PREVIEW: Kingdoms of Heaven v1.0

[Akolythos]

KINGDOMS OF HEAVEN

Now think about the Kingdom of Jerusalem. What's the Kingdom of Jerusalem like? Boring? Too much like the Knights Templar? Does it bother you that the unit roster only reflects the short time period of it's actual existence - at the expense of late-game viability? Always wanted to see what could had been if you had been King? We feel your pain, but dear reader, it will soon be over!

‘Kingdoms of Heaven’ is a Stainless Steel 6.1 sub-mod featuring not only a complete overhaul of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, but also heralding the return of the Principality of Antioch in both the early and late-era campaigns. The mod is designed to make each State fun and interesting to play while maintaining balance versus the other “non-crusader” factions.

The Kingdom of Jerusalem and the Principality of Antioch will not be carbon copies - each have a unique feel during gameplay, and are designed to be stand-alone factions capable of competition with not only contemporary muslim rivals but the late game rosters of Europe as well - without reliance on the military orders, though their assistance is always welcome.

With this mod, realism is not our primary intention. Our primary concerns are balance, pleasing presentation, and above all else: a bloody fun game.

FEATURES:
- New Faction: Principality of Antioch replaces the Knights Templar.
- New Unit Rosters for Antioch and Jerusalem
- New Skins and improved models for many pre-existing units (Constable of Jerusalem shown in King Siegfried's signature!)
- New Strat Map Models
- New Unit Cards

RELEASE DATE: November 2, 2009

IMPORTANT NOTE:

* Requires SS 6.1, no support for 6.2 or RR on first version release.

TEAM:

Models & textures, text, unit cards: King Siegfried (and an excellent job he's done)
Counselor, quality assurance: Akolythos

GOD WILLS IT!

[King Siegfried]

Kingdoms of Heaven Features

New Unit Roster: Kingdom of Jerusalem!

• The revised KoJ features a full roster with access to most types of units other factions have access to. The Kingdom of Jerusalem still focuses on its knights, and its heavy cavalry rivals non-crusader knights.
• Jerusalem features two unique units: Canons of the Holy Sepulchre and the Constable of Jerusalem himself! Both are powerful enough that only one can be recruited at any time.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Syrian Militia :: They're back!


Squires of Tripoli ::


Maronites of Lebanon ::


Canons of the Holy Sepulchre :: One of Jerusalem's two unique units.


Dismounted Knights of Jerusalem :: Wielding a halberd to counter Egypt's reliance on heavy cavalry, these guys go from heavy mail to full plate.


Jerusalem Lancers :: Brand new elite cavalry to rival the late-era Gendarmes. A cavalry centered faction wouldn't be nearly as fun without some shiny toys! These guys have no upgrade - not like they need it!


Constable of Jerusalem ::The second unique unit for Jerusalem, the Constable of Jerusalem himself leads a double-strength unit of elite knights. They can upgrade from heavy mail to full plate (image shows them upgraded), wield maces, and ride on armored mounts. They are among the most elite knights in the known world.

New Faction: Principality of Antioch!

• Has greater focus placed on infantry compared to Jerusalem, particularly heavy infantry.
• Power centers return: losing Antioch and/or Edessa seriously hinders its military power. It is absolutely vital that the Principality holds on to these settlements!
• Two entirely new units!

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Muslim Archers ::


Crusader Sergeants :: Both factions will have crusader units available for recruitment from the relevant buildings. Powerful though they are, they have high upkeep costs (they are merc units, after all!) and no free upkeep. They insist on fighting the enemy!


Edessan Squires :: These upgraded squires wear heavy mail and are great for dealing with armored foes.


Edessan Knights ::


Edessan Guard :: Here you can see their new upgrade!


Dismounted Knights of Antioch :: Seen here with their first of two upgrades.


Heavy Crossbowmen :: Antioch needed more than just heavy infantry if it was to compete with the Turks. So the Prince of Antioch started training these heavy crossbowmen in the arts of swordplay and crossbow-archery. Even in melee, they can hold their ground due to their good swords and heavy mail/light plate.


Oathbreakers :: During the first crusade, Bohemund I made a promise to the Byzantine Emperor that all his lands would be restored upon the completion of the crusade on Jerusalem. Bohemund never fulfilled his promise, and his men were branded 'Oathbreakers' by many. Now, the Oathbreakers are hand-chosen by the Prince of Antioch as his most elite warriors, wearing plate armor and wielding an axe and shield.

Unit Cards ::


New Strat Models ::

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Special Thanks goes out to:
- Caesar Clivus (for practically enabling me to make this mod)
- Augustus Lucifer (for helping me with those troublesome scripts!)

[Soviet]

Can't wait!

[Massive_attack]

Cool, I always thought that KOJ needed some love.

Some questions, though....

Will the principality of antioch still use that gut-wrentching red-on-blue color scheme ? Imho it looks baaaaad.

Are both available from the early campaign ?

Do the factions follow a general color scheme, like the other ones in the game (ex: HRE; black and yellow, TO; white and black, etc) or will the color scheme get broken up by random units (like, say, templars )

What has become of the templars ? Will Templar chapter houses have a few more units to compensate ? Or are the templar's a part of the new factions, and if so, how will they be integrated ?


Thanks !

[King Siegfried]

Massive Attack:
- Yes, we derive the color schemes of the factions from their coat of arms. In Antioch's case, that does include the red and blue theme. That being said, as you'll see in the screenshots that are hot in the making, both factions have many units that break up the monotony: muslim units, the counties of Tripoli and Edessa, crusader units, etc.

- Since the Early Era begins in 1080, which is twenty years before the crusader states were founded, Jerusalem and Antioch will indeed not be available in that campaign. In a future version release, I may make them an emergent faction in the Early Era. I may also include an option to make them playable in the early campaign despite the year discrepancy, but that will not be in this release.

- The Knights Templar will be treated and represented the same as any of the other knightly orders (i.e. Hospitallers, Santiago, Montesa). They will have basic Knight units available for recruitment from Chapter Houses; after all, it was the Knights that made them, wasn't it?

- The Templar's other units were removed to make room for the more varied rosters of Jerusalem and Antioch. Their Chapter Houses will NOT be any different from the Knights Hospitallers, Santiago or Montesa.

[Caesar Clivus]

Looks very interesting guys. Been wondering what all those questions you were asking in the workshop forums were for Siegfried

Just wondering if you guys have thought of integrating/releasing a version for Awellesley's 1100AD campaign mod. That way your rosters would be able to be played in the early era campaign as well.

[Syme]

Muslim Archers :: These Christian arabs are eager to prove their loyalty to their new Prince!

Uh?

[Awellesley]

Muslims would never have fought for the Crusaders. There was actually an agreement between the Crusader overlords and Muslim subjects that they would never be forced to fight co-religionists. I am not sure if they are in my 1100AD campaign, but they should not be.

I would also be interested in the historical backing for your units.

EDIT-sorry to be a buzzkill

[Seether]

With this mod, realism is not our primary intention. Our primary concerns are balance, pleasing presentation, and above all else: a bloody fun game.

@Awellesley

I doubt that all will have historical backing

[Vaz]

Simple Name change required. Arabian Archers.

[King Siegfried]

@Caesar Clivus:
Yup, you were a HUGE help in getting this mod on its feet. Hence why you're getting special thanks (sorry I forgot to put them in there initially! A lot of things slipped my mind so late at night)! And no, I hadn't thought about it before, since that is an early era mod and mine is a late era mod, but that might be an interesting project for next release.

@Vaz:
Can't change their name because they are the Sicilian Muslim Archers. Sorry. Only had so many unit slots to work with.

@Awellesley:
I wanted a bit more native Arabic representation in the roster.

Also, put in some screenshots of a few early units, and fixed that odd bug where there were duplicate images...

[King Siegfried]

Now that we have some of the baseline units out of the way, we can move on to the more exciting stuff! Each of these screenshots will be accompanied with some details about them. Again, I'd like to stress that fun gameplay is my first and primary objective. Both Jerusalem and Antioch must be able to go toe-to-toe with other factions in any period of the game, but I made a substantial effort to retain the iconic look of the crusaders at all times. In addition to making them on par with other factions, I did my best to make them feel different from each other to help give both a distinct personality. Anyway, on to the preview!

Canons of the Holy Sepulchre ::
These guys, along with the Constable of Jerusalem, are a unique unit - only one can be recruited at any time. Considering these guys were founded to protect a single building, I felt it was unrealistic that there would be more than one unit of these guys. Besides, if both Jerusalem and Antioch had full access to shock infantry, it would take away from Antioch's more infantry focused gameplay. The screenshot below shows them in their new base form (a unique unit deserves something a bit more ornate, wouldn't you say?) - but they can still be upgraded with full plate, which helps give them some more survivability. These guys remain one of the best shock troops in the world.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Dismounted Knights of Jerusalem ::
Jerusalem, as it stands, is in dire need of anti-cavalry troops. With Egypt’s powerful heavy cavalry dominating the battlefield, the Kingdom of Jerusalem’s local knights realized the halberd was an excellent way to counter them. Since weapons evolve to counter the armor and tactics of the time, this was the most logical choice. In addition, to keep as much of the iconic look as possible, they start off with heavy mail, but have two upgrades to full plate so that they are equally as effective as, say, France's Dismounted Noble Knights. Here are their three forms:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Edessan Knights ::
The County of Edessa forms the more offensive branch of Antioch’s roster. The men of Edessa have an affinity for axes, so they are very effective against heavily armored opponents. However, they are impetuous and not as skilled as the men trained in Antioch.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Stay tuned for more updates!

[ALFAJI]

how many Crusade faction's in this mod are the two or one
and i wish that you but the Zengid faction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zengid_dynasty
to make the mod more better and fan for the Muslim's and the Crusaders

[Caesar Clivus]

can some one give me the link for the download

It's just a preview. It hasn't been released yet.

[King Siegfried]

how many Crusade faction's in this mod are the two or one
and i wish that you but the Zengid faction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zengid_dynasty
to make the mod more better and fan for the Muslim's and the Crusaders

The Zengid faction is already represented in Stainless Steel. The Seljuk Turks are lead by Nur ad-Din, who took over the Zengid dynasty after his father.

EDIT :: Nevermind. That is in the Crusades campaign, not Stainless Steel. My bad. Regardless, it is very easy to mod Stainless Steel to make Nur ad-Din your faction leader if you want. The Mod Workshop can help you out.

[Violator]

Hello my friend!!This looks really great!!Is it going to be compatible with BtR (Basileia ton Romaion) and BFTB2 submods?? Thank you in advance!!

[Stephan]

looks good cant wait for more

[King Siegfried]

Hello my friend!!This looks really great!!Is it going to be compatible with BtR (Basileia ton Romaion) and BFTB2 submods?? Thank you in advance!!

Actually, I dropped some of the tweaks I was going to make to the Teutonic Order because I wanted to make this mod 100% compatible with BftB2. If it is not compatible when it is released, I will drop what I'm doing and MAKE it compatible. However, I don't really see why these three mods cannot run simultaneously. CC is removing Ireland for Sweden/unit space, and I'm removing the Templar.

So yes, it is my intention that you can run all these sub-mods together.

looks good cant wait for more

Thank you! I'll do my best to give Sunday updates (depends on my work schedule).

[Caesar Clivus]

I dont see any reason why this and BftB2 cant be made compatible when they're released. :

[Violator]

I dont see any reason why this and BftB2 cant be made compatible when they're released. :

Thanks CAESAR!!What about Basileia ton Romaion??