The Battle of Thermopylae for Medieval II!

[Peppovitch]

I have always enjoyed slaughterfests. After playing through the campaign, I found myself only making custom battles with only spear men or other melee units. I just put a full army of spears into lines and see how long they can last against an inferior but numerous enemy. This was enjoyable for awhile, but i wanted a map where i could truly defend a position against myriads. With the destruction of 300 and the epic story of "the Gates of Fire" still fresh in my mind, I set out to make an epic historical battle for everyone to enjoy!
This is my second attempt at any kind of custom battle. The battle editor is not the easiest thing to work with, especially without any good guides or support. The land has been layed out as historically accurate as possible. I am not an artist by any means, but i feel that i have managed to get the general feel for how the real battlefield may have looked. I have used various map renderings, and actual modern day pictures to try and recreate the field. You will of course find the narrows, the Phokian wall (which i had to build up from the terrain and texture to rock), Kolonos hill (where the spartans made their last stand), and even the goat trail through the mountains that the immortals used to surround the allies. I am testing the map now for terrain issues and unit balancing. I will set up an alpha as soon as I balance the units enough so that it wont be too easy, and yet won't break your computer from having eight thousand units on the field.
Your forces in this map consist of about four thousand allied troops. Ideal placement would allow about one thousand troops to block the pass, but far enough back from the actual mouth of the narrows to ensure proper mobility. the idea being that the enemy can only have one thousand troops fighting on the field at any given time. With your reinforcements consisting of two thousand troops that are under your control, and another thousand (thespian allies) under AI control, you outnumber the enemy 4:1.
This particular battle is mainly intended to portray the first day's fighting. I will either add the other days as separate battles, or post an untampered map so that you could add your own forces, or just don't let what you lost in the first day fight in the second and so on.
I will be posting screen shots and a playable version between a few hours and a few days, depending on how busy i get. (school sucks).
Feel free to express any interests, questions, or ideas. Even though this is my first real attempt at a map, I want it to be the best that it can, so I'd love any feedback that you might have.

[Peppovitch]

Here are some screen shots of the map. If you feel that these pics don't do it justice, let me know what you want to see, and ill post a screenie.

[jsgx3]

Very Cool, well done.

[Kalos]

Moved to Mod WIPs.

We're going to have Thermopylae like this on our campaign map in Polemarchia.

[Don in the North]

gonna subscribe to this thread so i can get it when your done.
i look forward to seeing 30,000 arab spearmen running towards my 300 Adventuros pikemen from spain

[Ataegina]

lol funny

pikeman from spain XD , so this would be "esto e españa!!!" -> This is Sparta!!!

@Peppovitch you should make video of this (the battle)

[Peppovitch]

If you stuffed those 300 pikes into the pass in layers... they could probably hold out for quite a long time! unfortunetely i can't make a video because i don't have fraps or another video capture. I want to get you guys a test run ASAP, but i am having two major problems. The AI tries to use the goat path but eventually marches all the way back to help their mutilated allies. I also am noticing that the AI tends to run back and forth inside the narrows for a minute before getting their bearings. this causes lag regardless of graphics settings. I fixed this by sending the armies in waves at intervals. my only problem now is how many to send in each wave for a proper killing experience!
I can either make you a version with beefed adventuros, or give you a blank map so that you can put whatever on there. Hopefully I'll have something up either tomorrow or Monday.

[Don in the North]

try adding an AI mod to your work, like darth or realcombat or lusteds stuff, the AI might actually pathfind better with the "narrows" problem.

as for the goatpath, ive noticed darthmod excells in keeping reserves behind and sticks to outflanking maneauvores so that might help your goat path stuff.

[Oswald von Wolkenstein]

very nice work!

[teh.frickin.pope]

Looking great so far.

[Peppovitch]

If i use a mod to change the AI, then a person would have to have that mod installed if they wanted to play, right? Also, if i can install a mod for the AI, can i add it to the map that i am already using?
I haven't done any mods to the actual game yet. Right now, I'm using regular factions with units that are related. I am trying to get a test run up on the site tonight, but enemy archers either run back an forth in the narrows because they are on skirmish or they stand in the narrows and try to shoot over the walls. Hopefully i can solve this without changing the terrain. I'll try D/Ling darthmod. Any other advice is greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot for the compliments, it's exciting to see all of the interest! I have been having fun with the test runs, and if you guys like to watch massive amounts of death and bodies piled high... then i think this battle might be for you.

[Peppovitch]

Still having problems with the map . The battle editor is pretty hard to work with. I am having trouble setting it up so that the enemy comes at you in waves. If i start the game with too many, it lags. But I cant set more than 2 armies to come at separate times. If anyone has any mapping experience, I could really use your help. I could also use a good guide. Apparently this editor is a lot like RTW but i can't find guides for that either.

[Don in the North]

where can i down load the map, or a beta version of it?
ill put it into my folders and try it out with darthmod AI

[Peppovitch]

I can send you a version that worked best, and a blank map. Unfortunetely, the battle is still not working at all how i had intended. Theres is still a little bit of smoothing and detail work that needs to be done to the terrain, but it works. The maps are about 10mb, so i may be able to just email them to you. I tried the map once on darthmod, but the enemy just stands there and waits for all of the reinforcements to arrive, which i think is about enough to bog down any comp. I haven't done much with darthmod, so the help is greatly appreciated. Hopefully you can figure something out, as I am stumped and pretty much out of ideas.