Roar of Conquest mod for Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms

Greetings! I am happy to announce that Roar of Conquest: The Late Middle Ages VIII is now live! This article will be covering the major changes that it brings to the table from the last version.

For those of you who are new to the mod, Roar of Conquest initially started as a submod of Stainless Steel 6.4. Now it now combines Stainless Steel 6.4 with Broken Crescent 2.4, Tsardsoms Total War, and assets from various other mods, into one big mod! However, Roar of Conquest is not simply a merging of various mods into one; it also brings its own unique features and mechanics, such as replenishment of Castle units in Cities, an extensive rebalancing of unit stats, better balancing between all factions in the game, new factions and units, and more! So without further ado, on to the update!

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Acknowledgements

Near the start of 2023, we reached out to the mod team of Tsardoms and asked if they would be okay with allowing us to use assets from their mod and bring them into ours, and they were kind enough to say yes! As a result, many unit models in the mod have been updated, new units created, and a brand new set of combat animations have brought new life to Roar of Conquest!

In addition, we have received aid from Gigantus, a legend in the Medieval II modding community, and have received help and advice from other modders, including the DAC team and Call of Warhammer: Beginning of the End Times team. We have also had plenty of great ideas and help from members from our Discord, whom I cannot all name out of fear that I would forget to give credit to someone. So for all of those who have helped us, if you happen to read this, a heartfelt thank you from the Roar of Conquest team to all of you guys!

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General Campaign Changes

Alongside this update are some changes which affect the campaign map for all factions. These changes include the following:

• Stone Mason buildings offer a greater discount for making stone buildings, along with a decrease in construction time.
• Logging Camps offer a greater discount for making wooden buildings.
• Swordsmith Guilds are now more common, and now give a melee weapon bonus to units trained/retrained in their locations.
• The Seljuk Sultanate has been renamed to the Ottoman Empire, and has received UI updates.
• The Kwarezmian Empire has been renamed to the Ilkhanate Empire.
• The Ayyubid Sultanate has been renamed to the Mamluk Sultanate.
• The Tsardom of Bulgaria has received UI updates.
• Judaism has been added as a religion, which spreads from the Jewish Community building chain.

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New Campaign Choice: The Conversion of Lithuania

For those of you who are long-time fans of Medieval II, you might remember that the Teutonic expansion of the base game had a mechanic which gave the player the choice of whether or not to convert to Christianity while playing Lithuania. Now, you can do that in the mod as well! While playing as Lithuania, by turn 5 you will be given the option to convert to Christianity or remain pagan. If you remain pagan, the campaign plays out the same way it used to. If you chooses to convert, you will become Catholic, loose access to your 3 pagan-specific units, but unlock 3 new units, which will be in the Lithuanian Roster article once it has been updated. Do note you will get this choice once per campaign, so once you choose, you cannot change your mind later!

In the case of the AI, Lithuania has a 50/50 chance of converting or remaining pagan.

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Timurids Expansion Choice

At the start of every campaign, the player will now have the choice of having the Ilkhanate Empire absorbed by the Timurids or not. If you are playing the Timurids, it will give you a far easier campaign start; if you are playing any other faction, it simply determines how strong the Timurids will be. Beware though; if you are playing as a faction neighboring the Timurids and accept the absorption, you may have quite the tough enemy to face early on.

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General Battle Changes

Part of this update includes changes to battle mechanics across the board. Here are changes that will affect all factions in the game:

• New Battle AI! You should now notice better management by the AI of troops in battle, although there will be moments where the AI still derps out. We can only beat the Medieval II AI into submission so much.
• New Battle Animations! Thanks to the team of Tsardoms Total War, the mod has a brand new and enjoyable selection of combat animations.
• Dynamic Battle Voicelines: While zooming close up into battle, you will hear more dialogue and impact sound effects between soldiers in combat.
• New Gunpowder Effects: The visual effects of gunpowder units are far more realistic and visually exciting than before.
• Artillery Changes: All artillery units, (excluding the Monster Bombard) now have 4 artillery pieces in battle when at full strength. Also, all artillery crews now have 60 crew members on ultra unit size.
• Cannon Changes: most cannon pieces now have an Explosive Shot option.
• Improved Bonus vs. Cavalry for Infantry: there has been an overhaul to the effectiveness of certain infantry units against cavalry units in melee. Two-handed units now have a minor bonus, spear and halberds have a moderate bonus, and pike units have a high bonus.
• Changes to Spear Wall Formation: in the past, pike and halberd units in spear wall would suffer from a significant decrease in marching speed in comparison to other infantry units. Now, the speed deficit has been removed, allowing these units to keep up with the rest of the infantry with ease.
• Crossbow Buffs: Crossbow units have had their ranges increased across the board, making their range more comparable to archer units.
• Ranged Unit Ammo Rebalance: ammunition has been changed across the board. Before, ammo counts made no sense, with some peasant archers having nearly twice the ammunition as elite archer units like Longbowmen. Now, it has been re-balanced; peasant units have the lowest ammunition counts (e.g., Levy Archers), professional units have moderate ammunition, (e.g., Pavise Crossbowmen), and elite units have the highest ammunition, (e.g., Retinue Longbowmen).

For those of you who are curious about how the stats have exactly changed, I will be updating the existing roster articles to bring them up-to-date with the newest release over the next couple of months; each article states which version of the mod it represents, so that will be your way to tell.

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Over 250 New Unit Models and Units!

Thanks to the generous donation from Tsardsoms Total War, there has been a wide-ranging update to units and unit models across most factions in the mod, so there is a lot of shiny new stuff to look at! If you want to get a preview of all the new models, you will have to wait for the faction roster articles to be updated, but you get a sample of what is new here! Also, it is worth noting that we have new models for Cataphract Barding, along with new barding for many mounts throughout the mod, so keep your eyes open for that!

1) Almughavars

2) Mesnaderos

3) Bulgarian Heavy Archers

4) Bulgarian Heavy Infantry

5) Latin Handgunners

6) Dynatoi Nobles

7) Mourtatoi Guard Archers

8) Georgian Heavy Infantry

9) Royal Guard Archers

10) Obudshaer

11) Mounted Crossbowmen

12) Tabardariyya

13) Mamluk Archers

14) Retinue Longbowmen

15) Gendarmes

16) Scots Guard

17) Gothic Knights

18) Landsknecht Halberdiers

19) Zweihander

20) War Wagons

21) Clipeati Pavisers

22) Banderium Knights

23) Hussars

24) Canons of the Holy Sepulcher

25) Knights of St. John

26) Foot Boyars

27) Kievan Palace Guard

28) Imperial Guard Cavalry

29) Imperial Guard Archers

30) Lithuanian Sergeants

31) Lithuanian Arquebusiers

32) Genoese Crossbowmen

33) Genoese Ducal Guard

34) Tartar Guard Spearmen

35) Keshik

36) Berber Pirates

37) Granadine Lancers

38) Sergeant Crossbowmen

39) Pavise Spearmen

40) Polish Knights

41) Polish Sierżantów

42) Aventuros

43) Conto Crossbowmen

44) Novgorod Guildsmen

45) Druzhina Cavalry

46) Foot Condottieri

47) Broken Lances

48) Italian Arquebusiers

49) Monteros de Espinosa

50) Pavise Crossbowmen

51) Caballeros de Armadura

52) Archer Sergeants

53) Afghan Axemen

54) Tarkhan Nobles

55) Janissary Archers

56) Qapukulu

57) Serdengecti Heavy Infantry

58) Fanteria Pesante

59) Signori Noble Cavalry

60) Venetian Arbalesters

61) Condotta Handgunners

62) Flemish Pikemen

63) Mounted Arquebusiers

64) Albanian Cavalry

65) Swiss Pikemen

66) Ghazis

67) Papal Swiss Guard

68) Cohorta Pontifica Guard

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Updated Faction Recruitment and Unit Stats

With all the new units added to the mod, all 29 factions had to have their recruitment and units stats re-worked and balanced across the board. To try and go through them here would be painful for most of you guys to read, so these changes will be shown in the roster articles once they have been updated. I hope you’ll forgive me for not listing them here.

However, to give you a general idea of what has changed, there are less units that are shared by many factions and more units that are shared by a few factions or are faction-specific. For example, the Italian city-states have their own shared units, like the Signori Noble Cavalry, that are not shared with any other European factions. These changes help make each faction roster stand out more in comparison to the others than they did in the past.

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Settlement Changes and Upgrades

As with each update, there is a juggling of settlement ownership across the map, both for balance purposes and to bring new life to certain factions. The changes are as follows:

• Bruges: switched ownership from Rebels to Kingdom of England
• Durazzo: switched ownership from Rebels to Tsardom of Bulgaria
• York: switched ownership from Rebels to Kingdom of England
• Halych (Kingdom of Poland): upgraded to Fortress
• Wroclaw (Kingdom of Poland): upgraded to City
• Dublin (Kingdom of England): upgraded to City

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Various Other Updates

Along with everything else listed, a few other things worth noting have been changed with this update. They are as follows:

• UI Fixes that were previously bugged for certain units and buildings.
• Silver Suffer unit models have been fixed.
• New Historical Events that occur in the campaign.
• New Campaign Menu that displays all 29 playable factions.
• Historical Name updates to various factions, rulers, and family members across multiple factions.
• New Ancillaries for family members and generals.
• The Ottoman Empire, Tsardom of Bulgaria, and Kingdom of Georgia have new battle flag icons that hover over their units in battle.
• Kingdom of Jerusalem can now build Castle Libraries.
• Grand Duchy of Lithuania can now build more advanced Education Buildings.

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Future of the Mod

As of now, there is a submod in development by other members of the Roar of Conquest team, which aim to give a different and more challenging experience than the base mod. As for the main mod, there are no major updates planned. I am currently happy with the state of the mod, and with my personal life becoming more hectic, I have no plans for working on any major updates for the base mod.

Of course, if there are bug fixes to implement, or some things we want to change or balance, we will likely release a patch in the near future.

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So there you have it, the changelog for Roar of Conquest: The Late Middle Ages VIII! If you like what you have seen and would like to try out the mod for yourself, you can download it here: ROC: LMA VIII I plan on updating the faction roster articles for all the changed factions, so keep your eyes open for that. Feel free to join the mod Discord as well; it's a great place to share you thoughts on the mod: ROC Discord Until then, go forth and conquer!