Greetings! By the time this article is published, Roar of Conquest 2.0, overhaul of Stainless Steel 6.4, will be live and ready for download! I hope that you guys will enjoy the changes and the mod as a whole! For those of you who have been following the mod, you will probably notice that there are quite a few more changes listed than I had previously announced; I hope these additions will come as a welcome surprise. This article will cover the changes between version 1.5 to version 2.0 of Roar of Conquest, not necessarily the difference between Roar of Conquest and SS 6.4. But enough with the chit-chat; onto the change log!
Nerfing the Mongol and Timurid Invasions
One of the biggest changes to the mod is the fact that the Mongol and Timurid invasions have been significantly nerfed. Quite a few people, myself included, felt that the invasions were too overpowered and an absolute nightmare to fight against. The factions on the eastern-most portion of the map, the Cuman Khanate and the Shahdom of Khwarazm, were always wiped out within the first 40 or so turns in the campaign when AI controlled, and few people wanted to play these factions simply because dealing with the invasions was so awful. Well no more! The Mongols now start with 3 full stack armies of experienced units, but spawn no additional armies. The Timurids will spawn 6 full stack armies with experienced units in total when their invasion script fires. From my play testing, both the Mongols and the Timurids will carve out good-sized kingdoms for themselves consistently, but will not steamroll the eastern part of the map. The AI controlling the Cumans and the Kharza will make good account of themselves, and even last into the later portions of the campaign. The nerf to the Mongols and Timurids should also make playing the Cumans and Kharza more appealing to the human player, especially with the other changes to the mod that I will get into next.
Updating Recruitment for the Cuman Khanate and Shahdom of Khwarazm
For those of you who are new to the mod, one focus of my overhaul has been ensuring that factions are not hamstrung by area of recruitment restrictions like they were in Stainless Steel 6.4. For many factions, the restrictions meant that when they conquered territory outside of their home provinces, (say, Scotland taking a castle in France), they would be unable to recruit any military units at all, since most of their roster was based on area of recruitment. Previously, the Cuman Khanate and Shahdom of Khwarazm were the only two factions that I had not fixed the area of recruitment issue for. In version 2.0, I went over the whole roster of both these factions and brought them up-to-date with all the other factions in terms of recruitment. I also went through the rosters and buffed certain units to bring them more in line with their description and what their role in their roster should be. I plan into going into more detail in a future article on the exact changes, for anyone who is curious.
Recruitment Bug Fixes
I found and fixed two bugs I stumbled across while combing through the files. The first bug was a script which caused duplicate recruitment for Tartar units for the Cuman Khanate; now, it has been fixed and only one line for recruitment will appear. The other bug was an error which gave the Lithuanians duplicate recruitment on Halberd Militia in their cities and removed Halberd Militia recruitment from Teutonic cities. This bug was corrected, so now both Lithuania and the Teutonic Order get their proper recruitment of Halberd Militia.
New Units
That's right folks, new units! Now, some of these units are ones that were already in the game and have simply been gifted to other factions. BUT some of these units, (seven in total), are brand-spanking new that were not in the game before! So, lets get into the juicy details!
Doppelsoldner for HRE: previously available as mercenaries in certain parts of the campaign map, these fearsome two-hand swordsmen are now available to the HRE from the Mayor's Palace after the Portable Clock event, (year 1510). They will replace the Forlorn Hope unit once they become available. These men are no longer available as mercenaries on the campaign map and are now HRE exclusive.
Landsknecht for HRE: previously available as mercenaries in certain parts of the campaign map, these famed pikemen are now available for HRE recruitment from the Army Barracks after the Portable Clock event, (year 1510), instead of the generic Pikemen. These men are no longer available as mercenaries on the campaign map and are now HRE exclusive. Also, they will now sport the black-and-yellow colors of the HRE instead of the ugly brown colors they had before, as you can see with this picture:
Late Landsknecht for HRE: a new unit for the mod, these men serve as a more heavily armored version of the Landsknecht. This unit replaces the generic Late Pikemen unit that the HRE previously recruited, and becomes available from the Royal Armory after the Pike and Shot event, (year 1530). They also sport the colors of the HRE, as seen from this photo here:
Gotland Footmen for Norway: a new unit for the mod, these men serve as a a very strong shock infantry, superior in stats to the Viking Huscarl Axemen. Excusive to Norway, this unit becomes available from Barracks after the Half Plate Armor event, (year 1310-1340).
Prussian Infantry for Poland: previously a Teutonic Order specific unit, Prussian Infantry were added to the Polish roster to replace Prussian Axemen because the visual look for the Axemen clashed badly with the appearance of the rest of the Polish roster, while the Prussian Infantry do not. Prussian Infantry also received a buff to their stats to make them a better version of Light Swordsmen.
Light Swordsmen for Sicily: a common unit across many factions in the game, this unit replaces Macemen in the Sicilian roster. Their appearance in game will reflect the Sicilian colors and heraldry, (unlike this photo), making them a better fit visually than the Macemen.
Light Swordsmen for Scotland: a common unit across many factions in the game, this unit gives Scotland the sturdy medium infantry it was so badly lacking before. Their appearance in game will reflect Scottish colors and heraldry, (unlike this photo).
Elephants for Kharza: previously available as a mercenary in certain areas of the campaign map, this unit is now available for recruitment from the Caliph's Stables after the New Era event (year 1300). It is slow in availability and very expensive to recruit and upkeep, but once you get them, it should make your Kharza campaign rather fun. :) Elephants still remain a mercenary unit as well.
Cuman Heavy Infantry for Cumans: a brand new unit for the mod, these men serve as a strong armor-piercing infantry for the Cumans, something they lacked previously. They are available from Drill Squares from campaign start.
Cuman Heavy Archers for Cumans: a brand new unit for the mod, these men serve as a well-armored professional archer for the Cumans, something they lacked previously. They can fill the role of archer or medium infantry in equal capacity. They are available from Archery Ranges from the campaign start.
Pronoia Infantry for Byzantines: a brand new unit for the mod, these men serve as a heavy, armor-piercing infantry for the Byzantines. They become available from Fortresses after the Half Plate Armor event, (year 1310-1340).
Granadine Infantry for Moors: a brand new unit for the mod, these men serve as elite, javelin-throwing unit that also serves as a strong infantry in melee combat. They are available from Drill Squares from campaign start.
Sipahi Macemen for Turks: a brand new unit to the mod, these men serve as an armor-piecing infantry with medium armor. Available from Fortresses from campaign start.
Deleted Units
Unfortunately, Medieval II is an old game with hard-coded limitations; what this fact means is that, in order to bring in the new units you saw above, other units needed to be removed from the game in order to make room, since the mod was already at it's hard-coded limit on units before version 2.0. I tried to pick the units that I felt would be the least missed. Let us bow our heads and spend a moment in silence for these, our fallen comrades:
Saxon Huscarls (mercenary): this unit was not even available in the campaign after the year 1220, so this loss should be the least painful.
Irish Kerns (mercenary):
Hunters (mercenary):
Pilgrims (crusade only):
Welsh Spearmen (mercenary):
Balkan Archers (mercenary):
Slav Mercenaries (mercenary):
Changes to the British Isles
I have changed two things over in jolly old England, although the English are probably unhappy with them.
- First of all, I made some changes to the two armies that spawn for Scotland during the William Wallace event. Now, instead of having four units of veteran Highland Rabble in each of these armies, Scotland receives four units of experienced Light Swordsmen, making these armies a bit more substantial. As far as I am aware, only the AI for Scotland gets these armies, not the player, so it should only affect the player if they are fighting against rather than playing as Scotland.
- A change that affects both the AI and the player, the city of York now starts the campaign owned by rebels instead of England. I made this change because England always gets the upper hand over Scotland in AI vs. AI conflict, so I leveled the playing field a bit for both factions. This wealthy town will now play a focal point for both England and Scotland in their campaigns, with the victor potentially one step closer to uniting the Isles under one banner. A potential boon if you start as Scotland, and an extra challenge if you start as England.
So there you have it, the changelog for Roar of Conquest 2.0! I have no real plans for future changes, except possibly importing the skins of dead mods into my mod, (Broken Crescent is a frequent request, and has been inactive for over a year). Another possibility is the creation of some new units, but for every new unit added, an old one most be destroyed, so I have no real plans for that at this point. If you like the changes I have made and would like to try to mod out for yourself, you can download it here: Moddb.com Now go forth and conquer!
