INSULARIS DRACO is an overhaul of 2014’s Invasio Barbarorum II: Conquestu Britanniae. The setting: 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 cataclismic battle on the Catalaunian Plains, Roman Gaul is left in ruins, and the Imperial status quo is on the wane. Leaping into this power vacuum are various ‘barbarian’ polities: the Salian and Ripuarian Franks, the Visigoths, the Alemanni and others have set their eyes upon Gaul’s rich cities.
In distant Ireland, the swift rise of the Uí Néill dynasty has ground to a halt due to the resistance of Laigin and Ulaid. Lóegaire Mac Níall may hold the ceremonial capital of Temair, but his High Kingship is widely opposed. 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 along native Brittonic tribal lines, with the southern powerhouses Poguis and Dumnant heading for war to decide who comes out on top. In Cambria Guened leads the resistance against Gaelic settlers, while Demet has embraced their presence in the area. Above the Humber the petty kingdoms of the Old North each vie for supremacy in a region where Romanitas is scarce.
Beyond Hadrian’s Wall in Caledonia, 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 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? Who shall be Bretwalda and who shall be... Insularis Draco?
Articles
It's been an awfully long time since Insularis Draco last showed signs of life on this platform. However, it should be clear this does not in any way mean that the Dev Team was inactive. On the contrary, I think I can state without hyperbole that this might have been the most active stretch of modding we have done since the inception of Insularis.
We were so busy, in fact, with modding that we completely forgot to acknowledge the fact that Moddb itself awarded us the Historical Accuracy Award in December! Thank you so much to the people of Editors Choice. It's always great to get encouragement when you're spending your time on mods, an activity largely devoid of glory :)
Today I'm going to shine the spotlight on one major addition which vastly improves immersion and the overall quality of the mod, which, incidentally, is approaching a first full release very soon:
CUSTOM SETTLEMENTS
Due to the permission of De Bello Mundi and Europa Barbarorum II teams and the hard work and expertise of Makanyane, we have now eliminated all vanilla settlements from the mod. Every available settlement level for every culture is now historically accurate and fitting to the atmosphere. Because of an embarrassment of riches, we have even increased the amount of Castle-type settlement levels to 3, with the levels ranging from small earthworks defended by palisades to large scale Hillforts with extensive wooden fortifications. Have a look below:
Roman City
Hilltop Stronghold
Non-Romanized Town
Partly Romanized Brittonic Large Town
Hillfort Gatehouse
Apart from the Battlemap settlements there's also been a huge improvement on the Campaign Map front:
We've been given permission by the DaC developer TheEliteDwarf to use two more defunct Wildmen settlements which now serve as Goidelic/Pictish and Brittonic first level Hillforts. FEB from the Mossflower TW mod then improved on the Brittonic one by adding an actual hill over it. I think it looks great.
Brittonic Earthwork:
Pictish Minor Fort, Large Town and Earthwork:
This all got me interested in customizing Strat Models myself and I then tried my hand at creating a Roman Castrum Stativum model, in three levels:
If you made it all the way to the end of this Feature highlight, thank you!
I'll be back soon with more news on the development of Insularis Draco focusing on the large number of new and redone/reshuffled units!
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...
Latest Additions
News 8 commentsA look at some of the new additions to Insularis Draco after the first tentative beta release a couple of months back. A bunch of pics showing the newer...
Editors Choice - Mod of the Year 2022
Feature 20 commentsWelcome to the Editor's Choice awards for the 2022 Mod of the Year Awards, where we show recognition to the mods from the past year that we've found to...
Files
Insularis Draco Beta
Full Version 29 commentsMod-foldered, standalone version of the mod. Small-scale hotfixes can be found on the Discord server. Everyone is more than welcome to try this Beta version...
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Hey! Is the default (small) unit size the best way to experience the mod? I'm wondering which size would be the best and I'm eager to hear what you think bout this :)
Hello, I am new to Total War mods. I installed this mod and extracted it to the mods folder but when I try to launch it it crashes in the loading screen with an error message saying "What a mess! Better check the log for errors. Closing shop now. better luck next time!". Please help me how to fix this error. Thank you
Hey, please come to the Discord where we can troubleshoot! Invite link is in the mod info at the top right of the page.
man it loads all units(despite making it medium )causing lag in battles, please help
Hey, this is was a conscious decision by me, seeing as the mod had no functioning sprites, so I removed the placeholder ones as they were making battles very very ugly. Perhaps when someone is able to help me by generating sprites, I'll reinstate them, but for now there's nothing to be done about it.
I'd advise you to play with small units size (that's what I do, it's also more historically realistic)
im playing with the romans for 80 turns on H/H like you recommended, but i feel like the ai dont siege me enough, very passive even with 2 stacks they dont move.
does very hard change that or not? otherwise i will wait for more updates
Hello! I have a question regarding the historical accuracy of one of the units. The Langsweordmenn (Longswords) are using a type of sword that to my knowledge only appeared later in the 12-13th centuries. Can you give me any source that proves its existence in the period the mod is set in? Thanks.
there is absolutely no proof that these types of weapons existed or were used. The mod has quite a few fantasy units, which are almost all holdovers from the original mod IB2: Conquestu Britanniae. Others are the Strathclyde longswords and the Dane Axe units, weapons that are almost exclusively high medieval in origin.
I guess the makers of the mod wanted a bit of extra variety, which I understand. Removing units is a risky business which involves a lot of files and which can cause crashes when not done right, and I haven't really gotten round to it. There really is no firm excuse but on the other hand: this mod doesn't claim to be historically accurate, especially for a time in which sources and even material evidence are extremely sparse.
Yep, thanks for the response. Concerning the Dane Axe, it was first recorded around the 8th-9th centuries but before those there were other two-handed (heavier but still usable in combat) axes used for woodcutting. I am not sure if this type of axe existed in the 5th century but if it did it would't be unreasonable to assume that at least some of the poorer men used them so the Dane Axe units could have their axe models changed to something like that.
Briton faction has Arab voices
You have to download a new version as quick as possible because in the 24/1 upload they most certainly do not!