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Old School PVP Battle System 2.0

What is this? It's a Lethality based combat system! It is the opposite of a "1hp" system: the HP could be x1000, doesnt matter, because the system is based on unit vs unit combat rolling for hits and lethality.

This is meant for PVP, though it works for single-player, it's just ****too easy**** because the AI will never manage fatigue correctly. Working on a Singleplayer version meant to challenge the experienced player...it'll be out under the name Killing Blow at some point.

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FOR VANILLA-LEVEL JAVELIN AMMO STATS (Javelins are vanilla level lethality)

I recommend using the other version of this mod "For High Ammo Javelins" when using mods such as Radious which give more ammo to javelin units. https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3334071897
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This mod is based off my memory of the oldest TW games: Shogun, Medieval, Rome, and Medieval 2.

I've tried to balance realism/reason, design, and gameplay in a way that's complex enough to make the experienced player have to think a bit harder and play a bit better. It is also purposefully slowed down for the gamer who likes to watch a good fight. Some battles may come down to letting the RNG roll as a handful of battered remainder units fight to the bitter end, as I remember watching heavily armored knights slog it out in Medieval for a clutch win.

Concept:

This is a mod designed to be relatively compatible with all Unit Addon mods, and comprehensive mods like Radious. Only tables pertaining to battle have been modified, not units. Weapon damage has been made functionally irrelevant. Each tier of weaponry gets between a 1-2% increase in lethality over the tier_1 weapon baseline, and you can tell which tier a unit has by its unit card weapon damage: 1-6.


How to play:

The most important stats in the system are Armor, Attack/Defense, and Lethality.

-Armor has been given a serious boost to lethality resistance, but at 0% armor durability, a unit will be reduced to half its starting base (non-shield) armor. All weapons damage armor, but clubs, axes, and slings do more armor damage.

-Attack/Defense govern how many "hits" a unit scores to roll for lethality. Spearmen get a "damage bonus" to Large, but since that also affects the Attack-to-hit calculation, they score more hits, thus have more chances to score a kill. Same for Axes vs shields. Armor/Attk/Def are the stats you should look at to judge unit vs unit strength.

-Fatigue is more important. Fresh units get a considerable bonus to stats, but Fresh lasts half as long as vanilla, so this is a system for WALKING. Exhausted soldiers fight much worse. You flank their exhausted heavy units with your fresh, but out of ammo, archers, and get solid kills. Using Desert Warriors and fighting on hot days is worth it.

-Formations are important. Managing fatigue is important. If you want to beat an AI army with superior units, you will have to be diligently rotating units out of line for resting. That is not as easy as it sounds.

-Units charge much further distance away from the target, so telling units to attack an enemy with a single right-click will result in them walking most of the way and charging the last 100m. This way you can order units to attack without micromanaging their fatigue or telling them to run once in javelin range, now they run at javelin range!

-Units get a boost to run speed to rejoin formation, so using groups and LOCKED formations can help you more quickly reform formations during battle.

-Fleeing units get a significant boost to running away, but get their Defense dropped to 1. Chasing fleeing enemies may not be a good idea, and actually cause you to break your line for no real kills and a loss of fatigue. Surround enemies to get the most captured at the end of a battle, or have chariots run them down, but if you have no fast units, the enemy will get away and you'll have to fight more battles.

-Shields work MUCH LESS from the rear (vanilla is .8 of shield block chance form the rear, this mod is .35). You will see many more troops die by missiles when running away, so use those fall back maneuvers!

ALSO VERY IMPORTANT: if you have melee units with secondary javelins sitting behind combat, and you leave Fire-At-Will on, they will throw into the melee and kill WAY more of your men because the shields are facing away. This can lose you battles. The AI seems pretty good at not kneecapping itself this way.


-Chariots are the tanks of the battlefield, and are very powerful, but are stopped effectively by the Shield/Spearwall abilities. If the AI has chariots and you dont have spearmen: they will do serious work, so be ready. They are much less susceptible to ranged than vanilla.

-Chariots and Cavalry "walk" at a trot that is about the speed of infantry running. This mod is for Default Walking. This gives Horses essentially 4 speeds: Locked to formation with slower units, Trot, Run, and Charge.

Balanced for Veteran difficulty and Experienced players. I am trying to make something reasonably challenging for a 25 year TW veteran. You will need to have your armies well constructed and ready for anything, I recommend keeping 2 armies together at all times.

This does change the balance of the game. I like it. Before passing judgement by playing low tier units at the start of a campaign, I suggest you play a custom battle with two auto-generated armies. It should be a relatively even slugfest.

Compatibility:

Load on top of everything.

This is a battle system mod that is compatible with vanilla and all unit mods that have relatively vanilla Javelin ammo stats. Screenshot shows the tables used. See top of post for link to the version for high ammo javelins like in Radious.

Contains my Longer Weather Transition.



Work in progress. Let me know what you think!