The Kingdoms of the Isles - The Second Preview
The Second Preview
Campaign Setting & Scottish Recruiting
Mod Progress - Status Report
It has been some time since Kingdoms of the Isles was first announced and in that time the mod team has seen various team members come and go, as well as our interest levels fluctuate due to workloads. As such The Bruce and I are still the major contributors and creators so far but Smoesville has now joined the team as well. Our mod will also incorporate other mods from the modding community such as Lord Condormanius, Smoesville, Swagger, Gigantus and Danova to name a few. The other contributors will all be listed for their mini mods that are added later on.
Currently, we have a playable version of the game that includes only those factions playable in Kingdom of the Scots, plus France. The new factions as to now have not been added to the game, but will be as new 2D graphic work is designed. The release date is still unknown and for the time being is simply "in the future". Actually since the last preview there are no new graphics to show of the mod progress; but hopefully that will be remedied shortly. In the meantime though, I have added the signatures throughout this preview that were created by Smoesville.
Mod changes since the First Preview
1. The interface screens created by Ewen Cameron will not be featured as he has left the team and the Total War community as well.
2. Only one or two campaigns for starters.
3. The mod time frame has been changed to start in 1294 - 1414 to accomodate a historical Wales starting faction and final revolt in 1400.
4. Papal messages have been removed.
5. Engage_armies corrupted trigger has been removed from the ingame custom battle of Stirling Bridge.
6. Ireland will now have 3 playable factions (eventually).
How will the mod play?
Firstly, the Kingdoms of the Isles will start as a Nations Only campaign with England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland as playable from the beginning (and France non playable). As the mod focusses on Scotland, and in particular it's relationship with its clans and England, there will be intense scripting with checks in place to foster these relationships. For instance, the KOTS3 clans will be non playable clans that start the game allied to Scotland with a perfect relationship of 1.0, therefore existing in their own realms with their own powerbases, free to fight against each other.
Thier alliance with Scotland is further monitored and enhanced by a modified verions of Archaon's Diplomacy Mod script done by TNZ, which ensures that prior to any end to this alliance, the faction must send a diplomat to break it. To this arrangement a further script has been added called the Clan Allegiance script which will allow the Scottish Faction to recruit units from the highland clans in times of invasion to assist in a national defence.
And the second option for the Kingdoms of the Isles is to release a semi historical campaign that follows the traditional Total War campaign which incorporates all factions as playable. This would be seen as a semi or non historical campaign as the clans of Scotland could become too powerful for the crown and control too much land; if the Scottish faction in unable to expand and control traditional clan regions. However if Scotland the faction was powerful enough, it is designed to recruit clan units once a certain amount of Scottish culture is found; and once this occurs these clan units would take on the name of the clan, but belong to Scotland.
Both of these campaigns and their particulars are still being discussed and open to change.
Historical Context - An Overview
This preview will not be a copied and pasted historical overview of the time. Much has already been written by others, and better compiled then what I can do justice to in this space. For those wishing to find a quick and easy summary of the Wars of Scottish Independence and the Anglo/Scottish Wars, you should read this Wikipedia page.
In Kingdoms of the Isles the campaign takes on a later historical context. The mod now commences in 1294 to coincide with the Welsh Revolt led by Prince Madog ap Llywellyn and his siezure of Caernarfon Castle. The reason for this is to give Wales an actual historical context to start the game as after the uprising is defeated in 1295, Wales becomes an English occupied territory.
Also occuring in 1294 was the raiding and slaughter of both a large percentage of the population of Guernsey by the French. Thus from the first turn England will be fighting on two fronts, but can expect to be fighting on 3 fronts with its occupation of Irish territories. However, as the focus of the mod is on Scotland, the activity will centralise around the Anglo/Scottish wars, and also the internal disputes between Scotland's Crown and its powerful clans. For instance, once the Treaty of Paris has been signed between Scotland and France in 1295, Scotland and England will be at war via scripting.
In the following year 1296, Edward I launches a massive invasion of Scotland and within months has marched his army from Berwick in the Sottish Borders, to Edinburgh, Striling, Perth, Montrose, Aberdeen and across to Inverness and occupied many towns and castles. This will also occur in the game via scripting with an intense 5 turns where Scotland will become an occupied territory fighting for its existence against English armies in 18 Regions led by historical figures such as Humhrey de Bohun, Earl Warrene of Surrey, Hugh de Cressingham, John Cantilupe and Hugh and John le Despenser to name a few. There is a real possibility for the human or AI that Scotland the faction could be reduced to as few as 5 - 10 regions by 1298 and have a very strong challenge to be an independent land.
After the first 10 to 15 years actual historical scripting is less reliable as the campaign ownership of lands may change to a non historical setting. So only generalised historical scripting such as gunpowder and the black death will appear as the campaign moves through the Scottish Wars of Independence (ending 1357) to the 100 years war, into the end of the mod which will see the Welsh Rebellion of Owain Glyndwr in 1400 scripted to occur. The Welsh player (human or AI) will then have 14 years to reconquer all of Wales.
Campaign Gameplay
Mercenaries
All mercenaries have been reworked and will no longer be generic troops available in all regions. They will now be specifically named units such as Flemish Pikemen available in Berwick, or Gascon Knights available in Portsmouth, to Gunn Highlanders available in Caithness, or MacLean Galloglaich available in Donegal etc. All costs, unit numbers and experience levels and recruitment by factions will differ depending on the region recruited. Mercenaries will also be able to be recruited at "Ports" and "Taverns".
As with traditional Total War unit recruiting, the one aspect of the game I wanted to alter was the generic named unit that was available to all factions for the same cost, amount of men and same experience level. At this stage, this section is a work in progress and needs to be researched in greater detail to include continental mercenaries serving in the British Isles (if anyone has any links or research in this area please post a link in this thread).
Towns, Castles, Forts & Town Walls
One of the features in KOTS3 was the limitation placed on certain towns expanding higher than villages, especially in Scotland. We have taken this to the next level in Kingdoms of the Isles by applying this historically to all regions on the map (199). Depending on the population present in a town at this stage in history, it will not be able to grow further. This will severely impact the Scottish clans, Scotland, Wales and Irish factions as their populations will not be able to field large armies like England.
Recruiting in castles and towns has also been changed from the original and this has been streamlined to ensure the choice between controlling the region as a castle or town is now very important. At this stage Villages, Towns and Large Towns have been limited to militia, light horse or peasant archer units until the village or towns grows to that of a city.
Other changes include all heavy horse can only be recruited at stables. Specialist archer units can only be recruited via archery buildings. And all heavy infantry can only be recruited at castles.
With town walls, only those towns that had historical stone walls can build stone walls; all other towns will either only build a pallisade or wooden wall depending on regions. Highland regions still cannot build walls. For hose of you that like to hide behind walls in the highlands then you'll need to build a castle.
Forts have 21 free slots to garrison troops so that no cost for keeping those soldiers is paid, however you need to ensure that when you deploy those soldiers into the field, that once their campaigning stops that you return before you lose too much money. This feature will also be affected by scripts for winter and summer campaigning, as well as a basic supply and attrition script.
Stirling Bridge
The only custom battle that will trigger in game now will still be Stirling Bridge and will have the engage_armies command removed. All other historical battles will feature as custom battles such as Falkirk, Halidon Hill, Neville's Cross, Otterburn and Shrewsbury to name a few.
Rebels and Rebel Settlements
This pertains to Scotland currently and will spread to other factions and regions as the mod progresses. The reason for this is that the different cultures, peoples and clothing that defined the Scottish landownership at the time was quite diverse and can be easily adapted to the mod with some clever uses of hidden resources.
In KOTS3 I was unable to achieve the use of generic one size fits all highland rebels and mercenaries as my modding and coding knowledge at the time was developing. After much trial and error I found a way (and others have probabaly known and used it for longer) of enabling different ownership of region and allowing each different regions to recruit different clans each with their own unique skins and names. Now as the Scottish faction when you move from region to region in the highlands, you'll be able to recruit Frazers, Grants, Rosses, MacKenzies, MacDonald's etc in their traditional territories, with their unique skins.
Another aspect of this mod will be the reduction of rebel regions on the campaign map. In fact there will only be 8 rebel held regions (out of 199 on the map) in Scotland which are North and South Uist, Barra, Rum, Tiree, Jura, Orkney and the Debateable Lands. This is a blend of historical accuracy and gameplay enhancements to reflect the ownership of these regions at the time. For instance Orkney was under Norse Rule, but Norway has been removed as they have no impact on British or Irish History after 1263. Also, as both the English and Scottish crowns found it impossible to control the Debateable Lands in the Borders, this has been made rebel, and will be a very difficult region to hold. The other Scottish ruled islands mentioned have been left rebel to allow expansion of the clan power bases.
Scripting
Will be discussed in another Preview, but is a significant part of this mod and will include the following scripts created by TNZ, Germanicu5, DaVinci and Swagger, dearmad and Archaon:
Clan Allegiance to Scottish Crown
Re-emergent Factions
Emergent Factions - Health of France script (Flanders and Burgundy)
French Invasion of England script
Garrison Script
Assimilation Script
Sack enemy camp
Auld Alliance (France and Scotland)
Diplomacy Mod
Princess Script
Yes/No events
Winter/Summer campaigning
Attrition/Supply script
New models
To be announced, but include units by Smoesville, Danova and Lord Condoriamus.
Irish Pony - for Irish and Highland units by Smoesville.
Dismounted Mailed Knights - by Lord Condoriamus.
Alternative Dismounted Scottish Knight - by Lord Condoriamus.
Chain mail vs Plate armour
Another area I was keen to improve upon was the removal of plate armour as standard wear for infantry units. Plate armour as we all understand was exceedingly expensive and only available to those with a lot of money, therefore with the exception of knights & Men at Arms (dismounted or mounted) this has been removed from the mod. As has muskets or Arquebusiers which have no place in the time period for this mod. Cannons have been retained but will only be available from 1337 onwards in very small quantities.
Therefore, most units in the mod such as archers or spearmen will only have a chainmail upgrade at best as knights will take the prominent role of being the best protected soldiers on the field. Conversely, peasants have been removed from the game, as the lowest form of armed peasantry should be a feudal levy or town militia.
So, to date units such as all heavy pikemen and peasants have been removed from the game, and a review of all units is still underway. Other units have had name changes such as these listed below:
Feudal Knights - Men at Arms
Dismounted Feudal Knights - Dismounted Men at Arms
Heraldry and Nobles vs Commoners
The Heraldry Mod created by Rawghi and modified by me for KOTS3 is being overhauled and will ONLY include Earldoms and Lordships that existed at the time.
I have removed all common or peasant names from the game and as such only names of the nobility will be used as this is a mod about knights, kings and earls and not a game where bakers, coopers and smiths lead armies and sieges. This I will release to the community as a stand alone mod for public use. This has been pain stakingly researched and implemented and is one area of historical accuracy I did not want to be comlacent withcompromise on. Apart from the real historical characters mentioned earlier there will be others such as Robert de Ros or Ralph FitzWilliam, or Amaury de Saint Amand or Walter de Beauchamp. The characters that start the game will all be 100% historical knights of the realms of England and Scotland.
Also every settlement at the beginning of the game will be lead by a named character, there will be no settlements led by faceless captains. In order to keep the cost for this down we have removed the cost from Generals, in favour of recruitment costs for other units. These named characters will also be 100% historical figures fighting for their respective kings.
Scottish Recruiting Indepth
At this stage in history Scotland as we know it did not exist as a unified kingdom. Instead, Scotland was still divided ethnographically and geographically as it had always been with clear distinctions between those that lived in the highlands, lowlands, borders and Galloway. Scottish recruitment has seen a massive overhaul of both the units and the region by region recruitment to represent this.
All highland units in scotland will be different sizes, costs and battle stats owing to the prestige, size and landownership of the historical clan. So far in addition to the playable clans listed there will be other rebel only clans such as Gunn, MacNeil, MacGregor, Cameron, Grant, Fraser, Gordon that will appear as rebels and mercenaries.
Another aspect of KOTI will be the conversion of existing units such as Theigns, Huscarls, Sergeants, Norman Knights, Longbowmen, Frankish Knights & Mercenary Spearmen to rebuild a very weak (in my opinion) feudal roster for Scotland. Whilst I have added units there have also been some removed such as the Scots Guard (formed in 1418), Noble Pikemen (now only as officers), Noble Swordsmen (now only as officers), Heavy Pike Militia (now only as officers).
One last very important feature is that every unit available on the Scottish Faction Roster is also available for recruitment by the Clan Factions once they have converted 75% of the population to the Gaelic culture.
So let's take a look at how Scottish recruiting has changed in KOTI.
Highland Recruiting
There will be two new units added to all highland clans, the Galloglaich and Lochaber Axemen which will complete the roster for highland units at 13. All of these units are unique in size, cost, experience and abilities, and some especially Galloglaich, cavalry and archer units will only be recruitable in specific areas. This is especally true of the Galloglaich units which will only be recruitable in the Western Isles and in Northern and Western Ireland, and also cavalry units which will not abound in the highlands, but will only be recruitable in the wealthier and larger towns.
In general the highland units will be smaller in size when compared to the feudal units available in the lowlands, borders and England. This is done to show the population size differences between the highlands and everywhere else, and therefore the manpower available for fighting is apparent.
Also for each clan the units have been copied so that when the clan such as Macdonald controls the regions in its own right it recruits as either highlanders, pikemen, spearmen or archers, but when the Scottish Faction controls the region (and converts the people to scottish culture approx 75%) it will recruit the units as Macdonald highlanders, Macdonald pikemen, Macdonald spearmen or Macdonald archers. And in the case of the Macdonalds there will be either three or four separately named factions such as Macdonald's of Islay, Macdonald's of Sleat, Macdonald's of Ardnamurchan and Macdonald's of Ranald, each with distinct unit sizes and abilities.
In general the bulk of highland armies will still be made up of infantry, with very small contingents of horse and archers. Highland generals at this stage will all fight on foot, but if specific historical references are found stating a specific historical character or faction fought on horse, it will be changed accordingly.
Scottish Borders Recruiting
In the Scottish Borders there will be 5 specific units not recruitable anywhere else in Scotland that have been converted for the Scottish Faction.
Mounted Sergeants - Men at Arms
Dismounted Norman Knights (ug1 upgrade) - Dismounted Border Knights
Norman Knights (ug1 upgrade) - Border Knights
Border Horse - Border Horse
Longbowmen - Selkirk & Ettirck Archers
Further to this when a General Bodyguard unit is recruited at a castle in the Scottish Borders, this unit will be a Border Knight as opposed to a NE Bodyguard.
Lowland Recruiting
In the Scottish Lowlands there will be 4 specific units not available anywhere else in Scotland.
Lowland Nobles - using the ug1 upgrade from Highland Nobles
Lowland Noble Archers- using the ug1 upgrade from Highland Nobles Archers
Lowland Swordsmen - Using the model from Norse Swordsmen
Lowland Spearmen - using Mercenary Spearmen model
Galloway Recruiting
In Galloway there will be 2 specific units not available anywhere else in Scotland.
Theigns - Galloway Spearmen
English Huscarls - Galloway Feudal Levy
General Feudal Roster Additions:
Dismounted Mailed Knights (new model by Lord Condormanius)
New Mailed Knights (new model by Lord Condormanius)
Armored Sergeants - Scottish Men at Arms
Sergeant Spearmen - Feudal Levy Spearmen
Dismounted Frankish Knights - Scottish Knights
Name changes to the existing units:
Merchant Cavalry Militia - Feudal Levy Cavalry
Dismounted Feudal Knights - Dismounted Men at Arms
Feudal Knights - Men at Arms
Mailed Knights - Mailed Knights
Town Militia - Town Militia
Spear Militia - Levy Spearmen
Peasant Archers - Levy Archers
Well I think that has about covered as much as I wanted to cover in this Preview. Obviously, things do change as the mod develops and certain things are changed. If you have any further ideas or particular research please add it to this thread.
Thanks everyone and best regards,
Kingdom of the Isles team.
Originally Posted by The Border Reiver
Like you I alternate between the forms of gameplay, nation with Scotland recruiting the clans in defence of the realm, but also playing as a clan against other clans is high on my prioty list, and why I came up with this mod!
I wish we could have remerging old factions sorta like in Medieval 1
