A XGM Diadochi Centauri AAR.

[HansDuet]

Now you people are wondering: What fricking "Centauri" ?
Well i love XGM mod and Diadochi and i have allways wanted to make The Centauri (from SciFi series Babylon 5) to be a faction. And because XGM makes Rome TW so much better, i decided to use it as a platform to my own minimod. I am not a modeller so i just ripped mostly BI and Alexander units and textured them and made new stats and descriptions. I made them look "flashy" because that belongs to Centauri nature. Among with arrogant, imperialistic and "royal" And they tend to deal with their differences with swords. So i tought they would make a nice faction. They are a hydrid of Roman and Greek factions, lacking only heavy phalanges, plus they have techology advance over others (crossbows and stuff) to make them be something different. Im not very experienced modder, and this is still kind of alpha state so this is testing also. NOW if someone is offended that i used XGM as platform, please inform me and i stop this at once. I respect the XGM team for the great mod they made.
cheers.
I shall start in next post.

[HansDuet]

Here it goes: My first AAR. So be nice! Though constructive criticism is welcome.


Its Medium/Hard i find it most entertaining setting for a campaing.



I used Bactria as platform, so the names are still bactrian. But that dont bother too much.
"My geologists tell me that mountains around Aemona are extremely rich with metals. Lots of gold have been found there, so I the Emperor of Glorious Centauri republic, in all my mightyness, ordered the massive mining operation to be started to make the republic great again, with power of capital."



"In Paetovio, the capital, i shall begin to train our most advanced forces: The crossbowmen. These mecanical bows can penetrate even the tickest armour and they will surely make even those Spartans scream in madness."



"At the same time, I Emperor Diodates, raise an army of most capable soldiers and march against barbarians of Eravasci"



"My army consists of 6 units of Centauri guard, and one of them is a Royal guard unit for most skillful soldiers. Also i have 3 units of greek auxilia, providing a phalanx to use as first line defence. A unit of super-heavy noble infantry will be a screening force with only 40 soldiers. Crossbows will provide fire support and unleash the righteous fury upon our enemies."

"The barbarians attack first! To arms, Guardsmen! Their army consists of hundreds of fierce veteran warriors, (some with 3 silver chevrons) and will provide a worthy challenge."

Next the mortal kombat!

[HansDuet]

"I place my Greek auxilia infront of my real fighting force, the Guards, who first bomb the enemy behind the phalanx. Nobles and general are on the right flank, where enemy immediatly sends his cavalry. My line keeps it defensive formation while barbarian horde rushes towards. The crossbows begin to fire against enemy, causing heavy casualties to enemy infantry. (things need a little balancing..) I kill most of enemy cavalry with nobles and a right-timed cavalry charge with my bodyguard unit. Rest of them flee, leaving enemy general the only cavalry unit they have left."



"Then enemy infantry has came close enough to my Guards so they can start bombing them with javelins. A Centauri Guard is equipped with 5 plumbatarii and are heavily armoured and very capable in close combat. They are expensive and available only later in game, but now i have many of them in use. (cant retrain them) and many barbarians fall in bombardment.
Then they charge my left flank and i send most of my guards to deal with them."



"Enemy has split his force in two halves and so shall i. Well see who has the better troops! Slow phalangites are no fit for this, but i send two units of them against enemy general and one engages enemy infantry in left flank.
Enemies in right are broking slowly."



"Enemy general decides to ride right into the pikes of my Greek auxilia!
Hes dead now and his army routing!"



"Clear victory over barbarians!"
"Aquincum falls next turn and almost every soul are put into the sword, in example to others..."

[Da Erobara]

This sounds very nice, but I can't see what is in those spoiler lines. I press "show" but I still can't see a thing. But nevertheless, this sounds to be fun

[HansDuet]

You cant? Damn.... Imageshack--
edit: CAN SOMEONE SEE THOSE SCREENIES? im not contiuning until i have some feedback

[Paul d]

what tools did u use to do those reskins? (i wanna do some reskins, but don't know what tools to use.)

[Ferrus]

Hansduet: Yes they can be seen.

Pauld: Photoshop with the nvidia dds plugin.

[HansDuet]

I use photoshop with DDS converter. Now that i know screenies can be seen, i will continue to the end. No one can stop me..



"A incopentent young man will join to the family. He is not a great general or goveror, but because family is far too inbreed... i will let him join. We need all the generals we can get. He will make a fine one someday."



"I, in all my mightiness, send an army to the lands of Singidunum. At last a diplomat is ready to serve the empire. I send him towards Macedonia.
My orders to army send in singidumnum, is to wait in bridge, hoping barbarians will come and attack. They would be easily slaughtered in bridge battle."



"The Gaullic people of Arverni offer an alliance. I will accept, but as soon when they get our way, the deal is off. But now, all the allies are welcome, as Dacians show some marks of aggression and war with them in some point is more than likely. My ingenious plan to lure barbarians of Singidunum to the bridge is a failure (emperors are not all-knowing, you know.. ) so i order them to lay siege to singidunum."



"After a years siege, they sally forth... my forces shall meet them in battle."
(Now i lost the battle screens somewhere, but it was all the way so bad performance from me..)
"A DRAW! This is the last time i put some captain to command an army!
However the city falls to my forces and many of them are put to sword for defying the Glooorious Centauri republic. The captain loses his head also."



"Mines in Aemona region are producing very nicely, financing the upcoming conquests. Nothing new from the western front, nothing going on there. In east, my diplomat has negotiated trade rights with Epiros and Macedon. My next target will most likely to be the barbarian cities up to north."

[HansDuet]

Now this'll be long one..



"Now, more promising young man has become one of my kind. He is a very promising commander, but lacks the adminstrative skills. Baah, Centauri have enough politics allready, we need good generals to crush our foes and make the Centauri great once again!"



"Basileides of Samothrake, my most skillful diplomate, has made contact with the People of Thrace, a proud warrior people, worthy to be an ally of the gloorious Centauri! I hope a long partnership and co-operation against the treacherous Macedonians and stinking Dacians. At the same time, i send an army, under command of Oloros of Pydna to the north and another to the west."



"Centauri! The barbarious people of Aedui are in our way! We must take up our arms and remove the aggressors! (whos the aggressor)
People of Luvavum need to be freed from the grib of these oppressors and child-rapists! They are no more worth than rabid dogs!"




"Oloros of Pydna moves to the north with powerful army. His intentions are to capture the town of Leucaristus.
-- "We are here... Leucaristus... What? Dacians! They got here before us... prepare to battle, my orders were to take the town and i swear by Morgoth i shall take it!"
"And so, it is another war declared at the short time. Dacian army is weaker than our army and flees to the hills in fear of braaave Centauri!
Leucaristus falls soon and Oloros decides to show himself as a liberator and the basic Centauri tactic in city conquerin, the extermination of the population, is not used in Leucaristus."



"A hairy Dacian diplomat comes and makes an ridiculous threat. HAH! Why should we become their protectorate? Euthydemos makes a counter proposal "Become our protecorate or we will attack."
They wont agree and Euthydemos was able to resist the temptation to crucify the Dacian emissary, but he respected the diplomatic immunity."



"Oloros takes most of his army and pursues the Dacians to the hills. There shall the battle be fought!"



"Bravee Centauri and allied people! Today we once again defend all that is civilized and noble! These barbarians once ran away in terror when they saw us! We outnumber the enemy and we are better men... Better Soldiers!
They are just a bunch of thugs lead by a wannabe warchief! Our crossbows and swords strike through them like lightnin from the sky and your warcries make them flee... then you run them down!"



"Olorius sends his Emissaries, a medium cavalry armed with javelins, to pepper the enemy lines. Many barbarians die and other forces charge towards the enemy line. Crossbows start to rain death to enemy crowd..



"Then the fiersome (but expensive) Bastarnae mercenaries charge and enemy soldiers die like sheeps when Falxes cut their limbs off."



"Gaelic auxilia joins the fight, killing many enemies with their swords."



"Enemy infantry breaks and flees! Run them down! Only the warlord remains and pursues the emissaries with only three men. Javelins and crossbows have taken their toll."



"Emissaries charge, and enemy warlord falls, surprisingly honourably.
The dog is dead and battle is a clear victory. Another, but not the last great victory for the Centauri!"



"AND WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OLOROS IS ONE TURN AWAY?
There is a very good reason why we Centauri use the exterminate method! This will happen if its not used! Leucaristus rebels and joins the Aedui (!?)
I'll put them all in sword sometime soon..."

:p Now i gotta wait until IS starts to work again properly...

Please somekind of feedback would be appericiated.

[Parky]

An enjoyable read! Keep it up

[HansDuet]

Thank you!

At last, a bigger battle! Sorry for malfuctioned image...


"When Oloros arrives to the Dacian lands an army of barbarians come in sight.
Oloros outnumbers the horde, so he decides to attack. Dacian army consists of warbands armed with spears and swords. There is also two units of elite archers.
Oloriuses army consists of large number of crossbowmen, they are his favourite troops, Bastarnae and Gaullic shock infantry and Centauri citizen spearmen, archetypical spearmen in heavy armor. He also has two units of Emissaries in use."



"-I order my forces to advance against the barbarian horde, i must somehow use my missile troop advantage that crossbows give to me. Spearmen are not suited for this battle, so they will keep the line while barbarian auxilias do the charging. I send the emissaries to harass the enemy."



"-Enemy general comes forth and receives a salvo of javelins from the emissaries. Many their best warriors fall, penetrated by javelins. I order my battle line to stop and let the battle-eager barbarians charge in while being bombed by crossbows. BRACE YOURSELVES!"



"-Barbarian infantry clashes with my spearmen and battlefield turns to arena of pain, death and blood. Other part of enemy forces attack my Ekdromoi in the right flank so i support them with Gaul auxiliaries and i let the bastarnae charge agains main enemy forces."



"-Spearmens use their short swords to fight the barbarian rampage... my line holds! Barbarians stab and slash but cant penetrate my spearmens armour very well and bastarnaes falxes cut them down and running! Run them down!"



"-Only in right flank there is some fighting still, but they will surely fall soon.
Emissaries are chasing the covardly enemy general out of field! I make sure everyone hears about this so he can hide and live the rest of his live is SHAME! Now the right flank of enemies fall and my forces run most of them down..."



"-Another great victory for the Glooooriious Centauri republic!"



"This is Centauri Republic at 269 BC fighting in east and west and north. Aedui navy lurks near my docks so i must construct a mighty fleet to keep them away. I wonder what those tricky Macedonians are up to..."

Now i think i'll play some more until i have bigger armies etc... then return to this. Cheers.

[Dictatorfish]

Nice AAR Just out of curiosity, what stats have you given the crossbowmen?

[HansDuet]

type centauri crossbowmen
dictionary centauri_crossbowmen ; Centauri Crossbowmen
category infantry
class missile
voice_type Light_1
soldier bucellarii, 40, 0, 1
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, can_sap, can_swim
formation 1.2, 1.2, 2.4, 2.4, 2, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 15, 2, bolt, 150, 40, missile, archery, piercing, none, 25 ,1
stat_pri_attr ap
stat_sec 3, 2, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, sword, 25 ,1
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 1, 4, 0, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 2, flesh
stat_heat 2
stat_ground 2, 0, 3, 0
stat_mental 6, normal, trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 18
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 1000, 418, 40, 60, 1000
ownership britons

Extremely lethal from range but extremely crappy in close combat.

[Dictatorfish]

Holy crap! That's insane! And the sheer size of the unit (that's 160 on Huge settings, right?) makes them very, very cost effective. At least they're countered by their morale, defence and melee abilities.

Stick them on a hill or wall and, with stats like that, would you really need any other units in your army?

[RedFox]

A little bit too overpowered.
I'd lower the attack stat to 10 for balance, considering the sheer amount of men in the unit - they'll be quite deadly. I'd also give them only 16-22 arrows (more is just insanely ridiculous to carry).

In xgmD, all powerful ranged units also have a really tough upkeep, depending on the lethality and amount of missiles. For your unit, i'd give the cost of 1240 (if you don't lower the damage, it would be 960 with 10) and upkeep of about 620.
Also, sword lethality should be 0.77 in xgmD and attack 4.

I recommend doing some serious balancing, as just plainly overpowered units are no fun at all - I really love the challenging upkeep and stats of xgmD, the lethality rates really control the speed of the battle, if you use 1 as lethality, the battle will probably be over even before you can bring around your cavalry to flank the enemy...

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

type centauri crossbowmen
dictionary centauri_crossbowmen ; Centauri Crossbowmen
category infantry
class missile
voice_type Light_1
soldier bucellarii, 40, 0, 1
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, can_sap, can_swim
formation 1.2, 1.2, 2.4, 2.4, 2, square
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 10, 2, bolt, 160, 22, missile, archery, piercing, none, 25 ,1 ; considering 40 soldiers, it needs to give a weaker punch
stat_pri_attr ap
stat_sec 4, 2, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, sword, 10 ,0.77 ; this is pretty much standard for all skirmish units
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 1, 7, 0, leather ; defense skill should be higher and = to stat_mental
stat_sec_armour 0, 2, flesh
stat_heat 1
stat_ground 2, 2, -2, -2
stat_mental 7, normal, trained ; ranged units usually have stat_mental 7, so that they rout fast in hand to hand combat
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 2, 960, 520, 60, 120, 96 ; must cost lots to compensate lethality, 2 turns compensates for lethality and allows for cheaper price - as you won't really recruit this unit that much if it takes 2 turns to recruit. Time is a resource too, you know.

It's good though that someone bases his mod on my mod, i'll be releasing a little patch soon, which should include all new Baktrian units...
ownership britons

By the way, love B5, best Sci-Fi series ever made, spent 3 years of my life modeling ships for B5 projects and really don't regret it.
On a side note: the first part of 'the Lost Tales' was a bit disappointing (second one was awesome).

[HansDuet]

Yeah, they need balancin so thanks for suggestion. Ill do it.
They are quite lethal, but still i have found the campaing challenging since now im hopelessly outnumbered by Mac's...
Other units are in unbalance also like Citizen Spearmen... i gave them reasonable stats i think but they seem to be good at nothing

type centauri spears
dictionary centauri_spears ; Centauri Spearmen
category infantry
class spearmen
voice_type Medium_1
soldier greek_hoplite, 50, 0, 1
attributes sea_faring, hide_forest, can_sap
formation 1, 1, 2, 2, 5, square, shield_wall
stat_health 1, 0
stat_pri 12, 1, no, 0, 0, melee, blade, piercing, spear, 10 ,0.55
stat_pri_attr spear, spear_bonus_8
stat_sec 8, 6, no, 0, 0, melee, simple, piercing, sword, 10 ,0.77
stat_sec_attr no
stat_pri_armour 10, 9, 7, leather
stat_sec_armour 0, 0, flesh
stat_heat 3
stat_ground 2, 0, 0, 0
stat_mental 12, normal, highly_trained
stat_charge_dist 30
stat_fire_delay 0
stat_food 60, 300
stat_cost 1, 800, 270, 50, 70, 800
ownership britons

edit: yes, first part was disappointting, second was great. Waiting for more.
edit2: @dictatorfish: you dont need other units than HA's

[Dictatorfish]

edit2: @dictatorfish: you dont need other units than HA's

Heh, I'll take that as a compliment (somehow): thanks! It's not true, though - what on earth would I do if it wasn't for the axemen I send to... well, stand around and not really do anything. I guess they can cheer on the horse archers or something.

Anyway, what's the problem you're having with Citizen Spearmen? Failing to kill anything? Dying too easily?

[RedFox]

Try matching the stats to units in the original xgmD EDU.txt that remotely resemble your unit.
This often gives the best results...

[HansDuet]

Ok. I guess i need to play a ton of custom battles to balance them.
Btw: Did you model to The Babylon Project for FS2 engine? If you did you are really good.

[HansDuet]

Both. They dont kill a fly and they lose to warband. They somewhat work as an anchor, holding line, but worst thing to do with them is to attack. (and in defending, falxmen or swordsmen eventually cut through them) They are supposed to be moderatly good unit... testing...much testing...