Baron: Total War
Intro
Hi, im a Medieval 2 Total War Player, and I have downloaded some mods, played them etc, but alas I have no experience of modding. I have recently thought of what I think could be a seriously good mod like no other, but obviously I could not create this myself, and I doubt any of you pro modders would teach me. Just if anyone out there is looking to make a M2TW Mod, then here is my idea.
Map
Note that this is aimed at England and France around the Hundred Years War Period, and due to the fact that a Map incorporating individual towns and a few villages would need to be MASSIVE, only English and French Regions should be included, the top of the map being the English Midlands and the Bottom containing as much of France as Possible, possibly with permamently neutral factions such as the Italian City-States, Aragaon, and HRE, maybe with allied/enemy factions such as Burgundy, Duchy of Bretange, Flanders and Wales who would have limited AI and would be commanded by events controlled by the AI English and French Kings. Basically these could not be counted as "Rebel" factions but nor can they sweep down to create thier own empire in France or England. Naturally during the game they might enter a war on the side of one of the two main countries, but they should have AI inferior to that of the Royal Families and thier Barons. They would also have a lot of interaction with neighrbouring Barons and Countries, such as Trade and would also be a great source of Mercenaries (Welsh Longbowmen, Genoese Crossbowmen, Italian Cannon etc). I think that they can only attack/be attacked if the Royal Family for your country declares war on them, that way you can snatch thier settlements and land, and they, yours. Also each turn should be only 6 months to represnt the smaller gameplay.
Settlements and Buildings
The idea is that you, the player, plays in the role of not a King, but as a Noble such as a Baron, Count, Lord, Earl etc. The factions are no longer Nations and Countries, but other Barons like yourself and for each country you are part of, the King. So for example lets say you play as the Baron of Winchester. You own your land, which is divided up like in M2TW into regions, only more intracatley then just having a region for "Sussex" or whatever. Lets say your area has three settlements on it; a Town (Your Capital) and two villages. The management for settlements should be more detailed as you wont be managing whole countries any more. You should be able to construct a wider range or buildings such as a Baker, Market, Docks and also to be able to build a Castle in your town, or a town around your castle. Also you should be able to construct better defences such as adding a single tower, expanding the wall, adding ramparts/battlements, upgrading your gatehouse to have a potculis, drawbridge, murderholls. Yu should be able to to dig a moat or trench arounf your settlement etc. Also you should be able to build Guardhouses in your Towns, and if you have a Castle in the settlement you should be able to build facilites for your troops such as a Blacksmith, Stables, Barracks, Practice Range, Workshop etc, all of which are upgradeable to facilitate larger garrisons and to give better service for training and weapons/armour making. Another important feature is Farms, as your Harvests will be vital to supply your troops and your main source of income unless you have trade buildings. Also if your town is big enough you will be wanting to construct Guild Halls as they represent the face of your population and have LOTS of power in your regions, and getting them on-side will be vital to keep the population happy and to manage construction, farming, trade, town guards etc. Building fishing boats, merchant vessels will be nesscaerry as well if you are to make the most of your port.
Units
Stay with me people! Onto units... Due to the smaller and more intracate gameplay, units will be smaller but more chareactaristic. A unit of archers would be no bigger than 30 men for example. As the Baron you will be able to equip your units with different weapons rather than just givin them a shiny bronze shield or sword symbol. For example I will use a English 30 man unit of Archers, lead by a Venetar (Sergeant). They are by default armed with Daggers and Short Bows, with no armour. Basically they are a unit of Peasant Archers. Depending on the level of one's blacksmith you could upgrade the unit by arming them with Swords (Plus 2 Attack Stat), Poleaxes (Plus 3 Attack Stat, Effective Against Armour in Melee attribute), Billhooks (Plus 2 Attack Stat, Bonus Fighting Cavalry in Melee), or armouring them with Leather Jerkins (Plus 1 Armour), Studded Hauberks (Plus 2 Armour), Light Mail (Plus 3 Armour, Minus 1 Speed) or Heavy Mail (Plus 4 Armour, Minus 2 Speed). Also by constructing a Bow Maker's House you could arm them with Long Bows (Plus 2 Missile Attack Stat, Long Range Missiles) and also depending on the level of your Fletcher's House you could equip your Archers with Broadhead Arrows (Plus 2 Missile Attack Stat, Can use flaming ammunition) or Bodkin Arrows (Plus 2 Missile Attack Stat, Effective Against Armour). Then by having a building such as a Hunter's House you could increase the missile attack stat further, and give them more stamina, or by having a Barracks you could upgrade thier melee attack stat further. Also by having Guild Halls you could give them better morale to represent better loyalty to your Baron. The same thing would apply to Men At Arms, only for some things you would have different buildings such as Stables to give their mounts more stamina and be able to get better armour and weapons with higher-technology level blacksmiths etc. You would only have a few unit types as a Baron wouldnt be able to recruit lots of different unit types. Here is an example technology tree to represent the units available:
Manor House (Town) or Keep (Castle)
---- Baron's Retinue (Baron (General) and 10 men at arms) (Non recruitable, spawns at Capital when Son comes-of-age)
---- Knight's Retinue (Knight (General) and 5 men at arms) (Trains a General who is not a Family Member)
Note that Retinue Units should count as Heavy Cavalry Units but before a battle they should be able to choose to deploy dismounted.
Guardhouse (Towns)
---- Town Watch (30 men, Weak unit but with free upkeep in a settlement with a Town)
---- Town Watch Archers (30 men, Weak Missile Unit with free upkeep in a settlement with a Town)
Note that Town Watch Units should not be able to leave the region they are in.
Barracks (Castle)
---- Men at Arms (20 men, Strong Armoured Troops with Good Morale but are expensive)
---- Archers (30 men, Missile Unit, Cheap to train)
Note that Men at Arms Units should count as Heavy Cavalry Units but before a battle they should be able to choose to deploy dismounted.
Guild Hall (Town)
---- Militia (20 men, Very Weak Unit)
Workshop (Castle - Requires Barracks)
---- Mining Company (Siege Unit that tunnels under walls)
---- Catapult (Single Artillery Piece that hurls rocks)
---- Magonel (Single Artilley Piece that hurls lots of small rocks)
---- Trebuchet (Single Artillery Piece that hurls a large rock)
Note that Artillery should be expensive and must take a long time to build.
Cannon Foundry (Castle)
---- Bombard Cannon (Cumbersome unit that fires large round stones at great power, but has an incredibly slow reload time and has a tendency to malfunction and explode)
Note that Cannon should be REALLY REALLY expensive and would require a very high level settlement to train, also it would need a high-level market to get access to trained gunners.
Supply
Somehow Supply and Baggage Wagons would need to be added to armies as a non-fighting unit that would only deploy in Ambushes where they could be captured by an enemy unit, who could then decide to:
Abandon the Wagons (These would be deleted from the game as bandits would no doubt take them)
Steal (Steal the wagons, adding them to the army. At the the capturer's will any weapons/armour could be transfered to his own troops, or they could be kept in thier original wagons to be sold at a town with a Market or stored in the Castle's Armoury for later use.
Armies on the march would need to be supplied in order to keep going, food to keep the men healthy and alive and arrows/weapons to keep the army in buisness. Therefore Supply Wagons would need to be "trained" in a settlement and added to the army. Food wagons could be trained at Bakeries and Ammunition Wagons trained at a Fletcher's House in the case of Bowmen and Longbowmen, and at a Blacksmith's in the case of French or Mercenary Crossbowmen units. Also Artillery Ammunition and Cannon Ammunition would need to be trained at Workshops and Cannon Foundrey's. Stats for an Army's Food and Ammuntion Supply levels should be visible on the army's page so that the player knows how long his army can last for. Ammunition levels would need to be monitered by the number of arrows/bolts/rocks/cannon shots fired during battle, maybe with Supply Wagons being visible on the Battlefield for the purposes of capturing them and for missile units to be able to "resupply" during battle.
Charecters
Your Family Members and Knights should have more traits available, representing his personal funds (ie. Bankrupt: -3 Loyalty) which would affect the level of the equipment available to him and his retinue. Only Knights and your Baron himself would be affected by this, the Baron's money obviously being your "factions" money. Family Members obviously feed off thier father's money unless the Baron was a miser and thus relectant to give money to thier family. The loyalty factor would also determine corruption for a Knight governing a settlement, as a Bankrupted knight might try to siphon funds from his Lord in order to improve his own situation. Any money gained by an army from looting a settlement and ransoming enemy troops/charectars and selling off wagons would be split a certain amount, as a portion of the looted money would be awarded to your troops and Knights, but of course, if your Knight is a gambling addict that money might not last long... You should be able to decide how much of the loot is divided amongst your men, and a large "cut" would give your troops high morale but lose you money, and a low one would give your troops low morale but you would have more money.
The King
You are obviously going to be subject to your King, and Royal Favour now replaces Papal Favour, but works in the same way as the Pope did. By killing lots of rebel and enemy scum and by showing loyalty to him by always paying your taxes to him and completing missions set by him, your going to be in his good books, and as such he may "Promote" you by giving you a higher rank such as Lord or Earl (much like in the Americas campaign), which will give you higher authority and more influence in diplomacy, also the usual cash handouts will be there and he might also give you more land. Also if you dont follow his orders, fail to support him in war, fraternize with rivals and enemies, he might literally take part of your land and strip you of your rank. As such if there is ever a civil war in the country and you dont support your king, he is going to be mighty angry at you and will probably exile you and send your rivals to kill you.
The King commands his own teritory and is effectively a super-faction, just like The Papal States. His Royal Estates are under his control as an AI faction, and he will have command of the Royal Household; the countries' standing army. The king will, like the Papal States, exile (excommunicate) Barons who have angered him and declare war against the other countries from time to time, and as the King represents the country, when he goes to war he will demand that the Barons raise Companies (this will depend on the country but in the case of England it will be 1 Knight's Retinue, 3 Units of Archers and 1 Unit of Men at Arms), just like a Crusade, and join him at a specific rally point (ie. London). More on War later...
Like the Sacred College of Cardinals for the Pope, the King will have different Barons with high positions, divided into Baron (Commands his own territory), Lord (Commands own territory and is high in Royal Favour) and Earl (Commands own territory, very high in Royal Favour and has ownership of one of the Cities in the country such as Exeter, Nottignham, York etc, giving him a major boost in having an advanced settlment which is either an important trade hub or a strong fortress with high-level facilities. However, the more territory you own the more Companies you may be required to raise in a time of war. If you are an Earl you will likely command part of the Royal Army and when you arrive at the rally point you will take ownership of several companies and will be given a specific target to attack during the war.
War
To get any proper enjoyment out of the game, you should either be very loyal to the king (you will command part of the Royal Army against the enemy country), or very disloyal, where you will take part in rebellions to overthrow your king.
If you are "passive" the company you send off to the rally point at your King's request will disapear for a number of turns, you wont be able to control your company as it will be commanded by an AI Earl. Depending on how the war goes, your company will either be destroyed or will suffer heavy casualties if the war goes ill, or will only suffer minor casualties and will return home victorius with valuable Loot Wagons, your troops will gain experience and your Company Commander, either your Baron, a family member, or a Knight will gain advantageous traits.
Note that no matter if a war is in progress or not, you can attack the Barons of the other country and take territory from them which you can hold, but you will increase the chances of that country's royal family declaring war, and reclaiming lost lands will be high on thier priority...
Diplomacy
All Barons from your country are in a way allied to you, although you should not expect thier help unless you establish an alliance with them. Military Access is granted to all factions of your country including the Royal Family. Note that your relations with some of your neighbouring Barons will be low, and they will probably try to attack you, allowing for a short campaign against them until the King inevitably demands you stop.
It is possible to interact with all other Barons from your oppisite country, although your countrymen will scrutinize any alliances between you and foriegn Barons. If you gain an alliance with the opisite country's royal family, you have effectively "switched sides" and you will automatically be exiled by your king.
Rebellion
It is possible to take part or start a civil war against your King. In order to start a civil war you must go to another Baron who is in your country and dislikes the King, with a Herald (Diplomat) and ask to Conspire Against the Crown. If accepted that Baron and you will automatically declare war on your King and over the next few turns all the other Barons will declare for who they will fight. Either you will be able to get a ceasefire, be destroyed or you will be able to kill the King, to which case his hier will rise to the throne and will either ask you for a ceasefire or continue the war until the entire Royal Family is destroyed. If this happens then the Baron you originally conspired aganst will become King and his faction will become the new Royal Family. Note that you will be in very high Royal Favour but it is impossible to become King. If you become the last Baron in your country it is impossible to declare a civil war as there is no other faction to conspire with.
Anyway, if anyone is interested in created a mod based on this, please post your thoughts.
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