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Thread: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

  1. #1
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    More challenging battles:
    Removed Gabionades mini-mod v1.0

    Also available:-
    - Stronger Garrisons mini-mod (see the second post of this thread)
    - Naval Recruitment mini-mod (see the third post of this thread)
    - Semi-Realistic Battles mini-mod (see the fourth post of this thread)


    What are gabionades? Why remove them?

    Historically, gabionades were baskets of earth or stones which were used to provide protection for artillery on the battlefield. In the game, if an army has not moved for two turns and if it is attacked, any artillery in the defending army can use gabionades. In the picture below, a cannon is protected by gabionades (in the background, you can see wooden spikes, chevaux de frise, which are not affected by this mod).




    If you have attacked AI armies which deployed cannon in gabionades, you will probably have noticed that their field of fire was dramatically reduced. This makes battles easier than they should be. You can simply march your solders around the flanks of the cannon, making the enemy artillery useless, as shown below.



    What does this mod do?

    This mini-mod prevents artillery units from using gabionades.
    This makes battles more challenging. When the AI is defending, their artillery will no longer be restricted by gabionades to a narrow field of fire.

    The mod does this by editing the unit_abilities table, editing the entry for gabionades so that they can only be used if they have been researched. Since there is no technology which unlocks gabionades, no artillery can use them. Other defences such as trenches and wooden spikes against cavalry (chevaux de frise) are still available, they are not affected by this mod.

    How to install (and uninstall) this mod

    Download the file. Unzip it (it was zipped with the free software 7zip). Copy and paste it in your C:/ProgramFiles(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Empire Total War/data folder. That's it - you do not need to activate the mod using a user.empire_script file.

    If you want to uninstall it, just remove the file from your data folder.

    Compatibility


    This mod should work with any mod which does not modify the unit_abilities table. If you are using the vanilla (unmodified) game or using mods which make small changes (such the ‘All Factions Unlocked’ mod or Empire Total Factions) then this mod should work. I ran a quick test of this mod with the current version of Imperial Splendour (version 2.2.1b) and it worked (I am not claiming any endorsement by the Imperial Splendour modding team - this is not an official Imperial Splendour sub-mod). If you are using an overhaul mod or another hosted mod such as Darthmod, then this mini-mod might not be compatible with that mod.

    Credits

    Thanks to erasmus777 and daniu for modding tools and tutorials and to everyone in the modding community for your tutorials and help.

    Permissions

    If anyone would like to incorporate this into your mod using the information in this mini-mod, please do. If the link stops working, if anyone wants this mod and if I have not posted on this forum for a month, then anyone who has the mod has permission to re-upload it for others to use.

    Downloads

    If the download link below stops working, then you can download the mod using this mediafire link


    My other mods: a list is available here
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by Alwyn; August 28, 2015 at 12:02 PM.

  2. #2
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Stronger Garrisons mini-mod (v10, August 16, 2015)

    Stronger Garrisons mini-mod (v1.0, August 22, 2015)
    also available: Stronger Garrisons with 8-inch Mortars, here

    Would you like a more challenging campaign? Have you ever sent a powerful army to an enemy city, leading to a disappointing easy victory when the enemy city was defended by weak Armed Citizenry units? This mod is for you. Of course, you can also make the campaign more challenging by using a mod which improve the AI.


    Without the mod: Prussia attacks Saxony in the first turn of the game. This will be easy, as many of the defenders are Armed Citizenry.



    With the mod:
    Not so easy now! Invalid Garrison Infantry in Saxony prepare to defend against a Prussian attack. Please note that the improved textures and unit cards in these screenshots come from Bavarian Grenadier's Vanilla Units Enhanced Mod. This mini-mod does not include improved textures or units cards.


    What does this mod do?

    When a city is attacked, even if there is no garrison, units automatically appear (Armed Citizenry and similar units). They are usually very weak, making it easy to capture some cities.

    With this mod, additional units sometimes appear when a city is attacked. If a region has a small population, then you will probably only see Armed Citizenry defending its capital. If the region has a large population, then you are likely to see extra units - either Invalid Garrison Infantry or Swordsmen - appearing to defend the city alongside the Armed Citizenry. I recently started playing Total War Rome II and this mini-mod is based on a feature of that game - more powerful garrison units appear, making expansion more challenging. I believe that some hosted mods for Empire Total War (such as Darthmod) already have a 'stronger garrison' feature.

    This mod does not allow any faction to recruit any extra units - the only difference you will see is that better units appear automatically when a region capital is attacked.

    Invalid Garrison Infantry



    Invalid Garrison Infantry on the battle-field. Please note that the improved textures in these screenshots come from Bavarian Grenadier's Vanilla Units Enhanced Mod. This mini-mod does not include improved textures.

    For European factions (listed below), Invalid Garrison Infantry will sometimes appear when a region capital is attacked. They represent soldiers who have returned to barracks because they were injured or ill (invalid can mean 'injured or ill' as well as 'not valid'). Their statistics are the same as a standard Line Infantry regiment. Their unit size depends on which version of the mod you use (see below for more information).

    For this mod, the following factions are classified as European: Austria, Britain, the Crimean Khanate, Courland, Dagestan, Denmark, France, Genoa, Georgia, Gran Colombia, Greece, Hanover, Hessen, Ireland, the Italian States, the Knights of St John (Malta), Louisiana, Mexico, Naples & Sicily, New Spain, Norway, Poland-Lithuania, Portugal, Piedmont-Savoy, Prussia, Russia, Saxony, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Thirteen Colonies, United States, Venice, Westphalia and Wurttemberg.

    Swordsmen



    Swordsmen helping the Mughal Empire to defend against an attack by the Maratha Confederacy.

    For north African, Middle Eastern and Indian factions, Swordsmen will sometimes appear when a region capital is attacked. Because Swordsmen are less powerful than Invalid Garrison Infantry, Swordsmen units are twice the size of Invalid Garrison Units (see below for more information). With this mod, the following factions can use Swordsmen: Afghanistan, Barbary States, Mamelukes, Maratha Confederacy, Morocco, Mughal Empire, Mysore, the Ottoman Empire, Persia and Punjab.

    These units will only appear for the factions listed above. Some factions, such as Pirates and Native American factions, do not get any additional garrison units from this mod.

    How to install (and uninstall) this mod

    Download the file. Unzip it (it was zipped with the free software 7zip). Copy and paste it in your C:/ProgramFiles(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Empire Total War/data folder. That's it - you do not need to activate the mod using a user.empire_script file.

    If you want to uninstall it, just remove the file from your data folder.

    If the mod doesn't allow factions to recruit units, how do I know if the mod is working?

    Start a campaign on Hard campaign difficulty as Prussia. Select your army in Berlin and send it to attack Saxony.

    - Does the pre-battle picture look like the 'without the mod' picture above - are there Armed Citizenry units but no Invalid Garrison Infantry units? If so, the mod us not working. You can check that you have followed the installation instructions correctly (did you unzip the file? Did you put it in the data folder?) If you installed it correctly and if it does not work, then this mod is probably incompatible with another mod which you are using.

    - Does the pre-battle picture look like the 'with the mod' picture above- are there both Armed Citizenry and Invalid Garrison Infantry units defending the city? If so, the mod is working.

    Compatibility

    This mod uses two cancelled units, Invalid Garrison Infantry and Swordsmen. If you use another mod which uses the same units, then the game could crash or you could experience other problems. I have tested it with vanilla and some of my other mini-mods and it worked.

    Known issues

    The Invalid Garrison Infantry use the standard line infantry statistics (for example: 40 accuracy, 25 reloading, 7 morale). Some factions have non-standard line infantry, for example British and Prussian line infantry have better statistics, Austrian line infantry regiments are larger and Russian line infantry have worse statistics. In this mod, all factions which can use Invalid Garrison Infantry use the same type of this unit (for example, British and Prussian Invalid Garrison Infantry do not have better statistics and Austrian Invalid Garrison Line Infantry are not larger.)

    The units use vanilla unit statistics and unit spacing (how far apart the men are in a unit). This means that the units could look strange if you use them with another mod which changes unit statistics or unit spacing.

    Credits

    Thanks to erasmus777, daniu and husserlTW for modding tools and tutorials and to everyone in the modding community for your tutorials and help.

    Permissions

    If anyone would like to incorporate this into your mod using the information in this mini-mod, please do. If the link stops working, if anyone wants this mod and if I have not posted on this forum for a month, then anyone who has the mod has permission to re-upload it for others to use.

    Feedback

    Feedback and suggestions are welcome; you can post on this thread or send me a private message. My modding abilities are limited - I am sorry if I cannot produce the effect which you would like to see.


    Which version should I use?


    This mod is available in four versions. Each version's file name contains a number - 60, 80, 100 or 120. This number is the unit size of Invalid Garrison Infantry if you select Ultra (maximum) unit sizes. For example, if you use the '80' version of this mod, then the unit sizes for Invalid Garrison Infantry will be:-

    - Small unit sizes: 20
    - Medium unit sizes: 40
    - Large unit sizes: 60
    - Ultra unit sizes: 80

    The size of Swordsmen units is double the size of Invalid Garrison units (up to a maximum of 200). So, for the '80' version of the mod, the unit sizes for Swordsmen would be 40, 80, 120 and 160 for Small, Medium, Large and Ultra unit sizes.

    Obviously, the higher the number, the more difficult it will be for factions to expand. If you would like to make it a little more difficult to expand, choose the '60' version. If you would like to make it a lot more difficult to expand, choose the '120' version. If you would like a more balanced increase in difficulty, choose either the '80' or the '100' versions.

    My other mods

    You can find a list here.


    Download Links

    You can download the this mod using the links below. Alternatively, in case the links below disappear, you can also download the mod from a mediafire folder, here.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by Alwyn; September 20, 2015 at 10:29 AM.

  3. #3
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades [v1.0, June 14, 2015] & Stronger Garrisons [v1.0, August 22, 2015]

    Navy Recruitment mini-mod v1.01
    now offering different versions and optional trade mod
    with particular thanks to Akarios for inspiring the creation of the '32' version and the trade mod


    Why modify navy recruitment?

    If you find that AI factions tend to recruit fleets of brigs and sloops, and if you feel that this leads to disappointing sea battles, you could try this mod. This simple mod was inspired by the discussion here. Other naval mods are available (including mods by Bethencourt, Dracula and poa); some hosted mods, such as Imperial Splendour and Darthmod, include navy modifications.

    Two things seem to cause AI factions to recruit a lot of brigs and sloops:-

    1. In the vanilla (unmodified) game, brigs and sloops have high accuracy and reloading scores and their 6-pounder guns are overpowered. You can fix this with a mod such as my Equal Navy mini-mod, available here.

    2. Only brigs and sloops can be recruited from non-military ports (fishing ports and trade ports). You can fix that with this mini-mod. This mini-mod allows civilian ports (fishing ports and trade ports) to recruit extra ships. The first two levels of civilian ports can recruit Sixth Rates. The higher levels of civilian ports can recruit larger ships. To compensate for this, Shipyards can recruit Fifth Rates.

    What this mod does

    This mod allows factions to recruit the following extra ships from the following ports:-

    Local Fishery and Fishing Fleet (the first two levels of fishing ports): Sixth Rates

    Major Fishery (the third level of fishing port): Sixth Rates and Fifth Rates

    Trading Port and Commercial Port (the first two levels of trade ports): Sixth Rates

    Commercial Basin (the third level of trade port): Sixth Rates and Fifth Rates

    Global Trading Company (the fourth level of trade port): Sixth Rates, Fifth Rates and Fourth Rates

    Shipyard: if shipyards were not modified, then there would be little value in having a shipyard. With this mod, you can recruit Fifth Rates (but not the larger Admiral's Fifth Rates) with a shipyard. Also, trade ports and fishing ports cannot recruit the larger Admiral's versions of ships (e.g. the Admiral's Fifth Rate - you need a military port to do that.)

    Naval Hospital: First Rates and Admiral's First Rates

    Is there any historical justification for allowing commercial ports to build warships?

    My main justification for allowing civilian ports to build smaller warships is game-play. This should provide more challenging naval action, rather than fleets of brigs and sloops (especially when combined with a mod which reduces or removes the higher accuracy and reloading scores for the smallest ships).

    Having said that, there is evidence of the same ports building both commercial and military ships in this period. If I understand the history correctly, some warships were built by private shipbuilders, such as HMS Renown (1774) built by Robert Fabian in Southampton and HMS Assistance (1781), built by Peter Baker in Liverpool. Both ships were 50-gun Fourth Rates. After it ceased to be a Royal Navy dockyard in 1713, the British port of Harwich "was leased to a succession of private operators under whom naval and commercial shipbuilding continued" (source). In 1762, the 74-gun gun ship of the line HMS Terrible was launched at Harwich, followed two years later by the 74-gun HMS Robust. As I see it, this could even justify allowing the highest level of trade ports to build Third Rates.

    Known issues

    If you use the trade mod (see below) factions are likely to have more income. This is likely to cause factions to recruit more units. That might cause the Ottoman turn bug. If the Ottoman turn bug happens, the Ottoman Empire's turn takes longer and longer. This happens when the Ottoman Empire recruits a lot of small armies, especially when it tries to send them across the land bridge to Istanbul. You might be able to reduce the risk of the Ottoman turn bug happening by sending a sloop to block the land bridge between Istanbul and Anatolia and leaving it there.

    The user interface (UI) can provide confusing information about how many trade routes you can have. Akarios reported (here) that "There was some confusion with the UI in counting possible trade routes, but all new games calculate the number correctly. (it's of note to say that the number of possible routes shown in the UI is based only on ports in the capital region only. However any port which is directly connected by road to the capital will also add to the number of possible routes, but they won't be shown in the UI, which can lead to some confusion for the players)" Thank you Akarios!

    Compatibility

    This mod works with vanilla and my other mini-mods. I do not know whether it is compatible with other mods; any feedback would be welcome.

    The optional trade mod contains a building_effects_junction_table. Large mods, including Bran's Empire Campaign AI, often contain this table, so the game may crash if you try to use the optional trade mod with larger mods.

    How to install (and uninstall) this mod

    Download the file(s). Unzip the file(s) (they were zipped with the free software 7zip). Copy and paste the file(s) in your C:/ProgramFiles(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Empire Total War/data folder. That's it - you do not need to activate the mod using a user.empire_script file.

    If you want to uninstall the mod, just remove the file(s) from your data folder.

    Credits

    Thanks to erasmus777, daniu and husserlTW for modding tools and tutorials and to everyone in the modding community for your tutorials and help.

    Thanks to KonectTW, sindrefyrn, D@gget, Nomadwarrior, eugenioso, poa and Akarios, whose discussion on this thread inspired the creation of this small mod. Particular thanks to Akarios, who inspired the creation of the '32' version of the Navy recruitment mod and also the optional trade mod.

    Permissions

    If anyone would like to incorporate this into your mod using the information in this mini-mod, please do. If the link stops working, if anyone wants this mod and if I have not posted on this forum for a month, then anyone who has the mod has permission to re-upload it for others to use.

    Feedback

    Feedback and suggestions are welcome; you can post on this thread or send me a private message. My modding abilities are limited - I am sorry if I cannot produce the effect which you would like to see.

    My other mods

    You can find a list here.

    Which version should I use?

    - The Navy recruitment mod:-

    There are three versions of the navy recruitment mod. Each has a different number in the name of the file. The number refers to the number of guns on the largest ship which can be built in a Global Trading Company (the highest level of trade port).

    If you use the '58' version, the changes are as listed above under the heading 'What this mod does'. A Global Trading Company can build ships up to 58-gun Fourth Rates.

    If you use the '74' version, the changes are as listed above under the heading 'What this mod does' and a Global Trading Company can build ships up to 74-gun Third Rates.

    If you use the '32' version, the effects are much less significant. The two highest levels of trade port (Commercial Basin and Global Trading Company) can build Sixth Rates (but no other additional ships) and a Naval Hospital can build First Rate and Admiral's First Rates. Other ports are not affected by this version of the mod.

    - The Navy trade mod:-

    This is an optional extra mod. It does not include the Navy recruitment mod, above. You can use this mod together with any version of the Navy recruitment mod. This mod gives military ports limited ability to trade. Each military port has the 1/2 the trade capacity of the equivalent trade port, rounding down fractions (with a minimum of 1). For example: a shipyard has half of the commercial ability of a trade port. A trade port has an export capacity of 30, contributes 200 to the wealth of the region, can support 2 trade routes and contributes 1 to economic growth of the region. A shipyard has an export capacity of 15, contributes 100 to the wealth of the region, can support 1 trade route and contributes 1 to economic growth.

    The equivalent ports are:-

    Shipyard: a trade port
    Dockyard: a commercial port
    Drydock: a commercial basin
    Naval hospital or Steam drydock: a global trading company

    Download Links

    You can download the this mod using the link below. Alternatively, in case the link below disappears, you can also download the mod from a
    mediafire folder, here.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by Alwyn; September 12, 2015 at 01:38 AM.

  4. #4
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades [v1.0, June 14, 2015], Stronger Garrisons [v1.0, August 22, 2015] & Navy Recruitment [v1.0, August 28, 2015]

    Semi-Realistic Battles mini-mod (v1.0, August 28, 2015)
    with optional unit unlock for minor and emergent factions

    "All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called 'guessing what was at the other side of the hill.'"
    - Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and British general, statement in conversation with John Crocker and Crocker's wife (4 September 1852), as quoted in The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.Dm F.R.S, Secretary of the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830 (1884), edited by Louis J. Jennings, Vol.III, p. 276, found here.


    Why semi-realistic battles?

    You might prefer 'full' realism. Imperial Splendour and Empire Realism are advanced mods which improve the game in many ways to offer a more fully realistic experience. You will find them in the Hosted Mods section. This mod does not claim to offer anything like the realism provided by those advanced mods. Compared to the vanilla (unmodified) game, this mod aims to offer a slightly more realistic and more challenging experience. This mod is based on the following observations about the vanilla (unmodified) game - and the following thoughts about 18th-century battles:-

    - You usually know where the enemy armies are on the campaign map and where enemy units are on the battle-field. As the quote from Arthur Wellesley (above) shows, real campaigns and real battles were not like that.

    - Enemy cavalry tend to stand still while your artillery shoots at them. Enemy artillery can devastate your cavalry. Real cavalry would avoid this by tactics such as using the terrain to avoid being visible or being in the direct line of fire.

    - Fighting Native American armies is fun (you do not always know where they are) but it is usually not very challenging because their units are not very powerful.

    - When I play major factions, minor factions are usually easy to defeat. Minor factions (such as Denmark, Hanover and the Thirteen Colonies) and emergent factions (such as Ireland and the United States) are fun to play because they have less powerful starting positions than major factions. But they tend to lack access to a good range of units, which puts them at a disadvantage. If you have the DLCs, the major factions have access to elite units, while minor factions do not usually have access to similar units to match them. Having said that, many of the units unlocked for minor and emergent factions are not very powerful (providing a challenge for players, to win battles using these units), although some are (Superior Line Infantry). Also, being able to recruit different units when you capture regions in different parts of the world is something I enjoy.

    - Battles in summer and winter look different and there are some differences (on the battlefield, units recover from exhaustion more slowly in winter). But the differences are not significant enough to cause me to act differently in winter battles.

    What does this mod do?

    - More units have the 'paths seldom trod' ability. Armies composed of units with this ability can hide on the campaign map, if they remain still for three turns (without being observed by enemies). Light infantry, light cavalry, irregular units, provincial units (such as Provincial Line Infantry and African Native Infantry) and some horse artillery units have this ability. This allows you to surprise your enemy with ambushes - it also creates uncertainty for players because enemy units might surprise you.

    - More units have the 'hide while walking' ability. Units with this ability can walk on the battlefield without being seen until they get fairly close to their enemies (or until they run or engage in combat). Light cavalry, light infantry and irregular units have this ability. This allows you to ambush enemies on the battlefield. It also gives light cavalry limited protection from artillery (if the artillery cannot see light cavalry, they cannot deliberately aim at them.)

    - Native American infantry and cavalry can all 'hide while walking', they all have the 'paths seldom trod' ability and the 'scare enemies' ability. 'Scare enemies' won't cause units to rout unless they have low morale (like artillery) or unless they are close to routing, for example because they have suffered heavy losses. They also have the 'impetuous' trait, which (I believe) encourages them to attack. These changes should make fighting Native American armies more challenging.

    - Heavy cavalry have the impetuous trait which (I believe) encourages them to attack. (The idea is that light cavalry tend to avoid artillery by hiding, while heavy cavalry avoid artillery by charging into melee with enemy units.)

    - Revised fatigue system. Fatigue works normally for fresh, active and winded units. When units are winded, they will reach the later stages of fatigue (tired, very tired and exhausted) more quickly than in vanilla. In rain or snow, they recover less quickly (especially in snow). In dry conditions, they recover at the same speed as in vanilla. The aim is to encourage players to think differently about winter battles, for example keeping fresh units in reserve.

    The changes to units apply to all units except for (a) units which belong to the Road to Independence campaign and (b) units which belong to DLC packs. They are not affected by this mod.

    Does this mod unlock minor or emergent factions for play?

    Please note that this mod does not unlock minor or emergent factions - you would need to use another mod to do that. You could use the Empire Total Factions mod by husserlTW, available from the StartPos Mods section of the Hosted Mods forum, or the All Factions Unlocked mod, available from pages 26 to 30 of the 'All Factions Unlocked No FoW Bug' thread in the 'Miscellaneous' section of the Mod Threads forum, or a mod such as my Early American Revolution, which unlocks the United States, or These United Colonies, which unlocks the Thirteen Colonies, New Spain and Louisiana - there are links to those mods in my signature.)

    Units unlocked

    If you use the optional unit unlocker, major factions can recruit Provincial Line Infantry (but not other extra units. This mod aims to make minor factions more challenging to defeat, when you play a major faction, and to make minor factions more playable, when you play a minor faction). Most minor and emergent factions can recruit the following units in the following regions:-

    Africa, West Indies, the Middle East and the Americas:

    Marine 12-pounder Artillery Independent Company (a 12-pounder horse artillery unit)

    Africa, India and the Americas:

    Colonial Pikemen

    Americas - inland:

    Colonial 12-pounder Howitzer

    Provincial Militia

    Americas:

    Rangers (except for factions which can already recruit the French version of rangers, such as Louisiana)

    Balkans:

    Pandours (irregular light infantry)

    Europe:

    Expatriate Line Infantry

    Guerillas (available with the civilian buildings- the red buildings, not the blue ones)

    Finland:

    Hakkapeliita (light cavalry)

    Global:

    Superior Line Infantry (only with a Staff College or Army Board)

    Holland Home Regions:

    Scots (expatriate Scottish infantry, only with a Military Academy or higher barracks)

    Italian Alps:-

    Barbets (light infantry)

    Middle East:

    Hillmen

    North Africa:

    African Native Infantry (most factions can recruit them already; the main mod gives them more of the abilities of line infantry and the 'paths seldom trod' ability)

    Riskers of Souls (berserker swordsmen)

    North Africa, Middle East and North West India:

    Desert Warriors

    Deli Cavalry

    Norway:

    Mountain Troops

    Russian home regions:-

    Cossack Cavalry

    Cossack Infantry

    Scotland:

    Highland Clansmen

    Western Europe and North America: (some regions only)

    Irish Brigade (a few regions, such as Acadia and Spain, with a military barracks)

    Provincial Line Infantry

    West Indies:


    African Musketeers (with the civilian buildings - the red ones, not the blue ones)

    Maroon Rebels

    Which factions are these units unlocked for? Afghanistan, Barbary States, Crimean Khanate, Courland, Dagestan, Denmark, Genoa, Georgia, Gran Colombia, Greece, Hanover, Ireland, Italian States (Papal States), Knights of St John (Malta), Louisiana, Mexico, Morocco, Mughal Empire, Mysore, Naples & Sicily, New Spain, Norway, Punjab, Quebec, Savoy, Scotland, Thirteen Colonies, United States, Venice, Westphalia and Wurttemberg.

    Known issues

    None

    Compatibility

    This mod works with vanilla and my other mini-mods.

    This mod is compatible with the '80' version of the Stronger Garrisons mod (see the previous post on this thread). If you use a different version of Stronger Garrisons, the size of Invalid Garrison Infantry may be changed by the Semi-Realistic Battles mod. When I played an unreleased beta version of Semi Realistic Battles, together with my Stronger Garrisons mini-mod, I was using the '80' version of Stronger Garrisons. With the '80' version, Invalid Garrison Infantry units should be half of the size of Line Infantry. However, at one point in my campaign, full-size Invalid Garrison Infantry started appearing. The Semi-Realistic Battles mod includes a line for Invalid Garrison Infantry, so this mod was probably over-riding the Stronger Garrisons mod. I can think of three possible ways to fix this: (1) to adjust the unit size for Invalid Garrison Infantry in this mod, (2) to remove the line referring to Invalid Garrison Infantry in this mod, (3) to make 'mod' versions of these files (not 'movie' versions) so that they need to be activated with a user script file, which allows players to decide the order in which mods are loaded. I chose option (1) and made Invalid Garrison Infantry half of the size of line infantry in this mod. However, I will experiment with the other options - I believe that option (2) would give more choice for players. Any feedback is welcome.

    I do not know whether it is compatible with other mods; any feedback would be welcome. This mod contains a unit_stats_land table containing most units in the game (not DLCs) so it would probably clash with most large mods, causing the game to crash or producing other bad effects.

    How to install (and uninstall) this mod

    Download the file(s). Unzip the file(s) (they were zipped with the free software 7zip). Copy and paste the file(s) in your C:/ProgramFiles(x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Empire Total War/data folder. That's it - you do not need to activate the mod using a user.empire_script file.

    If you want to uninstall it, just remove the file(s) from your data folder.

    Credits

    Thanks to erasmus777, daniu and husserlTW for modding tools and tutorials and to everyone in the modding community for your tutorials and help.

    Permissions

    If anyone would like to incorporate this into your mod using the information in this mini-mod, please do. If the link stops working, if anyone wants this mod and if I have not posted on this forum for a month, then anyone who has the mod has permission to re-upload it for others to use.

    Feedback

    Feedback and suggestions are welcome; you can post on this thread or send me a private message. My modding abilities are limited - I am sorry if I cannot produce the effect which you would like to see.

    My other mods

    You can find a list here.


    Download Links

    You can download the this mod using the links below. Alternatively, in case the links below disappear, you can also download the mod from a
    mediafire folder, here.
    Attached Files Attached Files
    Last edited by Alwyn; August 31, 2015 at 02:28 AM.

  5. #5

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    If you could add a couple of mortars to the defenders even if they don't have the tech ability yet, that would really make things interesting. I'd be willing to test for you if needed.

  6. #6
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    Thanks for the idea, Akarios, I will see if I can do that.

  7. #7

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    My apologies if I'm speaking about of turn. I had assumed that the 'garrison' units could be anything. The engine normally translates that as "Firelock Armed Citizenry" but possible could be definable as anything else?

  8. #8
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    You're not speaking out of turn. I believe you are right that garrison units can be anything. I am sorry for not having a mod for you to test yet. My first experimental mod for adding garrison mortars didn't work properly, so I'll try something different.

    Stronger Garrisons - with Garrison 8-inch Mortars (Beta version)



    This version of the mod uses the cancelled units 8-inch Mortars and their Eastern equivalent, Bombardment Mortars, as garrison units. These units now appear automatically when larger cities are under attack:-

    - Factions which can use Invalid Garrison Infantry use 8-inch Mortars
    - Factions which use Swordsmen as garrison units use Bombardment Mortars

    Mortars appear as garrison units regardless of whether the faction has developed the technology or buildings required to build mortars. For example, when I started as Hard campaign as Prussia and immediately attacked the capital of Saxony in the first turn, one unit of garrison mortars (8-inch Mortars) appeared together with Invalid Garrison Infantry and Armed Citizenry, as well as the militia units guarding the city.



    These units should also be recruitable in the campaign in cities which have an Engineer School or Ordnance Board.

    As before, there are four versions of the mod. They all implement the garrison mortar units in the same way - the only difference is the size of the Invalid Garrison Infantry and Swordsmen units.

    For more information and installation instructions, see the main post about the Stronger Garrisons mod, above. The 'mortar' versions include Invalid Garrison Infantry and Swordsmen as well as the extra garrison mortar units.

    Thanks to Akarios for suggesting this version of the mod.
    Last edited by Alwyn; September 20, 2015 at 10:23 AM.

  9. #9

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    Definitely taking a look at this. I d/l'd the 120 file because I tend to use larger unit sizes. While I know mortars aren't the most accurate of things, anything which doesn't allow an attacker to camp at a safe distance and howitzer the defenders to death is a good thing, especially if the AI places the mortar units in the center of the defensible area. Though I do wish there were a way to force the AI to use explosive, carcass, or quicklime rounds when available. Nonetheless, even mortars firing round shot (given the AI's propensity for firing at artillery when in range) should make things interesting.

  10. #10
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    Thanks, Akarios. Any feedback would be welcome. (I don't know how to force the AI to use the more effective types of ammunition. If anyone does know, please say so - I'll incorporate that into this mod, if I am able to do so).

    You mentioned that you use larger units sizes - is the 120 version large enough or would you like a version with a larger unit size for Invalid Garrison Infantry (larger than 120)?

  11. #11

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    I have a mentality approaching sieges similar to a leisurely boa constrictor. One reason I'm particularly interested in this mod of yours is that I typically fight sieges against even defending armies 2x my size with under 10% casualties. (oddly enough, I consider experiencing more than 10% to be a failure) I have studied wars in this period for many years (being a fan of Vauban's engineering).

    I'll be testing this tonight. Frankly, I don't anticipate any problems, since you're always using units which are unused normally in the recruitment tab to flesh out intrinsic garrisons. My greatest wish? (well not the greatest, but close where ETW is concerned) That there be an intrinsic garrison for every single location on the map. You want to raid a farm, iron works, or port, you gotta fight a small battle against a number of units reflective of the intrinsic garrison in the capital city. (not the same size though) It'd be one way to factor in the friction that's sorely missing in game. Right now, I don't think that's possible. Maybe there'd be a way to do it with scripting.

  12. #12

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    Been testing this. Always seem to get 5 mortars spawning. Is that supposed to be the case? A couple should be enough. I will admit though, the 5 mortars definitely were making things more interesting, since the AI tends to target opposing artillery, and holds troops back to conduct an "Artillery Duel." I still have to rig a siege against actual fort defenses to see how that's setting up. In all, it appears to work as expected, just was a bit surprised at the number of mortars and wasn't seeing Invalids or Swordsmen just yet. (could just be that I haven't test attacked a faction that uses them just yet)

  13. #13
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    Thank you for letting me know. I didn't specify the number of mortars - when I attacked Saxony in the first turn as Prussia, only one mortar appeared. I'm afraid that I don't yet understand how the AI chooses what units will appear automatically in a garrison - perhaps it is linked to the costs of the units in custom battles? (When I get the chance to develop this mod further, I might try increasing the costs of mortars in custom battles and see if that causes fewer mortars and more Invalid Garrison Infantry to appear.)

  14. #14

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    OH Shiny !!!

    Count me in too Alwyn, I'm testing the new 120 man now and see if that helps capital cities like Paris from getting squashed before the year 1710

    Push on, brave York volunteers

  15. #15

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    If we can ever figure out how to get the garrisons mortars to use more advanced ammo (e.g. explosive or carcass), sieges could be a lot more expensive. I'm afraid they likely wouldn't be enough for the AI to stop a player besieger, but the casualties would certainly be higher. I know from my experiments they have a tendency to target my artillery (especially if I have only howitzers, though I wonder if some trickery were possible by providing a sacrificial unit for them to pick on), so I usually end up having to assault the walls earlier than I usually do. (I have a tendency to practically eliminate the defenders before committing my infantry to the walls)

    Alwyn, I thought that too. I also considered the possibility that each unit had some kind of % appearance set for it, but I kept getting the same number. I'm wondering if it might be related to the unit size (seems odd, but consistent with the data I currently have). I've eliminated that it's based on the size of the town. I'll start testing the other unit size options and more factions (so far, I've been testing with Prussia and Sweden, since both have enemy cities within a single turn's reach) I'll also see if I can throw up a siege or 2 in some of my more mature games to see if it's the turn # affecting spawning. I do know that Ottoman garrisons in vanilla tend to split as close to 50/50 as possible between Firelock Armed Citizens, and Armed Citizenry, so there's some kind of fractional assignment going on.

  16. #16
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    Thanks, Major General Isaac Brock and Akarios. I hope that you enjoy the mod - more feedback and suggestions are welcome.

    Yes, in sieges I tend to want to eliminate the defenders before committing infantry. When I sent infantry before then, I tend to lose a lot of men. I wonder if garrison mortars will use more advanced ammunition in the later stages of the campaign - perhaps they can only use more advanced ammunition when their research has progressed along the artillery branch of the military research tree (just as our cannon cannot use canister shot until we research the technology). Yes, you could well be right about fractions dictating which garrison units appear. I wonder if campaign difficulty level affects which garrison units we get - that's just a guess.

  17. #17

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    It's possible. I have seen AI artillery using carcass shot on occasion. I'll keep testing. In the meantime, nicely done on this mini-mod. It DOES lend a degree of change to sieges, since it's actually possible you could lose a sizable chunk (depending on the current state of the random number generator determining trajectories) of your assaulting artillery. Before I get howitzers, I tend to sit on a city until the defenders come out and fight a normal field battle. After howitzers, I try to kill the defenders on the walls. After carcass and quicklime shells, I have designated siege armies armed with anywhere up to nearly 50% howitzers and the rest infantry.

    Like I said, nicely done so far. It'll all settle out in the end.

  18. #18

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    I have some good news. It's confirmed that at least some of the garrison mortars are firing advanced ammo. Last night, my Venetians assaulted Naples to take it from Spain (still have 3 other sieges to conduct this turn, so I'll have more data to play with later). There were only 2 mortars there (of a total of 8 units, all of which were garrison units). 1 of them was firing round shot; the other was firing explosive rounds. While I did still take the place (with my 4 infantry, general, 1 field arty, and 2 howitzers), my casualties were much higher than they would have normally been against just Firelock Armed Citizenry. Overall total was 21% casualties (normally only about 5-8%). While adding the mortars doesn't make defensive garrisons invincible, combined with the fact that the 8in mortars and bombard cannons seem to have a much higher accuracy rating than normal 4in mortars (ballpark calculation is at around 40%), it definitely makes siege assaults a lot more expensive if garrison units are present.

  19. #19

    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    Oh BTW, based on the performance last night, I can fully agree that once a country has researched a given artillery tech, at least of its garrison mortars will use them.

  20. #20
    Alwyn's Avatar Frothy Goodness
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    Default Re: More challenging battles: Removed Gabionades, Stronger Garrisons, Navy Recruitment & Semi-Realistic Battles (2015)

    That is good news that the AI does use the more advanced ammunition types (after research) and that siege assaults are more difficult to win, thank you!

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