[Experimental Battle Pack] - Episode IV - A New Hope (Obsolete)

[corsair831]

Changes look great KAM! Probably a silly question but is this pack going to be added in to the main game or kept more as a side mod?

Thanks!

[KAM 2150]

Eventually parts of all of it will be added. Smaller stuff were already added in last main patch to DeI like fix for elephant HP.

New patch released:
-small increase to HA damage vs cavalry
-morale penalty slightly increased for 40% and 60% of troops lost in a unit
-stamina levels fixed for few units
-frontal hoplite defence slightly buffed
-unique Mairepos warhorse added to Nervi and most of Arvernii cavalry, plus to Batavian Ala
-unique Numidian warhorse added to Numidian native, AOR, AUX and merc units
-slightly lowered middle and top cavalry shield missile block chance by -5%
-rebalanced Socii units, now they have +1 attack, +3 charge bonus and -1 melee defence to Roman equivalents while in some cases a bit lower armour and morale. They are more assault oriented and not just weaker copies of regular units

[ThePoshBarbarian]

Iolei unit cards got reverted to using the vanilla ones:
[IMG]

[/IMG]

[IngloriousJosh]

Yes it’s save compatible. I’m not certain on compatibility with the alternative phalanx submods, but I *think* I recall KAM saying that they were not compatible. Generally speaking, submods that affect combat will not be compatible, all other submods will do. Make sure that submods which affect economy (AE, Realism, etc) load before the battle pack.

I tried to manually download from mediafire to make this mod load later than Realism in the load order, but renaming the file seems to stop it from working. Since Realism has no manual download files and the launcher has no way to edit load order manually, is there any realistic way to load Realism before this mod or do I need to just play without it for the battle pack?

[Jake Armitage]

try this:

A) Put the chosed packs into the data folder (..\Steam\SteamApps\common\Total War Rome II\data)
B) Remember to revert to the old manager: Go to Rome 2 on STEAM/Right click/Properties/Betas/Select the beta you would like to use/launcher_release_canditate.
C) Start Rome II
D) In Mod Manger, check "Enable Out of Date Mods"
E) Make sure all chosed packs are checked green. Their load order should be ok. It is given by the number of @, the more they are the more previous the mod is loaded/must be loaded
F) Play

Or try googling something like "warhammer total war mod manager", I remember reading about some guys who were using it for Rome 2 too.
Should be a better mod manager done by a modder.

[corsair831]

Thanks KAM!

[IngloriousJosh]

To clarify, I am already on the old launcher and have the file in my data folder, but when I renamed the battle pack file (with a Z in front of the name) so that it loads last, the mod does not run even though it is detected and enabled. I have tried to run it both subscribed and unsubscribed to the Steam version of the Battle Pack.

[Jake Armitage]

Why renaming it? I never played with it but its name is "@@@@experimentalpack" and the 4 @ are set there so that this pack is loaded before base DeI packs. As it should be for a proper overwriting.
If you put a z before it I fear it would be read after the vanilla CA files too... meaning that it won't overwrite anything.

[Ptolemaios Soter]

It needs to load after Realism if you use that submod. Otherwise no need to rename it.

[IngloriousJosh]

It needs to load after Realism if you use that submod. Otherwise no need to rename it.

Is there a way to change load order without renaming it? I use the old launcher, which loads mods in alphabetical order, and since Realism has no manual download (so it's not in my Data folder), I can't simply make Realism load first, I have to make the Battle Pack load later. Is there some obvious step I'm missing to make Realism (by default named ''Official Realism' in the mod list) load before the battle pack without renaming it?

[Jake Armitage]

(sorry wrong thread)

[stevehoos]

Not sure if this is a bug with the standard DEI battle pack, but the AI is leaving units sitting on random parts of the battlefield during field engagements? Seems like a bit much at times.

[Goffredo85]

It would be great to have a version compatible with the alternate pike/hoplite phalanx packs

[KAM 2150]

Only once it goes final as it would take too much work to constantly change it.

[Goffredo85]

Perfectly understandable

[nunz]

Just had a very weird thing happen in a battle.

Playing Rome on Hard/Normal (battle), inside first 10 turns with Ultra unit size. In a battle against Epeiros, the AI used a unit of Chalkispades to hit my open flank. I used a reserve unit of Principes to hit them head on to stop them from getting behind my line. The chalkispades charged my Principes and they met, 1 on 1, on the field. Not in Phalanx formation, I watched them absolutely decimate a unit of Principes in a minute or less. Only running DEI and this battlepack. The AI was doing this weird thing where the unit was constantly in motion, almost as if it was spamming the unit to charge the entire time or telling it to move behind/through my unit. Every time the AI did that, it would kill 6+ of my units while in motion. It would happen about every 2-3 seconds. I understand the Phalanx formation can be sort of (barely..) controlled by right click/double right click, but the AI wasn't in Phalanx. The entire unit of chalkispades had their swords out, not pikes.

I haven't seen this before, just wondering if this is normal or if I hit a weird bug.

[geala]

When you download from mediafire then NEVER LEFT CLICK.
ALWAYS RIGHT CLICK (mousing over the green button) AND OPEN A NEW WINDOW.

Did not know this, thanks a lot for the hint.

...

This is especially true to Napoleonic warfare, where there are no examples (at least to my knowledge), where square was routed by a charge. There was a case at Alubuera, but there horse got shot dead and it clashed into infantry, creating a gap. At Quatre Bras infantry rout is sometimes credited to be a case of broken infantry square but it was due to flanking manouver and either there was no suqare or it got caught while it was being formed. I've read some book with very obscure reference to Battle of Hof (1809), which I can't find in English but the roughly it was not due a charge but cuirassiers engaging square in melee and trying to push horses through by sheer mass (just like in that Byzantine manual I referenced above). In case of Napoleonic Wars, main issue with engaging squares was that horses would try to ride around them, as they werent that wide, while infantry tried to shot down cavalry at point blank range.

...

I agree with mostly all what you said about cavalry but there were actually some cases of squares or columns (the better square because it's solid) in the Seven Years War or Napoleonic period broken by cavalry. Mostly the infantry was weakened before by other factors, or had low morale, but not always.

I'm not sure about the battle of Albuera 1811 with the dead horse, but in the fight of Garcia Hernandez (23. July 1812) there was a horse shot dead in very short distance of the French square under attack and fell into the lines which got into disorder, then the square was destroyed. However, there were two additional French battalion squares present and one was attacked by a different squadron (of the King's German Dragoons, King's German Legion) and destroyed by a normal cavalry attack.

[KAM 2150]

Just had a very weird thing happen in a battle.

Playing Rome on Hard/Normal (battle), inside first 10 turns with Ultra unit size. In a battle against Epeiros, the AI used a unit of Chalkispades to hit my open flank. I used a reserve unit of Principes to hit them head on to stop them from getting behind my line. The chalkispades charged my Principes and they met, 1 on 1, on the field. Not in Phalanx formation, I watched them absolutely decimate a unit of Principes in a minute or less. Only running DEI and this battlepack. The AI was doing this weird thing where the unit was constantly in motion, almost as if it was spamming the unit to charge the entire time or telling it to move behind/through my unit. Every time the AI did that, it would kill 6+ of my units while in motion. It would happen about every 2-3 seconds. I understand the Phalanx formation can be sort of (barely..) controlled by right click/double right click, but the AI wasn't in Phalanx. The entire unit of chalkispades had their swords out, not pikes.

I haven't seen this before, just wondering if this is normal or if I hit a weird bug.

That weird, never seen that happen for normal pikes. Overall inifnite charge bug, as this is what happened in your case, is base game bug where unit has 2 formations avaiable and since it wants to use both at the same time, it constantly switches them while also giving an attack order.

Are you by any chance using any submods?

[nunz]

Thanks for taking the time to explain that. I can't say I've seen it in stock DEI before, nor have I seen it in quite a few hours with your battlepack either.

No submods! Only using DEI Part1/2, your battlepack, and BetterWater III HD

[Aureliae]

I've been playing DeI with the Testudo submod, so I haven't gotten the chance to try this Experimental Pack but everything about it sounds awesome. Many DeI and Testudo updates in the last 6-ish months have not been save game compatible, so I haven't actually started a "full, long-term campaign" due to wanting to play with/try out all the new mechanics and features being added every few weeks/months. If the changes in this Experimental Pack are going to make it into the main mod within the next month or two, then I'll probably scrap my current campaign and wait to start another until then. Are the changes in this pack going to trickle into the main mod bit by bit or is this pack going to come to a final state and then its changes will be added to the main mod? When do you expect this pack's changes to be added to the main mod?