Gods & Fighting Men - Total War mod

REQUIRES

Rome Total War and the Alexander Expansion only.

FEATURES

* Arthurian Total War Map of Ireland (adapted and retextured)
* New trade resource: honey
* New landmarks: The Tower of Glass, Stone Circles
* New grass and battlemap terrain textures
* Arthurian Total War unit models for elite units of player faction
* Lugh and Balor unique general models
* New Dynamic Integrated Trait-Ancillary system from Aradan Special Feature
* Aradan's auto-resolve balance system Special Feature
* Main music by Jeff and Mychael Danna, taken from their albums, A Celtic Romance - The Legend of Liadain and Curithir and A Celtic Tale - The Legend of Deirdre

INTRODUCTION

Many centuries before the rise of Rome, and far to the west in the land of Eire, there lived brave warrior-poets and fearful druids and enchanters. Future generations would look back one day and name these men as heroes and some as even more…This is the story of the gods and fighting men of Ireland!

This mini-mod takes the Ireland map and some of the models of Arthurian: Total War and transports them back in time to the days of the hero-god Lugh of the Long Arm. It is a period of darkness in Eire, where the Tuatha De Danann struggle against a foul race of invaders known as the Fomor and their dread King, Balor of the Evil Eye. Mighty high kings, terrible armies, mystic powers and enchanted artefacts are all in motion as Balor seeks to slay Lugh and thus prevent the fulfilment of the Prophecy - the Prophecy that Lugh will slay Balor and thus rid Eire of the Fomorian menace.

The player must seek to throw off the yoke of the Fomor oppressors. This will be hard if not impossible to achieve unless Lugh, the Four Treasures of Ireland, and the arts of Danu are used wisely. Only the Tuatha De Danann will be playable of the five factions in the campaign.

The campaign is largely concerned with a portrayal of the myth rather than a scholarly depiction of a historically-accurate Ireland of this time period. Nevertheless, a good grounding in reality and an avoidance of too much "fantasy" has been adhered to throughout. Only two units have mystical powers – Balor himself and the ethereal Riders of the Sidhe.

TRIBES

The De Dananns, Tuatha De Danann, Men of Dea or Children of Danu - an advanced but tribal society, skilled in weapon-making, healing, druidic powers, war and the arts. Children of the mother goddess Danu after whom they are named. Their hero is Lugh and they are the only playable campaign faction. Symbol taken is the Sun, which represents Lugh, on a green field, which represents Eire.

The Firbolg - a wild, native grouping of stocky, swarthy war-like tribes with many weapons as thick set as themselves. The Fomor have largely been friendly toward these tribes, though only for their own purposes. Still, the Firbolg generally have no love of either the Tuatha De Danann or Fomor. Who they side with (if at all) will probably be governed by what they feel best serves their interests at any given time. There are three tribal groupings of this culture - the Fir Bolg, Fir Domnann and Fir Galioin. Their colour is brown and their symbols are the Antlers of a Stag, the Wild Boar and the two-bladed Axe respectively.

The Fomor - a strong, war-like people with large, advanced ships. Afflicted with deformity as a race, the mis-shapen make up the bulk of the occupying garrisons of Eire whilst the 'pure' can be found at and around the Isle of the Tower of Glass, their offshore base and home. Although the Fomor have a number of occupying troops their actual elite home guard are relatively few. Their symbol is the Trident, and their colour is grey.

GAMEPLAY & NEW FEATURES

The Tuatha De Danann start off weak and they will need to build up their strength both by way of an army as well as in their technology. They will need to rely upon their hero, Lugh, the Four Treasures of Ireland and their temples if they want to win the game.

My thanks to Aradan for the new dynamic integrated trait/anc system, and for the auto-resolve balancing technique. Both of these had very many hours put into them by Aradan, and the former was worked on virtually without break for the 24 hours prior to the public release so that it could be just right! The principle behind the autoresolve balancing was discovered (as far as we know) by Lgk and, after DimeBagHo had led Aradan to this, Aradan discovered it could be applied universally to all units and long hours of testing began - resulting in the current system! I hope all mods will seriously test this out and consider implementing it. Most of the battles fought in any campaign are autoresolved - remember all non-player-faction battles are autoresolved - so it can make a huge difference to the balance and outcome of a campaign. You can read more about it in the Complete EDU Guide here: Forums.totalwar.org

DEVELOPER'S NOTE

Gods & Fighting Men- Total War takes its inspiration from the ancient Irish myth of Lugh and his struggles against the Fomor which culminated in the Second Battle of Magh Tuireadh. Lugh was held to be a powerful god by later generations, not just in Ireland but in his counterpart names across western Europe - London and Lyons are just two places that have their origins in the word Lugh or one of its variations. Lady Gregory's classic work on the matter is of course why the mod was so named but I have also been influenced by the novels of Kenneth C. Flint who wrote a wonderfully entertaining interpretation of the whole myth.

I should also point out that, not being a modeller, it was never my intention to create new models and, indeed, generally vanilla or vanilla variations have been used for low to mid-tier units. Nevertheless I think there will be enough new visual treats to enjoy the mod - and thanks to Halie from the "End of Days" series of mods for some of the more unique units

The mod is quite short, and very focused. It's for those who do not have countless hours to conquer the world. I hope you enjoy this small mod and find it a unique experience. It's been fun doing it and my thanks again to all those in the credits and especially to Jeff and Mychael Danna for the use of some of their superb celtic music which adds so much atmosphere to Gods & Fighting Men - Total War.

- MasterOfNone, aka Dol Guldur, aka Palantir.

RESOURCES

Gods & Fighting Men (1904) by Lady Augusta Gregory
Sacred-texts.com

A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland by P.W. Joyce, 1906
Libraryireland.com

SELECTED SCREENSHOTS

ABOVE (left to right): The ethereal Riders of the Sidhe, the skilled Champions of the Firbolg, Club-wielding Firbolg peasants emerge from a forest, a chariot of the De Danann bodyguards.

DOWNLOAD & INSTALLATION

You will need the Rome Total War Alexander expansion in order to play this mod. The mod itself is 150 MBs in size (uncompressed) and will be located entirely within its own folder so that your original game is not touched. Like all mods, it does draw on files from the original game and so it is important to have a clean original game. GAFM is compatible with all other modfoldered mods.

FULL CREDITS

Music

* Main music by Jeff & Mychael Danna (Mychaeldanna.com< "The Prophecy","The Drowning Plains","Funeral","Hills of Ireland","The Blood of Cu Chulainn", "Defeat of the Red Branch", and "The Sons of Uisnach" taken from the Celtic Tales and Celtic Legends albums (see images and links above)
* Transitional music by Jones King and Halie Satanus

Original Artwork

* Menu artwork by John Duncan: "The Fomors or Powers of Evil Abroad in the World" (1912), "Riders of the Sidhe" (1911)
* Promotional poster & Open DVD Case by Jones King (Mogwaimedia.com)

Campaign Map

* Ireland base map from Arthurian Total War
* METW for use of an old ship model for the Fomor
* Honey resource model and texture by Halie Satanus
* Tower of Glass and Stone Circles strategy map landmark models by Halie Satanus
* Lugh and Balor army models by Halie Satanus

Battle Map

* Riders of the Sidhe bodyguard model by Halie Satanus (and Balbor and Hoggy)
* Firbolg Skirmishers model by Halie Satanus
* Balor and Lugh models by Halie Satanus

Other

* Unit balancing & ground-breaking auto-resolve balancing system - both by Aradan
* Aradan for his Dynamic Integrated Trait-Ancillary System

Enjoy!

- Dol Guldur aka MasterOfNone aka Palantir