Units have much higher morale overall, making it harder for them to break, and they have been balanced accurately for each category of infantry and cavalry; a slight rebalance of overall damage and lethality ratings for each and every infantry unit has also been performed, with bayonets now dealing a fixed 20 damage (!) to make melee encounters last a little less, as it was often the case in this type of warfare. Moreover, nation-specific parameters have been refined. The French are encouraged to go on the offensive and gain the upper hand on the battlefield very quickly, as they are now faster than the other nations and stronger in melee; the British are stronger on the defense and their shots are more accurate than the French, but they lack in close combat ability and are slower, thus encouraging for a more tactical and stationary approach to the situation. Many such little changes have been made throughout the rosters to make them a little more varied, with stregths and weaknesses for each.
On top of this I've been working hard on a complete rebalance of cavalry and cavalry charges in general. Now every category of cavalryman has its own proper mount with strengths and weaknesses compared to other mounts, different mass and different reach (Lancers for example can disengage more easily and reach the target before contact due to their polearms). What follows is a general table detailing the new bonuses and penalties for each cavalry type:
Hussars : lancer -2, dragoon -4, cuirassier -6
Dragoons : lancer -2, hussar +4, cuirassier -4
Cuirassiers : lancer +6, hussar +6, dragoon +4
Lancers : hussar +2, dragoon +2, cuirassier -6
Light Dragoons \ Chasseur à Cheval : lancer -2, dragoon -4, cuirassier -6
As you can see now Cavalry as a whole acts with a sort of rock-paper-scissors minigame within itself, where Heavy Cavalry excels at being, well, heavy, but is slow and tires easily, Light Cavalry is ideal against infantry for hit and run tactics, and Lancers can perform well against Light Cavalry and even Dragoons but they tend to have poor lethality rates and low damage, to similate that past the lance, they can be very vulnerable and are easily killed. They need to be used as a shock unit for flanking or rear action.
To better control fatigue, I've made it so every climate gives maximum heat penalty, this way I can easily control fatigue levels for every single unit in detail.
This gave me the possibility to make it so that heavy cavalry is easily exhausted; now if you want to perform a successful charge you'll have to calculate the risks as Cuirassiers are very powerful but they also act as a one shot cannon. Will you smash through that line of infantrymen or wait to snipe some lone squadron of lancers? Think hard because they'll have to move on the gallop and it'll be too late by the time they perform their task.
I hope you'll enjoy this new version as much as I've enjoyed testing it.
New units include
- Bashkir Cavalry for the Russian Empire
- Royal Scots Greys and KGL Hussars for Great Britain
- Polish-Lithuanian Tatars for Poland\Grand Duchy of Warsaw
As far as AI changes, I've done an extensive research on how EBII does things and I've implemented some of their ideas (all credit for that goes to Z3n on TWC) while adding some variables of my own. I had to make a compromise: either have the AI attack a lot, or defend a lot. Seeing as the type of warfare has changed drastically since Medieval times and this engine is sadly not equipped for full on musket warfare, I had to arrange things so that the AI would be more defensive to make it even remotely realistic and presentable.
The result is that you "can" exploit the AI now, with missile cavalry. But why would you ruin your own fun? Apart from that, I'm quite happy with the results for now, AI armies overall behave more cautiously, cohesive and stationary when necessary, this means that wild charges out of nowhere are way less present and the opposing army always tries to have reserves. This is a double edged sword as again, it can be exploited, but its far better than before.
