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!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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!
Congratulations on this new version of the mod, all your work and dedication is greatly appreciated, greetings.
Pretty cool, one thing tho - "Polish Sierżantów" should be changed to "Polish Sierżanci" or just "Sierżanci".