Rise of Kings is a revolutionary total conversion modification for Rise of Nations: Thrones and Patriots that recreates the Medieval era. Set across 3 ages and with 24 factions to choose from, this is one of the largest and most ambitious mods for Rise of Nations.
A group of hapless Norse cavalry get themselves encircled by Mongol Keshig Guardsmen who are literally running circles around them.
The results are sadly predictable.
However, do not despair, cavalry archers are not invincible. Rise of Kings now introduces handicaps to cavalry archers so that they are vulnerable if pursued and attacked from their right.
It took me a very long time to figure out how to create cavalry archers and how to get them to function properly, and you have no idea just how tough it was. When I first started creating javelin cavalry, getting the unit to throw javelins in sync with the sound and figuring out how to set the particle effect timing was a pain.
Later I began thinking of how to create attack animations. I started by having the unit wrap itself about but this often caused strange animations where the unit would turn 120 degrees back, then launch its salvo at a 70 or 80 degree angle. Fortunately, however, I carefully studied how cavalry archers interact with enemy units in Rise of Nations, and figured it out, but it wasn't the end - sometimes I got the particle timing wrong....and in one case I couldn't even get the animations to work because I FORGOT to insert the right tagging and didn't even notice it for almost 3 weeks.
I admit that the appearance of both the Keshig and the Noyan were very much influenced by the appearance of the Mangudai depicted in Bodrov's brilliant flick "Mongol", and also thank RoXXGames for introducing me to the film back in 2011 when he was still working on his mod "A Wrong Turn".