Originally Posted by
dvk901
I think it is going to be a 'given' that the terrain in RS mods will have a profound effect on how battles proceed. When playing battles in Vanilla or, (not to be taken as criticism) most other mods, RTW terrain tends to be very smooth and flat, even in a supposedly hilly area or mountains. Vegetation placement in the old environments is fairly 'homogeneous', with trees clumped in certain areas that could easily be avoided, and many large open spaces. This was absolutely great for the vision of the player and his\her ability to see what's going on in a battle, and position troops where he\she COULD see what was going on. It's a natural tendency to want to SEE and not be blocked by trees and hills. I imagine the game designers thought this was great for a 'game', and no doubt designed it that way.
The terrain in RS1.6, and even moreso in RS2, however, has been designed to be more realistic. It makes use of the built-in features that CA never used to disperse trees, ground textures, and vegetation more randomly, and the 'lay of the land' is far less flat and boring. Now, sure, people who love to SEE, and who are used to laying out their phalanxes in nice straight lines with no obstructions are going to see the RS1.6\RS2 environments and say that they are too obstructive, too hilly, too hard to SEE! And people used to moving their equipment around to wherever they want, and getting them all positioned so that as soon as they click 'Start Battle' they can strat raining down fire and boulders on the enemy are going to cry foul. Why can't I do this anymore!!??
Well, the reason you can't do a lot of these things anymore is because of the 'realism' of the environment you are fighting in. And guess what? We totally enhanced the AI's battle effectiveness and tenacity by doing nothing to any text file or formation or unit stat........we just just gave it places to hide, hills to take advantage of, an ways to lay traps for your unsuspecting armies. In other words, we made battles harder for the player. The net result is that the AI armies, instead of standing there on the Vanilla 'tabletop' ground and waiting for you to come and annihilate them will make a made dash for high ground and tree cover just as YOU would. Infuriating, isn't it? But far more realistic. And now your Ballista and onagers or stone throwers are having a hard time. All these trees! All these hills! Where did the enemy go? Dang it's a pain trying to move these heavy-a$$ed things through the woods! Yeah, it's just more realistic, that's all.
Another 'consequence' of this is that battles result in a lot more casualties.....notably, yours. That means battles 'can' be shorter, because units rout faster when their numbers diminish faster. You're getting pummeled by slingers and archers you can't even FIND. You have to send off cavalry or other fast units 'hoping' to find them, and when they do, they run headlong into an infantry unit hiding there with them! And you don't always have the high ground, either.
I had a battle in RS2 where my army seemed so impressive to the enemy (Arverni Celts) that they just turned tail and started to run. So I pursued them with my whole army over hills and through the woods, hoping to catch at least a few of their units. On the 'tabletop' of Vanilla, no problem, but in this case, the AI (unbeknown to me) was pealing off units in the woods and hiding them, so that I ran right into an ambush from both sides. I still won the battle, but I have never seen the AI in RTW behave like that before, and my 'impressive army' suffered many, many losses I hadn't expected.
Battles in 1.6
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the more i hear and see from this mod the more i cant wait to play it 
