The popular mod series now for Napoleon: Total War! Play realistic napoleonic battles against a challenging AI. The gameplay is vastly improved, the arcade feeling of the official game is removed.
DarthMod Napoleon Features
These are the key elements of the mod that make it better than the official game (vanilla) and unique among other mods.
Land Battles
The more realistic movement rates and acceleration for the troops together with the more realistic physics effects provide more natural visuals
Melees are more cinematic and charges more powerful especially those of cavalry who go deep into formations and provoke havoc
Musket fire more realistic based truly on the accuracy of the unit and the characteristics of the weapon (in vanilla muskets target with heat seaking ability and for compensation the developers have added a “deflector shield” for the units as there is in all modern and childish RTS games)
Artillery units fire with more realistic trajectories and have bigger range so now their impact is historically powerful
Morale effects are more dynamic forcing the AI to re-mobilise its forces continuously during the battle to gain the best possible position and formation and not think (wrongly) that it can win while being flanked
Fatigue effects are more realistic so now for example the troops get tired quickly after running but can also rest more quickly
Various changes in the unit statistics provide a better and more realistic battle experience, for example Line Infantry have increased numbers and Lancers have anti-cavalry bonus or Grenadiers use heavy body model etc.
The units are not “perfectly” formed as in vanilla so that their formations look more real and not gameish
Experience rises quickly enough to make a unit realistically useful according to the battle it fights
Grenades have been removed because it is insane that they have limitless ammo and also because they are unhistorical this time period
The new AI formations in land battles
The new Darth Formations encourage AI battalion type attacks (reserve system) and also:
The AI attacks now in full unison
The AI lethally flanks
The AI light infantry is more dangerous
The AI artillery is located in a single powerful battery which unleashes devastating concentrated barrages to the human player
AI general is always careful and not suicidal
Cavalry attacks are better coordinated
No big gaps between units (now they create one long thin line of musketry per group and per formation)
Attack and defend offsets are improved so that the AI properly times the assault and muskets more
The AI siege and river battles play better
Naval Battles
The ships statistics have been totally revamped so that the arcade feel of naval battles is totally removed, for example now ships turn and maneuver much slower like real wooden vessels or cannon shots do not “heat seek” but follow realistic trajectories
Naval morale is more dynamic and favours the circumstance of a ship to surrender when it is in very bad shape than fight to the bitter end and sink
Magazine hit points increased so that the ships do not blow up so insanely frequently (but blow ups can still occur)
Naval solid cannons create more damage to the crew and can be devastating in close range
Chain shots have less range but more power so that they can be used only in a moment of a difficult decision: “to fire solid shots and surely damage or try to disable the ship with less probability?”
The new AI formations in naval battles
There have been slight changes to the Naval formations so their attack begins with different offset favouring the AI to “cross the T”
Campaign Map Gameplay
The Campaign AI has been totally re-innovated so that the AI considers better when and where to invade, when to defend, when to naval assault, when to retreat, when to support allies etc. to develop faster and to wage powerful “big stack” armies.
Because of the new CAI the original many many AI handicaps whose purpose was to offer challenge to the human player by a super cheating AI have been removed and have been kept only the upkeep and income bonuses per difficulty level (to simulate an effective AI economic management)
The AI raises quality armies with sufficient capacity of line infantry, cannons and cavalry
Autocalc has been fine tuned to be more reasonable and the AI bonuses per difficulty level have been removed.
Terrains are more hilly to offer more tactical interest for the land battles
France is no longer the “Uber Faction” so that the campaign does not feel scripted (any nation now can be powerful enough to offer challenge as an adversary)
Ships have much more movement points to favour naval invasions and make fleets more useful
Traits increase more frequently so that generals can get bonuses or penalties more often according to your actions
Diplomacy is more reasonable and your allies will not backstab without reason as in vanilla and they will support you much more
Government types have more differences between them and give more bonuses and penalties
Ministers have more bonuses per star rating so that they contribute sufficiently to the overall nation development
Many Campaign Choices
husserlTW adapted his great Napoleon Total Factions mod to be included in DarthMod (it works inside the mod) and now you have the options to play with many new countries in all campaigns
husserlTW has created many special saves exclusively for DarthMod which offer starting campaign conditions for up to 40 units in a single army
Additional Units
122 New Land Units + 14 New Naval Units (work by Swiss Halberdier, Sacrebleu!, md1453) enrich your battle and campaign experience
Super battle effects
New cinematic effects which offer thick realistic smoke, better explosions, Blood, more realistic visuals, but without creating excessive lag. You have to see to believe!
The above mentioned together with hundreds of other micro adjustments and balances make DarthMod Napoleon the right choice if you want to play Napoleon: Total War as it should have been released from the start… with realistic features and challenge without overwhelming cheats.
In addition, DarthMod Napoleon comes with a launcher to help you set the unit sizes to big (2X) or normal (1X) and to enable submods with one click. More submods will be added in the future to offer a richer experience which will be adapted, if needed, to fit in the mod. DarthMod Napoleon can be disabled any time to play vanilla or another mod.
