Greetings! Today I will be going over the changes I've made to the Russian factions in Roar of Conquest, specifically the Republic of Novgorod and the Grand Principality of Kiev. To put it simply, these factions were a joke before; morale was low across the board even for professional and elite units, stats for troops was bad for no apparent reason, (except perhaps the original modders went, "Eh, these guys suck at fighting"), etc. No more, I say! These factions are a point of pride for me now; no longer will the AI vs AI always result in the obliteration of Novgorod or Kiev. No longer will the player chuckle with derision when they see a Russian army on their border. Fear the might of Mother Russia, for her sons are here to drink vodka and conquer...and they just ran out of vodka!
Universal Changes (affects all listed factions):
1) Berdiche Militia have an increased defense stat, now 12 up from 7.
2) Boyars now have increased defense stat, now 17 up from 15. This now puts them on par with the standard Feudal Knight of most western European factions, as I saw no reason these guys should be weaker in comparison to their western cousins.
3) Druzhina now have a increased melee attack, now 6 up from 5. They also have an increased defense, now 16 up from 15.
4) Eastern Spearmen now have an increased melee attack, now 3 up from 2. They are also no longer restricted by area of recruitment, or AOE; any place you can build the appropriate building in Castles will now train them. This gives Novgorod and Kiev a decent spear unit to fill out their front lines that they lacked before.
5) Junior Druzhina have had a decrease to their melee attack, now 4 down from 5, and a decrease to their missile attack, now 3 down from 4. However, they have had an increase to their melee defense, now 14 up from 10. They are also no longer restricted by area of recruitment, or AOE; any place you can build the appropriate building in Castles will now train them. As to their debuffs, this was to help differentiate them from another unit which will appear later, which I altered to be superior range version of the Junior Druzhina.
6) Junior Militia now have an increased melee attack, now 3 up from 1, and an increased melee defense, now 10 up from 7. These guys will hardly win battles either for you or the AI, but at least they now will take some people down with them when they get into melee. Before, they were basically as bad as Peasant infantry, which I felt was rather extreme.
7) Dismounted Boyars have an increased defense, now 21 up from 18. This was done because Kiev and Novgorod do not get a later-tier dismounted feudal unit like the Chivalric Foot Knights western European powers receive, so I buffed them so that Kiev and Novgorod suffer less in the later campaign.
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8) Dismounted Junior Druzhina have improved melee stats, 6 attack up from 3 and 3 charge up from 2. They also have an improved defense, now 16 up from 14. These changes have now made them a true hybrid missile/melee infantry. which I felt was more in line with what they should have been in the first place.
9) Druzhina Calvary have improved defense stats, 14 up from 10. They are also no longer restricted by area of recruitment, or AOE; any place you can build the appropriate building in Castles will now train them.
10) Heavy Boyars have improved melee stats, with 10 attack up from 8 and 9 charge up from 7. They also have improved defense stats, now 25 up from 19. These changes allow them to put up a good fight against late-tier cavalry of other nations, as these are the best charge cavalry Kiev and Novgorod get.
11) Senior Mounted Militia have an increased melee attack, now 3 up from 2, but a reduced charge, now 8 down from 9.
12) Luchniki have an increased melee stats, with 5 attack up from 1 and 2 charge up from 1. They also have an improved defense, with a total of 16 up from 10. They now act as a true hybrid missile/melee unit that they should have always been, making them a solid, dependable unit.
13) Senior Rus Militia have an improved melee attack, now 3 up from 2. They also now have a 12 defense up from 11.
14) Mounted Luchniki have an improved missile attack, now 4 up from 3. They also have an increased melee attack, now 4 up from 2. Finally, they have better defense stats, now 14 up from 7. These guys are the better horse archer in comparison to the Junior Druzhina, which was my intent, as they require a higher level of stables in order to recruit. It made no sense to me that a professional unit that required higher-tier stables should be worse in all respects to the Junior Druzhina, who are available much earlier.
15) Pikemen have increased melee stats, with 5 attack up from 2 and 4 charge up from 3. They also have better defense, with a total of 8 up from 5. Now, pikes are actually useful!
16) Polotsk Boyar Druzhina have not had any stat changes, but they are no longer restricted by area of recruitment, or AOE; any place you can build the appropriate building in Castles will now train them.
17) As I went through the roster, I improved the morale stats of many of these units, upgrading them to a level that was more appropriate for the type of unit it was, (example: Dismounted Junior Druzhina have morale stats of a professional soldier rather than a peasant militia). Now, Kiev and Novgorod armies will stay and fight much longer rather than breaking immediately after a single charge. These morale changes also affected the faction-specific units I will be going over next.
The Republic of Novgorod
Most of the changes I made affected both Novgorod and Kiev, but there were some units that are faction specific that needed the same love and attention the rest of the roster did. So, without further ado...
1) Novgorod Home Guard have increased melee stats, now with 4 attack up from 3. They also have an improved melee defense, with a total of 19 up from 18. They now perform in a manner one would expect with the word "guard" in the name.
2) Berdiche Axemen have an increased defense, now 15 up from 12. These heavy shock troops will now survive much longer, and more importantly, kill more enemies!
The Grand Principality of Kiev
Like Novgorod, Kiev only had a couple of faction unique units, but they were also improved upon, even more so than Novgorod.
1) Kievan Palace Guard now have improved melee stats, with 5 attack up from 4 and 5 charge up from 4. They also have better defense, now 20 up from 19. But the biggest change of all was in their availabilty; the Kievan Palace Guard can now be recruited starting from the City Hall building available in Large Cities rather than the Mayor's Palace in Huge Cities, making them far more available. Now, upgrading to the Mayor's Palace simply increases their recruitment pool to 2 up from the original 1.
2) Scandinavian Guard have an increased melee attack, now 12 up from 10. They also have improved defense, with a total of 16 up from 13. These stats are more fitting for a unit with the word "guard" in their title. More importantly, they are now more readily available to recruit. You can now recruit them from the Barracks building in the Fortress rather than the Armoury in the Citadel. Upgrading to the Armoury simply increases their recruitment pool to 2 up from 1.
Overall, the Republic of Novgorod and the Grand Principality of Kiev have been greatly improved on, now making them proper players on the campaign map, whether controlled by the player or by the AI. When under the AI, these factions do just fine for themselves, and quite often become empires in their own right, (especially Novgorod). For those who are interested in experiencing these change for themselves, my mod can be found here: Moddb.com
молодцы!