The war to destroy all that is vanilla, part 37: Historical battles

**Rt. Hon. Gentleman** · September 21, 2009, 03:24 PM

Over the past few days, I've been giving them something that passes for a major overhaul. I've just about done Pharsalus, and am a respectable way through Zama. I plan to do a lot more.

What I was thinking was this: Why bother to keep vanilla historical battles? They need a lot of work to get running. Virtually all of their environments (even the gallic and Greek ones) are in the desert, thanks to the new map. Many of them need totally new units as well.

Now, I don't mind sorting all that (in fact I intended to), but then I started to think: Who is going to want to play Vanilla historical battles, even within RSII? I don't know about anyone else, but I've played through all of them at least 2-3 times, and I just think it's pointless to keep them. I say it would be a much better use of time to ditch the old favourites like Raphia, Carrhae, Telamon, Sparta, etc and just implement new ones. I just can't see the logic in interspersing 5-6 new battles with a lot of old hat that it is unlikely anyone will play.

However, not wishing to act outside the remit of my authority, I thought I'd ask for a general opinion. I was rather under the opinion that the general consensus was that vanilla should usually go wherever possible, but I shall ask nonetheless.

Thanks.

PS: Except maybe the odd Punic War battle. It would be nice to keep Trasimene and Cannae, but also complete the picture with Seguntum, Zama, and even maybe the eventual fall of Carthage in 145 BC.

**tone** · September 21, 2009, 03:59 PM

Agreed - ditch them

**Brusilov** · September 21, 2009, 04:08 PM

Yes, sounds like a good idea. A lot of RTW based mods the players / fans always complain that the historical battles simply don't work.

Once the 'start' battles are fixed (Rome vs Carthage) etc in the campaign can the armies etc simply be used to set up the appropriate historical battle?

**apple** · September 21, 2009, 04:16 PM

Ops voted on the wrong option. Kill the Vanilla!

**MarcusTullius** · September 23, 2009, 05:18 AM

Originally Posted by apple

Ops voted on the wrong option. Kill the Vanilla!

Same as you. Should probably read the question before i vote! Thought it was do you want to get rid of them?

Get rid of them!

**MihaiV** · September 22, 2009, 05:44 AM

Could make a reappearance with some modifications(larger unit size) since the narrations are nice. There are some unused narrations, maybe include those too if you have the time. Or scrap them alltogether and get some narrations in from one of the members based on historical data. Maybe make the narrations appear during the battle (for example have somewone say to the player that the romans are charging in the flank as the event occurs). This will however take some time to do and will cause the person making the script a lot of headaches before the battle works out as planned.