Para Bellum

[Sheridan]

Ladies and gentlemen, dedicated Total War fans, it is my delight to present to you Para Bellum, a detailed and transforming battle overhaul for Total War Rome II.

The ultimate goal of the mod is to revisit what we, the team behind Para Bellum, consider to be the golden age of Total War battles. Therefore, the Rome II battle mechanics have in many regards been changed to the very core. The result is battles that by and large are similar to those seen in Medieval 2, with influences from a variety of titles both before and after. Careful attention has been paid to details, making cultures and their associated armies stand out from one another.

Para Bellum includes a number of core features, including

• 50 new, culture-specific unit arrangements*
• 1-HP system, carving a path for balanced and consistent missile damages
• Collateral damage: Cavalry charges will result in casualties for both sides
• Deployment zones closer to one another
• Re-arranged unit statistics and minor UI changes

And many more, such as entirely reworked morale, unit statistics and battle pace.

Demokritos, author of Alii Colores Romae, has given us permission to implement his mod in Para Bellum. There will be two separate versions, one with vanilla colors for those that prefer how troops currently look, and one with ACR for those that want some real eye candy.

Without further ado, I encourage you to Prepare for War

Steam Download Link

Non-Steam Download Link

Para Bellum With Standard ACR - Known as ACR for LAM or "ACLA", Alii Colores Romae for Legionaire's Army Mod. As the name suggest, these are compatible

Note: Campaign difficulty must be set to normal, or the AI will receive unproportional bonuses in the battles.

*Some examples of the new unit arrangements can be found here; http://imgur.com/a/m45X4

[Demokritos]

Eagerly anticipating your work, Philip! And naturally +rep for it. Would have given you more if I could.

OK, so release is a week away. Then I'd like to have your latest version, too, if you will. With ACR in it.

Keep the good work up, man.

Regards,
D

[Sheridan]

Always happy to hear that! Sent you a PM with the latest version.

[Little Legionaire]

I've heard the reputation of your work Sheridan and can't wait to see the mod in action!

Godspeed mate and keep informing us about your work

Regards,
LL

[Sheridan]

Thanks. More information will come tomorrow, and some interesting news will be included.

At the moment I'm actually looking at battle entity effects, trying to see if I can make the "dust plumes" apparent in the game, particularly in desert environments, like in Napoleon. Editing those files is proving rather difficult though. Worth a shot anyway, it's fun to learn.

[Little Legionaire]

Thanks. More information will come tomorrow, and some interesting news will be included.

At the moment I'm actually looking at battle entity effects, trying to see if I can make the "dust plumes" apparent in the game, particularly in desert environments, like in Napoleon. Editing those files is proving rather difficult though. Worth a shot anyway, it's fun to learn.

Eagerly waiting the news!

Couple questions:

• Will there be extensions for the mod such as better army compositions, ive played a battle today. Enemy had one full and one half stack army (backing up each other) which was swarming with Slingers,
• Is this mod offers us EB style longer and more tactical battles compared to vanilla,

Thanks,

[Sheridan]

Eagerly waiting the news!

Couple questions:

• Will there be extensions for the mod such as better army compositions, ive played a battle today. Enemy had one full and one half stack army (backing up each other) which was swarming with Slingers,
• Is this mod offers us EB style longer and more tactical battles compared to vanilla,

Thanks,

To answer your two questions:

There won't be a better army compositions/AI recruitment mod included (but there are a good number of them on the workshop, and they should be compatible). At least there won't be for the release, I might add something like that later, but no promises. Focus is heavily on the actual battle mechanics, although I can appreciate this request since it adds some good flavor.

To answer your second question, the battles are longer in some regards and shorter in others compared to vanilla. The missile balance is entirely different, so it's not going to be wortwhile spending arrows trying to take out heavily armoured units from the front, whereas lighter units will be far more vulnerable and shouldn't be left exposed to projectiles. The melee combat is pretty close to the pace in Medieval II, and the morale works in a similar manner where units often don't need to take many casualties to rout, but will return to the battle very frequently. So the combat pace isn't very similar to EB, although I'd be happy to release an extra version with slower pace for those that are interested.

The news I was talking about will come a bit later today. Without revealing too much, it's going to concern hoplites, and there will also be some information about the current progress of the mod and more in depth of some of the features.

[Little Legionaire]

To answer your two questions:

There won't be a better army compositions/AI recruitment mod included (but there are a good number of them on the workshop, and they should be compatible). At least there won't be for the release, I might add something like that later, but no promises. Focus is heavily on the actual battle mechanics, although I can appreciate this request since it adds some good flavor.

To answer your second question, the battles are longer in some regards and shorter in others compared to vanilla. The missile balance is entirely different, so it's not going to be wortwhile spending arrows trying to take out heavily armoured units from the front, whereas lighter units will be far more vulnerable and shouldn't be left exposed to projectiles. The melee combat is pretty close to the pace in Medieval II, and the morale works in a similar manner where units often don't need to take many casualties to rout, but will return to the battle very frequently. So the combat pace isn't very similar to EB, although I'd be happy to release an extra version with slower pace for those that are interested.

The news I was talking about will come a bit later today. Without revealing too much, it's going to concern hoplites, and there will also be some information about the current progress of the mod and more in depth of some of the features.

Sounds great my friend! Can't wait

[Sheridan]

It's about time to announce what was promised, I believe.

To begin with, the team behind the upcoming mod Antiqua Imperium have shouldered the task of creating a new, longer hoplite spear per request, for which I'm really grateful. If it goes as planned, the spear should be about 2.6 to 2.7 meters long, which will make hoplite units stand out visually in particular compared to other spear units. I don't yet know when it will be finished, they estimate it might take a few more days, but hopefully it'll be ready for the planned release this weekend.

That'd be the big news. I'm working at trying to make dust and particle effects more apparent at the moment, like they were in Napoleon. Although there's been some success so far, it will likely not make it into the release version.

On to the update about features that the mod will include. I've already mentioned that statistics will look and be arranged differently from vanilla, here are two screenshots of typical units giving an idea of how it will look like.



As visible in the pictures, the most essential unit details are displayed, helping to make it easy to compare units but also grasp the vital information about them. For example, artillery units won't have armour or charge bonus represented since that's not interesting information about that unit type given its role. You may also have noticed at this point that some of the statistics have changed names, Base Morale has been changed to just Morale, Defence to Total Defence (hovering mouse over it will display both the unit skill and the shield value that contributes to the defence of a unit), Bonus vs Large renamed to Bonus vs Cavalry.

Now to some of the actual combat changes. Let's start off with cavalry. In Para Bellum, cavalry will be vulnerable to frontal charges just like infantry. Heavy cavalry like Praetorian Cavalry or better still, Cataphracts, will handle frontal charges against infantry fine and often with very few casualties, if any. It will depend on what they're charging into though - units armed with spears or pikes will not be ideal targets! Light cavalry on the other hand will be highly effective against skirmish units, mounted or on foot, but will suffer significant losses in head-on charges against heavier infantry types, meaning it might not be worthwile using them for such purposes.

The overall combat pace is, as mentioned in the original post, similar to Medieval II. Missile units have taken a big turn from vanilla though, with the re-implemented 1 HP system. Effectiveness will vary a lot from unit to unit, but they're all potent to inflict casualties on the enemy. Every volley will take down about as many enemies (given that the circumstances don't change), so there is no major gap between how many soldiers that will drop by the first volley and how many that will drop by the fifth which is a very apparent difference in vanilla.

Compared to vanilla, pikemen are far more effective at keeping the enemy at bay. They are however very vulnerable from the rear in particular, and might suffer substantial casualties from a flank attack as well. All Greek pike units also have increased numbers (192 instead of 160), but so does many other units like spearmen (now 240), missile infantry (160 per unit) and Steppe missile cavalry units (a small increase up to 90 instead of 80) etc. Unit costs have been changed quite significantly as well - special units are virtually the only ones costing more than 1000 denars, and elephants will be quite staggeringly expensive with price tags up to 4000, though there are more elelphants per units I should mention.

There's a lot more to talk about, but the update post is becoming pretty lengthy so this will have to do for now. Besides, it'll be out in a few days.

[Little Legionaire]

Wonderful news Sheridan!

One suggestion though for the elephant units due to their geographical advantage and connections Carthage, Seleukidai and Parthia shall have special discounts from the house?

But i liked the price changes. That should prevent spamming elites. Balanced and realistic army compositions is essential. And correct pricing will help the cause a lot.

Eagerly waiting the release candidate version Sheridan keep up the pace!

[Demokritos]

The combat changes sound very interesting, Philip. In particular now the cost-efficiency of missile units with accuracy being more constant against an enemy advancing from afar. But this change does not necessarily mean that the accuracy of missile units have increased. Maybe you've just increased the protection value of armor.

Like good LL above, however, I'm a bit concerned about the battle length. I don't like TW battles to appear more like skirmishes than a real fight. So if two evenly matched armoured units come face to face on the battlefield, it should take a while before the outcome is decided (by small variances in the circumstances), even if the number of casualties before they rout is decreased. Whenever two evenly matched but unarmoured units meet, the fight should be over in much shorter time, but also here not too quickly, depending on the defence skill. The question is how long a given fight should probably take from the point of entertainment and historical facts.

Anynody have an idea about this?

What if the outcome of regular pikemen vs regular pikemen normally takes 7 minutes in game? Levy pikemen vs levy pikemen 6 minutes? But regular pikemen vs levy pikemen 5 minutes? Etc.

[Sheridan]

Missile units still have varied accuracy and will perform slightly better the closer to the target they are, although it won't be very apparent when they're dealing with targets that have good armour and large protective shields. Artillery on the other hand will have very poor accuracy against units but of course deal a lot of damage every time they hit, so every hit will be very satisfying.

As I've said before I'm going to release a version with longer battles, since there's already requests for that. I'm not entirely sure just how lengthy they should be though, maybe 20-25 minutes (as opposed to the average current battle which lasts around 10 with the mod)? The pace can easily be changed by decreasing hit chances, so in theory you could get hour-long battles. There's going to have to be some testing first to make sure every unit type work as they should with slower pace, however.

Unfortunately my folks here at home decided we're going on that trip now, today. I have finished all but the mercenary roster, and given new recruitment costs and unit sizes to about half of the rosters. So it's still not finished.. and I won't be back home until late next week. I'm really sorry, this is a broken promise.

[Little Legionaire]

Missile units still have varied accuracy and will perform slightly better the closer to the target they are, although it won't be very apparent when they're dealing with targets that have good armour and large protective shields. Artillery on the other hand will have very poor accuracy against units but of course deal a lot of damage every time they hit, so every hit will be very satisfying.

As I've said before I'm going to release a version with longer battles, since there's already requests for that. I'm not entirely sure just how lengthy they should be though, maybe 20-25 minutes (as opposed to the average current battle which lasts around 10 with the mod)? The pace can easily be changed by decreasing hit chances, so in theory you could get hour-long battles. There's going to have to be some testing first to make sure every unit type work as they should with slower pace, however.

Unfortunately my folks here at home decided we're going on that trip now, today. I have finished all but the mercenary roster, and given new recruitment costs and unit sizes to about half of the rosters. So it's still not finished.. and I won't be back home until late next week. I'm really sorry, this is a broken promise.

Take your time and enjoy your vacation Philip! It's not a broken promise mate if we ignore real life fun and relaxing we'd be nothing but robots. Happy people mods better

[Demokritos]

Take your time and enjoy your vacation Philip! It's not a broken promise mate if we ignore real life fun and relaxing we'd be nothing but robots. Happy people mods better

Fully agree.


As for the battle length thing, I'd try with about on average 50% longer battles compared to vanilla. But as I said in a PM earlier, we should test your battlemod as is properly in a campaign for some time before we know if it - all functions considered - could be worth a change here. So, no need to consider this matter until you're ready to take on the second edition of Para Bellum.

[Wulfric5]

Awesome mod! Waiting for the release to start my new campaign.

[Little Legionaire]

Fully agree.


As for the battle length thing, I'd try with about on average 50% longer battles compared to vanilla. But as I said in a PM earlier, we should test your battlemod as is properly in a campaign for some time before we know if it - all functions considered - could be worth a change here. So, no need to consider this matter until you're ready to take on the second edition of Para Bellum.

50% longer battles sounds a good deal to me! Longer battles is essential imo.

BTW i'm using "Litharion' Better AI Recruitment" mod and its marvellous! It'd be a perfect combo with Sheridan' work Because balanced and better army structures lets the battle mod itself more accurate and realistic.

I mean if i fight against an army with half of its ranks filled with Slinger or Skirmishers. So the battle mod means nothing. However some cultures rely more on missile and mounted troops like steppe cultures and parthia but as i mentioned above Litharion' mod solves this issue.

[Demokritos]

Thanks for the tip, LL. All mod alternatives out there have become a jungle. Easy to miss the best. Searched and found this Litharion one. Will test it (in combo with PB).

I take it that you're not using one of the big hosted mods, but try to combine stand alone ones for the best game experience. For my first proper campaign (after all modding work), I will do the same (once Para Bellum is out).

[Little Legionaire]

Thanks for the tip, LL. All mod alternatives out there have become a jungle. Easy to miss the best. Searched and found this Litharion one. Will test it (in combo with PB).

I take it that you're not using one of the big hosted mods, but try to combine stand alone ones for the best game experience. For my first proper campaign (after all modding work), I will do the same (once Para Bellum is out).

I tried that mod with my Seleucid campaign and found it quite good mate. For example Ptolemaic armies were decently composed with pikes, swords, missile units and cavalry and plus the AI was upgrading its units. It was a proper battle. Not a vanilla skirmish.

Usually i try to combine best standalone mods and suggest them to people via my Steam page.

But for a proper battle mod i believe the recruitment side is quite essential. Simply, such a mod (Litharion for example) lets the shine the battle mod itself. IMO some mods are linked each other and complimentary in many ways. Such as yours and mine.

And i'm eagerly waiting Sheridan' return. And i hope he puts caps (by limits and correct pricing) for elite units to let people compose realistic armies.

Europa Barbarorum I had a genuine battle mechanics and quite good recruitment pricing. Raising armies cost you a lot and hiring mercenaries needs a solid financial stability due to their pricing (not that extreme but i say rational). But the battle mechanics itself was so well crafted and each battle had importance in many ways.

Lets see the Sheridan' mod in action.

[Sheridan]

I'm back from the vacation!

Happy to hear that you guys didn't mind that it casued a delay. Writing this message while I'm reading all new post on the threads, by the way, so I hope I'm not missing anything. The mod will be fully launched in a couple of hours from now, but I'm not entirely sure if the new hoplite spear will be included yet (last news was that it was finished and was being rigged, so chances are it might just be ready to be implemented). If not, it'll be included in an update as soon as possible.

Putting caps on units is something I might have to look into, at least for the campaign where it really matters. The unit pricing is going to be pretty similar to the original game while upkeep is closer to Rome 2 vanilla, though higher in some instances. Anyway time to finish what remains, I'll let you all know the moment the mod has been launched.

[Sheridan]

Actually a release today might be a bit optimistic, seeing as a good many more factions need repriced units. (Add EE, CiG and other campaign typic units to that). Tomorrow would be better and I'd have more time for adjustments, plus chances are better the hoplite spear will be finished by then. Anyway I'll finish as much as possible tonight and then send it in a PM to those of you who want (already know you've asked for it Wulfric, you'll have the latest version in a couple of hours).