Constantine: Rise of Christianity - Future Plans, Previews and Historical Discussions

[andrew881thebest]

ok with names but will you build a real Limes? with walls and forts. It would bring the game play to a whole new level. I do not know if tactical map can be modded.

[Razor]

I agree with what you say. Also, I would make Auxilia units only available to Constantine at first as he and his father are believed to have raised these types of troops. And yes, there should be no limitanei or comitatensis units as such at this time.

Oh yeah, the Auxilia Palatina would either replace the Praetorians (It's not really clear what kind of guard infantry Constantine I had prior to his ultimate victory.), or augment them. But no other Emperors would get them - maybe tech unlocked.

Razor: What's confusing me is that I took the use of "cohors" to simply mean Auxilia. I know the legionaries were also organized into Cohortes, but from what I read I got the impression when it said Cohors it meant Auxilia. Which is complicated by the Auxilia Palatina, but I mean the Cohors = Auxilia = OLD school auxilia, the inferior corps of troops to legionaries.

That being said, I know Auxilia and Legionaries ceased to have any real difference at this point. So I am totally fine with just having a single, unpartisan name which allows for the assumption of being Auxilia (old school) and/or Legionaries.

I wouldn’t exactly describe the Auxilia (Palatina) - the Auxilia were present everywhere in the later empire, both among the limitanei (the non-Palatine/non-elite Auxilia who were still higher in status than legionary units) as well as the comitatenses - as replacements for or even the equivalents of the Praetorians for Constantine in the unit roster (and organization-wise) and I wouldn’t even make them available to Constantine alone. It’s just that Constantine heavily relied on Auxilia units because he needed troops and there were plenty of barbarians across and along the Rhine who were willing to fight for him (or more likely for the booty in spe).
The norm at the time was still to have favorite legions such as the Ioviani, Herculiani, Martenses, Solenses etc. as the equivalent/counterweight/replacements of the Praetorians for the Tetrarchs. The Tetrarchs wanted to get rid of the decadent and untrustworthy Praetorian Guard, which caused the Praetorians to rebel and support Maxentius and they used picked legions as their bodyguard units as counterweights to the Praetorians.
It’s Constantine who broke the tradition of his predecessors and co-emperors to make the Auxilia units the backbone of his army and power and have them as favorites instead of the legions like the Ioviani and Herculiani etc..
However, you shouldn’t forget that Licinius also made use of a number of Auxilia units recruited from the Goths across the Danube, but probably not so much as Constantine (most likely because Licinius had already access to the elite legions of the Ioviani and Herculiani who were both stationed in Illyricum).
Perhaps the use of Auxilia should be seen in a bigger picture and considered as a continuation of an old tradition (recruiting barbarians to fight for you, like the old auxiliary cohorts from the old days) of which Constantine made full use, because of the possibility (lots of willing barbarians living nearby) and necessity (I quickly need good and fanatic troops for my campaigns against Maxentius who is outnumbering me and others to become the sole emperor).

Also take note that the word 'Auxilia' was still used as a generic term for irregular ‘ad hoc’ recruited units that in RTW and M2TW (and perhaps Rome 2 as well) would be best portrayed as mercenaries, aside from the more regular Auxilia units that were recruited from barbarians within the empire. Some of these ‘ad hoc’ recruited units became regular units. I believe the Regii were a unit of Allamannic troops who surrendered to Constantius Chlorus after they were stuck on a river island in the river Rhine and were recruited as among the first of the 'new' auxilia units. They were recruited 'ad hoc' as an irregular auxiliary unit, but became one of the more well-known regular units of the Auxilia Palatina.

It's all a matter of how you want to portray the Auxilia units. And also, how they relate to the old auxiliary cohorts and how to have a list that doesn't contain unnecessary double units that only confuse players and are only included for no other purpose than to be 'historically accurate' (which is your perspective as well I believe). First of all it should be accepted that historical accuracy can only be achieved to a certain level and has to be compromised because you have to make simplifications in order to have them work within the constraints of the game engine, and not to be confusing to the players. As for the legionary units and the old auxiliary units, in my mod I've also basically merged them into one unit, the 'Cohors' (which I actually meant to be the legionary cohort unit). Like you said, there was no distinction between them anymore, both in organisation, status and in battlefield role. Having a separate legionary cohort (Cohors) and an auxiliary cohort (let's name this one Cohors Auxiliaria) would be abundant and unnecessary. From an abstract point of view, I've made a distinction between 1) generic regular Roman units, 2) regular Auxilia recruited from mainly barbarians who settled within the empire and 3) irregular barbarian 'auxiliary' units (mercenaries) recruited 'ad hoc' that would also be considered Auxilia. And since two Auxilia units roughly numbered the size of one new legion (1000-1200) they could still be considered as a cohort. Although some historians estimate the size of an Auxilium up to 800, any number between 500-800 - maybe even 1000 - can be considered (things weren't like exact math).


For the cavalry I did a similar thing. There was no difference between legionary cavalry units (the Equites, who became the Equites Promoti) and auxiliary units (Ala) (except the specialist auxiliary cavalry units like the Ala Contariorum - who would basically be labelled as 'Equites Catafractarii' - of course). So I've merged the two into the Equites Promoti (actually the auxiliary cavalry just got hidden/removed this way, because 'Equites Promoti' strictly speaking only relates to the legionary cavalry who were 'promoted' to act as individual units rather than attached to the legion in earlier times, but of course the auxiliary cavalry units, the Alae, were already separate and individual units from the beginning of their creation). And to confuse matter a little bit more, the word 'ala' is also a generic military term to describe any cavalry unit due to their battlefield role on the in which they were positioned at the flanks or 'wings'. The Equites Promoti could very well be referred to as an Ala in texts. Therefore I've decided to ditch the Alae altogether and go for just Equites Promoti.
But for the cavalry equivalent of the Auxilium I've named a unit Equites Auxiliares. This would be a unit similar to the Equites Promoti (and the old auxiliary Alae of old imperial times) but recruited from barbarians who settled within the empire. This way the old auxiliary Alae still get represented in a way even though the Equites Auxiliares would represent the old auxiliary Alae as they were in earlier imperial times.
Another name that is used for cavalry units recruited from barbarians is 'cuneus'. But using that should also not stop anyone from using the many other barbarian names such as Gentiles, Laeti and even make distinctions between the Auxilia (Palatina) units themselves like Cornuti, Brachiati, Regii, Batavi, Petulantes, Celtae and even Exculcatores, Sagittarii etc. In other words, you would take a deep dive into the complicated organization of the late Roman army and even the empire itself with its many different treaties between the Roman state and barbarian tribes and that would become one huge complicated mess for the player.


So you'd have this list (not including the many specialist units such as Sagittarii, Exculcatores, Equites Sagittarii, Equites Catafractarii etc.):

Generic regular late Roman army units:
- Cohors
- Cohors Miliaria
- Cohors (Ioviani, Herculiani, whatever)
- Cohors Miliaria (Ioviani, Herculiani, whatever)
- Equites Promoti

More regular Auxilia units recruited mainly from barbarians settled within empire:
- Auxilium
- Equites Auxiliares

Irregular and 'ad hoc' Auxilia/auxiliary units (mercenaries) recruited from barbarians:

- "basically any mercenary unit" (think: Germanic infantry/cavalry - or if more specific Frankish infantry/cavalry, Gothic infantry/cavalry - Sarmatian Lancers, Alan Horse Archers, Hunnic Horse Archers, Armenian infantry etc.)

Now the problem I've got is I don't want to name a specific legionary unit since it'd be weird if all of a sudden you had 3 armies chock full of Ioviani legionaries. I also am still being a bit of a rebel from what you guys are telling me and have 2 emblems within a single unit (Ioviani/herculiani, the Cornuti and some corps they usually brigaded with). So I need an unpartisan name that isn't weird to see many times over.

So let's say it's:

Cohors for the Lower end half-armored half-unarmored guys.
Legio for the rank and file standard all-armored infantry.

"Elite Legionaries" They need a name. Something that suggests a superior status, a more veteraned status. It needs to be non-partisan so that there's not the oddity of "I have 2 stacks full of Ioviani" (Yes, you'll just have 2 stacks full of legionaries all with Ioviani and Herculiani shields. But I'm being picky here). In the sake of work load given how much I have to do it is not an option to have a dozen or more different separate units of particular regiments.

It’s your mod, so if you want two different shield emblems within a unit, I’m not going to stop you.

I understand your position about the elite legionaries and usually I’m inclined to say yes, but from a gameplay perspective it could be nice to have a specific elite legion corps reflecting certain favorite legions at the time, to differentiate from the ordinary legions and because they were the elites/favorites of the Tetrarchs. I’ll admit that basically any legion could have been promoted as an elite unit, but since certain legions like the Ioviani and the Herculiani were iconic and established elite units (and basically could be considered comitatus/comitatenses/palatina units) and the Tetrarch’s equivalent of the Praetorian Guard, the Cohortes Palatinae, they could make a nice addition to the unit roster. I’m not sure if you can set a limit to the number of units that can be recruited of a certain unit? If so I would advise you to consider it, maybe not for now but for later on.

[Ahiga]

Lots of information! Thanks for that.

I understand your position about the elite legionaries and usually I’m inclined to say yes, but from a gameplay perspective it could be nice to have a specific elite legion corps reflecting certain favorite legions at the time, to differentiate from the ordinary legions and because they were the elites/favorites of the Tetrarchs. I’ll admit that basically any legion could have been promoted as an elite unit, but since certain legions like the Ioviani and the Herculiani were iconic and established elite units (and basically could be considered comitatus/comitatenses/palatina units) and the Tetrarch’s equivalent of the Praetorian Guard, the Cohortes Palatinae, they could make a nice addition to the unit roster. I’m not sure if you can set a limit to the number of units that can be recruited of a certain unit? If so I would advise you to consider it, maybe not for now but for later on.

It actually is possible to limit recruitment to a certain # of a unit.

-The way we're doing it right now is to use existing unit entries, editing them as necessary. This allows us to mitigate the work needed to an extent, as it means I don't have to worry about making sure the miscellaneous tables (not the recruitment one, the land_units, main_units, unit_abilities, ect.) don't have to be updated. This may change, or prove more trouble than it's worth. Even so I try to avoid 'thinking with my stomache instead of my head', as mission creep is always a dangerous reality with modding. There is an interesting mechanic to unit tables in Rome 2: You can make it so a single unit entry (rom_legionary_cohort, let's say) applies a different name, a different unit card (if necessary), a different variant weighted mesh (a model) to different factions. That's why right now a single unit entry, like the aformentioned cohort, is able to have different shield decor for different emperors. So in theory, it would actually be very easy to take the existing elite unit entry and make it so:

Maxentius' elite legion swords is named "Cohortes Ioviani and Herculani" (In latin)
Constantine's elite legion swords is named "Cohortes Petulantes and whomever the hell the yellow dragons on red background guys are I forget]"
Daia's elite legion swords is named "Cohortes Thebaeorum & Macedonica).
Ect.

The worry I have is depending on what we assume a single unit to represent organizational wise (like, 1 unit = 1 maniple or cohort or whatever term they were using), it may really limit how many of them you can field. I mean in theory you could end up with more Praetoriani (what, 10,000 of them by the Tetrarchy?) than Ioviani/Herculiani (most thinking the 'modern' legions are 1,200 or so strong, so 2,400 total?). You could make the true blue elite legions superior to the Praetoriani to mitigate the oddity, but I'd still like to see more of the Elite legions than just 1-2. Conversely, I'm totally fine with limiting them so you dont' field nothing BUT elite legions. Though I also have other thoughts for soft-caps (severe recruitment turns, namely. If it takes 2 to get a legionary, 1 to get a Foederati, and 4-5 to get an elite legion, you aren't going to field nothing but elite legions).

Perhaps the use of Auxilia should be seen in a bigger picture and considered as a continuation of an old tradition (recruiting barbarians to fight for you, like the old auxiliary cohorts from the old days) of which Constantine made full use, because of the possibility (lots of willing barbarians living nearby) and necessity (I quickly need good and fanatic troops for my campaigns against Maxentius who is outnumbering me and others to become the sole emperor).
Also take note that the word 'Auxilia' was still used as a generic term for irregular ‘ad hoc’ recruited units that in RTW and M2TW (and perhaps Rome 2 as well) would be best portrayed as mercenaries, aside from the more regular Auxilia units that were recruited from barbarians within the empire. Some of these ‘ad hoc’ recruited units became regular units. I believe the Regii were a unit of Allamannic troops who surrendered to Constantius Chlorus after they were stuck on a river island in the river Rhine and were recruited as among the first of the 'new' auxilia units. They were recruited 'ad hoc' as an irregular auxiliary unit, but became one of the more well-known regular units of the Auxilia Palatina.

The Romans inherited from the Greeks a dizzying and irritating array of nomenclature.
So this is what I'm looking at right now:

1) The lowest end professionals. Mix of armor and no armor = "Cohors" + term for Spearmen [right now I'm using Hastati, as I believe Julianus you recommended or did yourself, since Lanciarii is too associated with light infantry skirmishers at this point?] or term for infantry in general (I was using Milites). Since we're doing the spear/sword split and leaving it up to someone who wants to do a mini mod for the aformentioned issues of combining them.
2) The rank and file soldiers. All armored. "Legio" + relevant term to distinguish spearmen vs swordsmen. Or "Cohors Legio _______"?
3) Elite units. Cohors [legion names] + unit term. Problem here is the use of two legions within a single unit. How would you say Ioviani and Herculiani, or X and Y in latin?
4) Cohors Palatina/Praetoriani = limited to Rome proper.
5) Equites Promoti = rank and file cavalry. Armored.
6) Equites Cataphractii = Lancers, some horse armor some no horse armor
7) Clibinarii = Lancers. All horse armored.
8) Equites Illyricani = Unarmored jav-cav.
9) Equites Sagitarii = Native Roman Horse archers. Prefer to limit their capabilities (quality) or recruitment (turns, costs) to avoid letting you field horse-archer armies in the middle of Spain or Gaul.
10) Lanciarii = as of right now I have them to represent
11) Exculatores, Funditores, Sagitarii.
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1) Equites Indigenae Sagitarii & Sagitarii Indigenae
2) Equites Mauri and Mauri Exculatores/Pedites (Javelineers)
3) Worry about Arab Auxilia later.
4) Auxilium + unit term [spear or sword. Or just sword]. These would be armored fellows representing the nascent corps of "more professional than just barbarians led by their chieftain, but not part of the established order like old school auxilia" - the fellows Constantine I recruits for his war against Maxentius. Differ from legionaries in more barbarous abilities/features - the war cry, the frenzied charge, perhaps being lighter/faster on foot. Represent the flexibility of the proto-Auxilia Palatina of the 4th century.
5) Equites Auxiliares - they look more germanic than roman?
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Recruitment comes from two buildings - regular barracks, and auxilia barracks. The latter represents the more fluid kinds of recruitment of locals like the Moors, native easterners, the Laeti or the like. So auxilia barracks would have: Auxilium/Auxiliares, Mauri, Indigenae, and units which could draw from auxilia sources (#1 Cohors, Illyricani, maybe Exculatores/Funditores/Sagitarii). Probably the final level of Auxilia barracks allows you to recruit true blue legionaries, representing a more organized use of the Laeti for recruits and thorough Romanization of the barbars - (T3 or so, I want to scale it down so you aren't doing an artifical RTS style of tiering, but rather costs and the like determine recruitment)

Now we get to the irregular and ad hoc. I appreciate this expertise because I'm realizing now my original plan was erroneous - I was thinking of 4th century (and earlier) "Laeti" or settling of barbarians in the empire as the 5th century/post Adrianople model where they are a people with their own laws and governance within the empire. So I thought of Foederati coming from within the empire as well as from without. Technically I suppose you could claim Laeti were a kind of Foederati, but it's getting into the complicated relationships of Romans and Barbarians. And wooly haired barbarians these Laeti are not - I am pretty sure I recall them and the Milites of Gaul being the retainers of Roman traditions and dress and titles well into the 6th..7th century!
So Foederati will just be available as mercenaries. And probably from the Auxilia barracks (at least right now for Germans, the only Foederati done thus far) across the Rhine/Danube.

[andrew881thebest]

you should make foederati as an invading army (even if historically they were populations migrating) which is trespassing your territory asking for lands and you can decide if make a war with them, give them land and they will give you some units as tribute (strapies system actually) or pay them as mercenaries. Is that possible? this would be best option.

[Arthalion]

This was not a definitive equipping of a specific unit but more the first actual test of porting over external contributed models and textures and working on some of my own textures. So ignore the limited shield variety - in the actual release since there won't be color coded uniforms for the Romans (or anyone ideally down the line), there will be a soft segregation of shield decorum. Meaning besides Constantine I having the only Chi Rhos (But other shield decor too), one of his rival Tetrarchs' legionaries might have that funky double headed dragon/eagle thing in only red and yellow while another has it in red and white, and so on. It'll still be godawful messy but that's what civil wars are about.

Plenty of polishing I have to do on the existing armor (the scale needs to be more glossy, the mail less so). Happy with the tunics (my friend Kuauik's patterns on some, stuff I've found myself on others), the helmets (ported over from song of talesin or counterpoint of Taleworlds Forums or Imperator of Rome's generous contributions of the standard spangenhelms with and without cheek guards). Had trouble with the new swords from counterpoint but I should be able to get them in. Also need to fix one of the lods of imperator's cheekless helmet, I messed it up somehow. Think I need to look at an lod I did of counterpoint's too.

Shield is an enlarged, very tiny bit concave (I probably need to make it a bit more so, not imperial scutum level but more noticably concave) auxilia shield. And yeah I know the Chi Rho is facing the wrong way, I'll fix it.

This is very nice ahiga, can we see that in the mod actually? If not, when ?

[AnthoniusII]

Despite the XP is facing wrong way , I have to say that i realy like the mat metal essence of helmets.
In that point i would like to say that you must avoid stainless steel textures on helmets or to shiny metal parts.
Remember that low rank troops whore iron made schian haubercs that looked quite dark grey to almost black...
Dust, sun and weather made every metal part (even sword blades) look mat!

[Razor]

Despite the XP is facing wrong way , I have to say that i realy like the mat metal essence of helmets.
In that point i would like to say that you must avoid stainless steel textures on helmets or to shiny metal parts.
Remember that low rank troops whore iron made schian haubercs that looked quite dark grey to almost black...
Dust, sun and weather made every metal part (even sword blades) look mat!

Well, I kind of agree. Bare iron would indeed be prone to corrosion.

BUT:

That's the reason why many late Roman helmets that are known to us have silver or gold plating. The core of helmets would be iron, but the silver plating would be on top of the iron core, which prevents the easy corrosion from the weather. Many helmets that survived appear to be just iron, but with closer inspection they show remnants of silver or gold (bronze perhaps too, not sure though) because they corrode less quickly. Of course silvering and gilding helmets is costly, but remember that that's one of the most important things a soldier would have and could show off. If I remember correctly soldiers were even paid this way. Certain splendor and exquisite equipment came with the status and rank of an officer or even a whole unit. But I find it hard to believe that units of the lowest rank wouldn't be having just iron helmets. But then again even the simplest helmets (like the ones found at Intercisa) show remnants of silvering.

And Romans did have a technique that allowed helmets with a high degree of polish making it really shiny. Probably not like high polished steel today, but shiny enough to reflect sunlight and easily blind someone with it. I can imagine that the polish would become less and iron helmets would become more mat and look more grey, although that would also depend on the metallurgy used for the helmet, weather conditions, how well it's been taken care of etc..

So if you're going to make helmets look dark or with less polish, I would give them to low-tier troops. The medium to higher graded troops would definitely have shinier (silvered or gilded) helmets. But that's something that could be applied to the mod later on. I can imagine that priorities lie elsewhere.

[andrew881thebest]

first of all, this is best mod I have ever seen. You are my hero in this forum. Units look already historical and cool enough. But if you want to make things really perfect, I would make fewer oval Shields, and more Shields round shaped or almost round shaped.
Then bronze lorica squamata were abandoned from some decades in the age we talk, since bronze lorica were typical of 3rd century not 4th. Surely some survived but they were getting fewer and fewer. While lorica hamatas were becoming main kind of armor.
Then for the lorica hamata you should not use the "gallic" type with that second protection for shoulders since I have never seen it in pictures of 4th century soldiers. While most of them protected the arms too, totally or in big parts, but I do not see this kind of lorica in the pictures.
Last but not least, I would suggest to use different helms for different units. Models are very good almost perfect but you are meeting different models in same units. Some helms I see are typical of cavalry or elite infantry, some are the main type for basic infantry. I would make a unit with only the most basic helmets, the Sassanid type with holes for ears and the other type very simple with no cheek guards. Then I would use other types, more covering and more polished for better units of infantry. Cavalry should have the best helms, but more polished and maybe with some golden or silver part. Officers should be recognizable because they would have golden helms, crests and generally expensive items. Anyway you should use more the Sassanid helm with round holes in ears, since it was main type in that age: cheap, easy to make (only 6 parts linked together) and enough effective. Maybe you could make some very low unit using only that type of helm. Let me know.

[Ahiga]

Have to do non-faction colored cloaks (easy, just boring) to keep from having the clone effect of the same bright colors.

Foederati Pedites.



Foederati Armati.



Helmets as usual are a mixture of Dejawolf's, Song of Talesin's, Imperator of Rome, Counterpoint to whom all credit is due. Spear's are dejawolfs when not Vanilla. Swords are a mix of Vanilla spatha, Imperator of Rome swords, Counterpoint Swords.

Yes, you will be able to recruit Comitatus Foederati who will wear armor. No, these guys will not - they are the rank and file warriors who are not a senior member of a Germanic warlord or notable's comitatus, but who are more well off than a corvee'd farmer.

Unfortunately with regards to shine, it's kind of difficult to master the symbiotic relationship of gloss map and specular (I still don't truly know how they work, just a vague sense of "red layer in gloss map is always almost featureless for metal", and stuff like that). And with everything on my plate I'm not able to return to fix that, nor do I imagine I could really achieve a perfect parity with all helmets having the right shine to it (As is true in Vanilla R2). So I'm probably not going to be able to really worry about adjusting the shine until later. If someone wants to do a test when it releases of making the specular much darker or the gloss much darker and releasing that fix, they certainly can. Noted observations Andrew.

[Nelduin]

Those units are totally splendid. +Rep

[AnthoniusII]

Ahiga can you provide the horse model (in obj format to use it in milkshape) and the textures?
I will try to make some horse skins varietions for your mod!

[Ahiga]

The horse itself, or the horse-barding?







Also I may reneg and go with single shield emblem per roman unit. It was pretty badass watching the Herculiani (or Ioviani, whichever) marching with a single shield emblem compared to the mixed of the others. And despite the throw on the charge animation, I'll probably make the Romans do fire-at-will (and if someone doesn't like it they can mini mod a fix ).

[Geronimo2006]

I'm opting to avoid the terms of Limitanei and Palatina because at least the sources I've found suggest they were not in existence prior to well into Constantine I's reign and while people attribute a nascent kind of Comitatenses to Diocletian (or even earlier, Galerius or whatever his name is), they seem to consider the firm division of frontier vs interior mobile army to occur after Constantine I wins control of the empire. Plus what you describe above.

Can you recommend a different name for Comitatenses? The way it is right now you've got your Cohors (who I've chosen to have half armored, half unarmored for gameplay purposes.), your Legions, then what I wanted to represent more modern established legions who represent the proto-comitatenses: Herculiani, Ioviani, Parthica II, whatever legions Constantine I had that eventually became his Auxilia Palatina, and then Praetorians for guard infantry.

Comitatus Legions, maybe? Rather than the official Comitatenses, simply being the Comitatus - of the court of the emperor.

Well it seems the old name for limutenei under Constantine was ripenses (325).

Also while eventually they were unpaid, it seems they may still have been paid in 460, because an incident in the life of St.Severinus refers to raiders intercepting and killing limitanei bringing pay to soldiers.

[AnthoniusII]

The horse its self!

[Ahiga]

Sure thing: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7l...di2/Horses.rar

There's five horse bodies (and then five british horses, but I dunno the difference). But since I think the horses all use the same body with just different texture entries, I only coverted the first one. If you need the other ones because the other textures don't map on it properly, I'll send it along.


Also have changed it to what you guys recommended - all professional Romans (Auxilium, Legions, Cavalry) and the like use the same shield per unit, with one or two using two emblems that are almost identical and I figured why not. The one major exception are the Exculatores - given as I understand from what you folks at Invasio researched, they were drawn from legions, auxilia, and such in an ad-hoc fashion (somewhat like light infantry being drawn from the main battalion circa the Napoleonic wars), the Exculatores use a mixture of all the shields used by that faction's Auxilium and Legionaries of the line. That fits tidily with the five-item limit without tricking it (hence it's easier for my lazy, overworked self!), and just assumes for the more elite Comitatus-grade legionaries leaving the light infantry tasks to the elite, separate corps of Lanciarii (who have a single shield per unit). Just can't imagine that they'd re-assign the light infantry exculatores a single shield type when they'd have little need for it.

[julianus heraclius]

Sounds good to me.

[andrew881thebest]

hi guys some time ago I saw in YouTube a mod with a lot of new combat killing animations and no matched combat. I am not sure what was its name. I think it was "no matched combat". But since it was very cool and impressive to see (finally men kept inside formations without duelling alone) I was wondering if you could make this mod compatible with that mod I am talking. Because combining cool new units with impressive animations and visual effects could have epic result.

Anyway I think this mod is getting so epic that it could become a standalone game like Barbarian invasion was for rome 2. I am not sure that CA will be happy of this. You are possibly creating an alternative for their (almost sure) future expansion which could have been worth hundreds millions dollars (if only half of those who bought rome 2 would have bought the expasion)

[AnthoniusII]

Sure thing: http://www.mediafire.com/download/7l...di2/Horses.rar

There's five horse bodies (and then five british horses, but I dunno the difference). But since I think the horses all use the same body with just different texture entries, I only coverted the first one. If you need the other ones because the other textures don't map on it properly, I'll send it along.


Also have changed it to what you guys recommended - all professional Romans (Auxilium, Legions, Cavalry) and the like use the same shield per unit, with one or two using two emblems that are almost identical and I figured why not. The one major exception are the Exculatores - given as I understand from what you folks at Invasio researched, they were drawn from legions, auxilia, and such in an ad-hoc fashion (somewhat like light infantry being drawn from the main battalion circa the Napoleonic wars), the Exculatores use a mixture of all the shields used by that faction's Auxilium and Legionaries of the line. That fits tidily with the five-item limit without tricking it (hence it's easier for my lazy, overworked self!), and just assumes for the more elite Comitatus-grade legionaries leaving the light infantry tasks to the elite, separate corps of Lanciarii (who have a single shield per unit). Just can't imagine that they'd re-assign the light infantry exculatores a single shield type when they'd have little need for it.

What i will try is to follow the CA's horse preview back then in early days of revealing Rome 2.
There are more than 15 diferent skins there.
What i can do is to create a second pack of textures with slightly diferent black stalion etc!
EDIT: A very early experiment to see what part is what!


So far the better skin is the white one...
The worst is the black!
Another attempt will be a re-color of the white skin in to black!

[b257]

Man this mod looks great makes me wish I had Rome 2 and didn't have to borrow my friends computer to play it. Units look so great wouldn't surprise me if CA Poached them from you for the rumored expansion

[andrew881thebest]

Man this mod looks great makes me wish I had Rome 2 and didn't have to borrow my friends computer to play it. Units look so great wouldn't surprise me if CA Poached them from you for the rumored expansion

either they hire him or they will steal his mod and sell it as an expansion for 25 bucks at least (if they sell 2/3 new units for 4, I think that will be a coherent price with their price policy). They had surely planned to make this expansion and now it will be useless.
A higa watch your back, if you see some strange guy in black suit with a hand under his coat in front of your house, ruuuun