ahowl11's Vanilla Enhancement Mod v8 - Nomads on the Horizon news

Hello and Merry Christmas!

It has been awhile since a release, but if you have not been following, a lot has changed. In this version, all of the units that had been previously made are not included. Don't worry, eventually most of them will make it back in, and they are still available for download here if you want them.

This version seeks to pick up from where I left off in Version 2 but also retaining all of the features that were included in versions 3-7, except Barbarians getting 5 tiers of recruitment.

Here is what is included in v8.

Nomadic Culture:

This was ported straight from Barbarian Invasion, including all of the traits and ancillaries that made sense for this time frame. It was given to Scythia only, and includes a new rebel banner, new city models for the map, and new portraits.

Vanilla Balance Mod:

This mod is located on totalwar.org and I have taken most of it's features and added them to v8.

LANDBRIDGES
New land bridges - narrow stretches of water which can be passed by both ships and armies - have been added to the campaign map to compensate for the poor Naval invasion AI, and to promote the growth of realistic-looking empires that straddle bodies of water. The new landbridges are:
* Strait of Gibraltar, between Baetica and Mauretania.
* Strait of Messina, between Sicilia Romanus and Bruttium.
* Hellespont, between Propontis and Phrygia
* Dardanelles, between Propontis and Bithynia.
You can now expect to see empires that take in both Greece and Asia Minor, while Carthage sometimes invades southern Italy from Sicily if the Scipii are defeated.

* The game no longer revolves entirely around Rome, so factions' victory goals are individually tailored to their likely real-life ambitions. Whilst every faction must still conquer 50 provinces, the specific territories that must be included in those 50 now vary from faction to faction. For example the Spanish must conquer 50 provinces while ensuring that their empire includes Baetica, Taranonenis, Hispania and Celtiberia. Victory goals for the Roman families, the Gauls, the Germans and Carthage still include conquering Rome. The Successor kingdoms represented in the game - Macedonia, the Seleucid Empire and Egypt - share the goal of reuniting Alexander's empire by taking Pella, Antioch, Seleucia and Alexandria.

* Completed text for victory and defeat screens for every faction. No more lame generic "You have won, all your people celebrate" text when playing as Numidia, Dacia etc., the victory text for these is now just as specific and stirring as for the main factions!

* Capital of the province of Macedonia is now Pella, not Thessalonica

* There is a bonus cheat/feature, enabling the "perfect spy". This allows the player to see details of army composition and city details as if you had a spy right next to them, no matter how far away they are. To activate, press F1 while on the campaign map to bring up the keyboard shortcuts scroll. Click on the question mark and when the advisor appears, click the "show me how" button to activate the script. You can deactivate it at any time by repeating this process. For best results, use with the fog of war off.

* There is a bonus cheat/feature, enabling the "perfect spy". This allows the player to see details of army composition and city details as if you had a spy right next to them, no matter how far away they are. To activate, press F1 while on the campaign map to bring up the keyboard shortcuts scroll. Click on the question mark and when the advisor appears, click the "show me how" button to activate the script. You can deactivate it at any time by repeating this process. For best results, use with the fog of war off.

* The range of names for women in the Pontic, Armenian and Thracian factions has been increased to reduce the problem of repetitive family names. In pure vanilla it has been known for a general from one of these cultures to have a wife and three daughters all with the same name! Thrace and Pontus have gained some carefully-selected and appropriate names from the Macedonian list, while Armenia has received a small number of names from the Parthian list. These are culturally appropriate and historically justifiable (at least no less historic than pure Vanilla).

* All factions now have a public order bonus attached to the Government building in any settlement, ranging from 5% for a Governor's House to 25% for an Imperial Palace.

FACTION REBALANCING
* Summary: Various factions have been strengthened and weakened by having their starting denarii, starting provinces, armies, and sometimes units tweaked. This has been pretty successful in generating a balanced campaign. Carthage, the Gauls, the Germans and the Seleucids - the four big losers under pure vanilla - now usually survive to 200BC at least, and will expand to powerful empires in 30-50% of campaigns.

Britons
* Eburacum & Deva are now ruled by rebel Britannic tribes at the start of the game. (ahowl11's version)

Spain
* Carthago Nova lost to Carthage

Carthage
* Carthaginian empire now larger at game start, with Carthago Nova gained from Spain.
* Starting denarii increased
* Forces on Sicily slightly rebalanced
* Carthage can now recruit Scutarii at a City Barracks.
* Carthage can now recruit Archers at Lvl 2 Range
* Carthage can now build the top level of temples (Temple Complexes) in Huge Cities.
* Carthaginian Paved Road building card no longer shows pyramids in the background!

Roman Families
* Praetorian Guard now only recruitable in Rome, reducing the unrealistic Praetorian-dominated armies often seen in late game. (ahowl11's Version)
* First Cohorts can now be recruited in each Roman family's starting capital, as well as Rome. Early Legionary Fist Cohorts can be trained at an Army Barracks and Legionary First Cohorts at an Urban Barracks in Arretium, Capua, Rome and Tarentum.

Greek Cities
* Diplomat moved from Sicily to Aetolia
* Pergamum gets an extra Militia Hoplite

Pontus
* Scythed Chariots can now be recruited only from a level 2 smith and above instead of level 1.
* Pontus can now build sewers and paved roads.

Seleucid Empire
* Starting denarii slightly increased
* Sidon gained from Egypt with modest garrison
* Some other starting garrisons increased, with a unit of cataphracts in Hatra (most nations get a "bonus late military unit" which they can't recuit, the Seleucids originally didn't).
* Better walls around Antioch and Hatra
* Scythed Chariots can now be recruited only from a level 2 smith and above instead of level 1
* In one of the most successful bits of modding, removed the river crossing from the river between Armenia and Assyria, ending the Armenians' manic obsession with Hatra and greatly improving the chances of the Seleucids surviving the first 50 years.

Parthia
* Parthia can now build sewers and paved roads.

Egypt
* Shrines removed from all cities to make presence of garrison more necessary at start of game
* Sidon lost to Seleucid Empire
* Base farming levels of Nile provinces very slightly reduced. They still collectively constitute the world's most fertile region though.

Armenia
* Armenia can now build sewers and paved roads.

Rebels
* Garrisons of Petra, Bostra, Ancyra, Nicomedia and Apollonia increased, within reason, along with a small Judean Army near Jerusalem.

EVENTS
Quite a few of the historical events found in the campaign don't actually happen as no date had been set for them. With a bit of historical research to find out when they happened, they are now back in the game. Look out for espionage in carthage and the completion of the great library at Alexandria. These have no effect on gameplay, they just restore a little flavour that CA put in and then took out for some reason.

New Units:

Okay so they aren't exactly 'New Units' as they are all vanilla units. However, they are all units that I felt should have been on their factions in vanilla. I also removed some units, here is the Log:

Armenia - Gains: Eastern Light Cavalry (renamed Pontic Light Cavalry), Eastern Heavy Cavalry (renamed Pontic Heavy Cavalry) Imitation Legionaries (Armenian Legionaries name changed) *Post-Marius Unit

Britons - Gains: Axemen, Naked Fanatics, Skirmisher Warband, Archer Warband, Barbarian Cavalry, Barbarian Warlord, Barbarian Chosen Warlord; Loses: Head Hurlers, Britich Light Chariots, Barbarian Warlord (Chariot); Changes: Woad Warrior now at lvl 2 recruitment, Naked Fanatics at lvl 3 Andrasta

Carthage - Gains: Scutarii, Archers

Dacia - Gains: Axemen, Bastarnae, Slingers, Skirmisher Warband, Barbarian Noble Cavalry (renamed Gothic Cavalry - Barbarian Noble Cavalry from vanilla now known as 'Barbarian Heavy Cavalry') Loses: Naked Fanatics; Changes: Bastarnae available from lvl 3 temple

Egypt - Gains: Heavy Peltasts, Macedonian Cavalry

Gauls - Gains: Slingers, Archer Warband, Barbarian Noble Cavalry

Germans - Gains: Warband, Swordsmen, Chosen Swordsmen, Slingers, Archer Warband, Barbarian Noble Cavalry; Loses: Spear Warband, Naked Fanatics, Chosen Archer Warband

Greek Cities - No changes

Macedon - Gains: Heavy Peltasts, Militia Cavalry

Numidia - Gains: Town Militia, Elephants, War Elephants *Numidian Legionaries Post-Marian unit now

Parthia - Gains: Peltasts (Eastern), Cataphract Archers; Loses: War Elephants, Cataphract Camels

Pontus - Gains: Imitation Legionaries *Post-Marius Unit; Loses: Chariot Archers

Roman Families - Gain: Samnite Infantry; Lose: Roman Archers, Urban Cohort; Changes: Town Watch is now Post Marian, Cavalry Auxilia is now Post Marian. Triarii is now available at tier 3 Barracks. Also, changes from VBM mod implemented.

Scythia - Gains: Warband, Skirmisher Warband

Seleucids - Gain: Heavy Peltasts, Macedonian Cavalry

Spain - No Changes

Thrace - Gain: Levy Pikemen, Heavy Peltasts, Light Lancers, General's Bodyguard, General's Armoured Bodyguard; Lose: Thracian Bodyguard, Barbarian Chosen Warlord

Other Features:

-All Nomad Ancillaries & Traits added from BI

-Warlord Trait Added from BI and given to each Barbarian/Nomadic faction

-Spear of Wotan Ancillary added from BI and given to the Germans

-Added Greek and Eastern Advisors & UI from BI and Alexander

DOWNLOAD AND INSTALLATION:

DOWNLOAD HERE

-If you have an old HRTW version, delete it as this will not work with it.

-One thing that I need to be clear on, is this mod runs on the Alexander.exe not the regular Rome Total War exe. Please make sure you use an Alexander Install.

-To Install, simply extract HRTW into your Rome Total War Directory, or if you use steam, your Rome Total War Alexander Directory. when making a shortcut, use the Alexander.exe or in steam go to Launch options and include this: -show_err -mod:HRTW -noalexander

IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW THE ABOVE INSTRUCTIONS, NOTHING WILL WORK!

CREDITS:

crazyroman - Support, testing and fixes

bhl_20 - Deleting a river crossing to prevent Armenian swarm on Hatra

xeofox - Nomad Settlements, Portraits

Barbarossa82 - Vanilla Balance Mod

comrade_general - Textures and unit cards from THS mod

xcmhx - Textures, models and unit cards from Rome: Total War Enhanced

Barbarians Revenge Mod - Textures and unit cards

Macedon Expansion - Textures and unit cards

Guerro Sabino - Textures and unit cards

Lanjane - Textures and unit cards

Extended Greek Mod - Some descriptions, textures and unit cards

All of you - For Helping, testing and playing this mod, thank you!