Ancient Europe

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: BvB

good scenario - I downloaded when you were putting it to the drop box from our 1938 game and played 2 human vs AI. My only suggestion would be there isn't much to spend PP on between research, cards, building. Then again that far back in history how much can you research, lol?
Troops start at 10-30 experience but except for combat don't seem to increase on their own to any level, so a new unit is the same as one sitting in garrison forever that could have been training?
Anyway salute to your time/effort - must have taken a lot of time to figure out all you wanted to include and unit graphics, etc...

Congratulations on being inducted into the Alpha Playtesters!!!

Yeah, I loaded it up there by mistake. It should have been a new folder that no-one had access to. The reason you don't see a lot of research is that I was testing out combat balance, and thus it would be very stupid to make more levels of troops, before knowing how the new levels would be.

The troops have low xp limit, cause I found that in ATG - stock version - that XP influence combat too much. I could and probably will, make a limit to how much XP you can get each turn too, so that this limit won't seem too pointless.

And yeah, it did take a very long time to do and figure out all the graphics, troop types etc. A lot of hard work... More cards, officers, ... in short, there is a long way to go.

[ernieschwitz]

Oh, and please don't spill the beans with any spoilers of stuff I haven't mentioned yet here...

[sbatman]

Holy cow this looks amazing, great job!

[Piteas]

Wow, this is a great mod... another anxious player to playtest it [;)]

[ernieschwitz]

Thanks for the encouragement. It helps when people find your mod interesting, to keep on going.

[ernieschwitz]

Time for another update, and I better write it, before someone (BvB for instance) lets it out of the bag.

I have made a new and interesting resource. It is called Infrastructure, which needs to be produced in a city. Infrastructure is used in a variety of different ways, but mainly, and for the sake of this post, it is used to build roads, forts, fortifications and bridges. It also has another use, but I will touch on that in the next post (tomorrow, I think). To my knowledge this is the first time anyone has tied building roads with a resource you can only get from your cities. It also fits into the theme of having an ancient world.

Here is a small screenie from my current testgame.

[ernieschwitz]

Right, as promised here is the follow up on the last post, that was about Infrastructure Points, and what they can be used for. I mentioned they are used for building stuff, that engineers can ordinarily build. They however can also be used to build up cities.

Each City has 10 different size categories. From village to metropolis. Each city produces 1000 production points per level of it. So a level 2 city, a settlement, has 2000 production points, and a large city, level 9, has 9000 production points. Simple system, and not quite unlike the way you can upgrade cities in GD1938v3. However, and this is where the infrastructure points (IPs) come into play, it costs 100 of them to upgrade the city, as well as 15 political points.

This so far, is the only way to increase your nations economy. No city starts at above level 6, so there is a lot of upgrading that can be done. There are also other advantages to upgrading cities, but I'll get to that in another post. I am leaving you with a picture of the card, that allows you to upgrade cities. Oh, and it can only be used once each turn.

[ernieschwitz]

Today we are going to look at Cities, and what they might be able to produce. Each city has a level, as you read in the above. A level 6 City can produce every kind of unit that there is available for that Regime/Nation. A level 2 city however cannot produce everything. Both can be seen examples of below. The smaller city has 2000 production points, and is level 2, while the one with 6000 production points is level 6.

As you can see, there is quite a difference between these two Greek cities. I would have made it possible to build special buildings in each city, so they could become unique that way. But that would mean doubling the number of cities types for each type of building I wanted to add. So if I wanted a stables and a barracks, I'd have to make 4 cities of each level... one without, one with both, and one with each type of building... so that's 4. Too many to make it worth the time. Instead I chose which "Buildings" were built in each level of city. It works, and is perhaps less confusing than the more detailed system would be.

Here are the screenies.

[ernieschwitz]

Some nations have special researches. That is they can research Elite or Special unit types, that none of the other nations can. For instance the Romans have Praetorians. The story behind them is that they are the Imperial Guard of the Emporer. They are the elite, and are represented as such. In the game, they are much like the Legionnaire. Both they and the Legionnaire don't take a first round penalty for attacking. This is due to the heavy and light javelins they hurl at their enemies before they charge.

All the special units, have some sort of uniqueness to them. The history buffs, will know their backstories. They are explained very shortly on the unit, as there is some constraints to how much text can be put onto them. Not all nations have a special unit. This is because they either had nothing special or because research did not bring up anything that was special to them.

Here is a look at one of the special units that the Greeks have (They have two special units).

[ernieschwitz]

Some of the updates I make here (most of them actually) is stuff that is well tested, and thus balanced. But it is also old news, so to speak. Today comes a very fresh item of news.

In ancient times and well up into the napoleonic age, sieges were a common thing. Somehow this had to be represented in this scenario/game/mod. Ordinarily you would think that this is well represented by the fact that you can surround a city and thus keep it out it's main supply network. And sure you could do that, but, every city also acts as a place that produces supplies. This can make sieges take an awful lot of time, if not be impossible if the city has a HQ in it, already commanding the troops within.

So I decided to take a different approach.

If a unit is next to an opponents city, and has 100 APs (obviously this means, has not moved, and is at full readiness or almost full), then it can conduct a siege. Now technically such a unit would not be surrounding the city, but, for arguments sake lets either assume that it does, or this represents an assault on the city walls.

Conducting a siege will cause damage to the city, and thus lower its structural points. This in turn will mean that it will have a tougher time producing stuff. This could solve the problem with having an HQ in the city. Of course there are casualties in such a siege. So I had to program that, as well as readiness loss, for both attacker and defender. In short, I had to reinvent combat, and I did an OK job, I think. Coming from me that would usually mean Good, but not Excellent. It took me about a day to complete the events involved.

Here is the card that allows you to conduct a siege.



Note it doesn't select a unit to do this, rather it selects a city that has the requirements met, for you to play the card. I would have made it a unit, but, I have some cities that are 1 hex appart, and then I would have to make a 2nd card, to allow the first card to work, and that could mean doing something nobody has ever done... making a card that plays a second card, both requiring a selection. Simply put, not sure if that would work, at all.

EDIT: Changed it to 90 APs, since that is almost having not moved, and could be just a slight readiness hit.

[ernieschwitz]

In ancient times the overall commander of troops did not have equipment like Radios, to communicate with units far away. Nor did he have the ability to contact troops by use of fast moving vehicles like jeeps. So it stands to reason that the area he could command would be quite less than the area a modern day field commander would be able to. With this in mind, I decided to make different command radius changes.

In the picture below, I've tried to illustrate the difference. The inner yellow circles denote the radius within which a HQ can command in the ordinary game vs. in my scenario/mod/game. The difference here is just 1 hex, but the area becomes a lot smaller. (It is 3 in the stock game, and 2 in mine). The 2nd pair of circles (in white) show the area in which a unit will still get some bonus, but not a full bonus from command. Here is the picture.

[ernieschwitz]

Been a while since the last post. Rest assured it is because I have been busy with the scenario/mod/game.

This time I thought I would present an Action Card. It is a card that allows you to recruit mercenaries. You need to be in a different cultures area. All of Spain for instance is an Iberian cultural area. So here you can recruit Iberian Mercenaries. This is very useful if you are far away from home, and thus have trouble reinforcing your units as they take casualties.

The mercenaries have one more advantage: They are cheaper to recruit than ordinary units. Meaning although they cost 45 PPs to recruit, you get about a worth of 90 PPs if you had to build them yourself (Well technically you can't build them, but you get the idea). But, they come with the downside of costing a few PPs each turn that are subtracted from your amount before you get to play the turn (but after production has happened).

Here is the action card.

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: ernieschwitz

I am working on action cards at the moment. I have made a few of them, but I won't reveal them at this time, except for one. This card allows you to get more PPs the next turn. The amount depends on how many production points you have. So this all sounds good, the card even costs 0 PPs. So what is the deal, nothing in this world is free. Neither is this card. It will cause a morale hit on your troops. So in the end, you have to ask yourself, is it worth it. Obviously if at war, it is a very risky thing to do. In my experiments the effect of this morale hit is over almost in 2 turns. Here is the card.

So, this is why you don't make too many posts during early development. Cause I have scrapped this card, and instead reused the graphics for something else.

Let me present for you a concept from the version of the game/scenario/mod as it is now. Each player begins the game with a Focus chosen for them. A Focus is an advantage over the normal vanilla status, that you would be in if there was not such a thing as a Focus You choose what Focus you want via cards and those cards are free. You start out with a Focus already chosen for you (and it is the same one for everyone).

The four choices (a fifth is being considered) are shown below.

[ernieschwitz]

Phew. Just finished a three day editing process. Basically I gave each combat formation in the game three levels. So you can now have Infantry, Infantry II and Infantry III, if you research them. This may seem like it is an easy process... but it really is not.

Each subformation type, needs to have it's own stats, research, item type. With more than 30 types already in the game, that amounts to some 60+ new subformations. There are for instance now 100+ researches that can be invested in. Not all nations get the same research options (more work, since you now have to give individual research costs). It was a tough journey, but every journey starts off with one step, so, I took my one step, and at the end I had taken them all.

Here is what the (current) research screen looks for the Greeks.

[ernieschwitz]

When not adding stuff to Ancient Europe (a scenario, mod or game if you will), I am also play testing. I have played 4 games to around turn 40, and I am playing one right now. The first two games were the Romans vs. the world, the next one Carthage, and the fourth one Persia. I thought I'd take a little detour from the civilized countries, and this time do a game with the Celts. I am currently on turn 39...

I do these play tests to find bugs, basically, and determine balance. To make them more interesting for me, I like to roleplay a little. That is I give the HQs real names according to the country I am playing (Legio IV for Rome for instance) as well as I give a little personality to the units (11th Phrygian, was a Persian unit I had, as well as 3rd Pontian)...

The "Heroes", officers or leaders call them what you want, also play a part. Their names are randomly generated, and there should be enough of these Random names, that you never get the same ones in games. I'll talk about Hero name generation sooner or later, but for now I thought I'd leave you with a short story, or partial AAR, if you want...

[ernieschwitz]

Bagacum, was the name of the forsaken Germanic city that he and his men had camped in for the better part of a year now. Argenudi, Hero of the Trinovante tribe, was his formal title. He had seen it all. When the Tribal Elder council had decided to raid the Greek settlements of the southern part of Gaul, his tribe had been tasked to come to Northern Gaul, to deter any moves made by the Germanic tribes.

He longed for his home, on the Island of Albion. The rain and sleet here reminded him of it more than he liked to admit. He was by far the oldest and now most experienced of his "collegues". The experience had come at a price. The Germanic tribes had not been as peaceful as the Druids had told the Council of Elders that they would be. Still he shrugged, 53 was not a bad age to be.

The initial skirmishes with the barbarian tribes of the Germanics, had been harder than he would like to admit. Many brave men had fallen, and quite a few friends too.

[ernieschwitz]

After the conquest of Nemetocenna and the sacking of Trevororum, he and his trusted tribesmen had been recalled to Cenabum, where they had been met by young men, from back home, that would reinforce them. The journey had taken a full season, but it was great hearing the news from back home, and there was even a gift from his wife among the items that they had brought with them.

10 years ago, he would have sworn that a life of combat was all that he wanted, now he was not so sure any more. Perhaps it was time that he joined the Council of Elders. Though he did not really feel that old. Another year he told himself, and that might be an option.

Last month he had had two visitors from other tribes, coming to his camp, here in Bagacum. Bellargus of the Damnonii, a tribe from back home, and an old friend, from long ago, Andesuc of the Cassi. Both he had too admit had more talent than he, but for the moment he was the most respected of them. In this role he was able to give them advice on how to handle their siege of Flevum. It was an important siege. If Flevum was taken, there would no longer be a threat to Albion from the Germanic raiders.
On his advice, they had cut off Flevum from the rest of the Germanic tribes. Bellargus had bet with Andesuc who would get there first. Andesuc wisely let him win that bet, and now he was ready, to take the city, while Bellagrus' men were tired and exhausted.

A sudden strong wind interrupted his thoughts, and he thought he better get inside, until the weather got a little better. Winter was coming soon as well, he could feel it in his bones. When the time came, he and his men would move towards the forests surrounding Tulifurdum, and then who knows, they might just surprise the Germans and take the city without a fight...

[Piteas]

Great AAR!

Looting Flevum, 3,2,1...

[ernieschwitz]

ORIGINAL: Piteas

Great AAR!

Looting Flevum, 3,2,1...

Thanks! Flevum did get taken, and the Germanic Tribes were subjugated by the Celts, mostly. When I had taken a large chunk of it, other AI controlled powers decided they too wanted chunks of it.

[ernieschwitz]

What's in a name.

Apparently quite a lot. I spent a few hours on each power's naming traditions. As you can see from above the game is going to include leaders, or Heroes as I call them. Naturally they need names.

A lot of nations back then did not have surnames. That presented quite a problem. Ordinarily you would count on first names and surnames put together randomly to have a nice name. Like Maximus Camillus. The Romans are easy like that, but not many of the others are. Of course I could make a list of several 100s of names, but that would be very time consuming, and tedious.

So what to do?

Instead I decided to make an event that would make random names, based on syllables. That is partial names. This would allow for a great variety of names. I also made sure that the names did not repeat (in the same game), in this name generation. Some 250 names are generated at the start of the game, for each power that has these random names.

So far the Greeks, Celts and Germanic tribes, have these kind of random names, and thus no surnames. I just did the Egyptians too, but that version isn't yet in the Beta Testers hands. Other powers have names, from history, and surnames like "of Phoenicia", "the Kappadokkian" or "from Tarsus". This works well, but, obviously can seem a little repetitive if all regimes had them, even if the surnames differed a little. I hope this kind of attention to detail pays off.