INSULARIS DRACO is an overhaul of 2014’s Invasio Barbarorum II: Conquestu Britanniae. The setting of our main campaign: North-Western Europe, 452 AD. From Pictland in the North to the Alps in the South, from Ireland in the West to Jutland in the East.
As Attila retreats after the cataclysmic battle on the Catalaunian Fields, Roman Gaul is left in ruins, and the Imperial status quo is on the wane. Leaping into this power vacuum are various ‘barbarian’ peoples: the Franks, the Visigoths, the Alamans and others have set their eyes upon Gaul’s rich cities.
In distant Ireland, the rise of the Uí Néill dynasty has brought them much power: unopposed for now, Lóegaire Mac Níall stands to conquer the ceremonial capital of Temair. Should he claim the High-Kingship, however, he will face fierce opposition from his rivals the Laigin and Ulaid.
Ireland may be remote, but it is not cut off from the world: British missionaries are slowly but surely converting the ruling class to Christianity, and in return Gaelic raiders plague the coasts of Wales and Cumbria.
The former Imperial Province of Britannia, left to its own devices decades ago, has been divided among the civitates, with a powerful king, Vortigern, possessing much of what lies between the Severn and the North Sea. In what will become Wales, Guened is founded with aid from the Irish settlers who have taken advantage of the power vacuum, and Demet is even ruled by them. Above the Humber the petty kingdoms of the Old North each vie for supremacy to see who will succeed the old confederation of the Brigantes.
Beyond Hadrian’s Wall in the North, a fragile balance exists between Brittonic and Pictish petty kingdoms, while in the western isles, the Gaelic settlers of Dál Riada are emerging as a new threat. On the island’s south-eastern shores, however, strange tribes have set foot who stand to decisively tip the balance in favour of chaos: the Ængle, Seaxan and Ēotas, invited as Fœderati by King Vortigern, have real chance of upending the very ways of life which have defined this island for centuries.
Times of great trouble and uncertainty offer substantial opportunity, but it is reserved only for those who dare to grasp it.
Will you extinguish the guiding light of Rome or will you preserve it? Who will be Arthur, who will be Clovis?Shall there be a Bretwalda or shall there be... an Insularis Draco?
Articles
As we speak, Belovèse is preparing 'Insularis Draco' for its newest release which will be uploaded later today! A short look at where we are with the mod right now.
4 CAMPAIGNS
Insularis Draco boasts 4 very detailed campaigns set in North-Western Europe during Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval period. The main campaign is set in 452AD, right after the climactic Battle of the Catalaunian Fields. It features all 30 playable factions and a huge amount of unique scripts to make each of them more interesting, immersive and engaging. It moves through time in 2 turns per year and you can play all the way up to the year 685AD.
The Other Erascampaigns are very different experiences: the campaign year is divided up into more turns and there are far less scripts running in the background so they feel slightly more Free Build-y.
The most developed of these is the Britain 550AD campaign. 5 turns per year from 550 to 700AD. Beware the horrible Plague of Justinian which devastates the entire map within the first 5 years!
The map is by LughLámhfada with lots of updates and fixes from me and coastal smoothing from Werety
Next up is the most minimalist Other Eras campaign: Ireland 657AD. A handful of factions duking it out on a truly HUGE and detailed map of Hibernia made by LughLámhfada.
It has 12 turns per year and an unexpected late game invasion :)
The last and newest map is set in Germania 356AD I made entirely by myself (well, 'Outlander' from Meiji TW gave me a starting setup!) with the help of Werety for the smooth coasts again. It features the struggling Roman province of Gaul under Emperor Julian the Apostate, being invaded by all kinds of Germanic plunderers. It moves through time in 5 turns (exactly like Britain 550) and it is still a work in progress, however it features a ton of new features (well, in this case, hindrances!) to make governing Gaul more troublesome for the Roman player 👹
MAP AND UI IMPROVEMENTS
Our campaign map has been extensively beautified, with new vegetation models and custom ground tiles.
But we've also reworked the entire event pic databases, making the mod much more beautiful and visually consistent to play.
Our resident Scholar Benfras has also made around 70 (!) unique buildings that feature all over the map, highlighting unique regional landmarks that influence the way a province works.
UNIT MODELS
Our newest team member, PythagoreanBeans has kitbashed a truly staggering amount of units for the Roman, Brittonic and Germanic units. The results can be seen in the previous three articles which highlight those huge visual upgrades extensively.
As we've been working for six months (and arguably more intensively than ever) it's hard to list every change we've made and I've no doubt forgotten a bunch. I might update this article when I think of them :)
In any case: enjoy the new update which will be only later today!
Dev Diary: Continental Germanic Unit Redo
Feature 1 commentIn this Dev Diary I'm gonna explain our thought process behind our grand overhaul of all Continental Germanic units, led by PythagoreanBeans!
Dev Diary: North Sea Germanic Unit Overhaul
Feature 3 commentsIn this Dev Diary I'm going to update you guys on how PythagoreanBeans and me redid the Anglo-Saxon, Frisian and Danish unit models. Their rosters are...
Insularis Draco Faction Overview
FeatureIn the upcoming INSULARIS DRACO mod, you can control any of 30 factions vying for control in North-Western Europe, 452AD. Read about the available factions...
New Features
NewsAn update on where we are with the mod. Historical Battles are now working, battlemap UI is redone, I redid the situation in Brittany, Pictish Crossbowmen...
Files
Insularis Draco 1.0
Full Version 27 commentsFull, stable, Stand-alone and ready to plop into your 'mods' folder. The current release of 'Insularis Draco'. A huge number of substantial updates and...
Uncial Fonts Pack
Patch 5 commentsReplaces the in-game fonts with some more period-accurate Uncial/Carolingian Minuscule fonts (well, technically, the exact fonts reflect the script used...
Insularis Draco Updated Beta
Full Version 56 commentsMod-foldered, standalone version of the mod. Small-scale hotfixes can be found on the Discord server. This version boasts three stable fully playable...
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I really love this mod despite not being too keen of the era, I still had such a blast. I saw that you think the viking era is overdone but to be honest, none of them are that detailed. With your map, I'm certain you can make a depiction of the era with much more detail as there are plenty of villages for them to raid.
This mod is simply incredible. The level of polish is very impressive and I could see this as a legit dlc.
Few mods have gotten me so invested in a TW campaign before!
If you have never played the brittania expansion before, don't even bother!
Play this mod instead!
Oh wow, thank you! Feel free to leave a review as well :P
Quietly working hard on more updates to increase the polish, btw.
Urbgen I was thinking with the Irish Campaign map you have it would be cool to have a Norse and Danish invaders Campaign, you could be the Viking Factions or the Irish Factions, not many mods cover that time period in Ireland, just a thought?
Certainly a fun suggestion but that would take thousands of turns to reach in-game, since the Ireland campaign is 12 turns per year and it starts 150 years before Norse arrival in Ireland :)
Maybe in a hotseat scenario?
It was just an idea or suggestion, no biggy.
I noticed your working with the Europe Ancient mod, you made a submod or standalone mod for it, might have to check that one out.
Correct. I just uploaded a new version with a Mundus Magnus style map for that mod last night!
Amazingly crafted mod, had a real blast playing main campaign as Powyss. What I didn't like is that AI economy seemed way too strong, maybe the amount of money handed out to Ai via scripts should be tuned down. Also, I understand that disloyal generals is an intended feature, but sometimes it was too much as most of my family members had extremely low fealty caused by negative traits. The fact that even the best of my men could betray me at any moment made me more or less indifferent to their personalities as I was kinda afraid of growing fond of any character.
About the AI, there must be an AI money script?
I have been getting some random crashes when I'm clicking around in available buildings to build and what I need to build to get them, had one battle crash for some unknown reason, that was playing the North Angle faction in the Insularis Draco Campaign.
There seems to be a bug playing that faction with a duplicate Germanic Barracks, for some reason it showed 2 Germanic barracks in the City, no big deal, it seems to go away after you build the Germanic barracks I think?
I think it would be cool if you brought back or added loot after winning battles "along with the ransom" that would help with the extremely high upkeep for units, small armies you only get maybe 1000 and medium armies 2000 and large armies after you defeat them you get 4000 after you win the battle, maybe add more free upkeep to forts, just an idea of course.
edit: Those crashes come playing the game in offline mode, not sure if that is the problem or not, one installation video I saw you have to be on steam to play it?