.2 now available !
Excellent work !!

repman

[Ordensritter]

Hi!

What's about captain leaded armies? Did they need no supply?

[Byg]

Apologies for the delay in replying. I have been away and am spending too much time hunting down questions in different places. Thanks for your patience.

My other main thread is here:http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=106060

Byg,
Do you really need this morale boost? Why not choose to decrease the traits by a smaller amount? I imagine you did this to increase the range of points that could be subtracted from morale depending on a trait.. Is that right?

The EDU morale boost makes for a tougher game all on its own. Battles are more gritty, require more skill and last longer because of this simple change, even though the AI gets the same boost as the human.

As to whether my traits work better with or without the boost in the EDU..well, that's the question.

I didn't do it to increase the range for the traits.

Hi!

What's about captain leaded armies? Did they need no supply?

Hi. Captain led armie are viewed as without a proper command structure. Many medieval armies only foraged and had no supply train at all.
Imagine how recklessly an army would forage without the assurance of supplies or the proper control of a general. Hence captained armies sometimes rebel and you may lose the lot if you choose to only fight with such armies.

[scivian]

Can you extend the supply line inland, that would be realistic. Perhaps make it more expensive.

[Byg]

Can you extend the supply line inland, that would be realistic. Perhaps make it more expensive.

Hi, thanks for the post. What problems have you had that I should change the inland supply for? All detail is good.

[scivian]

Hi, thanks for the post. What problems have you had that I should change the inland supply for? All detail is good.

No problems. I was thinking about how to appease those who would choose simplicity over realism(those who don't like the mod).
-I enjoy your work, thanks.

[uk_john]

Byg - you know I love your mod - and if you include the above things you're thinking of for SS5 then i'll love it even more! It would make the game so fantastic with just auto-resolve on battles - because the campaign would be so interesting!

Oh - and a PS: Thanks to your 2.1 and the medimod I am playing it in, I am a little stymied at what to do because of the way the AI has gone about defending itself both in Scotland and France! They have units of a size I have to worry about within any town I am considering to strike! The way the French troops move around also keep me guessing as to what their intentions - I have also noticed how the traits movement is more pronounced based on what you are doing with your General, so all in all, at around 100 turns, your 2.1 is doing the business!