Introduction:
After the war is a mod that take place after the events of iron plague, when the last war ended. After some peace time the 5 kingdoms expanded their military in case of a future war against each other and developed many new strategies making the battles more interesting than ever.
The mod aim to bring new balance to the game with new unit interactions between each other. It is now a revisited, but still close to crusade balance with many more possibilities since all units have now strengths and weaknesses against certain type of units. Many new unit types make their apparition like wood, stone, steel, demon, skeleton, etc which enhance the strategy possibilities compared to the old model with few unit types which led tovery little interactions between units.
New mod means also new units. Each factions got at least 8 new quality units each (some factions got a bit more like Creon) carefully chosen between all the units that have been already created for TA:K by the community. More than just stats, those new units bring back more lore and explanations about what each faction did while at peace. Many bugs and weird sounds, unit behaviors have been fixed from the vanilla game to provide the best experience possible without the old broken stuff. Now all units should be usable to their fullest without any ugly ducks no one want to use because of its broken behavior. Now all units will have a purpose anyway since each one will be good against at least one particular situation or enemy.
Even so the mod should be compatible with the official campaign (making each mission either more easy or more difficult) it is firstly a multiplayer mod. (You can play solo against AI opponents without problems in skirmishes.) As such everything has been designed to be competitive to force players making meaningful
choices instead of swarming the enemy with random troops. (Like the default AI often do.)
Summary:
- Global changes.
- New special features/abilities.
- Fixing units.
- Unit icons.
- List of all the unit icons currently used. .
- New unit types and weapon characteristics.
- Weapon types.
- Credits.
1/ Global changes:
Adding new strengths and weaknesses to units isn’t the only big change this mod comes with.
Units and stats between vanilla mode and crusade balance mode are now the same. But activating crusade balance mode will still bring something different, mogrium bounty. (Mogrium is the name given to mana in the TA:K universe.) Playing with the crusade balance mode on will give to any player that kills an enemy unit a percentage of its mana back to the killer.
Unit type => Mogrium bounty per unit mana cost
■ Lodestone => 100%
■ Dedicated builder, factory, T1 archer => 20%
■ Non building scout, god => 0%
■ Suicide unit, zombie, army ant, Creon
ballon, most reanimated units. => 5%
■ Monarch, all the others => 10%
All units got extra vision. (+50 vision range minimum for all units.) Defensive buildings and scouts see even further. (Up to +100 vision range for some of them.) You will now have less trouble spotting your enemy or wondering on what that archer is shooting at in the fog of war. Archers, like many other units got new attacks to use to enhance tactical possibilities.
In the case of archers they can now fire lobbed arrows in case you want to protect them behind walls. Same goes for the Zhon giant stone golem which can now decide how to throw his rocks. Aramon catapult can now choose between 2 types of projectiles. There is even more to discover.
All T1 archers and T1 defense buildings got their base damage roughly doubled.
They obviously got many new weaknesses but their overall efficiency increased.
Players will now have to think twice before swarming a defended area.
Gates have been erased from existence!
All walls are now reclaimable. Making builders good anti walls units if they can get close enough.
Monarchs are now able to gain veterancy.
All units using mana to cast abilities will now show how much mana that ability cost.
Mind control has been slightly altered.
You wont know what unit can be mind controlled in game just by looking at them so the list of mind controllable units changed for a better visibility on what you can and cannot mind control.
All units are mind controllable except:
■ Water boats.
■ Ground transport units. (Aramon rolling tower,)
■ Units resistant to monarch 3rd ability. (units with the white shield with a yellow crown symbol)
■ Pure mechanical units, (Spider drone, neo dragon.)
■ Units builded by T2 builders (Priests/shamans.) and beyond.
Some unit weapons (principally ballista weapons) gained the water weapon label which enable them to hit submerged enemies.
Healing aura have been tuned down to make them less mana hungry but
mana consumption still stay high even with a lower efficiency.
Finally all unit icons got tons of new info on them for a better visibility on what you are about to build. You will know the exact number of seconds it takes to build each unit.
2/ New special features/abilities:
Some new features were added in TA:K that were never seen before.
Introduction of stealth mechanic which allow specific units (units which can cloak indefinitively when not moving) to remain invisible on the enemy minimap even in radar range unless in LOS range.
Introduction of the mana shield. A passive ability that mitigate damage recieved when health is at 100%.
Introduction of hills/mountains climbing. Some units like the fire spout can now efficientely climb previously unreachable areas.
Introduction of double attacks. It was previously in the game but was bugged and didn't allowed units with long attack animation or rotatable turret to fire all its weapon upon end of cooldown. What is totally new is the ability to fire a ranged weapon to one target while being able to fight in melee with another weapon. Creon beast rider is one of those units which can do that now.
3/ Fixing units:
All kamikase units can now initiate self destruct with CTRL + D and actually detonate instead of disapearing wiouth additional effects.
Previously unusable units like wisps and amazon got their aim fixed so they will not stop attacking for no reason or DPS the ground.
Some units had inapropriate sound for some weapons like the aramon war galley which previously fired arrows with cannon shot sound effect.
4/ Unit icons:
As stated above, units may have a lot more strengths and weaknesses than what is shown on
the unit icon. Most of them are minor bonus and malus against a particular enemy type that
you will have to discover yourself.
(Some of those little bonus/malus were added for balancing purpose. Others were added
because of some added effects a weapon had compared to the same one another unit had
without that added effect. For exemple arrows deal poor damage to structures. Wood is one of
them. But fire has a bonus vs wood and so are flame arrows. The bonus the fire effect adds to
that flame arrow is not enough to be a major strength vs wooden boats but still add a bonus to
the attack.)
In some rare case, the unit icon was too small to fit all of its characteristics.
5/ List of all the unit icons currently used :
6/ New unit types and weapon characteristics:
A little list of all unit types and weapons types in the mod and their general
strengths/weaknesses.
Unit types:
Unliving: immune to toxic damage.
■ LODESTONE: All mana production buildings.
Good vs T1 arrow/javelin, T1 defense buildings.
Bad vs few specific units. (Mage builder, ghost ship.)
Terrible vs few specific units. (Assassin, giant orm.)
■ FACTORY: All production buildings.
Good vs arrow/javelin, most regular melee weapon, shrapnel explosive.
Bad vs cannon ball.
Terrible vs mini.
Terrible vs heavy blunt attack.
■ WOOD: All siege units and buildings made of wood.
Good vs arrow/javelin, most T1 melee attack, acid/corrosive damage (Iron beak), shrapnel explosive.
terrible vs fire, heavy blunt attack, mini.
■ STONE: All buildings made of stone and the stone giant.
Good vs arrow/javelin, most regular melee weapon, fire, shrapnel explosive.
Bad vs cannon ball.
Terrible vs heavy blunt attack, mini.
■ STEEL: All siege units made of steel and the steel golem.
Good vs arrow/javelin, most regular melee weapon, thunder, shrapnel explosive.
Bad vs fire, acid/corrosive damage, high penetration projectile (Steam rocket/missile).
■ NAVAL: All water and flying boats.
Good vs arrow/javelin, shrapnel explosive.
Bad vs fire.
■ STEEL NAVAL: All water steel ships. (All Creon ships.)
Good vs arrow/javelin, thunder, shrapnel explosive.
Bad vs fire.
■ SKELETON: All walking bones creatures.
Good vs arrow/javelin, pike/lance
Terrible vs cannon ball, blunt attack.
■ UNDEAD: All walking/flying corpses, most reanimated units (Different from resurrected ones.)
and automaton I & II.
Bad vs concentrated light and holy blades/fangs. (War angel, crusader, spirit wolf, prismatic mirror.)
■ MECHANICAL: All machinery and robot unit except the automaton I & II.
Good vs arrow/javelin, pike/lance, most T1 melee attack.
Bad vs thunder, cannon ball. Heavy blunt attack, acid/corrosive damage.
Living: vulnerable to toxic damage except for demons and angels.
■ UNSHIELDED: All humans without shields.
bad/terrible vs some melee weapon masters, some big claw/vicious monsters.
■ SHIELDED: All humans with shields.
Good vs arrow/javelin, pike/lance.
Terrible vs blunt attack, high penetration projectile (Steam rocket/missile).
■ MOUNTED: All cavalry unit mounting either a horse or a raptor.
Bad vs javelin.
Terrible vs pike/lance.
■ MONSTER: All none giant/human humanoid and none humanoid creatures. (trapdoor spider is a
monster.)
Bad vs pike/lance, ballista bolt, some carnivorous monsters. (Like the giant barracuda, the trap spider
and the devourer.)
■ SEA MONSTER: All water only creatures.
Good vs water damage, acid/corrosive damage.
Bad vs thunder.
■ MINI: All tiny creatures. (Goblins, ants.)
Terrible vs heavy blunt attack, some giant creatures.
■ DEMON: All demonic creatures from Taros. (Caged demon is a demon.)
Good vs fire.
Bad vs unholy knight skeleton. (Lore reason.)
Terrible vs water damage.
■ GIANT: All humanoid creature with a big size. (Titan, jungle orc.)
Good vs arrow/javelin, most T1 melee attack.
Bad vs pike/lance.
=> There exist giant demons and giant undeads. They inherit both of their characteristic type.
For balancing purpose, all Zhon builders except the shaman are considered as Giants instead of
monsters.
The stone giant is considered as stone instead of giant.
■ HARDSCALE: Only creatures with hard scale. (giant orm, basilisk, salamander.)
Good vs cannon ball, T1 shrapnel explosive.
Bad vs steam rocket/missile, elite spearman, black scorpion, dinorider.
■ DRAGON: Flying dragons and wyverns.
Good vs arrow.
Bad vs javelin.
Terrible vs ballista bolt, sacred dragon 2nd ability, monarch 2nd ability.
■ ANGEL: All angels. (Fallen angel, war angel, angel of love.)
Bad vs angel.
■ MONARCH: Your one and only king/queen.
Good vs Kirenna 1st ability, gods, some heavy hitting direct attacks, kamikaze units.
Terrible vs the skeleton king. (lore reasons.)
=> Players can build only 5 skeleton kings each maximum.
■ GOD: All Gods.
Good vs some heavy hitting direct attacks.
Terrible vs monarch.
=> Some units got the prefixe “antiking” which make them good at resisting monarch 3
7/ Weapon types:
A none exhaustive list of all the common weapon types and their general
strengths/weaknesses. (Some Higher tier unit may have less weaknesses than T1 units since
they usually lose 25% of most malus from their T1 counter part.)
■ FIRE:
Devastating vs wood.
Good vs naval, steel naval, steel.
Bad vs stone, demon.
■ WATER:
Devastating vs demon.
Bad vs sea monster.
■ THUNDER:
Good vs mechanical, sea monster.
Bad vs steel, steel naval.
■ TOXIC:
Good vs the living except for demons and angels.
Inefficient vs the unliving.
■ SWORD/AXE: (T1 sword/axe unit doesn't have that bonus and some other malus vs wood,
mechanical and giant.)
Good vs unshielded.
Bad vs factory, stone, steel.
■ PIKE/LANCE: (both dinorider and black scorpion have a similar melee “weapon”.)
Devastating vs mounted.
Good vs monster, giant.
Bad vs stone, factory, wood, skeleton, shielded, steel, mechanical.
(T2 good vs hardscale, demon,)
■ BLUNT ATTACK:
MACE/FLAIL. // HAMMER/HEAVY FIST
Devastating vs shield. // Devastating vs stone, factory, shielded,
Good vs skeleton. skeleton, mini. // good vs wood, mechanical.
Bad vs stone, wood, factory, hardscale, giant,
mechanical, steel. // Bad vs hardscale.
■ UNDEAD PUNCH:
Bad vs stone, wood, factory, mechanical, naval/steel naval, shielded, giant.
■ CANNON BALL: (light cannon ball bonus are less important than heavy ones.)
Devastating vs skeleton.
Good vs stone, factory, mechanical.
Bad vs hardscale. (Some units using canon balls deals less damage to monarchs and gods.)
=> Stinger bomber dropped bombs have similar bonus but also deal bonus damage vs
naval.
■ ARTILLERY: (Most lobbed cannon balls from catapult and mortar. Stone giant not
included.)
Good vs stone, factory.
Bad vs hardscale, steel naval (except mortar.).
■ SHRAPNEL EXPLOSIVE: (used by aramon catapult, grenadier, ballistic archer,
ballonist, bomb sprinkler, avalanche.)
Bad vs wood, stone, factory, naval. (And hardscale for T1.)
Terrible vs steel, steel naval.
■ STEAM ROCKET/MISSILE:
Devastating vs shielded, steel.
Good vs mechanical, naval/steel naval, hardscale.
■ ARROW: (T2 archer malus is 25% less stronger)
Bad vs mechanical, shielded, naval, dragon, hardscale, skeleton, lodestone.
Terrible vs stone, factory, wood, steel naval, giant.
■ JAVELIN/THROWING SPEAR: (same for T2 spear thrower)
Same as the arrow but good vs dragon and mounted.
■ BALLISTA:
Devastating vs dragon.
Good vs monster, sea monster, none giant demon.
Bad vs skeleton, factory, mechanical, steel naval, steel.
■ HIGH PRESSURE WATER:
Same as water but also good vs naval/steel naval.
■ BULLET:
Devastating vs shielded.
Bad vs stone, factory, wood, naval/steel naval, steel.
■ MINI: You can say the unit itself is the weapon. (goblin bomber not included.)
Devastating vs stone, factory, wood, mechanical.
Bad vs steel, giant.
=> As stated above, a unit with more than 2 weapon type (like arrow + fire) will
inherit both weapon malus and bonus but I wont list them here.
If you want more details just check the mod files. :p
For those who get easily lost, here a general strenght weakness sheet of a few weapon type :
■ demon > fire > wood, boat, steel.
■ steel, giant > mini > factory, stone, wood, mechanical.
■ T2 and beyond blades > human without shield.
■ monarch > most explosions.
■ shield, wood > pike/lance > humanoid giant, monster, mounted.
■ steel > ballista > dragon, monster.
■ unit with crown shield icon > monarch wave.
■ sea monster > water > demon.
■ building, boat, shield, skeleton, mechanical > arrow.
■ hardscale > cannonball > skeleton, stone, mechanical.
■ steel > thunder > sea monster, mechanical.
■ hardscale > flail > skeleton, shield.
■ unliving > toxic > living.
■ hardscale > heavy blunt > skeleton, stone, shield, factory.
8/ Credits:
Creator of the mod : AKO
Goblin bomber unit come from the age of wonder mod.
Elite spearman unit come from the call of arda mod.
mindwhiper, balloonist, nautilus, black scorpion, pikeman units were designed by TA Biohazard.
Avalanche unit was made by PDG.
Thunder hand unit come from the cursed faction.
Ice yeti, weather spire units come from the azurian faction.
Salamander unit made by Red warlord.
Royal guard created by TDFedit.
Aegis tower, war bot created by vaerun.
Stinger bomber created by aquadraconicus.
Army ant, giant spider, sky demon units were created by Kylin.
(cursed mummy, sea guardian, devourer, trapdoor spider units comes from the campaign.)
All other 3rd party models, textures and animations used are not made by me.
I don't know who made those units so I will just credit the "unknown Modder" :)
Disclaimer: all units added to the mod were modified to some extent so they are quite
different from their original design.
I also want to thank Vaerun and Deekay for providing me help in understanding and fixing
some TA:K stuff and West for testing the mod with me and providing some feedback.
(And thanks to Deekay's site alltakdownload for providing me all the tools, mods and game
files I needed to make this mod.)
...And despite all those info, the best way to learn how to play the mod is by playing it !
Have fun! :)
