Dev Diary: Roman Unit Redo feature

Greetings, and welcome to Insularis Draco's second Dev Diary, as our outward silence stood in stark contrast to the constant business happening behind the scenes. Today I'd like to show you what kind of things we've been doing with our extensive (430+) unit roster.

STANDARDIZED UNIT PRICES

Right off the bat I'd like to address one of the most common critiques we've been getting: that unit prices (especially upkeep) are too damn high. I've always agreed with it, but until recently I'd never really systematically handled that problem because who in their right mind wants to manually standardize 430+ units' worth of stats?! But it became too pressing and so I decided to just do it. Took me a while but it was worth it. I'm happy to say prices have been rounded down. The economy of most factions' starts is still quite challenging, but at least the prices' effects on your economy will be easier to predict. My standard advice for an Insularis Draco player with economic issues is: be ultra-aggressive and get plundering from turn 1 or disband all your expensive troops and turtle up!

I eventually decided to have recruitment and upkeep be the same number at all times, to make it clearer to the player what they were getting themselves into when recruiting a unit: when you do so, you immediately know what you'll be paying every single turn. Same goes for custom battle prices, although it was clear from the get go that the Romans have unfairly high prices (to go with their unfairly populous cities which yield unfairly high tax revenues) so I brought those down to the standard.

Garrison units prices range from 100 to 250, medium units between 300-500, elites between 550-750 and General's Bodyguards fetch from 800 up to 1200 depending on their quality.

ROMAN IMPERIAL RECRUITMENT

I had delayed working on the Gallo-Roman faction for a long, long time because it was such an important faction and it seems everyone had a different idea on how to approach them. I decided to try and surprise, confuse and challenge people expecting to play another straightforward Imperial campaign! At the start, rest assured, you're in charge of a well-oiled war machine pumping out Limitanei and Comitatenses all over the place. But the Roman recruitment system is different than that of other factions: as you progress over different levels of Barracks, Ranges and Stables, you will notice that the lower tier units disappear. In Limitanei Barracks you will no longer be able to recruit the cheap Garrison units, blessed with free upkeep in settlements. In the Regulars' Barracks, you may be able to recruit locally sourced and superior Comitatenses units, but you will lose access to Limitanei! When you want to construct Catapults and Ballistæ, you must give up recruitment of archer units. As such, with these limiting rules you will learn to specialize your settlements: certain towns will pump out low-tier troops to throw at the enemy, while your greatest cities will host Palatine Fortresses which can train truly the best quality troops in the entire campaign.

A look at a decently developed Roman city's recruitment, in this case limited to upper tier infantry, lower tier cavalry and mid-tier missile troops:

Now let's have a look at the elite of the elite: the Comitatenses (Regulars) and Palatini (Guardsmen). There are three tiers of elite Imperial infantry units and they have been made easier to identify with new unit cards. These three unit tiers are also available in different regions: we have Gallic, Germanic, Aquitanian, Romano-British and Northern-Brittonic regular troops, all recruitable when those places have been added to your empire. But you'd better act quick, because I scripted an entire...

ROMAN ROSTER REFORM

Since the Gallo-Roman rump state of Syagrius fell to Clovis's Franks in 481 we'll never know what its true potential was. What it could've achieved should it never have been been absorbed into Francia. Now you can find out what its armies would've looked like when you click 'accept' in the following choice event:

The event text goes to explain that if you want to play 'realistically' you must accept and if you want to roleplay as an eternal Roman empire you must decline the script.

Accepting this script will ensure that around 500 A.D. the entire culturally Roman unit roster changes irreversibly! A look at the kind of units you can expect to see in this new, proto-Feudal Gallo-Roman roster, which looks to both its Germanic neighbours for inspiration and to the thriving Eastern Roman Empire ruled from Constantinople. Unit models are taken from the amazing but unfinished East of Rome - The Danube Limes mod and from assets already present in the mod.

Plumbatari (Dart Swordsmen) the aristocratic and better equipped but less disciplined replacements of the Imperial Comitatenses. Credits go to East of Rome for the model.

Palatini Germanici (Germanic Palatine Guard) taken from neighbouring tribes like the Franks, Visigoths or Alemanni, these nobles of their own right protect Gallo-Roman generals in the field. As far as infantry bodyguards go, these guys are the absolute best. Another great East of Rome model.

In contrast to the imperial roster which limited recruitment of lower troop types in higher quality barracks, the 6th century alternate history Roman roster has no such limits. This is what Roman recruitment in a well-developed city would look like in, say, 530 AD:

As you can see this new roster has a similar amount of recruitable troops as the imperial one. They just have some weaknesses: 1. lower quality troops truly are bad, 2. Medium troops hardly exist: While the imperial roster had an all-round selection this one is quite top-heavy, with its elite units distinguishing themselves clearly from the rest.
It should be noted, however, that, more than any other faction, the Romans get some great units out of the Local Levy building chains, especially from the Germanic and Alan chains. And those units still remain available after 500AD.
All in all, it's clear that any player seeking to rule the former Imperial province of Gallia will be confused by this sudden military reform that happens in the 6th century, but nonetheless it will increase immersion and create lots of opportunities for roleplaying.

OTHER NEW UNITS

I never really stop thinking about how I can improve the existing rosters. There's always an inaccuracy here or there, there's always a glaring flaw in a roster, a unit type unexplored, etc... Here's a selection of the most recent ones.

Guenid (Sellsword Nobles) - a Brittonic elite mercenary unit of heavily armed swordsmen.

A selection of post-reform Gallo-Roman troops, ranging from elite to very low-tier in no particular order:
Lanciari (Spearmen) (another great East of Rome model) and Viglari (Watchmen)

Catafractari Gallici (Gallic Cataphract Bodyguard) and Equites Gabalinari (Mounted Javelineers).Two more East of Rome models.

Spathaistæ Cives (Citizen Swordsmen), another East of Rome model.

Rronuuir (Pictish Longspears) which are from De Bello Mundi.

Oseluuir Catt (Cattian Nobles) and Aqizimans (Thuringian Axemen, model from De Bello Mundi)

Alanic Half-Cataphracts

Guir Telmaur (Strathclyde Champions) and Gabaglait Caith (Strathclyde Slavers)

Walscutton (Ripuarian Warbowmen)

Balistuuir (Pictish Crossbowmen, unit model taken from Tsardoms, texture by me)

Skeltāte (Frisian Debt Settlers, texture fixed by Fynn from the M2TW Modder Community)

Teilu Cernou (Cornovian Household Bodyguards)

Karğılar (Hunnic Lancers) and Caballarii Scythici (Steppe Javelinmen), both from De Bello Mundi.

Hunnic infantrymen who combine deft archery with fearsome longspears to ward off cavalry! East of Rome unit model, again!

Túagatóirí (Goidelic Hatchetmen) from the amazing and unreleased mod Princes, Kings and Heroes

Well, here we are! There was lots more to show but we'll leave it here. I'll be back soon with more news of recent development in the mod, specifically on campaign scripts!