This mod aims to update much of the 2004 Axis and Allies RTS game to modern day warfare. A new campaign is planned along with a new WW2 mode, and current nations to be involved include China, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, EU, and many other countries. Infantry and naval combat are being entirely reworked, as is the game economy.
WIP New Mortar Infantry Layout
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Description
Mortar Infantry can no longer be effectively spammed, and must be used in a support role.
Proper Infantry units are once again the workhorse of the battlefield.
I experimented with smaller regiment sizes and found it unsatisfying.
these regiments rout faster, are easier to kill, and frequently cost more money in the long run. they also require a great deal more micro or you lose them. unless, of course, you specifically give the units higher baseline morale. the trade-off is that higher morale means they're more likely to fight 'till they die.
once you get into the mech and armor stage small regiments like this are basically cannon-fodder for vehicles. halftracks can zoom into close range and mow them down with machine-guns. artillery and rockets can rout them or wipe them out with as little as a single volley. it gets worse with airplanes-- small regiments on the move NEVER surived air strikes.
this actually makes a lot of sense if you're only dealing with infantry-vs-infantry. but for late-game combined arms scenarios it leads to frustration. it actually makes infantry even more irrelevant than it was in the original game. the total health levels per regiment is a mere 800-1,000 for five units compared to 1,700 for nine. the baseline cumulative health for a light tank regiment is 1600 points. so this means that the second tanks start rolling in these regiments are done for. they're frequently slower than regular infantry so they'll get left behind and wiped out by armor while your regular infantry regiments manage to escape.
I eventually reverted back to the standard 9-unit infantry regiment because I got fed up with losing specialist regiments faster than I could buy them.
Since this picture I've added a second infantry guard to the unit which boosts its morale by 5. It still cant win a one on one fight with an infantry regiment, but it wont rout immediately either, and entrenched it could actually be pretty effective (morale loss rate for entrenched infantry is now 70% less as opposed to 50% less).
All vehicle units are smaller than in vanilla and most airpower units use APdamage, so infanty are viable the entire game and will probably end up making up most of a player's forces.
Ill be putting up more or less a map of the units being used and their purposes soon, this should help explain things.
my solution to mortars was to keep the original layout and alter the attack. I used the projectile weight as the baseline attack and the weapon diameter as an attack bonus vs infantry. this meant that mortars were fantastic against infantry but ineffective againt vehicles and tanks. their main benefit would be bombarding targets at long range and countering snipers.
I also elected to get rid of the machine gun units in mortar regiments. this meant that in close quarters combat they would be at a huge disadvantage against regular infantry. it also meant that regular infantry had more importance throughout the game.
I was also thinking about the mana cost you mentioned earlier-- if aircraft can only make one attack run with each weapon then that balances things out quite a bit.
Yep! Currently the fighters in my game are only allowed two attack passes (and only the first one uses a bomb). Recharge time can help too.