TWC Wiki - User contributions [en]

Ishan

2012-05-29T21:35:35Z

Bane tw: Long overdue - damn my perfectionism. Draft 51... and save.

{{member|name=Ishan|avatarimagelocation=avatar43227_10.gif|mainrank=[[Moderator]] of [[TWC]]|ranks=[[Artifex]], [[Citizen]], [[Moderator]]|patron=[[Squid]]|
patronof=[[Meneth]], [[Sonny Costanzo]], [[Brusilov]]}}

== About Ishan ==

One of the fascinating things about Ishan is that he always seems to be around or about the get online when a modding question or issue arises.
Ishan started his quest on August 16, 2008 - the day he joined twcenter. Knowledgable and always willing to seek for the knowledge that is missing he is the boon for every noob on twc. Is he nocturnal? Maybe. If so, then by morning he has all forgotten about sleep as he has to figure out the next problem while working on his favorite modding projects. Superman? Na... superman doesn't have a PC as good as Ishans.
As an engineer and an enthusiastic gamer he has developed an insatiable love for computers and thus often hangs around in the basement, the computer help section of twc - if he isn't busy playing Assassin's Creed or the Witcher. But no game can hold him away for long. The only thing that can keep him away from modding or helping others on TWC is a power outage or his ISP.

''As someone who has devoted a lot of time to answering questions in the M2TW workshop I kept seeing posts by Ishan. What impressed me most were the breadth of his knowledge and the pleasant manner in which he dealt with those he was helping . I quickly became convinced that he was ready to be an Artifex so I asked and he accepted. Then as the time to put this application together I quickly realized his contributions went far beyond the helping others I'd been ready to patronize him for. I leave it to the councilors to decide.''
Squid (in Ishans application for citizenship)

''Common courtesy is a rare trait these days. Combine that with continuing efforts at outreaching to help others and you have a true find.''
Mega Tortas de Bodemloze (in response to Ishans application for citizenship)

==Position on the TWC Wiki==
Ishan is the current Wiki director.
If you have any questions regarding wiki or anything site related then please contact him on his [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/member.php?u=43227 TWC profile].
Like his avatar he is always on the hunt for rule-breaking prey, so you will most likely find him online.

==Modding Contributions==

Beyond his dedicated work on the TWC Wiki Project and his diligence as Content Director and as Moderator he is contributing to the modding community by working for several development teams and creating various modding tutorials.

===Major Mods===
Ishan is working and has worked for various mods, an extract is given below:

====Stainless Steel====
Since 6.3 he is member of the development team of the famous [[Stainless Steel]] mod as well as developer of the Stainless Steel 6.4 submod Royal Ladies of the Court (RLC).
His dedication goes as far as him beeing one of the key persons responsible for earning Stainless Steel the 'Most Helpful Mod Team' award in the 2010 Modder Awards.
Aside from his great skill in handling the everbusy Stainless Steel forum he is a steady source of innovations and bug fixes.

====Shizoku no Sensō====
He is providing invaluable help to Swagger's and cedric37's project [[Shizoku no Sensō]] with his troubleshooting skills and general modding knowledge.

====Regions & Provinces Mod====
Ishan is a member of the development team of the [[Regions & Provinces Mod]] which adds 69 Regions and several other new features.
This puts him on the same team as modding legends such as [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/member.php?u=2581 irishron] and [[Gigantus]].
His R&R submod [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=2897 Red Brick Castles for RegionMod 3.0] was part of his artifex application.

===General Modding===

Aside from his work for specific mods he has created many guides and ressources, such as:

====Modding Tutorials/Guides====
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=412456 Be a Modder: Doctoring of Medieval 2 units]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=405322 How to unpack something specific from the .pack files]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=365755 How to Add Missing sounds in the Greek firethrower units]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=320881 Make a settlement a power centre for training special units]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=359622 How to add teutonic castles to all the east european factions both in strat and battle maps]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=367183 How to add missing SFX sound for stakes in mods like SS, bare kingdoms and bare geomod etc]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=371657 How to get rid of bald generals in Medieval II]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=340061 Movement of cavalry in Battle map]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=319020 How to add a Mangonel in your mod]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=371657 How to get Rid of Bald generals in Medieval II]

====Modding Resources====
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=377105 Missing Portraits of Pagan Priests for Teutonic Campaign]

== Past avatars ==
[[File:Avatar43227 2.jpg]]

== Total War games owned ==
{| class="wikitable"
! '''Box Art''' !! '''Type'''
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Romebox.jpg|50px]] || [[Rome: Total War]]
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:RTWBIBA.JPG|50px]] || [[Barbarian Invasion|Rome: Total War Barbarian Invasion]]
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:M2TWBA.jpg|50px]] || [[Medieval 2: Total War]]
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:M2TWKBA.jpg|50px]] || [[Medieval II: Total War Kingdoms|Medieval 2: Total War Kingdoms]]
|}

==Ranks And Awards==

=== Current Ranks held ===
{| class="wikitable"
! '''Rank''' !! '''Description'''
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Citizen radadir.png]] || [[Citizen]] is special rank is given as a reward by the CdeC to those members who make a significant contribution to the Forum.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Artifex radadir.png]] || An [[Artifex]] is someone who earned their rank through modding a TW game.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Content_director.png]] || A [http://www.twcenter.net/wiki/Content_Staff#Content_Director Content Director] is the supervisor rank for the Content Staff's respective branches and as such Content Staff (Writers and Wiki Staff), Librarians and Content Artists.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Moderator.png]] || [[Moderator]]s form the body which performs the vast majority of day-to-day front-line site moderation.
|}
=== Awards Achieved ===
{| class="wikitable"
! '''Award''' !! '''Type''' !! '''Reason'''
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Wiki_contributor_large.png|68px]] || [[Wiki Contributor]] || Awarded on September 07, 2010 for contributing extensively to the TWC Wiki Project.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Cdec_bronze.png‎ |68px]] || [[Consilium_de_Civitate_Service_Medal|CdC Service Medal]] || Awarded on August 15, 2011 for time served as a Consilium de Civitate member for a period of two completed terms.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Quillbigemerald.png|68px]] || [[Scribe's Quill]] || Awarded on December 24, 2011 for time served as Content Staff for a period of one year and six months to one year and eleven months.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Siteaward2010large.png|68px]] || [[Site award|Site Award]] || Awarded on November 22, 2010 for winning the 'Most Helpful Staff Member' category in the 2010 Site Awards.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:2011large.site.award.png|68px]] || [[Site award|Site Award]] || Awarded on February 07, 2012 for winning the 'Most Helpful Member' category in the 2011 Site Awards.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:2011large.site.award.png|68px]] || [[Site award|Site Award]] || Awarded on February 07, 2012 for winning the 'Friendliest Member' category in the 2011 Site Awards.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:2011large.site.award.png|68px]] || [[Site award|Site Award]] || Awarded on February 07, 2012 for winning the 'Favourite member of Moderation Staff' category in the 2011 Site Awards.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:2011large.site.award.png|68px]] || [[Site award|Site Award]] || Awarded on February 07, 2012 for winning the 'Favourite Staff Member' category in the 2011 Site Awards.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Mod_Mace_Emerald.png|68px]] || [[Moderator's Mace]] || Awarded on March 26, 2012 for time served as a Moderator for a period of one year and six months to one year and eleven months.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:Novus_large.png|68px]] || [[Novus]] || Awarded on February 08, 2012 for exceptional contributions to the site in the capacity of a staff member.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:M2TW Maward 10.png|68px]] || [[Modding Award]] || Awarded on February 13, 2011 for winning the 'Favourite Coder (M2TW)' category in the 2010 Modder Awards.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:M2TW Maward 10.png|68px]] || [[Modding Award]] || Awarded on February 13, 2011 for winning the 'Scholar (M2TW)' category in the 2010 Modder Awards.
|-
|rowspan="1" | [[File:M2TW Maward 10.png|68px]] || [[Modding Award]] || Awarded on February 13, 2011 for winning the 'Mentor (M2TW)' category in the 2010 Modder Awards.
|}
[[Category:Moderator]]
[[Category:People]]
[[Category:Artifex]]
[[Category:Citizen]]
[[Category:House of Wilpuri]]

File:Avatar43227 10.gif

2012-05-29T20:26:17Z

Bane tw: Not a double up of Astaroths avatar - this is Ishans avatar.

Not a double up of Astaroths avatar - this is Ishans avatar.

Venice Details (M2TW Faction)

2011-06-30T10:09:44Z

Bane tw: AC2 has no relevance for the m2tw faction venice

{{FactionDetails}}

== Overview ==

The 'complex' of cities in Northern Italy (Florence, '''Venice''', Genoa, [[Milan]], Bologna) is probably the greatest single production area in the entire game. Converting Bologna and Florence to castles is expedient; very soon you'll have three mutually supportive huge cities and two citadels able to produce three entire full stack armies every four turns. Europe cannot compete with this concentrated production. So grab those cities!

Now aside from in the very early game Venice has a fantastic unit line-up, it's really quite amazing, and the game may claim they do not boast a 'Noteworthy land army' but don't let this intimidate you as Venice's forces are easily the equal of any major European nation. It's not all very easy, though, if you want a nice challenge try leaving Sicily alone and not rushing them; as although they can easily be taken out with a swift rush by about turn sixteen if you leave them you're going to have some very fun battles being outclassed by their superb early and middle game soldiers.

Normally I consider tier one units only when I review a factions early game forces, but when it is Venice in question, as with the other Italian states, their early cities and first conquests are advanced and fast growing Italian cities, so I will consider city units, rather than large town units, as tier one in this instance. Now, on to the unit review.

== Infantry ==
'''Venice''''s early game infantry is not particularly dangerous, but their trump card is availability. Most factions can produce Armoured Seargents and Seargent spears in the early game from castles, with their towns producing far inferior spear and town militia. For Venice this is not the case, as Italian Militia are as effective as Seargent Spearmen, and Italian Spear Militia are as effective as Armoured Seargents.

Carrocio standards are the one early game unit Venice gets that is truly special, and it can really make a difference to your early game armies. Not only does it bolster the morale of everyone around it, making it feasible to fight without generals in certain situations, the standard itself is accompanied by a small bodyguard of Armoured Seargents who cannot be broken. This makes them a very useful unit! They literally cannot run away, point blank, and fight to the death regardless of odds. This can give your army invaluable second chances as if your main line is broken, and you possess a few standards in the rear the enemy must kill every single guard, giving you precious time to rally your men and form a new battle line. This unit is also quite cheap, although the initial investment of 700 or so Florins certainly isn't, their upkeep of a mere 70 per turn certainly is! And as their initial price is so high the game engine considers them one of the best units you can train, and what that means is it's quite possible to be rewarded with four of them for free on completion of certain missions. Very handy. They do slow your forces down, but in the claustrophobic environment of Northern Italy in your early battles with Milan this is not so noticeable.

As the game progresses and you're packing fortresses and large cities your infantry becomes quite the impressive force. Not only do you receive the standard European DFK, you get quite literally the finest infantry soldiers on earth. Venetian Heavy Infantry are truly as hard as nails. With 16 attack nothing can confidently stand up to their armour-piercing war hammers, and with 16 defence they are very well protected for a unit of shock infantry, with shields to give them far more survivability against missile attacks than contemporary 2-handed ap troops. Of course the shield is currently a liability in melee, but don't let this deter you. Even with their shield value reduced Venetian Heavy Infantry are still one of the finest infantry units in the game, they're simply that lethal on the offensive. Now such a fine unit usually costs allot, comparable troops such as the HRE's fantastic armour-piercing dismounted Imperial Knights have a crippling upkeep of 250 a turn, you might expect something similar for Venetian Infantry, but you'll be pleasantly surprised. With a mere 150 upkeep they're actually cheaper to support than armoured seargents! So cheap are they, in fact, that they easily can be used as Garrison troops in castles. Try fighting through the gate against them! It's not pretty.

As the game grinds onward and you begin building Citadels and Huge cities you may initially be somewhat upset with your new infantry choices. When you view the statistics of dismounted men at arms and see that they're no better than dismounted Feudal knights you might wonder to yourself how you're going to go about storming castles in this late era. Well, the answer is of course Venetian Heavy Infantry. Build one from a citadel with a sword smiths guild and take a look at their stats now. Scoring a free chevron at this stage and with armour and weapon upgrades they come off the shelf with 18 armour piercing attack and 18 defence. They are quite literally unstoppable. but lose to heavy knights of most european faction and also moorish christian guard.

In your cities, at this stage, you score militia pikemen. A lovely unit that makes your cities almost impossible to assault, and a unit which validates Venice's fine late game gunpowder by giving them the ability to produce pike and shot formations.

In the end, Venice's infantry is largely vanilla in the early game with the simple advantage of availability (being able to produce decent spearmen from castles and cities) and the bolstering Carrocio standard to stiffen the line. They're hardly on a par with, say, the Danish, but they certainly get the job done.

In the middle game Venetian Heavy Infantry ensure you a battleline that will not be outclassed, and in the late game they rise to the occasion with fantastic upgrades and perks to give you the same end result. Throw in dismounted men at arms and dismounted fuedal knights for units that, although not overly useful considering you have acess to something better and cheaper, will keep the game from getting too boring at the very least. Militia pikes round out their forces nicely for defensive purposes and also as an invaluable compliment to muskets in the gunpowder age. The easy availabiliy of italian spear militia in the middle and late era's only gets better as they have plentiful armour upgrades starting with leather tanner and their vast numbers makes your enemies cavalry nearly obsolete and they can hold a line from enemy infantry well enough till venetian heavy infantry or flanking troops arrive. This makes the Italian spear militia the backbone of your average armies throughout the whole game.

== Archers ==
As with their infantry Venetian archers start relatively slow but have some nice perks to round themselves out with. In the early game you'll have the standard lineup in your castles, Peasant Crossbowmen for cheap AP fire support and of course the ever-present peasant archers. Nothing special really, but from their cities Venice can produce Pavise Crossbow Militia, a fine unit at any stage of the game, with superb defence against missiles and with a long range, dauntingly high armour piercing attack of 12 they can really complement your early game spear forces, providing an excellent way to tune up even the most heavily armoured foes before the mêlée, and with decent enough armour to survive a little combat unsupported. These units allow any city to have an effective number of archers on the walls to mow down enemies before they reach your gates. The large numbers of these units you can afford to put in an army will allow you to overpower most factions in ranged troops as they need to create their elite ones in fortress's or citadels.

By the middle game your pavise crossbow militia are still a fine unit to use in many situations, from defending towns to the open field, but another unit comes along to compliment them here. Venetian Archers are a fine missile unit with 9 attack that can loose much faster then crossbow militia and use flaming missiles and they have mêlée stats that are good enough for them to enter combat when the odds are in their favor. Though they cannot compete with the cream of the game's archery units (Dismounted Dvor, Byzantine Gaurd, Ottoman Infantry, Janissary Archers, Longbowmen etc.), you'll still find them a very valuable unit to have on your side. Their upkeep is low enough for them to be placed in castle garrisons, and on the open field they can do all the things you would demand of a good archery unit. Whether this is punishing the enemy at range, or standing off against horse archers and other skirmishers they won't let you down in a hurry.

In the late game Venice does not receive anything new regarding archers, aside from being able to give their Venetian Archers full plate, until gunpowder.

All in all, Venice has a capable corps of archers from the early to late game. They're not so good that you would consider building your army around them at any point, but in a support role they're unlikely to let you down.

== Cavalry ==
The game has something against Venice's cavalry lineup, claiming it's rather weak. Well I'm going to say this is rubbish. Venice may not be the equal of Poland, the HRE or France but if you can't make effective use of the cavalry they do have then you're simply not a very good cavalry commander.

In the early game they're dull, vanilla, with the basic lineup of Mounted Seargents and Mailed Knights. Nothing special, but good enough to round out armies consisting of Carrocio standards, Pavise Crossbows and Italian Spear Militia. Their cavalry at this stage is identicle to that of France, Milan, the HRE, etc. there's nothing unique or particularly effective about it, but for smashing into infantry and running down routers they do the job.

In the middle game Venice is still on equal footing with the standard European Armies, receiving Fuedal Knights from their fortresses, but with the advantage of also getting a solid militia cavalry unit. Don't mistake these guys for Merchant Cavalry! They have lances and a decent charge bonus, and are very capable for their price and high level of availability which can allow you to have every army have enough of these to obliterate archers and crash into flanks and kill routers very quickly. I personally prefer them to Fuedal Knights as the upkeep of these 'true' Knights is extortionistically high, and in addition building allot of cavalry militia is likely to score you a Horse Breeders guild. This is very important for Venice as they don't get jousting lists to improve their cavalry, so shoot for that guild HQ!

By the late game Venice's castle-built heavy cavalry drop off. When many western nations are training the fantastic Chivalric Knights you receive Men At Arms, a reasonable unit with a solid armor value and a charge bonus of 7, but no match for Chivalrics, their upkeep is not particularly low although their recruitment cost is cheaper than Fuedal Knights, so think before you start building them as their price advantage cancels itself out the longer they're on the field.

Of course getting mounted Crossbowmen from your castles helps to even the odds with cavalry, we all know how effective this unit can be after all. That's not all though as from their citadels Venice also receives quite possibly the best light cavalry in the game. The fantastic Stradiots. With a charge bonus of five and the "can_formed_charge" attribute they're the second best chargers in their category (after Hussars) in the game, and they also carry AP maces with a good attack as a secondary weapon. The best advantage of Stradiots is, however, their sheer speed. Their in-game mount is a 'fast pony' as opposed to the 'pony' of most light cavalry, allowing them to outrunn even units as quick as Border Horse and Hobilars. With their AP maces, then, it follows that Stradiots make fantastic troops for catching and butchering horse archers and other missile cav. In fact they're the ultimate answer to things like Jinetes and Reiters. With their feirce mellee stats and ap weapons Stradiots also do good service against hostile heavy cavalry. Although in equal numbers they loose, you must remember they're far cheaper than, say, Chivalric Knights. However the true asset of Stradiots is their flexibility via micromanagement. It's a proven fact that a unit of Stradiots can defeat a unit of Lancers if you make use of their speed to escape mellee to perform multiple charges, and this asset is just as effective against infantry units. Of course to do this in a pitched battle where many units are present is quite tough, but the option is there whether or not you choose to use it.

Again Venice compliments its castle-built units with a solid city built unit and this time it's a nice one; Broken Lancers. Much like Demi Lancers they lack the solidity of elite western cavalry, but have all of the punch. With 12 attack and a charge bonus of 8, there are few infantry units these chaps can't all but eradicate in one solid charge.

So, all in all, Venice's cavalry is hardly weak. Their mixture of units is eclectic, with some decent, albeit difficult to use elites (Stradiots and Broken Lancers) and allot of the basic European lineup (Feudal Knights and such) you have a good amount of choice and good counters to the things that might be inclined to cause you trouble while still packing some good heavy cavalry for the real business of smashing infantry.

== Special Note ==
In the late game, post-gunpowder, Venice is one of only four factions ([[Milan (M2TW Faction)|Milan ]], [[Portugal (M2TW Faction)|Portugal]], [[Spain (M2TW Faction)|Spain]] and '''Venice''') capable of fielding muskets and pikes, and one of only five factions ([[Portugal (M2TW Faction)|Portugal]], [[Spain (M2TW Faction)|Spain]], '''Venice''' , [[Turks (M2TW Faction)|Turkey]] and [[Russia (M2TW Faction)|Russia]]) capable of receiving muskets. They are one of only five factions to receive mortars ([[Scotland (M2TW Faction)|Scotland]], [[England (M2TW Faction)|England]], [[Sicily (M2TW Faction)|Sicily]], [[Milan (M2TW Faction)|Milan]] and '''Venice''') and one of only two factions to receive Monster Ribaults ('''Venice''' and [[Milan (M2TW Faction)|Milan]]) their gunpowder navy is also quite powerful. Venetian Galleass' absolutely crush Gun Holks and also defeat the Eastern Equivalent. All this said Venice is a true power in the gunpowder age.

My final thoughts on Venice are that they're one of the few factions that is truly strong through the entire game, with an effective, balanced army that does not come up wanting in any department. A great all-rounder, but with a nasty edge in city trained militia troops, infantry and gunpowder waiting to be exploited. One of the most rewarding elements of playing Venice is that although their early game forces do are nothing special, there's always better units to unlock and use until you play through to gunpowder. In other words, they start strong and they keep getting stronger. This makes their campaign a paced and relaxing affair as you never feel the need to rush, a fitting mood in which to take command of The Most Serene Republic of Venice.

==See Also==
*[[Venice (M2TW Faction)]]

Quebec (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:14:36Z

Bane tw:

{{Faction|image=[[Image:Quebec.jpg|250px]]|Name=Quebec|Game=[[Empire: Total War]]|Religion=[[Catholic (ETW Religion|Catholic]]|Culture=European}}

==Overview==
Quebec is an emergent Catholic nation, which will be created as the result of a successful rebellion in New France, a succesful revolution in France, or due to the capture of all the European holding of the Faction of France. The capital of Quebec is Quebec, New France, and the government type is absolute monarchy.

==Starting Position==

If you have HusserlTw's excellent Empire: Total Factions mod installed, which you can find at TWcenter.net, you can play as Quebec and your campaign will begin in the year 1783. Your only starting region is New France. You will have no starting general or starting troops.

===Basics at start===
*'''Protectorates''' – None
*'''Allies''' – None
*'''Trade Partners''' – None
*'''Enemies''' – None
*'''Religion''' – Catholic
*'''Government''' – Absolute Monarchy
*'''Ruler''' – varies (King)
*'''Treasury''' – 5000
*'''Missionaries''' – None
*'''Rakes''' – None
*'''Gentlemen''' – None

===Economy===
Quebec has a good starting economy, with a lot of growth potential. Its natural resources are also being exploited to a good extent. At St Jean trapper post (abundant yield), a fur exchange is already constructed, producing 80 pelts a turn. Marsoui forests have a lumber mill, which contributes to the town wealth of Quebec. An iron minefield is located at Mont-Laurier, and an average yield farmland area is found at St Lazare.
At Tadoussac, there is a Commercial port, that is capable of exporting a lot of your produced furs, and Gaspe has a bawdyhouse.

===Technology===
Quebec is quite advanced, and starts with many technologies researched. Unfortunately, Quebec doesn't have even one education and research building, so you will have to either build or capture one. Also, Quebec starts without a gentleman.

===Military===
Quebec starts out without an army or a navy, and has no starting generals. But Quebec's unit roster is quite good, and is well-balanced, being very similar to that of France.

==Roster==

===Auxiliaries===
* Native musketmen auxiliaries
* Native bowmen auxiliaries
* Mounted Tribal auxiliaries

===Infantry===
* Courers de Bois [[File:Queb_561.jpg|thumb|300px]]
* Colonial Line infantry
* Grenadiers
* Royal Ecossais
* Maison du Roi

===Cavalry===
* Colonial light cavalry
* Colonial dragoons
* Cuirassiers
* Garde du Corps

===Artillery===
* Demi cannons
* Sakers
* 12 lbr foot artillery
* 24 lbr foot artillery
* 6 lbr horse artillery
* 12 lbr howitzer foot artillery
* 24 lbr howitzer foot artillery
* Puckle guns
* Rocket troop

==Early Strategy==
The player should get trade rights with the USA, Britain, France and the Iroquois on the very first turn and begin exporting fur pelts. Another priority is to begin recruiting an army and to get a General. A good very early army for Quebec should have colonial line infantry, colonial light cavalry, demi-cannons and/or sakers, and a few Courers de Bois. Also, the player should upgrade his farms and weavers' workshops as soon as possible. Once an army is assembled, the best targets are British, French or Iroquois lands. The British and French are no longer major powers in the Americas, while the new nation of the United States has lots of land and decent armies. The British are at war with the French, while the French are allied with the United States. Once a few territories have been added to your fledgling nation (choose good territories with farms and fur posts), you should be developing at a healthy rate, and can turn your ambitions towards the lands of the United States or make a naval invasion of Brazil/ Mexico. Remember to keep up a good amount of trade, and keep exporting your resources. Building a good-sized navy is important, but not essential, as you can have many land and sea trading partners, thus not having to rely on only sea trade.

[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

United States (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:14:24Z

Bane tw:

{{Faction|image=[[Image:United_States_flag.jpg|250px]]|Name=United States|Game=[[Empire: Total War]]|Religion=[[Protestant]]|Culture=American}}

United States is one of the playable factions in Empire: Total War and is available through completing the Road to Independence.

==Overview==
The United States of America is a nation forged in the fires of revolution and rebellion against the British monarch; seen as distant, foreign and tyrannical.

After the French and Indian Wars, the British government took an entirely reasonable line: The American colonists should pay taxes to contribute to the navy and army that helped defend them. The colonists saw it differently, with no representation in the British Parliament to argue their cases, nor any sense of rights from the British.

The Americans faced down Britain. The struggle split counties, cities, towns, even families.
In its wake, the revolution left a new kind of nation, a republic where men choose their own destinies. This spirit of independence is a source of strength. It is also a source of weakness, for Americans cherish the right to do as they alone think best. This may lead to yet another great divide in years to come...

America now has a future of boundless possibilities. A continent stretches away to the West, and no one is entirely sure what is to be found there. There may still be scores to settle with the British in Canada, or ambitious nations from Europe to discourage. There is much to do, if this newest of nations is to survive and prosper

==Starting Positions==

The United States start with Georgia, Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Confederation of New England, and Maine.

==Units==

*[[Sakers (ETW Unit)|Sakers]]

They have practically the same units as the British, respectively, but have a special militia called the Minutemen that are bad at melee range but are good at firing range as well as skirmishers called Long Riflemen. They also lack European Cavalry such as Hussars and Uhlans.

[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Scotland (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:13:00Z

Bane tw:

STARTING

Scotland was a proud nation when they join to make Great britain The population was unhappy
Edinburgh unhappiness = rebellion = Scotland

Units

the units of scotland consists with that of Great Britain and that makes it a powerful nation (if they expanded)
such as the Black watch and other elite infantry
{{Stub}}
[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Punjab (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:12:24Z

Bane tw:

{{Faction|image=[[Image:punj_12.jpg|250px]]|Name=Punjab|Game=[[Empire: Total War]]|Religion=[[Sikh (ETW Religion|Sikh]]|Culture=Indian}}

==Overview==
Punjab is an emergent nation in India, which has Sikhism as its State Religion. They start with one region, Punjab, the capital of which is Lahore. Punjab has many expansion oppurtunities; it can use the Mughal-Maratha conflict to its advantage, and take on either of them, or fight both for control of India. Th Punjabi armies can also march into Afghanistan and Persia, and then, onward to Georgia, Russia or Egypt.

==Starting Position==
If you have HusserlTw's excellent Empire: Total Factions mod installed, which you can find at TWcenter.net, you can play as Punjab and your campaign will begin in the year 1783. Your only starting region is Punjab. You will have no starting general, but will have a small garrison in Lahore. The Punjabi faction leader, Charat I, is a less than awe-inspiring leader, only causing his nation to lose 20 prestige a turn.

[[File:punj2_12.jpg|thumb|400px]]

===Basics at start===
*'''Protectorates''' – None
*'''Allies''' – None
*'''Trade Partners''' – None
*'''Enemies''' – None
*'''Religion''' – Sikh
*'''Government''' – Absolute Monarchy
*'''Ruler''' – Charat I (King)
*'''Treasury''' – 5000
*'''Missionaries''' – None
*'''Thugs''' – None
*'''Eastern Scholars''' – None

===Economy===
Punjab is quite rich in natural resources, having a rice and wheat farm and a gold mine. Also, there is a weavers' cottage and an iron workshop. A tavern is also present. Punjab's position means that it can trade with the Mughals, Marathas and Afghanistan over land, but as they have no ports, sea trade with Europeans is impossible until a territory with a shoreline is captured.

===Technology===
Punjab is quite advanced, and starts with many technologies researched. There is a school at Rawalpindi, but you don't have any starting scholars.

===Military===
Apart from a small garrison in Lahore, you have no armies, and only one general. The Punjabi roster is exactly the same as that of the Marathas.

==Early Strategy==
Trade relations need to be established with the Mughals and the Marathas. The small amount of troops in Lahore will serve your purpose for the first turn, but more sould be recruited. There is no point in recruiting any other line infantry except Sikh musketeers or Bargir Infantry, as the other types are too indisciplined. On the first turn, use a few units to annex nearby Kashmir. Sindh is an important target, as it will allow you to get a trade port, and begin exporting your trade goods. After you have taken Afgahnistan's valuable territories, you are ready to take on the Marathas and/or the Mughals. Expanding into Persia is also a good option, and will allow you access to Eastern Europe, leading to trade/war with Russia. But you should make sure you are a force to reckon with in India, or the Marathas might just push you out. India is very rich in tea and cotton, so it is profitable and pragmatic to keep increasing your holdings there.

[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Mexico (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:11:59Z

Bane tw:

Mexico is a emergent faction in [[Empire: Total War]]. It is created when the region of New Spain rebels and captures the regional capital. This nation is somewhat of "major nation" in a sense because of the plentiful natural resources in the New Spain region. If you are playing as the Spanish empire in the Grand Campaign and this nation manages to become free, you will have problems. One is that, if you have built up their capital, they will begin to train a massive army. This is allotted through the New Spain region usually having over 10,000 resources when fully developed. If you do not hold the line against this nation, it will spread and conquer every nearby region. It is advised to take immediate action if you do not want Mexico to spread all across the American theatre. Other than their massive economic start, they have a standard line up of infantry, cavalry, and artillery as any other nation.
[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Hungary (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:11:28Z

Bane tw:

Hungary is an emergent faction located right in the middle of Austria, Poland, and the Ottoman Empire's conflict. This makes Hungary one of the most commonly emergent nations. It is controlled at first by Austria.
{{Stub}}
[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Ireland (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:11:25Z

Bane tw:

{{Faction|image=[[Image:Flag_Ireland.jpg‎|250px]]|Name=Ireland|Game=[[Empire: Total War]]|Religion=[[Catholic (ETW Religion|Catholic]]|Culture=European}}

Ireland is an non-playable emergent faction.

{{Stub}}
[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Mamelukes (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:11:20Z

Bane tw:

Basics at start

* Protectorates – None
* Allies – None
* Trade Partners – None
* Enemies – Pirates
* Religion – Islam
* Government – Absolute Monarchy
* Population – 1,838,572
* Prosperity – Destitute
* Prestige – Feeble
* Treasury – 9000
* Technology – None
* Imams – None
{{Stub}}
[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Afghanistan (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:10:03Z

Bane tw:

Afghanistan is an emerging faction right between the Europe and India world maps, just east of Persia and west of Punjab. It is originally controlled by Persia. Most often it emerges when all other regions controlled by Persia are captured(during the Ottoman campaign for instance). Afghanistan is an Islamic nation and does not take kindly to Ottoman conquest of surrounding regions.
{{Stub}}
[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Greece (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:09:27Z

Bane tw:

Greece is a European country that rises in two different regions: Greece and Morea, which is right below it. Morea is held by Venice which usually defends Morea fiercely against the Ottomans, and the other is mainland Greece which is under the control of the Ottoman Empire. If one of these two regions rebel, the new country will usually expand to get the other. And it is common for the new nation to attack the Ottoman Empire or to defend against it.
{{Stub}}
[[Category:ETW Emergent Factions]]
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Pirates (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:07:40Z

Bane tw:

The Pirates were seafarers, and are a faction in [[ETW]].
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Gran Colombia (ETW Faction)

2011-03-28T21:05:35Z

Bane tw:

{{Faction|image=[[Image:Gran_Colombia_flag.jpg|250px]]|Name=Gran Colombia|Game=[[Empire: Total War]]|Religion=[[Catholic (ETW Religion|Catholic]]|Culture=European}}
==Overview==
Gran Colombia is one of the emergent nations in Empire: Total War's Grand Campaign. Following the various revolutions of Latin America in the early-mid 1800's Simon Bolivar helped form the republic of Gran-Colombia in 1819. It fell in 1831. In the ETW campaign it is the result of a successful rebellion in Colombia where it emerges as a Catholic Absolute Monarchy.
[[Category: Empire Total War Factions]]
{{ETW Factions}}

Gran Colombia (ETW Faction)

2011-03-27T19:29:19Z

Bane tw: moved Gran Colombia (ETW Faction to Gran Colombia (ETW Faction): Typo in creation of page

Following the verious revolutions of Latin America in the early-mid 1800's Simon Bolivar helped form the republic of Gran-Colombia in 1819. It fell in 1831.
In the ETW campaign it is the result of a successful rebellion in Colombia where it emerges as a Catholic Absolute Monarchy.

Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms batch

2011-03-26T11:21:38Z

Bane tw:

{{Cleanup}}
'''Creating a shortcut file with io.file_first for kingdoms'''

Since all the kingdoms levels are loaded from the launcher in order to load the file_first option you need to create a shortcut file or load them as mods.

In this page I will explain how to create a shortcut file for any of the [[Kingdoms]] Mods - all you need to do is :

# create a shortcut for the kingdoms exe file
# right click the shortcut and click on properties
# in the destination line where it says path\Kingdoms.exe add the following :

\kingdoms.exe --io.file_first --features.mod=mods/''NameOfModFolder''

For instance if MTW2 is installed on c:\Games\MTW2 and you want to load crusades:

C:\games\MTW2\kingdoms.exe --io.file_first --features.mod=mods/crusades

This will allow you to mod Kingdoms using the files unpacked from the pack files without creating any CFG's or mod folders.

Hope you find this useful.

Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms batch

2011-03-26T11:20:49Z

Bane tw:

{{Cleanup}}
'''Creating an shortcut file with io.file_first for kingdoms'''

Since all the kingdoms levels are loaded from the launcher in order to load the file_first option you need to create a shortcut file or load them as mods.

In this page I will explain how to create a shortcut file for any of the [[Kingdoms]] Mods - all you need to do is :

# create a shortcut for the kingdoms exe file
# right click the shortcut and click on properties
# in the destination line where it says path\Kingdoms.exe add the following :

\kingdoms.exe --io.file_first --features.mod=mods/''NameOfModFolder''

For instance if MTW2 is installed on c:\Games\MTW2 and you want to load crusades:

C:\games\MTW2\kingdoms.exe --io.file_first --features.mod=mods/crusades

This will allow you to mod Kingdoms using the files unpacked from the pack files without creating any CFG's or mod folders.

Hope you find this useful.

Prince of Macedon

2011-03-24T21:47:09Z

Bane tw: Small rewrite and spellcheck

==Prince of Macedon==
A popular (on YouTube) [[RTW]] player, and was the host of many popular RTW online tournaments. He is under the patronage of [[Hader]]. He is famous in the community for his numerous commentary multiplayer battles on YouTube.
As his name suggest, he often plays as Macedon, playing games at low money levels. This keeps the game fair, and archers are still effective, unlike high money games. More often than not, he wins the game. He has become a great strategist and is known by many of Rome: Total War's fans. He no longer plays Rome Total War multiplayer anymore.
== Problems with Trouble Makers ==
He is the victim of several trouble makers, many claiming to have beaten him. He aggressively denies it on some of his battles with the trouble makers, and only the all-knowing can tell us if he truly lost or not.
== Personality ==
He sometimes use humor in his battles, sometimes saying “Bless You” when his archers sneeze and such, and can be very surprising indeed, once ambushing 6 units of Incendiary Pig.
== His Troop selection ==
Royal Pikemen: A hoplite unit that has the same number of troops as falangites (240 men). These Royal Pikemen are better protected than Silver shields or Bronze shields and Pharaohs Guard. They provide a very solid anvil.
Companion cavalry: Elite horsemen with good armor and a very good charge. These men excel at flank and rear attacks! With proper flanking companions and not all cavalry units selected at one single enemy unit head on these men are able to kill anything.
Archers: Very cheap - they may lack the punch of the Cretan archers but they leave more room for upgrades. After all it is the melee that decides the battle. They provide a great distraction that keeps enemy archers busy while attacking with melee troops.
==Attack is best defense ==
You can see that Prince of Macedon is an aggressive player and this has several advantages:
He can force you to respond to him and not the other way around.
He can attack when he is ready.
The enemy player is more likely to isolate his own cavalry making it easier for Prince of Macedon’s companions to crash in the enemy cavalry from all sides making them rout and massacre the enemy cav.

== Counter measures ==
How do you counter this excellent tactic?
Maybe you should have more upgrades on your own cavalry and keeping them close to your infantry. I suggest attack and experience upgrades while only upgrading gold defense for the infantry. But it really depends on what factions as every faction in Rome Total War has different strengths.
Don’t have the infantry units deployed side by side since that benefits phalanx units not cohorts.
Launch your own offensive and if your roman throw pila and then form testudo in guard mode and then march right through those spears.
Then the sword fighting skills of the roman infantry can be decisive as long as the cohorts aren't deployed side by side!
The cavalry fight is most important - use some cohort support and don’t forget to micro manage your cav.
The best faction to use against Macedon at this level is probably the Seleucid Empire. Companion cavalry cannot fight against cataphracts in a melee so it is a good idea to use those. Another effective use is that of what |TAoW|Ahille used. A skirmish army can be devastating against the Macedonians.
== His YouTube Channel. ==
http://www.youtube.com/user/PrinceofMacedon
[[Category:People]]

Prince of Macedon

2011-03-24T21:32:13Z

Bane tw: Merged content from Prince of Macadon Article

==Prince of Macedon==

A popular (on youtube) [[RTW]] player, and was the host of many popular RTW online tournaments. Under the patronage of [[Hader]]. He is famous in the community for his numerous commentary multiplayer battles on youtube.

As his name suggest, he often plays as Macedon, playing games at low money levels. This keeps the game fair, and archers are still effective, unlike high money games. More often than not, he wins the game. He has become a great stratigiest and is known by many of Rome: Total War's fans. He no longer plays Rome Total War multiplayer anymore.

== Problems with Trouble Makers ==
He is the victim of several trouble makers, many claiming to have beaten him. He agressivly denys it on some of his battles with the trouble makers, and only the all knowing can tell us if he truly lost or not.

== Personailty ==
He sometimes use humor in his battles, some time saying “Bless You” when his archers sneeze and such, and can be very surprising indeed, once ambushing 6 units of Incendiary Pig.

== His Troop selection ==

Royal Pikemen:a hoplite unit that has the same number of troops as falangites 240 men.
Royal Pikemen are better protected than Silver shields or Bronze shields and Pharaohs Guard.
A very solid anvil.

Companion cavalry: Elite horsemen with good armour and a very good charge. These men exell at flank and rear attacks!

with proper flanking companions and not all cavalary units selected at 1 enemy unit head on these men can kill anything.

Archers:very cheap they may lack the punch of the cretans archers but they leave more room for upgrades after all it is the melee that decides the battle.

Great distraction that keeps enemy archers busy while attacking with melee troops.

==Attack is best defence ==

You can see that Prince of Macedon is an aggressive player and this has several advantages:

He can force you to respond to him and not the other way around.

He can attack when he is ready.

The enemy player is more likely to isolate his own cavalry making it easier for Prince of Macedons companions to crash in the enemy cavalry from all sides making them rout and massacre the enemy cav.

== Counter messure ==

How do you counter this exellent tactic?

Maybe you should have more upgrades on your own cavalry and keeping them close to your infantry.I suggest attack and experience upgrades while only upgrading gold defence for the infantry.But it really depends on what factions as every faction in rome total war has different strengths.

Dont have the infantry units deployed side by side since that benifits phalanx units not cohorts.

Launch your own offenssive and if your roman throw pila and then form testudo in guard mode and then march right through those spears.

Then the swordfighting skills of the roman infantry can be decisive as long as the cohorts aren't deployed side by side!

The cav fight is most important use some cohort support and dont forget to micro manage your cav.

The best faction to use against macedon at this level is probably the selucid empire. Companion cavalry cannot fight against cataphracts in a melee so it is a good idea to take a couple gold. Another effective use is that of what |TAoW|Ahille used. A skirmish army can be devestating against the macedonians.
== His Youtube Channel. ==

http://www.youtube.com/user/PrinceofMacedon
[[Category:People]]

Jp226

2011-03-21T20:54:58Z

Bane tw:

'''JP226''' has been an active member since before [[Rome: Total War]].

He is an expert in economics and finance, and has from time to time cleverly applied statistical models ranging from his own knowledge on economics to climate change. He is active in the political mudpit and has a method of posting that has been described as thought-provoking.
{{Stub}}
[[Category:People]]

Goths (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:46:21Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_goths.png|The Goths' faction symbol]]|Name=Goths|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Christian/Pagan|Culture=Nomad}}

'''The Goths''' are one of the playable factions in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] for [[Rome: Total War]]. They are in the Nomad culture group.
==Game Play==
===Starting Position===
The Goths start with a small settlement named Colonia Dacia on the northern border of the Eastern Roman Empire. They are likely to be caught between the Hunnic hammer and the Eastern Roman anvil. They have the ability to horde, which is vital if the Goths are to survive.

====Cities====

=====Colonia Dacia=====
*'''Starting Buildings''' - [[High King's Hall]], [[Meeting Hall]], [[Stables]], [[Practice Range]], [[Great Market]], [[Roads]], [[Communal Farming]], [[Mines]], [[Christian Chapel]]
*'''Income''' - 81
*'''Public Order''' - +70%
*'''Population''' - 11507
*'''Population Growth''' - +15%
*'''Population Required for Next Level of Settlement''' - 12000
*'''Official Religion''' - Christianity
*'''Recruitment''' - [[Peasants]], [[Gothic Spearmen]], [[Runaway Slave Spearmen]], [[Gothic Raiders]], [[Goth Lancer]], [[Spy]], [[Assassin]], [[Diplomat]]
*'''Army''' - Ermaneric: Faction Leader, [[Peasants]], [[Gothic Spearmen]], [[Goth Lancer]]

===Win Conditions===
The Goths must hold 16 provinces, including Thracia (Constantinople) and Northern Italy (Rome).

===Unit List===

*[[Gothic Warriors]]
Attack 10 Defense: 20 Charge: 4 Armor: 7 Cost: 560 Upkeep: 189

*[[Gothic Spearmen]]
Attack 7 Defense: 20 Charge: 3 Armor: 6 Cost: 450 Upkeep: 163

*[[Runaway Slave Spearmen]]
Attack: 6 Defense: 12 Charge: 2 Armor: 2 Cost: 300 Upkeep: 150

*[[Goth Raiders]]
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 9 Defense: 12 Charge: 2 Armor: 6 Cost: 540 Upkeep: 167

*[[Goth Lancer|Goth Lancers]]
Attack: 5 Defense: 15 Charge: 10 Armor: 6 Cost: 630

*[[Goth Noble Warriors]]
Attack: 10 Defense: 22 Charge: 6 Armor: 9 Cost: 970

*[[Alan Horse Archers]]
Attack: 7 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 14 Charge: 4 Armor: 6 Cost: 730

*[[Goth Horse Archers]]
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 11 Charge: 4 Armor: 5 Cost: 630

*[[Steppe Horde Chosen Warriors]]
Attack: 11 Defense: 22 Charge: 5 Armor: 7

*[[Steppe Horde Horsemen]]
Attack: 5 Missile attack: 8 Defense: 9 Charge: 4 Armor: 3

*[[Goth Horse Archers]]
Attack: 2 Defense 3 Charge: 1 Armor: 0 Cost: 190

*[[Barbarian Peasants]]
Attack: 3 Defense: 5 Charge: 2 Armor: 0 Cost: 90

====Unique Units====
*[[Gothic Warriors]]
*[[Gothic Spearmen]]
*[[Goth Raiders]]
*[[Goth Lancer|Goth Lancers]]
*[[Goth Noble Warriors]]
*[[Goth Horse Archers]]

===Strategy guides===

The Goths start the game inhabiting the fertile lands surrounding Colonia Dacia, which they have wrested from the Romans. They will have time to recruit a very few permanent units before they are ousted by the Vandals. It is best to clear out just before the Vandals invest the town, and destroy anything you can so you keep the value rather than leaving it for the Vandals. When the town falls, you will receive several horde armies with horse archers and some good infantry units. Your campaign should focus on mid and southern Europe, staying ahead of the Vandals until you get to Italia. You will want to sack Ravenna, Rome and Tarentum before anyone else does, as the take from these cities is very rich. You will also want to check out Gaul and cities like Massilia, Augusta Trevororum and the Roman cities on the eastern tier of Gaul. If you can sack these cities first, it leaves less for the Vandals, Sarmatians and Huns and gives you that much more denari. And that means those other tribes must fight harder for less and spend their precious manpower against each other.

Finally, when all of western and middle Europe is awash in anarchy and the Western Roman armies are reduced to a shell of their former strength, you will want to go back to the Italian peninsula and take over the rich cities of Ravenna, Rome and Tarentum, timing it so that the last of your horde units are able to take the third city. Here, you will realize the value of your early recruiting before leaving Colonia Dacia. The more spearmen you recruited early on, the more permanent units you will have to defend against other tribes trying to come against you now that you have settled down. Plus, the cash you got sacking cities and not settling down earlier comes in handy to repair the expensive markets, ports, stables and barracks you now own so you can hold onto your new kingdom and to grow your economy. Taking all of Italy gives you a very narrow front to defend in the north, with no one able to attack your flanks.

You will want to build your forces so that you can hold what you have and field a strong army to go back and take Constantinople. Thesssalonica and Athens are also very desirable trade centers with their well-developed ports and markets.

===AAR's===

==History==
In 410AD Alaric led the Goths in the sack of Rome.
They later split into the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Sarmatians (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:35:06Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_sarmatians.png|The Sarmartians' faction symbol]]|Name=Sarmartians|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Pagan|Culture=Nomad}}

'''The Sarmatians''' are one of the playable factions in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] for [[Rome: Total War]]. They are in the Nomad culture group
==Game Play==
You start out very beleaugered from all sides, but if you can survive for a while, you're okay. Mostly cavalry armies are your order of the day.
===Starting Position===
The Sarmatians have only one province at the start of the game - Vicus Sarmatae (Sarmatia). Because of their location, they are normally attacked by the Goths/Vandals very early in the game.

====Cities====

=====Vicus Sarmatae=====
*'''Starting Buildings''' - [[High King's Hall]], [[Meeting Hall]], [[Warlord's Stables]], [[Practice Range]], [[Market]], [[Blacksmith]], [[Communal Farming]], [[Roads]], [[Sacred Grove of Kolaksay]]
*'''Governor''' - Boz
*'''Starting Recruitment''' - [[Herdsmen]], [[Runaway Slave Spearmen]], [[Sarmatian Virgin Foot Archers]], [[Sarmatian Virgin Cavalry]], [[Sarmatian Armored Archers]], [[Warlord]], [[Spy]], [[Diplomat]]
*'''Population Growth''' - +1%
*'''Public Order''' - +120%
*'''Income''' - +41
*'''Population''' - 10798
*'''Population Required for next level of settlement''' - 12000

===Win Conditions===
In order to win the campaign, the player needs to own 15 provinces and they must include Pannonia (Aquincum), Ilyricum et Dalmatia (Salona), and Colchis (Kotais).

===Units===

Runaway slave spearmen, wide variety of cavalry.
====Unique Units====
*[[Bosphoran Infrantry]]

===Strategy guides===
You will start the game occupying Vicus Sarmatae, a small town on the southern plains of the steppes, and 15,000 denarii. That's nice, because you're going to need it. You will have just a few turns to remain in possession of your lands before being chased out by either the Vandals or the Huns. If you build a port and get trade agreements with the Roxolani and maybe the Goths, you might have a couple of turns to enjoy the benefits. The main asset you have is a little time to recruit some permanent units like armored horse archers, Virgin foot archers or Virgin cavalry. These cost money, but will be valuable when you lose the town and turn into horde armies. You only get 4, so the recruited forces will be important to you to gain a 5th army.

You will want to demolish any arms-making capability just before the Vandals or Huns invest your town. The main thing is to leave town before that happens so as to avoid losses through seige and assault, and to stay ahead of the Vandals if you can. If you linger, the Vandals will be between you and the western campaign route to Gothland and the cities of the eastern Empire in Romania and Illyria. This puts you in the position of having to take their leavings.

One of your victory conditions is to take and hold Aquincum, which will be impossible when the Slavs come along in a few years. You may want to wait to take Aquincum until the Slavs spend their strength somewhat. Nevertheless, you must settle down sometime and develop an economy. To hold your cities, you will need infantry, stone walls and foot archers to deal with the horse archers. If you have to accept the loss of a city or two, try to make the hordes pay dearly for their conquest, so you can come back later with more men.

This campaign will not be easy in the middle and later stages, so try to be flexible and take what the opposition will allow you to have through the first part, and raise as much money by sacking cities as you can. I recommend building a war chest of at least 100,000 denarii to help you through the rough times.

===AAR's===

==History==

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Burgundii (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:33:15Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_burgundii.png|The Burgundii faction symbol]]|Name=Burgundii|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Pagan|Culture=Barbarian}}

'''Burgundii ''' are one of the non-playable factions in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] expansion for [[Rome: Total War]]. They can be made playable through very simple modding. They are in the Barbarian culture group.
==Game Play==
===Starting Position===

Campus Burgundii (Tribus Burgundii)

===Win Conditions===

The Burgundii have to invade the eastern regions of Gaul.

===Units===
The Burgundii are quite basically the [[Lombardi (BI Faction)|Lombardi]] with a different name.

====Unique Units====
See the section for the [[Lombardi (BI Faction)|Lombardi]].

===Strategy guides===

===AAR's===

==History==

The Burgundii were an eastern Germanic tribe that have been linked to the Scandinavians, they were raiding Roman northern Gaul at the time of Attila the Hun. By 436 AD, in an effort to turn Hunic attention away from Rome they offered Attila vast amounts gold if he suppressed these raids, as a result Attila committed genocide wiping-out almost all of the population, the few survivors were eventually absorbed by the Visigoths, Franks and the fragmented Western Roman Empire.

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Lombardi (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:26:18Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_lombardi.png|The Lombardi faction symbol]]|Name=Lombardi|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Pagan|Culture=Barbarian}}

'''The Lombardi''' are one of the non-playable factions in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] expansion for [[Rome: Total War]]. They can be made playable through very simple modding. They are in the Barbarian culture group.
==Game Play==
===Starting Position===
Campus Lombardi (Tribus Lombardi) is located to the east of the [[Burgundii (BI Faction)|Burgundians]] and north of the Campus Marcomanni around modern-day Germany. The Lombardi capital starts off as a majority Pagan city with a population of around 8500 which makes it a fairly large town. The Campus Lombardi is the lone starting province for the Lombardi and the province includes the grain and amber resources to facilitate a smooth economy.

===Win Conditions===

The Lombards seek to invade Italy.

==Units==

===Infantry===

*[[Barbarian Peasants]]
*[[Night Raiders]]
*[[Golden Band]]
*[[Chosen Axeman]]
*[[Lombard Beserkers]]
*[[Spear Warband]]
*[[Horde Chosen Swordsmen]] (only when in hordes)

===Missile===

*[[Lombard Archers]]
*[[Chosen Archers]]
*[[Horde Hunters]] (only when in hordes)

===Cavalry===

*[[Barbarian Cavalry]]
*[[Horde Raiders]] (only when in hordes)
*[[Burgundian Lancers]]
*[[Barbarian Noble Cavalry]]

==Strategy guides and AARs==

==History==

''"To the Langobardi, on the contrary, their scanty numbers are a distinction. Though surrounded by a host of most powerful tribes, they are safe, not by submitting, but by daring the perils of war."'' -Tacitus

From the second century onwards, the major, well-known barbarian tribes started to join forces, these tribes include the Franks, Alemanni and even the Saxons. However, the Lombardi disappeared from Roman history and records around this time. The Lombardi were un-detected because of how deep they penetrated into the forests of Germany. Probably due to un-productive harvests, the Lombardi migrated from their homes. The Lombardi then crossed into the land east of the Elbe, Mauringa, where they came into contact with a tribe that refused to let the Lombardi pass. The strongest man of each tribe fought each other; the Lombard soldier was victorius and a path was fixated for the Lombardi to pass through the lands. The Lombardi travelled to the region of Golanda and after Golanda, the Lombardi reached the former homeland of the Burgundians. In their camp, the "Bulgars", assumed to be the Huns, stormed the Lombardi and most likely took them captive. After a vicious rebellion, the Lombardi rid themselves of Hunnic conquest, declaring: ''"(The Lombardi) became bolder in undertaking the toils of war."''

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Saxons (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:20:04Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_saxons.png|The Saxons' faction symbol]]|Name=Saxons|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Pagan|Culture=Barbarian}}

'''The Saxons''' are one of the playable factions in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] for [[Rome: Total War]]. They are in the Barbarian culture group.
==Game Play==
===Starting Position===
The Saxons start in the Jutland peninsula. They start with a number of rebel provinces nearby and no major power close to them allowing the creation of a strong homeland in Northern Germany.

===Win Conditions===
The Saxons must have 18 provinces including Tribus Saxones (Vicus Saxones), Britannia Superior (Londinium) and Belgica (Samarobriva)

===Units===
Infantry:
*[[Peasants]] (Light)
*[[Levy Spearmen]] (Spearman)
*[[Saxon Keel]] (Spearman)
*[[Chosen Axemen]] (Heavy)
*[[Saxon Hearth Troops]] (Heavy)

Missile:
*[[Hunters]]

Cavalry:
*[[Saxon Sea Raiders]] (Light)
*[[Mounted Nobles]] (Heavy)
*[[Warlord]] (Heavy)

====Unique Units====

[[Saxon Keel]]: The main spearmen for your forces. Good against all Cavalry.

[[Saxon Hearth Troops]]: These are your Elite infantry. Can form a shield wall. They will beat most Roman Infantry units.

[[Saxon Sea Raiders]]: Average cavalry for the start of the game. To be replaced by the Mounted Nobles.

===Strategy guides===
The best strategy for a Saxon warlord is to head West to the WRE and Britain. Although many people disagree with this, they forget to take into account the fact that the WRE is very weak and not too difficult to break down. The main problem is in fact, at first, the Barbarians who surround you. They have good armies and will want a scrap. Anyone in their right mind should wipe out all but the Alemanni as they are a very good buffer when the Huns and Vandals come. For some reason they always come from south of the Alps. The Alemanni are also very useful to trade with as everyone else around you will be against you. So now, after you have dealt with these factions you turn to the WRE. Build up a navy and land in the northernmost point of the British Isles. This will be owned by the Celts and will be no match for your infantry - not much is. Conquer Ireland also, it all gets money. Now this is where it can go wrong. Send an army from North England to the south and from your continental acquisitions send an army West. On the continent you must move swiftly, if you don't then you end up in along and pointless war against the WRE with very little land gain for either side (WW1 type of thing). This will tear your economy to shreds and you will find it very difficult to survive. After the conquest of England deal with the Romano-British, otherwise they will attack Londinium and believe me they don't give up. Their army is reasonably strong, eventually I chased them into Wales and slaughtered them on the coast of the Irish Sea. Taking the remainder of France will be reasonably easy. If you can force the Alemanni into war with them then do it. By now the first signs of a Horde will have appeared they will attack the Alemanni first and you must go to their aid otherwise they will slaughter the Alemanni and you will be next. After beating both hordes conquer the rest of France, Spain and Italy. The WRE has fallen and you have completed your objectives and have completed the campaign. Of course you can still continue but it is not necessary. It also feels incredibly pointless anyway.

Damien123

===AAR's===

==History==
The Saxons were a Germanic tribe invited to work as mercenaries by the Romano-British after the Roman withdrawal in 410AD to help fight back against the invading Picts and Irish. Led by the brothers Hengst and Horsa the Saxons rebelled against and overthrew the Romano-British taking their lands for themselves. Those lands are now called England after the Angles, another tribe who came with the Saxons.
The result is that the English are a Germanic people and speak a Germanic language (English) to this day.
Many towns and cities in England were founded by the Saxons, the largest of which is Birmingham.

Then soon after missionaries arrived from Gothic Rome to convert the Saxons(who were pagans)to Christianity.

A few hundred years later the Vikings started to raid Britain however in 1066 they were defeated by the last Saxon king Harold Godwinson who a week later was defeated and killed by the Norman duke William the Conquerer who took over Britain under Norman rule.

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Celts (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:09:15Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_celts.png|The Celts' faction symbol]]|Name=Celts|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Pagan|Culture=Barbarian}}

'''The Celts ''' are one of the non-playable factions in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] expansion for [[Rome: Total War]]. They can be made playable through very simple modding. They are in the Barbarian culture group.
==Game Play==
===Starting Position===
*Dal Raida (Caledonia)
*Tara (Hibernia)

===Win Conditions===

The Celts need to invade all of Britain and parts of Gaul.

===Units===
*[[Barbarian Peasants]]
*[[Kerns]]
*[[Druids]]
*[[Pictish Spearmen]]
*[[Gallowglasses]]
*[[Hounds of Culann]]
*[[Slingers]]
*[[Pictish Crossbowmen]]
*[[Wolfhounds]]
*[[Scotti Chariots]]
*[[Noble Clansmen]]
*[[Warlord]]

====Unique Units====
[[Hounds of Cullann]]: These fearsome warriors tower above the average soldier, with a skin hue of deep purple and carry a menacing sword. Once they use the 'Warcry' ability or enter combat they go into Berserker mode which makes you lose control of them (like in a rout) while they run around the battlefield slaughtering any enemies which fall into view.

[[Kerns]] - Javelin men.

[[Slingers]]: Just like in the original R:TW slingers are a missile unit. However they have a very short firing range and because they fire directly instead of upwards they must be placed at the front of your army or else they will fire at your own troops.

[[Druids]]: Again, like in the original R:TW Druids are infantry units, however weak they may be. Their strength however, comes in their 'Chant' ability which raises the morale of nearby allies while lowering it for enemies. Quite similar to the Catholic Priest.

[[Gallowglasses]]: A soldier with a large two-handed sword. Very powerful infantry unit.

[[Scotti Chariots]]: Chariots are quite weak in a 'head-on' charge, or even against a battle against a unit of infantry due to their low defence. Their strength however comes in charging into the rear of enemy units. Their other advantage is in the fact that they demolish enemy morale, even by just being near enemy troops. A charge into an enemy's rear or flanks usually causes an insta-rout!

===Strategy guides===

===AAR's===

==History==

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Romano British (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:04:40Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_romano_british.png|The Romano British faction symbol]]|Name=Romano British|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Christian|Culture=Roman}}

'''Romano British''' are one of the non-playable factions in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] expansion for [[Rome: Total War]]. It is possible to make them playable but only by substantial alterations to the [[vanilla]] game, or by using a script.

They have a mix of Roman legionary infantry and more Barbarian units. One of their best units are [[Graal Knights]], a powerful mounted unit, that is heavy armoured. They are in the Roman culture group.
==Game Play==

===Starting Position===
The Romano British do not start on the map, instead they emerge if the roman provinces in Britain are captured. They are unique in the game as the only faction able to survive without owning a settlement, whilst not also being a [[horde]] capable faction.

===Units===
Roman units re-named.
====Unique Units====
*[[Graal Knights]] - The Grail Knights of Arthurian legend.

===Strategy guides===
This is quite simple. Overrun the Isles and capture the island. From there on establish an economy and invade the Continent. Often the best plan is to take the Celts before they have control over Ireland, if not, capture Ireland first as it is generally less densely defended and also has a better economical advantage.
After the Celts are knocked out establish a large army on the mainland. If left late enough, you should be able to build British Legionaires on Ireland; send 5 or so units to the 3 cities in England/Scotland to help defend the mainland from the Saxons who will invade.

Build up an army of British legionaries, cavalry and archers and start taking over the Saxons in Denmark, as they are generally not well defended there as there armies are taking over the continent. This is your key to the continent...

===AAR's===

==History==
Romano-British is a term to describe the people who inhabited modern day England and Wales, who were under Roman rule. They were conquered by the Romans under Emperor Claudius, when in 43 AD he invaded the region, local resistance died out sometime around 50 AD. Due to the general decline of the Roman Empire, in 410 AD the Romans were forced to abandon the province. Quickly authority devolved into Chaos, previous to this the only real administrators of the province was in the fact the now absent military. Various petty kingdoms popped up and began to fight amongst each other, and the Picts began to invade as well. With this various Romano-British leaders decided to call on foreign forces to help them, such as the Angles and Juts, who were to settle. Eventually these mercenariness were to turn on their employers and conquer them. For a time the Romano-British were confined to areas around Wales, but these to were eventually snuffed out.

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Western Roman Rebels (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:04:14Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_empire_west_rebels.png|The Western Roman Rebels faction symbol]]|Name=Western Roman Rebels|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Christian|Culture=Roman}}

The '''Western Roman Rebels''' are the [[Western Roman Empire (BI Faction)|Western Roman Empire]]'s shadow faction in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] expansion for [[Rome: Total War]]. They are one of the non-playable factions in the game. It is possible to make them playable but only by substantial alterations to the [[vanilla]] game, or by using a script.
==Game Play==

=== Overview ===
The Western Roman Rebels are the Western Roman Empire's shadow faction. They take over rebellious cities and armies of the [[Western Roman Empire (BI Faction)|Western Roman Empire]]. If a Western Roman settlement's population is very unhappy, it will rebel and join the Western Roman Rebels. The same can happen with armies. That way, a general with a low loyalty rating can become part of the Western Roman Rebels faction along with his whole army.

===Starting Position===
The Western Roman Rebels do not control any settlements or campaign map characters at the beginning of the game.

===Units===
The Western Roman Rebels share the [[Western Roman Empire (BI Faction)|Western Roman Empire]]'s unit roster.

====Infantry Units====

*[[Peasants]]
*[[Limitanei]]
*[[Foederati Infantry]]
*[[Comitatenses]]
*[[Auxilia Palatina]]
*[[Plumbatarii]]
*[[Praeventores]]
*[[Comitatenses First Cohort]]
*[[Catholic Priest]]

====Ranged Units====

*[[Archers]]
*[[Bucellarii]]
*[[Onagers]]
*[[Ballistae]]
*[[Heavy Onagers]]
*[[Repeating Ballistae]]
*[[Carriage Ballistae]]
*[[Scorpions]]

====Cavalry Units====

*[[Foederati Cavalry]]
*[[Sarmatian Auxilia]]
*[[Equites Sagitarii]]
*[[Scholae Palatinae]]
*[[Imperial German Bodyguard]]

==History==
Historically, the Western Roman Empire suffered from many rebellions in its later days. Various generals founded their own kingdoms within the Roman Empire and declared themselves independent. Furthermore, as the population became increasingly unhappy, riots and revolts became rather common.

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Eastern Roman Rebels (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T20:02:19Z

Bane tw:

{{stub}}
{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_empire_east_rebels.png|The Eastern Roman Rebels faction symbol]]|Name=Eastern Roman Rebels|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Christian|Culture=Roman}}

The '''Eastern Roman Rebels''' are the [[Eastern Roman Empire (BI Faction)|Eastern Roman Empire]]'s shadow faction in the [[Barbarian Invasion]] expansion for [[Rome: Total War]]. They are one of the non-playable factions in the game. It is possible to make them playable but only by substantial alterations to the [[vanilla]] game, or by using a script.
==Game Play==
===Starting Position===
The Eastern Roman Rebels are the Eastern Roman Empire's shadow faction. They take over rebellious cities and armies of the [[Eastern Roman Empire (BI Faction)|Eastern Roman Empire]]. If a Western Roman settlement's population is very unhappy, it will rebel and join the Western Roman Rebels. The same can happen with armies. That way, a general with a low loyalty rating can become part of the Western Roman Rebels faction along with his whole army.

===Units===
The Eastern Roman Rebels share the [[Eastern Roman Empire (BI Faction)|Eastern Roman Empire]]'s unit roster.

====Infantry====
[[Image:Imperial household bodyguard info.jpg|thumb|right|Eastern Roman Empire General's Bodyguard.]]

*[[Limitanei]]
*[[Legio Lanciarii]]
*[[Comitatenses]]
*[[Comitatenses First Cohort]]
*[[Plumbatarii]]

====Cavalry====

*[[Equites Auxilia]]
*[[Hippo-toxotai]]
*[[Scholae Palatinae]]
*[[Equites Clibinarii]]
*[[Equites Cataphractarii]]
*[[Imperial Household Guard]]

====Ranged====

*[[Archers]]
*[[Eastern Archers]]
*[[Onagers]]
*[[Ballistae]]
*[[Heavy Onagers]]
*[[Repeating Ballistae]]
*[[Carriage Ballistae]]
*[[Scropions]]

==History==

==See Also==
*[[Factions in BI]]

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

Western Roman Empire (RTW:BI Faction)

2011-03-19T12:56:21Z

Bane tw:

{{Faction|image=[[Image:Symbol_empire_west.png|The Western Roman Empire's faction symbol]]|Name=The Western Roman Empire|Game=[[Barbarian Invasion]]|Religion=Christian/Pagan|Culture=Roman}}

The '''Western Roman Empire''' is one of the playable factions in [[Barbarian Invasion]].

By the time of Barbarian Invasion, the Roman Empire is well and truly in decline. The Western Roman Empire is the larger, but poorer part of the old Empire. It is most at risk from the oncoming Barbarian Hordes. However, all is not lost. The WRE can still field an impressive army, and a skilled player can bring the Empire to new heights - including reunification with the East.

==Game Play==
===Starting Position===
At the beginning of the game, the Western Roman Empire ranges from the British Isles in the north to the deserts of Africa in the south. It is the largest faction in the game, controlling Italy, Gaul, Illyria, Pannonia, Britain, Spain and a small part of North Africa.
The Empire borders the [[Celts]] in the north, the [[Franks]] and [[Alemanni]] in the northeast, the [[Eastern Roman Empire (BI Faction) | Eastern Roman Empire]] in the east and the [[Berbers]] in the south.

===Win Conditions===

In order to achieve victory the Westerm Roman Empire must control 34 provinces, including Northern Italy (Rome), Africa (Carthage), Taraconensis (Tarraco) and Thracia (Constantinople).

===Units===

====Infantry Units====

*[[Peasants]]
*[[Limitanei]]
*[[Foederati Infantry]]
*[[Comitatenses]]
*[[Auxilia Palatina]]
*[[Plumbatarii]]
*[[Praeventores]]
*[[Comitatenses First Cohort]]
*[[Catholic Priest]]

====Ranged Units====

*[[Archers]]
*[[Bucellarii]]
*[[Onagers]]
*[[Ballistae]]
*[[Heavy Onagers]]
*[[Repeating Ballistae]]
*[[Carriage Ballistae]]
*[[Scorpions]]

====Cavalry Units====

*[[Foederati Cavalry]]
*[[Sarmatian Auxilia]]
*[[Equites Sagitarii]]
*[[Scholae Palatinae]]
*[[Imperial German Bodyguard]]

===Strategy guides===

Playing as the Western Empire is the toughest challenge in the game. However the easiest way in which to deal with this, is to let cities rebel and recapture them, exterminating the population. This will give you a fresh start and will also increase the value of the settlement. However to make the empire a prosporos place you must kill Valentinus the emperor, his attributes mean that he is a terrible administator and an even worse General. For the sake of the Empire he must be killed. Unless you kill Valentinius, the WRE will quickly fall apart. However the settlements you must keep hold of are Rome, Ravanna, Tarraco, and Carthage, as these four on there own make up the majority of your income in the first turns of the game.

RTW: The Western Roman Empire Empire Walkthrough, [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=996759|here].

With the WRE you need to destroy the Celts and Berbers, exterminate their cities as your economy is in tatters. Spain will lose you a lot of money so sort that out asap. Attacking the barbarian factions is all very well, but in reality it simply speeds up the time when the hordes attack you. What I did was simply build loads of camps on my frontier with the barbarian and repel any invasions. The Hordes will appear soon enough and weakened. while you are waiting for them take Africa and start assulting the Sassanids and the ERE. Once you have defeated the hordes you now have vast amounts of men to swarm the Barbarians with. The ultimate destruction of all of these peoples will be quick and easy. Leave garrisons and head east. Destroy and maim anyone whom you come across. By now the in the East your legeasily to rebelsions should have reduced the Sassanids to nothing and you can perform a pincer movement through the ERE.

The world is yours and the WRE has been restored to its rightful place! More importantly however, you have completed Barbarian Invasion with the most difficult faction on the game!!!

===AAR's===

==History==

{{BI Factions}}

[[Category: Barbarian Invasion Factions]]

The Long Road

2011-03-17T18:16:24Z

Bane tw: Undo revision 35975 by Bane tw (talk)

{{mod
|mod=The Long Road
|modscreenshot=The Long Road Signature.jpg
|platform=[[Medieval 2: Total_War|Medieval II - Total War]]
|era=Medieval - start date 1080|leader=[[Tornnight]]}}
==Overview==

{| align="right"
|-
|[[Image:TLRsplash.jpg]]
|-
|''Splash screen from The Long Road''
|}

The Long Road is an epic 900 turn campaign (6 months per turn) that starts in 1080.

Its focus is on the confrontation between the West and the East in Medieval Times.

Realism and Historical accuracy is a strong desire as long as it's not at the expense of playability.

The aim is to ensure an exciting experience no matter what faction you start with.

==Releases==
Latest releases in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=98729 this thread]

==Main Features==
*Large Custom Map that includes 199 regions that spans from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea
*A total of 900 turns (6 months per turn)
*Era System for units based on Armor and Weapon Technology
*New Factions
*Role-playing Traits and Ancillaries
*Lord, Duke, and Emir Titles with Coats of Arms for all Provinces
*New Historical Events with graphics
*Custom Advanced Campaign AI
*Dozens of new units for Mercenary and Faction use
*Area of Recruitment (AOR/ZOR) Mercenary Guild

===Additional Features===
*More Field battles due to enlarged map and field intercepting AI.
*More realistic movement rates on the campaign map.
*Reduced Pirates and Rebel spawn rates
*Improved Merchants. (Merchants are now far more important and competitive)
*Diseases for characters
*Rebellions
*Family Member Royal Bloodline tracking.
*Improved Princesses including Islamic Princesses
*Simulated Faction Councils and Government Positions
*Improved Technology Tree
*Unit recruitment within specific buildings
*Recruitable Early Period and Late Period Generals. Including Dismounted Generals for certain factions.
*Building Costs and Times increased to balance with the longer campaign. This gives you a challenging game that forces you to manage your economy.
*Ranked Experience Bonus for Agents (Priest,Spy,Assassin,Merchant,Diplomat) from improved buildings
*Improved Unit Textures
*Re-skinned Byzantium Faction
*Inquisitors toned down
*Heretics toned down
*Cavalry charges are powerful, but beware of spearmen.
*Added all the dismounted versions of Order units
*Guns now require line of sight. No arching bullets.
*New AI and Player Formations
*Improved AI Siege capability. Reduced AI bunching up in front of the gate

==Economy==
The economy is a central part of the challenge built into TLR. If you aren't able to improve your economic situation, expect to be destroyed promptly.

There are various strategies to deal with this. Most involve focusing on economic buildings early on. Remember the free upkeep on militia units. It can be a life saver. Crusades/Jihads can be very beneficial especially if you raid and sack enemy cities. Merchants, Trade Agreements, and Ports are very important for your economy. Losing a Trade Agreement can hurt.

==Gameplay==

===Siege Costs===
Sieges have costs build into them.
:1000 florins to initiate a siege
:500 florins-per-turn to maintain a siege
:500 florins to storm the walls
:500 florins to prop up your new government if you capture the settlement.

===Miscellaneous Costs===
It now costs 2000 florins to change your capital city.

==Campaign Map==
The map is a highly customized map with 199 regions that span from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea. It is much larger than the vanilla [[M2TW]] map.

The new map has removed the Aztecs and Americas in favor of extending the map East and preserving map accuracy.

==New Factions==

*Kievan Rus'
*Abbassid Caliphate
*Syrian Caliphate
*Khwarezmian Empire

===Planned Factions===
*Kipchak-Cumans
*Aragon
*Independent Kingdoms
*Georgia
*Genoa (Possibly to replace Milan)
*Volga Bulgars or Zirid Calip

==New Units==

Countless new units have been added the the campaign.

Many are part of the new Mercenary Guild system and others have been created for the new factions and to strengthen the vanilla factions.

Examples of the units are

* Muslim Swordsmen
* Muslim Archers
* Ghurid Horse Archers
* Hillmen
* Guard of Constantinople
* Guard of Venice
* Dismounted Mailed Knights
* Andalusian Swordsmen
* Andalusian Knights
* Varyags

The list goes on and will continue to grow.

==Eras==
The eras are based on armor and weapon technology and change at random times within a specific range of years.
* Era 1 - Units with up to leather upgrades
* Era 2 - Units with up to light mail upgrades
* Era 3 - Units with up to heavy mail upgrades
* Era 4 - Units with up to partial plate upgrades
* Era 5 - Units with up to full plate upgrades
* Era 6 - Units with up to gothic plate upgrades

Intermixed there will also be other notable events that control building and unit construction.
:Stone Castles
:Concentric Castles
:Introduction of Battle Assassins for Eastern factions
:Cannons developed
:Handgun developed
:Matchlock developed (Arquebusiers)
:Advanced Matchlock developed (Musketeers)
:Pikemen
:Pavise Shields
:Mounted Crossbows
:The various Knight Orders
:Renaissance

==Events==
There are various historically informative events added to help set the stage for what is occurring in the game world.

Many are tied to actual happenings as explained in the Eras section.

Examples:
:Domesday Book
:Cistercian Order
:Discovery of the Hourglass
:Gothic Architecture
:First Medieval Universities

===Faction Events===

In addition, any time a faction leader perishes or a new princess comes-of-age anywhere across the world, you will be informed via an event.

==Roleplaying Traits/Ancillaries==

===Military/Heraldry Ranks===
----

Military Ranks are advanced by winning battles. The harder the victory, the more chance of advancement.

For example, if you win a battle where you outnumbered 2:1, you are extremely likely to advance in rank.

You can also advance to a point by being a great governor and campaigner. But if you want to advance the highest ranks, blood must be spilt.

*Knight Esquire / Tourmarches / Mulazim
:Command -2, Attack -2, PersonalSecurity -4
*Knight Bachelier / Taxiarchis / Amir
:PersonalSecurity -2
*Knight Banneret / Merarches / Amir al-Liva
:Command 1, Attack 1, SiegeEngineering 20
*Baron / Protostrator / Amir al-Juyush
:Command 2, Attack 2, PersonalSecurity 2, SiegeEngineering 30
*Lord / Strategos / Amir al-'Umara
:Command 3, Attack 3, PersonalSecurity 3, SiegeEngineering 40
*Count / Megas Domestikos / Wazir al-Harb
:Command 4, Attack 4, PersonalSecurity 4, SiegeEngineering 50

===Leadership Ranks===
----

Only the Faction Leader has this 'Trait'.
Actually the trait is represented by a Crown that changes as your Leader advances in rank.
A Faction Leader can improve his rank by going on campaign and battling enemies or by becoming an excellent governor.

*Silver Circlet
:No one knows whether or not this man will make a capable ruler yet. He is is untried, untested, and untrusted.
::Command -1, Attack -1, Authority -2, Law -3, Unrest 5, LocalPopularity -3, PersonalSecurity -2
*Gold Circlet
:This man's leadership qualities have been found wanting. Whether from bad luck, inexperience, or stupidity, his actions and decisions are leading the kingdom astray.
::Authority -1, Law -2, Unrest 2, LocalPopularity -2, PersonalSecurity -1
*Decent Leader
:After a few successful years of fighting and ruling, this man is starting to live up to his crown. The nobility are starting to come around to him, but his people still aren't sure about him yet.
::Law -1, Attack 1, Fertility 1, LocalPopularity -1
*Knowledgeable Leader
:This man is now known as a capable ruler. His decisions in military and civil matters have yielded fruit, and he can generally cut through the mire of political life on his own.
::Command 1, Attack 1, Authority 1, Fertility 2, PersonalSecurity 1
*Effective Leader
:Year after year of wearing the crown has made this man sure of his ability to rule. His laws are creating order from chaos, but seeds of rebellion and mistrust still echo in men's minds.
::Command 2, Attack 1, Authority 2, Fertility 3, LocalPopularity 1, PersonalSecurity 2, SiegeEngineering 10
*Great Leader
:Achieving such success as this man has, his kingdom is now unified under one banner, and he is known far and wide as an able ruler.
::Command 2, Attack 2, Authority 2, Fertility 4, LocalPopularity 2, PersonalSecurity 3, SiegeEngineering 20
*Renowned Leader
:Because of this King's achievements, his kingdom's borders have stretched and his control of it has tightened. His subjects now support him, and he has the ears of most of his nobles.
::Command 3, Attack 2, Authority 3, Fertility 5, LocalPopularity 3, PersonalSecurity 4, SiegeEngineering 30
*Legendary Leader
:This man's rule has now passed into legend. His deeds have been written down to stand next to the Kings and Emperors of old.
::Command 4, Attack 2, Authority 3, Fertility 5, LocalPopularity 4, PersonalSecurity 5, SiegeEngineering 40
*Appointed by God
:Some men achieve greatness, and others excellence, but this man has become the embodiment of God's kingly appointment on Earth.
::Command 5, Attack 3, Authority 4, Fertility 6, LocalPopularity 5, PersonalSecurity 6, SiegeEngineering 50

===Governance, Command, and Campaign Ranks===
----

*Governance Ranks increase by staying in a settlement.
*Command Ranks increase with the number of battles fought, regardless of the outcome.
*Campaign Ranks increase with time in the field.

===Titles===
----

Titles are special Ancillaries. They are acquired by simply keeping a general in a settlement for a turn. If that title does not exist for that settlement in your kingdom, then one of the generals in the city will acquire it. It is fully transferrable at this point, but beware, removing all of a nobles titles will anger him.

If you lose the province, you keep the title - it is attached to the man, not the place once acquired. This means multiple nations can claim titles to the same place. Settle the dispute the old fashioned way.

An example of a Title ancillary is, '''"Lord of Nottingham"''' with a nice coat-of-arms belonging to the region.

If you take away ALL of a Noble's titles don't expect him to be happy about it. If you do this to a man TWICE, expect a knife at your throat.

===Privy Council===
----

'''Chancellor'''

An office your king can grant.
Your King gains the power to grant this office once he stays in a city with a Council Chambers.
:Transferable.

'''Privy Seal'''

An important item your King grants to someone's charge.
Your King gains this seal automatically after the first turn.
:Transferable.

'''Seneschal'''

An office your king can grant.
Gain the power to grant this office by remaining in a settlement with a Fairground AND a Council Chambers.
:Transferable.

'''Chamberlain'''

A servant and high government official of your King.
Your King gains one of these when he stays for 4 turns (at LEAST may take more) in a city with:
:A Council Chambers
Your King cannot be:
:A Bad Administrator
:A Stoic
:Austere

:NOT transferable.

'''Marshall'''

An office your king can grant. Sort of a main general position.
Gain the power to grant this office by staying in a CASTLE with a Garrison Quarters AND a Knight's Stables
:Transferable

'''Master of the Horse'''

An office granted automatically once your King can grant the MARSHALL office. This person oversees horsebreeding and distributing horses.
Gain this office by being able to grant the Marshall office, AND having a general WITHOUT a government office somewhere.
:NOT Transferable

'''Steward'''

An office your king can grant.
Gain the power to grant this office by staying in a CITY with a Council Chambers
:Transferable

'''Treasurer'''

An office your king can grant.
Gain the power to grant this office by staying in a CASTLE with a Garrison Quarters AND having >15000 Florins in your treasury.
In order to first create this office, your King cannot be:
:An Embezzeler
:Corrupt
:A Bad Administrator

:Transferable

'''Guildmaster of Thieves'''

Not exactly an official member of the council, but... This office is granted to a spy. It is bestowed without player input.
Gain this office once your faction has a Thieves' Guild anywhere.
:NOT Transferable

'''Guildmaster of Assassins'''

Nobody gets this office, ever... officially...
It is RUMORED one can gain a guildmaster of this sort by having an Assassins Guild somewhere in the realm... how the selection process works beyond that is a mystery...
:NOT Transferable, if indeed it even exists at all...

'''Knightly Orders'''

Grandmasters of each order exist. This means that one man in the world will be elected by his peers to lead his order, if that order exists on the map (there is at LEAST a minor chapter house somewhere in the world). The benefits each man gets for each order differs slightly, however they are all good.

:France most often (if France has a chapter house) will be favored by the Knights Templar.
:The HRE is favored by the Teutonic Order, but, again, they must have a chapter house.
:The Knights of Santiago favor the Spanish.
:The Knights Hospitalier favor no nationality.

Again, for any of your Generals to be considered to as the Grandmaster of a Knightly Order, the order must exist in your Kingdom by means of at least one minor chapter house.

'''Archbishops & Patriarchs'''

Your kingdom can gain an Archbishop or Patriarch by having a priest stay in one of your cities that has a Cathedral. Men who ascend to this position are, sometimes, corrupted by the power, though...

===Education===
----

When a male family member comes of age, you can formally educate him, if you choose. For four turns he will be able to attend an education focused on:
* The Court: Education received in the Capital, focused on law and how to manage people and money.
* The Clergy: Education received in a city with at least a church that is not your capital. Results in Piety, possible ordination, some law, inspiring soldier morale.
* The Military: Education received in a castle with at least a library in it. Results in improved authority, command, and movement.

Note that if in those four educational turns you feel you could get a better education in the blood of the field, feel free to go for it.

===Odds and Ends===
----

'''Kingmaker'''

A man who helped a king ascend to the throne when his biological father was not the king.
This guy can ADD to the King's authority or subtract from it... read about him by hovering your mouse over him.
NOT transferable

'''Defender of the Faith'''

The Pope has appointed you King to be the Defender of the Faith... a mostly honorary title, but with some benefits. It is held for life. Your faction cannot be excommunicated in order for your king to receive this. Only ONE King in all the world can have this Ancillary.
NOT transferable

'''Conqueror of Constantinople'''

You can liberate the city if it was captured and you are Greek, or take it if you are not. You will get this trait. This trait has many rewards, but can slightly tempt the man once in awhile (- some loyalty). Watch out if you send the same in repeatedly to take the city- he WILL get the idea that he should be King, not you.

'''Distance loyalty'''

Those close to your capital are usually more loyal... those further afield... for long periods of time, will slowly become more and more tempted to wonder why they are exiled so. Crusaders are immune to this. you can "charge up" a generals loyalty by having him hang around the capital, but this will take time... can you spare the time? Oooh... decisions decisions decisions, it is good to be King.

'''Go on a Pilgrimage!'''

Those Christians who visit Jerusalem will most likely gain Piety for the effort... but a few are disgusted by the tourist trade and grow disillusioned. Some are uninspired either way...

'''Go on the Hajj!'''

Islamic Generals can go to Mekka

'''Demeanor'''

Generals who fight in personal combat who also lose a significant share of their bodyguard, and/or kill a number of men in personal combat stand a small chance to begin a line of traits, either Hardened to battle (better commanders), or becoming Humane (lesser commanders)... However BOTH traits have a twist... if you gain this trait too severely, the Humane general will buck up and start fighting like a man again, while the Hardened one, haunted by ghosts and images of all the men he has killed, will lose the loyalty and ability to command his troops effectively. He himself will become much tougher in combat, however...

===Royal Dynasties===
----

You will notice of 'faction' Blood traits on your Royal Family members.

Now you can track bloodlines even if you adopt quite often.

Also, if you bribe a foreigner of Royal Blood to your faction, that lineage will track too!

===Rebellions===
----

When a King ascends to the throne he has a chance of gaining the Trait: '''Offends Nobles.'''

This basically means he is of some sort of personality that they don't like. So, a portion of his nobles may decide they don't like him. The others will stand behind their king.
If this Trait advances and turns into a worse one, like "Inspires Civil War," his nobles who hate him already will become further disloyal and those who support him will also galvanize.

The Nobles who "Rebel" will NOT obey any further orders. They will have half movement rates, and if they manage to get into one of your settlements, they will NOT move out and will cause extreme unrest, they have no loyalty, no command ability, and horrible morale effects in battle. Eventually these Nobles will completely break away from the faction taking the settlement with them.

The larger an Empire the greater the chance of initiating the trait that starts this whole cascade.

Also, when a King runs his Kingdom's treasury into the ground and has no more money, his nobles may take high offense this- why has he taxed them so only to now plead that he needs more of their monies- for what? To finance more wars? His high standard of living in his mighty Capital?

Lastly, a King who gets his Faction excommunicated and NOT due to purely political reasons (meaning his Piety is also not high) runs the risk of offending his nobles, if he is Catholic. If the Pope is merely playing political games (the King's Piety is high, in other words), then so be it... the Nobles will stand by their lord.

The King *can* (but doesn't always) acquire the '''Offensive to Nobles''' trait by:

:Getting excommunicated when his piety is low. If your Piety is high, this will not have an effect.
:Running into debt when your authority is lower than 6.
:Coming to the throne without being a descendant of a King or Prince
:Coming to the throne of a rather large empire (+5, +10, and +20 in size).
:The King being rather far away from his capital city will also expedite a rebellion
:And lastly, Chivalrous Kings can actually get the nobles back into the fold, while Dread Kings... well, tend to offend people, what can I say?

===Lineage===
----

All sons and daughters of the starting faction leaders have royal blood traits specific to their faction.

Males pass on their royal blood directly. A character that marries a princess possessing a royal blood trait will sire children with a royal relations trait that signifies the nationality of his/her mother.

Characters without one of faction specific royal blood traits have a chance of reaching 'royal' status through a means other than marriage.
To be recognized as a founder of an independent royal house, a character without one of the 'Of X Blood' traits must become king. His descendants will thus be recognized members of a royal house.

===Health and Disease===
----

Mindless conquerors beware, you're in a scare!
...well, you would be if the kill_character command recognized a single word, but nonetheless, the new health system is to be feared, and appreciated.

All characters start 'relatively healthy'. When they spend a turn in an enemy region, besieging a city, being besieged themselves, or sailing on a long voyage, they have a chance of becoming unhealthy.

The unhealthier a character, the greater the chance he will develop scurvy or pneumonia while campaigning.

To recover from disease and return to a state of relative health, it would be prudent to spend time in a settlement. As sanitation in your settlements improves, your characters will become even healthier, and their chance of developing a sickness will diminish.

And lastly, it would be in your best interest to exterminate every witch you encounter, lest you find your most prized characters stricken by leprosy...
On that note, cautious players should not allow their family members to sit idly in overcrowded settlements...

===Vanquisher===
----

I always felt that the destruction of a rival faction brought with it no recognition, particularly in the realm of traits and ancillaries. As traits are my speciality, I made a point to see that some recognition was brought to this area of the game.

A general can gain faction-specific Vanquisher traits through a number of methods:

::- defeating the enemy in battle,
::- defeating the enemy heroically in battle
::- slaying an enemy general
::- sacking an enemy city

When a general has gathered enough points, and the enemy faction is well on its way to destruction, the said general will be 'Known to the X', meaning, whether or not he delivers the deathblow upon the enemy, he will be recognized as (one of) its Vanquisher(s).

A general's living and future offspring will share in their father's glorious military achievement.

===Vendetta===
----

Quite simply, generals that sustain major defeats in battle and survive will now foster vendettas against their opponents' faction.

:Note: A general can only hold one Vendetta at a time, and the Vendetta will only cease once the targeted faction has been wiped off the map.

==Campaign==
At game start, most settlements will have stone keep/wooden walls or smaller.

Population/city level doesn't strictly control unit development any-more. A regular city can recruit pretty much any unit if it has the needed building and the corresponding Era has been reached.

Barracks give easier access to more units via an introduction system. For example, a town guard building will give you full access to 'Town Militia' units and limited access to 'Spear Militia' units. Limited access means low replenishment and only 1 max in reserve. Therefore you should see a much bigger diversity in units at the beginning of the game. But they will all be limited to the Era system. For example, at the start of the game you may see Billmen pretty soon because they initially have no armour and therefore fit into Era 0.

Lastly, both cities and castles will be able to recruit all units. Different experience levels and rates will differentiate the settlements. Militia will be differentiated by being cheaper to purchase, have free upkeep in both types of settlements, but be less effective than professional soldiers.

Castles are still differentiated by giving units additional experience which is extremely important in battle. Futhermore, the castle unit build tree is also shorter, providing improved units at a faster rate. Finally Castles provide excellent defense against invaders.

Another feature is the (AOR/ZOR) Area of Recruitment Mercenary Guild. Units within this build tree are more expensive than faction units but can provide the needed help in a pinch. The units are available based on the province you are in.

===Campaign AI / Diplomacy===

The Long Road features a fully custom built AI tweaked to match an epic campaign game-play experience.

The AI should attempt to guard its borders and attack invaders leading to many more field battles.

===Battle AI===
*Improved formations for the Player to utilize
*Improved formations that make a AI battles and sieges more realistic and difficult
*Improve the realism of missile weapons.
*Guns now require line of sight for attacks.
*Improved pathfinding for units.

===Unit Balance / Auto Resolve===
Features a very unique animation delay balancing technique that results in more consistent auto-resolve battles.

This helps ensure that units that win on the campaign map auto-resolve also would win in a Player/AI battle.

This is very important because auto-resolve is what AI always uses for its battles versus other AI factions.

===Settlements===

All settlements have a minimum population of 100 people.

:Villages upgrade at 500 and max out at 750
:Towns upgrade at 1000 and max out at 2000
:Minor Cities upgrade at 2500 and max out at 5000
:Cities upgrade at 5000 and max out at 7500
:Large Cities upgrade at 7500 and max out at 10000
:Huge Cities max out at 15000

:Motte and Bailey Castles upgrade at 500, and max out at 750
:Wooden Castles upgrade at 1000 and max out at 2000
:Stone Castles upgrade at 2500 and max out at 5000
:Fortress upgrade at 5000 and max out at 7500
:Citadels upgrade at 7500 and max out at 10000

==Team==
Main Team:
* Mod Design: [[tornnight]]
* Mod GFX: [[acegogo]]

Contributors to The Long Road:
* Mercenary Units: [[Admiral-Krause]]
* Historical Background: [[Averroës]]
* Faction Starting Situations: [[Lopus]]
* Realistic Family Names: [[Lopus]]
* Interesting Historical Events: [[Hissing Fauna]]
* Original Big Map: [[Spurious]]
* Ancillary Graphics: [[Tokus*Maximus]]
* Splash Screens, Blood Mod, Unit Textures, Polish Shields: [[Burrek]]
* Byzantium Reskin: [[DisgruntledGoat]]
* Battle Formations: [[DARTH VADER|DarthVader]]
* Character Names Project: [[deRougemont]]
* Traits and Ancillaries (BBB): [[Dearmad]] & [[Pnutmaster]]
* Faction graphics: [[Biocote]]
* Banner graphics: [[joedreck]]
* Italian Shields: [[Salty]]
* Spain, Denmark, HRE Shields: [[Ziher]]
* Traits: [[Oda Nobunaga]]
* Everyone else in the forums who gave us feedback.

==External Links==
The Long Road [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=315 hosted forums] at TWC

[[Category:TWC_Hosted_Modifications]]
[[Category: Featured]]
[[Category:Medieval 2: Total War Modifications (Released)]]

The Long Road

2011-03-17T18:12:18Z

Bane tw: Reverting: Simple vandalism

{{mod|mod=The Long Road|modscreenshot=The Long Road Signature.jpg|platform=[[:Category:Medieval_2:_Total_War| Medieval II - Total War]]|era=Medieval - start date 1080|leader=[[Tornnight]] }}
==Overview==

{| align="right"
|-
|[[Image:TLRsplash.jpg]]
|-
|''Splash screen from The Long Road''
|}

The Long Road is an epic 900 turn campaign (6 months per turn) that starts in 1080.

Its focus is on the confrontation between the West and the East in Medieval Times.

Realism and Historical accuracy is a strong desire as long as it's not at the expense of playability.

The aim is to ensure an exciting experience no matter what faction you start with.

==Releases==
Latest releases in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=98729 this thread]

==Main Features==
*Large Custom Map that includes 199 regions that spans from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea
*A total of 900 turns (6 months per turn)
*Era System for units based on Armor and Weapon Technology
*New Factions
*Role-playing Traits and Ancillaries
*Lord, Duke, and Emir Titles with Coats of Arms for all Provinces
*New Historical Events with graphics
*Custom Advanced Campaign AI
*Dozens of new units for Mercenary and Faction use
*Area of Recruitment (AOR/ZOR) Mercenary Guild

===Additional Features===
*More Field battles due to enlarged map and field intercepting AI.
*More realistic movement rates on the campaign map.
*Reduced Pirates and Rebel spawn rates
*Improved Merchants. (Merchants are now far more important and competitive)
*Diseases for characters
*Rebellions
*Family Member Royal Bloodline tracking.
*Improved Princesses including Islamic Princesses
*Simulated Faction Councils and Government Positions
*Improved Technology Tree
*Unit recruitment within specific buildings
*Recruitable Early Period and Late Period Generals. Including Dismounted Generals for certain factions.
*Building Costs and Times increased to balance with the longer campaign. This gives you a challenging game that forces you to manage your economy.
*Ranked Experience Bonus for Agents (Priest,Spy,Assassin,Merchant,Diplomat) from improved buildings
*Improved Unit Textures
*Re-skinned Byzantium Faction
*Inquisitors toned down
*Heretics toned down
*Cavalry charges are powerful, but beware of spearmen.
*Added all the dismounted versions of Order units
*Guns now require line of sight. No arching bullets.
*New AI and Player Formations
*Improved AI Siege capability. Reduced AI bunching up in front of the gate

==Economy==
The economy is a central part of the challenge built into TLR. If you aren't able to improve your economic situation, expect to be destroyed promptly.

There are various strategies to deal with this. Most involve focusing on economic buildings early on. Remember the free upkeep on militia units. It can be a life saver. Crusades/Jihads can be very beneficial especially if you raid and sack enemy cities. Merchants, Trade Agreements, and Ports are very important for your economy. Losing a Trade Agreement can hurt.

==Gameplay==

===Siege Costs===
Sieges have costs build into them.
:1000 florins to initiate a siege
:500 florins-per-turn to maintain a siege
:500 florins to storm the walls
:500 florins to prop up your new government if you capture the settlement.

===Miscellaneous Costs===
It now costs 2000 florins to change your capital city.

==Campaign Map==
The map is a highly customized map with 199 regions that span from the Iberian Peninsula to the Caspian Sea. It is much larger than the vanilla [[M2TW]] map.

The new map has removed the Aztecs and Americas in favor of extending the map East and preserving map accuracy.

==New Factions==

*Kievan Rus'
*Abbassid Caliphate
*Syrian Caliphate
*Khwarezmian Empire

===Planned Factions===
*Kipchak-Cumans
*Aragon
*Independent Kingdoms
*Georgia
*Genoa (Possibly to replace Milan)
*Volga Bulgars or Zirid Calip

==New Units==

Countless new units have been added the the campaign.

Many are part of the new Mercenary Guild system and others have been created for the new factions and to strengthen the vanilla factions.

Examples of the units are

* Muslim Swordsmen
* Muslim Archers
* Ghurid Horse Archers
* Hillmen
* Guard of Constantinople
* Guard of Venice
* Dismounted Mailed Knights
* Andalusian Swordsmen
* Andalusian Knights
* Varyags

The list goes on and will continue to grow.

==Eras==
The eras are based on armor and weapon technology and change at random times within a specific range of years.
* Era 1 - Units with up to leather upgrades
* Era 2 - Units with up to light mail upgrades
* Era 3 - Units with up to heavy mail upgrades
* Era 4 - Units with up to partial plate upgrades
* Era 5 - Units with up to full plate upgrades
* Era 6 - Units with up to gothic plate upgrades

Intermixed there will also be other notable events that control building and unit construction.
:Stone Castles
:Concentric Castles
:Introduction of Battle Assassins for Eastern factions
:Cannons developed
:Handgun developed
:Matchlock developed (Arquebusiers)
:Advanced Matchlock developed (Musketeers)
:Pikemen
:Pavise Shields
:Mounted Crossbows
:The various Knight Orders
:Renaissance

==Events==
There are various historically informative events added to help set the stage for what is occurring in the game world.

Many are tied to actual happenings as explained in the Eras section.

Examples:
:Domesday Book
:Cistercian Order
:Discovery of the Hourglass
:Gothic Architecture
:First Medieval Universities

===Faction Events===

In addition, any time a faction leader perishes or a new princess comes-of-age anywhere across the world, you will be informed via an event.

==Roleplaying Traits/Ancillaries==

===Military/Heraldry Ranks===
----

Military Ranks are advanced by winning battles. The harder the victory, the more chance of advancement.

For example, if you win a battle where you outnumbered 2:1, you are extremely likely to advance in rank.

You can also advance to a point by being a great governor and campaigner. But if you want to advance the highest ranks, blood must be spilt.

*Knight Esquire / Tourmarches / Mulazim
:Command -2, Attack -2, PersonalSecurity -4
*Knight Bachelier / Taxiarchis / Amir
:PersonalSecurity -2
*Knight Banneret / Merarches / Amir al-Liva
:Command 1, Attack 1, SiegeEngineering 20
*Baron / Protostrator / Amir al-Juyush
:Command 2, Attack 2, PersonalSecurity 2, SiegeEngineering 30
*Lord / Strategos / Amir al-'Umara
:Command 3, Attack 3, PersonalSecurity 3, SiegeEngineering 40
*Count / Megas Domestikos / Wazir al-Harb
:Command 4, Attack 4, PersonalSecurity 4, SiegeEngineering 50

===Leadership Ranks===
----

Only the Faction Leader has this 'Trait'.
Actually the trait is represented by a Crown that changes as your Leader advances in rank.
A Faction Leader can improve his rank by going on campaign and battling enemies or by becoming an excellent governor.

*Silver Circlet
:No one knows whether or not this man will make a capable ruler yet. He is is untried, untested, and untrusted.
::Command -1, Attack -1, Authority -2, Law -3, Unrest 5, LocalPopularity -3, PersonalSecurity -2
*Gold Circlet
:This man's leadership qualities have been found wanting. Whether from bad luck, inexperience, or stupidity, his actions and decisions are leading the kingdom astray.
::Authority -1, Law -2, Unrest 2, LocalPopularity -2, PersonalSecurity -1
*Decent Leader
:After a few successful years of fighting and ruling, this man is starting to live up to his crown. The nobility are starting to come around to him, but his people still aren't sure about him yet.
::Law -1, Attack 1, Fertility 1, LocalPopularity -1
*Knowledgeable Leader
:This man is now known as a capable ruler. His decisions in military and civil matters have yielded fruit, and he can generally cut through the mire of political life on his own.
::Command 1, Attack 1, Authority 1, Fertility 2, PersonalSecurity 1
*Effective Leader
:Year after year of wearing the crown has made this man sure of his ability to rule. His laws are creating order from chaos, but seeds of rebellion and mistrust still echo in men's minds.
::Command 2, Attack 1, Authority 2, Fertility 3, LocalPopularity 1, PersonalSecurity 2, SiegeEngineering 10
*Great Leader
:Achieving such success as this man has, his kingdom is now unified under one banner, and he is known far and wide as an able ruler.
::Command 2, Attack 2, Authority 2, Fertility 4, LocalPopularity 2, PersonalSecurity 3, SiegeEngineering 20
*Renowned Leader
:Because of this King's achievements, his kingdom's borders have stretched and his control of it has tightened. His subjects now support him, and he has the ears of most of his nobles.
::Command 3, Attack 2, Authority 3, Fertility 5, LocalPopularity 3, PersonalSecurity 4, SiegeEngineering 30
*Legendary Leader
:This man's rule has now passed into legend. His deeds have been written down to stand next to the Kings and Emperors of old.
::Command 4, Attack 2, Authority 3, Fertility 5, LocalPopularity 4, PersonalSecurity 5, SiegeEngineering 40
*Appointed by God
:Some men achieve greatness, and others excellence, but this man has become the embodiment of God's kingly appointment on Earth.
::Command 5, Attack 3, Authority 4, Fertility 6, LocalPopularity 5, PersonalSecurity 6, SiegeEngineering 50

===Governance, Command, and Campaign Ranks===
----

*Governance Ranks increase by staying in a settlement.
*Command Ranks increase with the number of battles fought, regardless of the outcome.
*Campaign Ranks increase with time in the field.

===Titles===
----

Titles are special Ancillaries. They are acquired by simply keeping a general in a settlement for a turn. If that title does not exist for that settlement in your kingdom, then one of the generals in the city will acquire it. It is fully transferrable at this point, but beware, removing all of a nobles titles will anger him.

If you lose the province, you keep the title - it is attached to the man, not the place once acquired. This means multiple nations can claim titles to the same place. Settle the dispute the old fashioned way.

An example of a Title ancillary is, '''"Lord of Nottingham"''' with a nice coat-of-arms belonging to the region.

If you take away ALL of a Noble's titles don't expect him to be happy about it. If you do this to a man TWICE, expect a knife at your throat.

===Privy Council===
----

'''Chancellor'''

An office your king can grant.
Your King gains the power to grant this office once he stays in a city with a Council Chambers.
:Transferable.

'''Privy Seal'''

An important item your King grants to someone's charge.
Your King gains this seal automatically after the first turn.
:Transferable.

'''Seneschal'''

An office your king can grant.
Gain the power to grant this office by remaining in a settlement with a Fairground AND a Council Chambers.
:Transferable.

'''Chamberlain'''

A servant and high government official of your King.
Your King gains one of these when he stays for 4 turns (at LEAST may take more) in a city with:
:A Council Chambers
Your King cannot be:
:A Bad Administrator
:A Stoic
:Austere

:NOT transferable.

'''Marshall'''

An office your king can grant. Sort of a main general position.
Gain the power to grant this office by staying in a CASTLE with a Garrison Quarters AND a Knight's Stables
:Transferable

'''Master of the Horse'''

An office granted automatically once your King can grant the MARSHALL office. This person oversees horsebreeding and distributing horses.
Gain this office by being able to grant the Marshall office, AND having a general WITHOUT a government office somewhere.
:NOT Transferable

'''Steward'''

An office your king can grant.
Gain the power to grant this office by staying in a CITY with a Council Chambers
:Transferable

'''Treasurer'''

An office your king can grant.
Gain the power to grant this office by staying in a CASTLE with a Garrison Quarters AND having >15000 Florins in your treasury.
In order to first create this office, your King cannot be:
:An Embezzeler
:Corrupt
:A Bad Administrator

:Transferable

'''Guildmaster of Thieves'''

Not exactly an official member of the council, but... This office is granted to a spy. It is bestowed without player input.
Gain this office once your faction has a Thieves' Guild anywhere.
:NOT Transferable

'''Guildmaster of Assassins'''

Nobody gets this office, ever... officially...
It is RUMORED one can gain a guildmaster of this sort by having an Assassins Guild somewhere in the realm... how the selection process works beyond that is a mystery...
:NOT Transferable, if indeed it even exists at all...

'''Knightly Orders'''

Grandmasters of each order exist. This means that one man in the world will be elected by his peers to lead his order, if that order exists on the map (there is at LEAST a minor chapter house somewhere in the world). The benefits each man gets for each order differs slightly, however they are all good.

:France most often (if France has a chapter house) will be favored by the Knights Templar.
:The HRE is favored by the Teutonic Order, but, again, they must have a chapter house.
:The Knights of Santiago favor the Spanish.
:The Knights Hospitalier favor no nationality.

Again, for any of your Generals to be considered to as the Grandmaster of a Knightly Order, the order must exist in your Kingdom by means of at least one minor chapter house.

'''Archbishops & Patriarchs'''

Your kingdom can gain an Archbishop or Patriarch by having a priest stay in one of your cities that has a Cathedral. Men who ascend to this position are, sometimes, corrupted by the power, though...

===Education===
----

When a male family member comes of age, you can formally educate him, if you choose. For four turns he will be able to attend an education focused on:
* The Court: Education received in the Capital, focused on law and how to manage people and money.
* The Clergy: Education received in a city with at least a church that is not your capital. Results in Piety, possible ordination, some law, inspiring soldier morale.
* The Military: Education received in a castle with at least a library in it. Results in improved authority, command, and movement.

Note that if in those four educational turns you feel you could get a better education in the blood of the field, feel free to go for it.

===Odds and Ends===
----

'''Kingmaker'''

A man who helped a king ascend to the throne when his biological father was not the king.
This guy can ADD to the King's authority or subtract from it... read about him by hovering your mouse over him.
NOT transferable

'''Defender of the Faith'''

The Pope has appointed you King to be the Defender of the Faith... a mostly honorary title, but with some benefits. It is held for life. Your faction cannot be excommunicated in order for your king to receive this. Only ONE King in all the world can have this Ancillary.
NOT transferable

'''Conqueror of Constantinople'''

You can liberate the city if it was captured and you are Greek, or take it if you are not. You will get this trait. This trait has many rewards, but can slightly tempt the man once in awhile (- some loyalty). Watch out if you send the same in repeatedly to take the city- he WILL get the idea that he should be King, not you.

'''Distance loyalty'''

Those close to your capital are usually more loyal... those further afield... for long periods of time, will slowly become more and more tempted to wonder why they are exiled so. Crusaders are immune to this. you can "charge up" a generals loyalty by having him hang around the capital, but this will take time... can you spare the time? Oooh... decisions decisions decisions, it is good to be King.

'''Go on a Pilgrimage!'''

Those Christians who visit Jerusalem will most likely gain Piety for the effort... but a few are disgusted by the tourist trade and grow disillusioned. Some are uninspired either way...

'''Go on the Hajj!'''

Islamic Generals can go to Mekka

'''Demeanor'''

Generals who fight in personal combat who also lose a significant share of their bodyguard, and/or kill a number of men in personal combat stand a small chance to begin a line of traits, either Hardened to battle (better commanders), or becoming Humane (lesser commanders)... However BOTH traits have a twist... if you gain this trait too severely, the Humane general will buck up and start fighting like a man again, while the Hardened one, haunted by ghosts and images of all the men he has killed, will lose the loyalty and ability to command his troops effectively. He himself will become much tougher in combat, however...

===Royal Dynasties===
----

You will notice of 'faction' Blood traits on your Royal Family members.

Now you can track bloodlines even if you adopt quite often.

Also, if you bribe a foreigner of Royal Blood to your faction, that lineage will track too!

===Rebellions===
----

When a King ascends to the throne he has a chance of gaining the Trait: '''Offends Nobles.'''

This basically means he is of some sort of personality that they don't like. So, a portion of his nobles may decide they don't like him. The others will stand behind their king.
If this Trait advances and turns into a worse one, like "Inspires Civil War," his nobles who hate him already will become further disloyal and those who support him will also galvanize.

The Nobles who "Rebel" will NOT obey any further orders. They will have half movement rates, and if they manage to get into one of your settlements, they will NOT move out and will cause extreme unrest, they have no loyalty, no command ability, and horrible morale effects in battle. Eventually these Nobles will completely break away from the faction taking the settlement with them.

The larger an Empire the greater the chance of initiating the trait that starts this whole cascade.

Also, when a King runs his Kingdom's treasury into the ground and has no more money, his nobles may take high offense this- why has he taxed them so only to now plead that he needs more of their monies- for what? To finance more wars? His high standard of living in his mighty Capital?

Lastly, a King who gets his Faction excommunicated and NOT due to purely political reasons (meaning his Piety is also not high) runs the risk of offending his nobles, if he is Catholic. If the Pope is merely playing political games (the King's Piety is high, in other words), then so be it... the Nobles will stand by their lord.

The King *can* (but doesn't always) acquire the '''Offensive to Nobles''' trait by:

:Getting excommunicated when his piety is low. If your Piety is high, this will not have an effect.
:Running into debt when your authority is lower than 6.
:Coming to the throne without being a descendant of a King or Prince
:Coming to the throne of a rather large empire (+5, +10, and +20 in size).
:The King being rather far away from his capital city will also expedite a rebellion
:And lastly, Chivalrous Kings can actually get the nobles back into the fold, while Dread Kings... well, tend to offend people, what can I say?

===Lineage===
----

All sons and daughters of the starting faction leaders have royal blood traits specific to their faction.

Males pass on their royal blood directly. A character that marries a princess possessing a royal blood trait will sire children with a royal relations trait that signifies the nationality of his/her mother.

Characters without one of faction specific royal blood traits have a chance of reaching 'royal' status through a means other than marriage.
To be recognized as a founder of an independent royal house, a character without one of the 'Of X Blood' traits must become king. His descendants will thus be recognized members of a royal house.

===Health and Disease===
----

Mindless conquerors beware, you're in a scare!
...well, you would be if the kill_character command recognized a single word, but nonetheless, the new health system is to be feared, and appreciated.

All characters start 'relatively healthy'. When they spend a turn in an enemy region, besieging a city, being besieged themselves, or sailing on a long voyage, they have a chance of becoming unhealthy.

The unhealthier a character, the greater the chance he will develop scurvy or pneumonia while campaigning.

To recover from disease and return to a state of relative health, it would be prudent to spend time in a settlement. As sanitation in your settlements improves, your characters will become even healthier, and their chance of developing a sickness will diminish.

And lastly, it would be in your best interest to exterminate every witch you encounter, lest you find your most prized characters stricken by leprosy...
On that note, cautious players should not allow their family members to sit idly in overcrowded settlements...

===Vanquisher===
----

I always felt that the destruction of a rival faction brought with it no recognition, particularly in the realm of traits and ancillaries. As traits are my speciality, I made a point to see that some recognition was brought to this area of the game.

A general can gain faction-specific Vanquisher traits through a number of methods:

::- defeating the enemy in battle,
::- defeating the enemy heroically in battle
::- slaying an enemy general
::- sacking an enemy city

When a general has gathered enough points, and the enemy faction is well on its way to destruction, the said general will be 'Known to the X', meaning, whether or not he delivers the deathblow upon the enemy, he will be recognized as (one of) its Vanquisher(s).

A general's living and future offspring will share in their father's glorious military achievement.

===Vendetta===
----

Quite simply, generals that sustain major defeats in battle and survive will now foster vendettas against their opponents' faction.

:Note: A general can only hold one Vendetta at a time, and the Vendetta will only cease once the targeted faction has been wiped off the map.

==Campaign==
At game start, most settlements will have stone keep/wooden walls or smaller.

Population/city level doesn't strictly control unit development any-more. A regular city can recruit pretty much any unit if it has the needed building and the corresponding Era has been reached.

Barracks give easier access to more units via an introduction system. For example, a town guard building will give you full access to 'Town Militia' units and limited access to 'Spear Militia' units. Limited access means low replenishment and only 1 max in reserve. Therefore you should see a much bigger diversity in units at the beginning of the game. But they will all be limited to the Era system. For example, at the start of the game you may see Billmen pretty soon because they initially have no armour and therefore fit into Era 0.

Lastly, both cities and castles will be able to recruit all units. Different experience levels and rates will differentiate the settlements. Militia will be differentiated by being cheaper to purchase, have free upkeep in both types of settlements, but be less effective than professional soldiers.

Castles are still differentiated by giving units additional experience which is extremely important in battle. Futhermore, the castle unit build tree is also shorter, providing improved units at a faster rate. Finally Castles provide excellent defense against invaders.

Another feature is the (AOR/ZOR) Area of Recruitment Mercenary Guild. Units within this build tree are more expensive than faction units but can provide the needed help in a pinch. The units are available based on the province you are in.

===Campaign AI / Diplomacy===

The Long Road features a fully custom built AI tweaked to match an epic campaign game-play experience.

The AI should attempt to guard its borders and attack invaders leading to many more field battles.

===Battle AI===
*Improved formations for the Player to utilize
*Improved formations that make a AI battles and sieges more realistic and difficult
*Improve the realism of missile weapons.
*Guns now require line of sight for attacks.
*Improved pathfinding for units.

===Unit Balance / Auto Resolve===
Features a very unique animation delay balancing technique that results in more consistent auto-resolve battles.

This helps ensure that units that win on the campaign map auto-resolve also would win in a Player/AI battle.

This is very important because auto-resolve is what AI always uses for its battles versus other AI factions.

===Settlements===

All settlements have a minimum population of 100 people.

:Villages upgrade at 500 and max out at 750
:Towns upgrade at 1000 and max out at 2000
:Minor Cities upgrade at 2500 and max out at 5000
:Cities upgrade at 5000 and max out at 7500
:Large Cities upgrade at 7500 and max out at 10000
:Huge Cities max out at 15000

:Motte and Bailey Castles upgrade at 500, and max out at 750
:Wooden Castles upgrade at 1000 and max out at 2000
:Stone Castles upgrade at 2500 and max out at 5000
:Fortress upgrade at 5000 and max out at 7500
:Citadels upgrade at 7500 and max out at 10000

==Team==
Main Team:
* Mod Design: [[tornnight]]
* Mod GFX: [[acegogo]]

Contributors to The Long Road:
* Mercenary Units: [[Admiral-Krause]]
* Historical Background: [[Averroës]]
* Faction Starting Situations: [[Lopus]]
* Realistic Family Names: [[Lopus]]
* Interesting Historical Events: [[Hissing Fauna]]
* Original Big Map: [[Spurious]]
* Ancillary Graphics: [[Tokus*Maximus]]
* Splash Screens, Blood Mod, Unit Textures, Polish Shields: [[Burrek]]
* Byzantium Reskin: [[DisgruntledGoat]]
* Battle Formations: [[DARTH VADER|DarthVader]]
* Character Names Project: [[deRougemont]]
* Traits and Ancillaries (BBB): [[Dearmad]] & [[Pnutmaster]]
* Faction graphics: [[Biocote]]
* Banner graphics: [[joedreck]]
* Italian Shields: [[Salty]]
* Spain, Denmark, HRE Shields: [[Ziher]]
* Traits: [[Oda Nobunaga]]
* Everyone else in the forums who gave us feedback.

==External Links==
The Long Road [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=315 hosted forums] at TWC

[[Category:TWC_Hosted_Modifications]]
[[Category: Featured]]
[[Category:Medieval 2: Total War Modifications (Released)]]

User:Pontifex

2011-03-17T07:25:48Z

Bane tw: double redirect fix #2

#REDIRECT [[Pontifex Maximus]]

Shogun: Total War

2011-03-08T07:30:33Z

Bane tw: /* Factions */

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2011-03-06T16:11:07Z

Bane tw:

Shogun: Total War

2011-03-06T15:43:27Z

Bane tw: Additional pictures, small format update

File:Shogun Total War Campaign map.jpg

2011-03-06T15:30:28Z

Bane tw:

File:Shogun Total War map2.jpg

2011-03-06T14:51:05Z

Bane tw:

File:Shogun Total War Choose a clan.jpg

2011-03-06T14:50:31Z

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File:Shogun Total War battlefield.jpg

2011-03-06T14:50:21Z

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2011-03-06T14:45:25Z

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File:Ss64factionselection.jpg

2011-03-05T21:39:15Z

Bane tw:

Stainless Steel

2011-03-05T21:38:45Z

Bane tw: /* Stainless Steel 6.4 Features */

[[File:Ssbanner.png|center]]
{{mod5
|mod=Stainless Steel
|image=[[Image:SSmainlogo.jpg]]
|platform=[[Medieval 2: Total War|M2TW]] and [[Kingdoms]]
|era=Medieval
|leader=[[gracul]]
|formerleader=[[King Kong]]
|mod-folder=In mod-folder
|release=[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=417435 Version 6.4]}}
==Overview==
Stainless Steel was first started as a mod for [[Medieval 2: Total War]] ([http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110425 v4.1] and lower), but it switched over to [[Kingdoms]] after the expansion was released.
It combines bug fixes, many small mods, changes to AI and AI armies, more provinces, graphical improvements and many other campaign and battle map changes in a package aimed at providing a much greater challenge and more enjoyable gameplay. 
It is one of the most popular mods for Medieval 2, but is surpassed in popularity by [[Third Age: Total War]]. 
Stainless Steel mostly keeps the same setting as the original Medieval 2 campaign, though it expands the map east and north while removing America.

==Features==
===Stainless Steel 6.4 Features===

====The Campaign====
[[image:Ss64factionselection.jpg|right|470px|]]
*Rebalanced victory conditions.
*Rebalanced building bonuses.
*Guild's HQ's now always offer a faction wide bonus.
*Rebalanced existing missions and added more missions.
*New building, place-able in locations with long rivers.
*Removed Ireland.
*Added a new region below Kiev (Ireland is now 2 regions).
*AI factions tend to stick to their Royal Blood for many generations.
*Alberi di Famiglia Regal implemented.
*New Faction Economy scripts.
*Knight's Templar & Kingdom of Jerusalem have been combined into Crusader States (with mixed units).
*Mongols are finally pagan.
*1TPY Early Era campaign.
*Slave faction are now a lot more active - including the ability to use merchants, spies and assassins.
*New troubadours event.

====The Campaign Map====
[[image:Ss61mpoverview.jpg|right|470px|]]
* Completely new and huge campaign map, covering most of Europe and the beginning of Persia.
* New ground types and custom climates.
* Maximum width the engine allows of 510 movement tiles.
* Mountains, hills and map outlines are based on satellite data.
* Work of art coastlines instead of the square 'vanilla' ones.
* Maximum amount of almost 200 historically medieval settlements. (A few had to sacrifice historical accuracy for better game balance)
* Every Region has its own ressources, including new valuable resources in the "outbacks" of the map
* Resources are now better balanced, a couple of new resources were also added.
* All resources were moved away from roads, to ensure merchants' peaceful life.
* AI friendly map, the AIs' armies should no longer get stuck.
* Narrow mountain passages were widened enough for agents to freely pass, while armies will still get blocked.
* Missing ports added.
* Rebels spawning on inaccessible terrain fixed and Rebel ships spawning in small lakes fixed.
* Agart's great city & castle models.

====The Battle Map & Unit Balance====
[[image:SS6xBattle.jpg|right|470px|]]
*Davide.cool grass mod implemented.
*Water now looks a whole lot better!
*Smoother steppes modification by wolfslayer implemented.
*New war horn sounds by wolfslayer implemented (hand picked by me).
*Ambient sound files for Muslim temples by wolfslayer implemented.
*Magus' Crimson Tide implemented (the no-dirt version).
*Award winning BAI by Germanicu5.
*Swagger's Skymod included.
*Knights Templar units from Lord_Calidor's KT mod implemented.
*BftB units by Caesar Clivus implemented.
*For God and St. George mods by AWellesley.
*Lord Condormanius's Mailed Knights.
*Polish Units by MADTAO included.
*Rusichi mod units implemented.
*Real Recruitment's AoR (Area of Recruitment) system included.
*RR's system nearly fully integrated. (please refer to RR/RC OCT 30 post for more detailed changes)

====Traits & Ancilliaries====
*Rebalanced merchant traits for 1TPY.
*As merchants get older, they lose movement points.
*Generals are now a lot easier to educate in settlements with schools etc.
*Faction Leaders can now acquire a set of traits affecting all settlements and generals.

====General Changes====
*Auto border-less mode - ALT+TAB in and out of the game without any loading.
*New, epic loading screens.
*New music by Kevin MacLeod, Jon Sayles & Bill Hudak, vanilla MTW2 music was also brought back. (now we have 141 music files + vanilla music, compared to 89 in 6.1 and no vanilla music, that's a hell lot!)
*New main menu background & splash screen by Y2day.
*Faction selection crash fixed.
*All factions accessible in custom battle and hotseat.
*External campaign chooser - for easy hotseat and CTD reduction.
*External launcher application - taking care of things the user would normally do.
*CBUR with most of its features implemented.
*Riczu trade carts removed.
*Parts of Awellesley's 1100AD mod integrated.
*SSTC by Chimaeira implemented.
*Real Horses by Argent Usher implemented.
*CBUR and Unit Card improvement projects by Agis Tournas implemented.
*Animations updates.
*Y2day's faction shields & banners.
*New quotes.
*Proper character aging.
*Byzantine and Kievan Rus unit cards by akvilonn.
*Tax auto-manage should now work properly.
*Added Patriarchs for Orthodox factions.
*All factions now have their one-liner pre-battle speeches activated (more speeches for existing factions, and no more mute Norway, Kwarzemian Empire, etc. generals)
*Unbelievable amount of fixes, both big and small, too many to mention them all.

===Stainless Steel 4.1 Features===
====The Campaign====
The whole game pace is slightly lowered. The default game length is about 350 turns (1.5 years per turn).
However, you have also the option to play the game with the original game length of 225 turns.
Population limits for settlement upgrades raised, building times and costs slightly increased.
Heavy Infantry units are recruitbale later, therefore every faction gets an additional light infantry unit.

====The Campaign Map====
[[image:SS41campaignmapdetail.jpg|right|470px|]]
*Campaign Map completely resized and reworked
*Slight Map Extension to the north and east
*More space between settlements in order to have more field battles
*Many new details like smoother forests, new rivers, mountains, isles, trade routes
*Slightly changed borders of all regions in order to make them less noticeable
*About 50 New Provinces, well spreaded and historically correct (Exeter, Bari, Oporto, Arta, Barcelona, Belgrade, Balearic Isles, Bryansk, Lyon, Athens, Munster, Ancona, Isle of Lesvos, Warsaw, Diyarbakir, Salzburg, Kirov, Melilla, Salamanca, Groningen, Clermont, Thebes, Mecca, Basra, Astrakhan, Tortosa, El-Oued, Sinop, Norrkoeping, Benghazi, ...)
*Every Region has its own ressources, including new valuable resources in the "outbacks" of the map.
*Some ressources deleted to make others more valuable

====The Campaign AI====
Stainless Steel 4.x uses GrandViz Ultimate AI, specifically [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=97021 Ultimate AI 1.5]. The Ultimate AI Mod is a complete redesign of the vanilla campaign AI, providing a more challenging and diplomatically active AI opponent. It also includes a lot of balance tweaks to settlement mechanics, economy (tax, trade, costs), population growth, religion and public order.

====The New Factions====

=====Kievan Rus=====
[[image:ss41kievrus.jpg|right|]]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=99475 detailed preview of the Kievan Rus]
*8 unique units with unique descriptions
*All units, banners and models reskinned
*Historical character names
*Difficult starting position
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27 Wikipedia on Kievan Rus]

=====Crown of Aragon=====
[[image:ss41knightstemplar.jpg|right|]]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=104053 detailed preview of the Crown of Aragon]
*5 unique units with unique descriptions
*New historical unit names
*All units, banners and models reskinned
*Historical Character Names
*New Order of Montesa guild
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Aragon Wikipedia on Crown of Aragon]

=====Order of the Knights Templar=====
[[image:Ss41aragon.jpg|right|]]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=86534 detailed preview of the Order of the Knights Templar]
*7 Unique Units with new descriptions
*All other units have specific Templar Knight designs
*Historical Characters and new Templar Knights events
*New Unique Titles which represent the Templar Hirarchy
*Very different and hard campaign
*Unit roster slightly changed from 3.2
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar Wikipedia on Knights Templar]

====The Mercenaries====
[[image:Ss41mercs.jpg|right|]]
*New mercenaries for the Early and High Medieval Period:
*New and more varied mercenary pools
*Greater mercenary variety
*Mercenaries have more experience
*Less mercenary missile units
*Regions have more of mercenary special units
====Improved and challenging AI Armies====

*Proper Mix of Infantry, Missiles, Cavalry and Artillery.
*AI produces more Elite and Heavy units.
*This was done without changing any unit costs
====New Traits, Ancillaries, Titles and RPG elements====
[[image:Ss41rpgelements.jpg|right|300px|]]
*Titles for all Cities and Castles and for both Islamic and Catholic/Orthodox factions and with important bonuses in various settlements.
*Army attrition and supply system demands much more tactical decisions and religion is much more important (Byg's Reality traits)
*Countless new Traits, Transferable Titles, Ancillaries (Blood, Broads, & Bastards 2.x)
*Patriarch titles for Orthodox Factions available
*Many broken Character Traits and Ancillaries fixed
*New Knights Templar Titles
====Much more interesting Historical and Game Events====
[[image:Ss41comingofage.jpg|right|300px|]]
*Events for Orders, Inquisitions, Culture, Battles...
*Events when a princess comes of age or when a monarch dies; many different portraits of beautiful and less beautiful princesses
*Including New Era Events which affect unit & mercenary recruitment
*Events who inform about the fall of any faction's capital cities.
====Agents and Characters====
*Historically accurate Character Names (CNP 3.0)
*Reasonable limits for assassins, spies and priests
*Agents rebalanced
*Captains are less likely to rebel
*Imam's required Piety to call a Jihad raised
====Settlement and Unit Recruitment Changes====
[[image:Ss41aztecs.jpg|right|300px|]]
*Important medieval Cities like Constantinople, Kiev, Rome and Paris more powerful
*More logical and rebalanced recruitment, for example cities can build more ships & artillery than castles.
*Early/Late Generals rarely recruitable in castles/citadels
*Income, city growth and distance to capital punishment rebalanced
*More balanced money script to support AI Factions
*Byzantium can build Highways
*Added many missing and additional units such as Dismounted Gothic Knights, English Armored Sergeants, Dismounted Broken Lances, Hussars, Greek Arquebusiers, Desert Raiders and more
* Rebalanced and fixed guild triggers
* Historically more accurate Faction Names
* Conquering the Aztecs is much harder
====Battles====
[[image:Ss41graphics.jpg|right|600px|]]
*10 new Custom Battle Maps
*Darth Mod 1.4B battle AI and physics
*More balanced units stats and costs
*Longer Lasting Battles due to slightly higher morale
*More realistic battle map movement
====Graphics====
* Completely new Faction Symbols & Menu Designs by Alletun
* 20 new epic loading screens
* New Symbols for the battle map
* New unique Shield textures for all catholic factions
* New unique Unit Textures for all European Early & High units (Burrek)
* New unique Unit Textures for all Feudal & Mailed Knights (Knights&Knaves)
* New unique unit textures for all Order Knights armor upgrades
* High quality unit textures & banners for Byzantium (DG's One Faction At A Time)
* New unit textures and banners for Hungary (Magyar Mod + own additions and improvements)
* Historical accurate faction banners and banners for special units (Kings Banner 2.0)
* More spectacular Sky variations and little more blood (improved Horsearcher's skymod)

== Team and Credits==
=== Version 6.4 ===
*[[gracul]] - Leader
*[[King Kong]] - SS 6.1
*[[Point Blank]] - RR/RC, lots of things
*[[Byg]] - support and BGR
*[[Caesar Clivus]] - forum handling, support and CBUR
*[[Rozanov]] - coding and ideas
*[[Germanicu5]] - coding and ideas, BAI
*[[y2day]] - art & graphics
*[[Awellesley]] - units & support
*[[Bane_tw]] - forum handling and bug fixing
*[[Ishan]] - forum handling and bug fixing
*[[cedric37]] - art & ui graphics

Beta testers:
*[[Smikis]]
*[[Navajo Joe]]
*[[sancco]]
*[[TheColdTruth]]
*[[Zanze]]
*[[CamilleBonparte]]
*[[adecoy95]]
*[[nonnob3]]
*[[PedroL]]

Other contributors:
*(HG)LordKoal, (HG)Super, (HG)Iliturgitano, (HG)Xaviar, (HG)Carlos, (HG)Adrics, CeltiberoThormes, penyetta, garcy170 (Spanish translation)
*Fred Putz (German translation)
*warman222 (new combo&death animations)
*Baraban (textures & model fixes)
*KDK (ui graphics)
*beikon & gord69 (Steam help)
*Fair Prince (SSNOP, SSHCP, SSTAIP)
*newt (No Waiting)
*[[Savage]] - CAI
*[[Caralampio]]
*[[wolfslayer]]
*[[Santiago de Pola]]
*[[davide.cool]] - better grass
*[[Argent Usher]] - real horses
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/member.php?u=40033 Agis Tournas] - CBUR
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/member.php?u=23850 Anthonius II] - CBUR
*[[Magus]] - Crismon Tide
*[[Lord Calidor]] - KT mod
*[[agart]] - castle & city strat models
*[[Agis Tournas]] - Unit Card improvement
*[[Black_Nebula]] - Hungary Impaler Skins
*[[Seether]] - AFR mod
*[[Soupdragon]] - EE watchtower
*[[Chimaeira]] - SSTC
*[[Lord Condormanius]] - Mailed Knights
*[[Akvilonn]] - additional unit info cards
*[[MADTAO]] - polish units
*[[Barser]] - unit models
*[[Csatádi]] - hungarian map guidelines
*[[gewehr36]] - pagan mongols
*[[Cedric37]] - UIs
*Kevin MacLeod - music
*Jon Sayles & Bill Hudak - music
*[[Swagger]] - sky mod
*[[Akvilonn]] - Unit info cards
*[[nonnob3]] - Unit info cards
*[[Lusted]] - CAI
*[[Lord Calidor]] - KT mod
*[[Quark]] (wherever you are right now)

=== Version 4.1 ===
Leader: [[King Kong]]

Thanks:
*[[Alletun]] for making beautiful symbols and designs for my mod
*[[Student]] for his help and research on the Knights Templar
*[[Disgruntled Goat]] for his outstanding unit textures
*[[Darth Vader]] for his battle AI and physics
*[[Grand Viz]] for his Ultimate AI
*[[Yuiis]], [[shaeffer]], [[numerosdecimus]], [[M2_Junky]] for their great contributions
*[[Byg]] for his Reality traits
*[[Horsearcher]], [[Ziher]], [[Plasticfigurine]], [[Salty]], [[Headlock]] for their graphical improvements
*[[Burrek]] for his unique European textures
*[[Joe Dreck]] for his Kings Banner mod
*[[Dearmad]] and [[Pnutmaster]] for BBB
*All others who contributed in the Stainless Steel forum
for the help with the 4.1 patch:
*[[Lusted]], [[Klink]] and [[DrJambo]] for their battle AI
*[[Quark]] and [[shaeffer]] for being a great help
*[[Nerazzurri]] for the Movies fix and the Stainless Steel icon.
*[[Tyre]] for some of his new skins
*All others for their feedback and bug reports
 
A full list of credits for all release versions can be found in this [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=410270 forum topic]

== History ==
Stainless steel 2.0 has been included on the free DVD supplied with a UK gaming magazine.

==Releases==
Version 6.3 released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=377824 this thread] on the 3rd of August 2010

Version 6.0/6.1 released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=159996 this thread] in April 2008

Version 5.0/5.1 released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=126810 this thread] in October 2007.

Version 4.0/4.1 released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110425 this thread] in July 2007.

Version 3.2 was released for the [[M2TW]] official patch 1.2 in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92205 this thread] in May 2007.

Version 2.2 was released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=80216 this thread] in January 2007.

==See Also==

[[Stainless Steel (form)|Stainless Steel - Mod Registration Form]]

==External Links==

[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=314 Stainless Steel at TWC]

[[Category:TWC_Hosted_Modifications]]
[[Category:Medieval 2: Total War Modifications (Released)]]

File:SSmainlogo.jpg

2011-03-05T21:26:16Z

Bane tw:

Stainless Steel

2011-03-05T21:25:34Z

Bane tw:

[[File:Ssbanner.png|center]]
{{mod5
|mod=Stainless Steel
|image=[[Image:SSmainlogo.jpg]]
|platform=[[Medieval 2: Total War|M2TW]] and [[Kingdoms]]
|era=Medieval
|leader=[[gracul]]
|formerleader=[[King Kong]]
|mod-folder=In mod-folder
|release=[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=417435 Version 6.4]}}
==Overview==
Stainless Steel was first started as a mod for [[Medieval 2: Total War]] ([http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110425 v4.1] and lower), but it switched over to [[Kingdoms]] after the expansion was released.
It combines bug fixes, many small mods, changes to AI and AI armies, more provinces, graphical improvements and many other campaign and battle map changes in a package aimed at providing a much greater challenge and more enjoyable gameplay. 
It is one of the most popular mods for Medieval 2, but is surpassed in popularity by [[Third Age: Total War]]. 
Stainless Steel mostly keeps the same setting as the original Medieval 2 campaign, though it expands the map east and north while removing America.

==Features==
===Stainless Steel 6.4 Features===
====The Campaign====
*Rebalanced victory conditions.
*Rebalanced building bonuses.
*Guild's HQ's now always offer a faction wide bonus.
*Rebalanced existing missions and added more missions.
*New building, place-able in locations with long rivers.
*Removed Ireland.
*Added a new region below Kiev (Ireland is now 2 regions).
*AI factions tend to stick to their Royal Blood for many generations.
*Alberi di Famiglia Regal implemented.
*New Faction Economy scripts.
*Knight's Templar & Kingdom of Jerusalem have been combined into Crusader States (with mixed units).
*Mongols are finally pagan.
*1TPY Early Era campaign.
*Slave faction are now a lot more active - including the ability to use merchants, spies and assassins.
*New troubadours event.

====The Campaign Map====
[[image:Ss61mpoverview.jpg|right|470px|]]
* Completely new and huge campaign map, covering most of Europe and the beginning of Persia.
* New ground types and custom climates.
* Maximum width the engine allows of 510 movement tiles.
* Mountains, hills and map outlines are based on satellite data.
* Work of art coastlines instead of the square 'vanilla' ones.
* Maximum amount of almost 200 historically medieval settlements. (A few had to sacrifice historical accuracy for better game balance)
* Every Region has its own ressources, including new valuable resources in the "outbacks" of the map
* Resources are now better balanced, a couple of new resources were also added.
* All resources were moved away from roads, to ensure merchants' peaceful life.
* AI friendly map, the AIs' armies should no longer get stuck.
* Narrow mountain passages were widened enough for agents to freely pass, while armies will still get blocked.
* Missing ports added.
* Rebels spawning on inaccessible terrain fixed and Rebel ships spawning in small lakes fixed.
* Agart's great city & castle models.

====The Battle Map & Unit Balance====
[[image:SS6xBattle.jpg|right|470px|]]
*Davide.cool grass mod implemented.
*Water now looks a whole lot better!
*Smoother steppes modification by wolfslayer implemented.
*New war horn sounds by wolfslayer implemented (hand picked by me).
*Ambient sound files for Muslim temples by wolfslayer implemented.
*Magus' Crimson Tide implemented (the no-dirt version).
*Award winning BAI by Germanicu5.
*Swagger's Skymod included.
*Knights Templar units from Lord_Calidor's KT mod implemented.
*BftB units by Caesar Clivus implemented.
*For God and St. George mods by AWellesley.
*Lord Condormanius's Mailed Knights.
*Polish Units by MADTAO included.
*Rusichi mod units implemented.
*Real Recruitment's AoR (Area of Recruitment) system included.
*RR's system nearly fully integrated. (please refer to RR/RC OCT 30 post for more detailed changes)

====Traits & Ancilliaries====
*Rebalanced merchant traits for 1TPY.
*As merchants get older, they lose movement points.
*Generals are now a lot easier to educate in settlements with schools etc.
*Faction Leaders can now acquire a set of traits affecting all settlements and generals.

====General Changes====
*Auto border-less mode - ALT+TAB in and out of the game without any loading.
*New, epic loading screens.
*New music by Kevin MacLeod, Jon Sayles & Bill Hudak, vanilla MTW2 music was also brought back. (now we have 141 music files + vanilla music, compared to 89 in 6.1 and no vanilla music, that's a hell lot!)
*New main menu background & splash screen by Y2day.
*Faction selection crash fixed.
*All factions accessible in custom battle and hotseat.
*External campaign chooser - for easy hotseat and CTD reduction.
*External launcher application - taking care of things the user would normally do.
*CBUR with most of its features implemented.
*Riczu trade carts removed.
*Parts of Awellesley's 1100AD mod integrated.
*SSTC by Chimaeira implemented.
*Real Horses by Argent Usher implemented.
*CBUR and Unit Card improvement projects by Agis Tournas implemented.
*Animations updates.
*Y2day's faction shields & banners.
*New quotes.
*Proper character aging.
*Byzantine and Kievan Rus unit cards by akvilonn.
*Tax auto-manage should now work properly.
*Added Patriarchs for Orthodox factions.
*All factions now have their one-liner pre-battle speeches activated (more speeches for existing factions, and no more mute Norway, Kwarzemian Empire, etc. generals)
*Unbelievable amount of fixes, both big and small, too many to mention them all.

===Stainless Steel 4.1 Features===
====The Campaign====
The whole game pace is slightly lowered. The default game length is about 350 turns (1.5 years per turn).
However, you have also the option to play the game with the original game length of 225 turns.
Population limits for settlement upgrades raised, building times and costs slightly increased.
Heavy Infantry units are recruitbale later, therefore every faction gets an additional light infantry unit.

====The Campaign Map====
[[image:SS41campaignmapdetail.jpg|right|470px|]]
*Campaign Map completely resized and reworked
*Slight Map Extension to the north and east
*More space between settlements in order to have more field battles
*Many new details like smoother forests, new rivers, mountains, isles, trade routes
*Slightly changed borders of all regions in order to make them less noticeable
*About 50 New Provinces, well spreaded and historically correct (Exeter, Bari, Oporto, Arta, Barcelona, Belgrade, Balearic Isles, Bryansk, Lyon, Athens, Munster, Ancona, Isle of Lesvos, Warsaw, Diyarbakir, Salzburg, Kirov, Melilla, Salamanca, Groningen, Clermont, Thebes, Mecca, Basra, Astrakhan, Tortosa, El-Oued, Sinop, Norrkoeping, Benghazi, ...)
*Every Region has its own ressources, including new valuable resources in the "outbacks" of the map.
*Some ressources deleted to make others more valuable

====The Campaign AI====
Stainless Steel 4.x uses GrandViz Ultimate AI, specifically [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=97021 Ultimate AI 1.5]. The Ultimate AI Mod is a complete redesign of the vanilla campaign AI, providing a more challenging and diplomatically active AI opponent. It also includes a lot of balance tweaks to settlement mechanics, economy (tax, trade, costs), population growth, religion and public order.

====The New Factions====

=====Kievan Rus=====
[[image:ss41kievrus.jpg|right|]]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=99475 detailed preview of the Kievan Rus]
*8 unique units with unique descriptions
*All units, banners and models reskinned
*Historical character names
*Difficult starting position
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27 Wikipedia on Kievan Rus]

=====Crown of Aragon=====
[[image:ss41knightstemplar.jpg|right|]]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=104053 detailed preview of the Crown of Aragon]
*5 unique units with unique descriptions
*New historical unit names
*All units, banners and models reskinned
*Historical Character Names
*New Order of Montesa guild
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_of_Aragon Wikipedia on Crown of Aragon]

=====Order of the Knights Templar=====
[[image:Ss41aragon.jpg|right|]]
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=86534 detailed preview of the Order of the Knights Templar]
*7 Unique Units with new descriptions
*All other units have specific Templar Knight designs
*Historical Characters and new Templar Knights events
*New Unique Titles which represent the Templar Hirarchy
*Very different and hard campaign
*Unit roster slightly changed from 3.2
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights_Templar Wikipedia on Knights Templar]

====The Mercenaries====
[[image:Ss41mercs.jpg|right|]]
*New mercenaries for the Early and High Medieval Period:
*New and more varied mercenary pools
*Greater mercenary variety
*Mercenaries have more experience
*Less mercenary missile units
*Regions have more of mercenary special units
====Improved and challenging AI Armies====

*Proper Mix of Infantry, Missiles, Cavalry and Artillery.
*AI produces more Elite and Heavy units.
*This was done without changing any unit costs
====New Traits, Ancillaries, Titles and RPG elements====
[[image:Ss41rpgelements.jpg|right|300px|]]
*Titles for all Cities and Castles and for both Islamic and Catholic/Orthodox factions and with important bonuses in various settlements.
*Army attrition and supply system demands much more tactical decisions and religion is much more important (Byg's Reality traits)
*Countless new Traits, Transferable Titles, Ancillaries (Blood, Broads, & Bastards 2.x)
*Patriarch titles for Orthodox Factions available
*Many broken Character Traits and Ancillaries fixed
*New Knights Templar Titles
====Much more interesting Historical and Game Events====
[[image:Ss41comingofage.jpg|right|300px|]]
*Events for Orders, Inquisitions, Culture, Battles...
*Events when a princess comes of age or when a monarch dies; many different portraits of beautiful and less beautiful princesses
*Including New Era Events which affect unit & mercenary recruitment
*Events who inform about the fall of any faction's capital cities.
====Agents and Characters====
*Historically accurate Character Names (CNP 3.0)
*Reasonable limits for assassins, spies and priests
*Agents rebalanced
*Captains are less likely to rebel
*Imam's required Piety to call a Jihad raised
====Settlement and Unit Recruitment Changes====
[[image:Ss41aztecs.jpg|right|300px|]]
*Important medieval Cities like Constantinople, Kiev, Rome and Paris more powerful
*More logical and rebalanced recruitment, for example cities can build more ships & artillery than castles.
*Early/Late Generals rarely recruitable in castles/citadels
*Income, city growth and distance to capital punishment rebalanced
*More balanced money script to support AI Factions
*Byzantium can build Highways
*Added many missing and additional units such as Dismounted Gothic Knights, English Armored Sergeants, Dismounted Broken Lances, Hussars, Greek Arquebusiers, Desert Raiders and more
* Rebalanced and fixed guild triggers
* Historically more accurate Faction Names
* Conquering the Aztecs is much harder
====Battles====
[[image:Ss41graphics.jpg|right|600px|]]
*10 new Custom Battle Maps
*Darth Mod 1.4B battle AI and physics
*More balanced units stats and costs
*Longer Lasting Battles due to slightly higher morale
*More realistic battle map movement
====Graphics====
* Completely new Faction Symbols & Menu Designs by Alletun
* 20 new epic loading screens
* New Symbols for the battle map
* New unique Shield textures for all catholic factions
* New unique Unit Textures for all European Early & High units (Burrek)
* New unique Unit Textures for all Feudal & Mailed Knights (Knights&Knaves)
* New unique unit textures for all Order Knights armor upgrades
* High quality unit textures & banners for Byzantium (DG's One Faction At A Time)
* New unit textures and banners for Hungary (Magyar Mod + own additions and improvements)
* Historical accurate faction banners and banners for special units (Kings Banner 2.0)
* More spectacular Sky variations and little more blood (improved Horsearcher's skymod)

== Team and Credits==
=== Version 6.4 ===
*[[gracul]] - Leader
*[[King Kong]] - SS 6.1
*[[Point Blank]] - RR/RC, lots of things
*[[Byg]] - support and BGR
*[[Caesar Clivus]] - forum handling, support and CBUR
*[[Rozanov]] - coding and ideas
*[[Germanicu5]] - coding and ideas, BAI
*[[y2day]] - art & graphics
*[[Awellesley]] - units & support
*[[Bane_tw]] - forum handling and bug fixing
*[[Ishan]] - forum handling and bug fixing
*[[cedric37]] - art & ui graphics

Beta testers:
*[[Smikis]]
*[[Navajo Joe]]
*[[sancco]]
*[[TheColdTruth]]
*[[Zanze]]
*[[CamilleBonparte]]
*[[adecoy95]]
*[[nonnob3]]
*[[PedroL]]

Other contributors:
*(HG)LordKoal, (HG)Super, (HG)Iliturgitano, (HG)Xaviar, (HG)Carlos, (HG)Adrics, CeltiberoThormes, penyetta, garcy170 (Spanish translation)
*Fred Putz (German translation)
*warman222 (new combo&death animations)
*Baraban (textures & model fixes)
*KDK (ui graphics)
*beikon & gord69 (Steam help)
*Fair Prince (SSNOP, SSHCP, SSTAIP)
*newt (No Waiting)
*[[Savage]] - CAI
*[[Caralampio]]
*[[wolfslayer]]
*[[Santiago de Pola]]
*[[davide.cool]] - better grass
*[[Argent Usher]] - real horses
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/member.php?u=40033 Agis Tournas] - CBUR
*[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/member.php?u=23850 Anthonius II] - CBUR
*[[Magus]] - Crismon Tide
*[[Lord Calidor]] - KT mod
*[[agart]] - castle & city strat models
*[[Agis Tournas]] - Unit Card improvement
*[[Black_Nebula]] - Hungary Impaler Skins
*[[Seether]] - AFR mod
*[[Soupdragon]] - EE watchtower
*[[Chimaeira]] - SSTC
*[[Lord Condormanius]] - Mailed Knights
*[[Akvilonn]] - additional unit info cards
*[[MADTAO]] - polish units
*[[Barser]] - unit models
*[[Csatádi]] - hungarian map guidelines
*[[gewehr36]] - pagan mongols
*[[Cedric37]] - UIs
*Kevin MacLeod - music
*Jon Sayles & Bill Hudak - music
*[[Swagger]] - sky mod
*[[Akvilonn]] - Unit info cards
*[[nonnob3]] - Unit info cards
*[[Lusted]] - CAI
*[[Lord Calidor]] - KT mod
*[[Quark]] (wherever you are right now)

=== Version 4.1 ===
Leader: [[King Kong]]

Thanks:
*[[Alletun]] for making beautiful symbols and designs for my mod
*[[Student]] for his help and research on the Knights Templar
*[[Disgruntled Goat]] for his outstanding unit textures
*[[Darth Vader]] for his battle AI and physics
*[[Grand Viz]] for his Ultimate AI
*[[Yuiis]], [[shaeffer]], [[numerosdecimus]], [[M2_Junky]] for their great contributions
*[[Byg]] for his Reality traits
*[[Horsearcher]], [[Ziher]], [[Plasticfigurine]], [[Salty]], [[Headlock]] for their graphical improvements
*[[Burrek]] for his unique European textures
*[[Joe Dreck]] for his Kings Banner mod
*[[Dearmad]] and [[Pnutmaster]] for BBB
*All others who contributed in the Stainless Steel forum
for the help with the 4.1 patch:
*[[Lusted]], [[Klink]] and [[DrJambo]] for their battle AI
*[[Quark]] and [[shaeffer]] for being a great help
*[[Nerazzurri]] for the Movies fix and the Stainless Steel icon.
*[[Tyre]] for some of his new skins
*All others for their feedback and bug reports
 
A full list of credits for all release versions can be found in this [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=410270 forum topic]

== History ==
Stainless steel 2.0 has been included on the free DVD supplied with a UK gaming magazine.

==Releases==
Version 6.3 released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=377824 this thread] on the 3rd of August 2010

Version 6.0/6.1 released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=159996 this thread] in April 2008

Version 5.0/5.1 released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=126810 this thread] in October 2007.

Version 4.0/4.1 released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=110425 this thread] in July 2007.

Version 3.2 was released for the [[M2TW]] official patch 1.2 in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=92205 this thread] in May 2007.

Version 2.2 was released in [http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=80216 this thread] in January 2007.

==See Also==

[[Stainless Steel (form)|Stainless Steel - Mod Registration Form]]

==External Links==

[http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=314 Stainless Steel at TWC]

[[Category:TWC_Hosted_Modifications]]
[[Category:Medieval 2: Total War Modifications (Released)]]

File:Ssbanner.png

2011-03-05T21:17:22Z

Bane tw:

Shogun: Total War

2011-03-05T19:56:18Z

Bane tw: Fresh start after requested revert

Shogun: Total War

2011-03-05T18:53:42Z

Bane tw:

{{Cleanup}}
{{Total War}}
'''Shogun: Total War''' was the first game in the Total War series and was released by Electronic Arts in June of 2000.

Shogun: Total War, also known as STW, is a history-based strategy game that combines turn-based provincial development with real-time battles. The player assumes the role of one of seven daimyos (Uesugi, Shimazu, Oda, Mori, Imagawa, Takeda, Hōjō) attempting to unite feudal Japan during the Sengoku period ("The Age of the Country at War") and become Shogun. Sun Tzu's The Art of War is central to the game; its precepts are quoted often and its strategies are recommended.

== Features ==

=== Gameplay ===

''Shogun: Total War'' is focused on [[samurai]] warfare in the [[Sengoku period]] of Japanese history, which lasted from the mid-15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. The game puts the player in the position of a Japanese [[daimyo]] with the objective of conquering Japan through military might, diplomacy, espionage, trade, and religion - thereby taking the position of [[shogun]]. ''Shogun'' incorporates two main areas of play: The [[turn-based strategy|turn-based]] campaign map is where the player moves their armies, conducts diplomacy, builds the infrastructure of their provinces and performs various other tasks necessary to run their faction. The [[real-time tactics|real-time]] element of the game allows the player to assume command of one of their armies and personally direct the course of any battles that take place.
The three-dimensional battles are notable for including new aspects such as morale which had usually been ignored by computer war games prior to STW. Many of these features are generally more typical of table top gaming.Sieges are played out using the same engine as the battles in the field. The advantage to the defender comes from the narrow gateway to the castles which prevents a larger force from attacking with more than a small part of its strength.

=== Factions ===

[[File:Shogun Total War map.jpg|thumb|right|Much of the game takes place on a turn-based strategy map of Japan]]The game consists of seven factions which the player can choose to play as each one of Japan's historical clans. The island of [[Kyūshū]] and the southwest end of [[Honshū]] incorporates the [[Shimazu clan|Shimazu]], [[Mōri clan|Mōri]] and [[Takeda clan|Takeda]] clans, while the [[Oda clan|Oda]] and [[Imagawa clan|Imagawa]] clans control the central parts of Honshū. The northern parts of Honshū are home to the [[Uesugi clan|Uesugi]] and [[Late Hōjō clan|Hōjō]] clans. While each clan has access to the same broad units and technology and begins the game with roughly the same amount of land, each clan has a specific advantage in a particular area. For instance, the Imagawa clan trains more efficient espionage agents, while the Takeda clan can produce higher quality [[cavalry]],the Uesugi faction recruits Samurai Archers at a lower cost than the other factions, etc.. Smaller, independent factions are represented as rebel clans and [[ronin]].

The 7 playable factions in Shogun, with their faction colour:

*[[Hōjō (STW Faction)|Hojo]] (Purple)
*[[Imagawa (STW Faction)|Imagawa]] (Light Blue)
*[[Mori (STW Faction)|Mori]] (Red)
*[[Oda (STW Faction)|Oda]] (Gold)
*[[Takeda (STW Faction)|Takeda]] (Black)
*[[Shimazu (STW Faction)|Shimazu]] (Green)
*[[Uesugi (STW Faction)|Uesugi]] (Dark Blue)

The Mongol Invasion expansion added a new, unique faction, the Mongols.

=== Campaign ===
[[File:Shogun_Total_War_summary.jpg|thumb|right|An overview of the key events of each season (turn) is displayed]]
The main campaign of ''Shogun: Total War'' involves a player choosing a clan and moving to eliminate their enemies and become shogun of feudal Japan. Each faction controls various historical provinces. Each province allows for the cultivation of farmland, and the construction of [[watchtower|border watchtowers]] and a [[Japanese castle|castle]]. Certain provinces possess natural resources that require a [[Mining|mine]] to be constructed to tap into. Coastal provinces may also construct ports to increase trade. Each castle has space to expand with a variety of military buildings and [[dojo]]s, which allow for specific army units and agents to be produced. However, each castle can only support a certain number of auxiliary buildings. Castles can be upgraded to increase their defences and resilience to a siege. The production of units and construction of buildings is limited by the amount of ''[[koku]]'' the player has; ''koku'' is generated depending on the strength of the faction's economy and harvest. Units and buildings take time to produce; each turn represents one [[season]].

During each turn, the player is able to move units about the map. Units come as either armies or agents and can only be moved to a province that borders the one in which they reside. However, both agents and armies can travel longer distances using ports, allowing them to move from one coastal province to another with a port in a single turn. Armies consist of military units such as spearmen, cavalry and archers. Should an army enter a battle, these units will be reproduced for the game's real-time tactics mode. Each army is led by a general that possesses an [[honour]] rating that rises and falls with the general's success or failure; if a general repeatedly endures defeat, they may commit [[seppuku]]. The faction daimyo and his heirs are also represented as generals—if a daimyo is killed and has no available heirs, the faction is eliminated from the game.

When an army is moved into an enemy or neutral province, it will engage in battle with whatever hostile armies already reside in the province. An army may also lay siege to a province's castle; after a determined amount of time, a castle's supplies will run out and the garrison will be forced to surrender if it does not break the siege or receive relief. A siege may cause damage to the castle's buildings, requiring repairs to be sought.
[[File:Shogun_Total_War_ingame_video.jpg|thumb|right|A video plays after a ninja has attempted a assassination.]]
Several agents are available to each faction. The basic agent is the [[diplomacy|emissary]], which can be used to negotiate alliances and ceasefires, as well as attempt to bribe enemy or neutral armies to join the player's faction. As factions build up their infrastructure, other agents become available, such as [[ninja]] and [[shinobi]], the former assassinates enemy generals and agents, while the latter can spy on enemy provinces or perform counter-insurgency in home provinces. Each agent has an honour rating that determines how successful they may be at any particular mission. As the game progresses, the player will come into contact with European traders; first the [[Kingdom of Portugal|Portuguese]] [[Jesuit]]s, who will exchange [[arquebus]]es for money and the adoption of [[Catholicism]] by the clan, and later the [[Dutch Republic|Dutch]], who will sell arquebuses without requiring a conversion. If a faction changes from [[Buddhism]] to Catholicism, it is given the ability to produce Jesuit priests, who in addition to acting as emissaries, convert the population, therefore making rebellions due to religion less likely.

=== Historical Battles ===

Some of feudal Japan's greatest battles were recreated based on the expertise of some of the period's leading historical authorities.

=== Religions ===

*Buddhism- standard religion of the Japanese factions.

*Christianity- optional religion, which can be obtained by accepting the Portuguese deal.

===Warfare===

[[File:Shogun Total War siege.jpg|thumb|right|A siege battle underway in the game's real-time tactics element]]
The battle system forms the second area of gameplay. Unlike the campaign part of the game, players control battles in real-time. However, should the player choose, the game can automatically resolve battles on the campaign map, taking into account factors such as strength of numbers, weapons and terrain. Outside of the main campaign mode, players can participate in recreations of the historical battles that comprised the Sengoku period. In each battle, players are given access to an army consisting of a variety of units. Units come in the form of [[samurai]] and [[ashigaru]], and fall into the categories of [[archery|archers]], [[yari|spearmen]], [[cavalry]] and [[heavy infantry]]. Each unit has its own intrinsic advantages, disadvantages, cost and overall level of effectiveness.

Players must use contemporary tactics and formations with the units they have available to defeat their enemies; the teachings of [[Sun Tzu|Sun Tzu's]] ''[[The Art of War]]'' are integral to the tactics used by the [[game artificial intelligence]] and for the player to succeed. The terrain of the battlefield and the weather impact on how a battle is fought. Each unit has morale, which can increase if the battle goes well for their clan, or decrease in cases such as heavy casualties or the death of the general. If a unit's morale is broken, they will [[rout]]; in certain circumstances, however, routing units may be rallied by the general. Victory in battle is achieved by causing every enemy unit to rout, or by killing the opposing army. Armies can lay siege to castles, replacing open land battles with close-quarters combat within the confines of the castle walls.

=== Units ===

The unit roster in Shogun Total War is small in comparison to the later games, with all factions in the original game sharing the same unit roster. However each faction recieves a discount on purchasing a particular unit, and furthermore some provinces grant an experience bonus to units of a particular type recruited there.

====Japanese Factions====
[[File:Shogun Total War unit no-dachi.jpg|400px|right|A unit of No-Dachi takes battle position]]
*Infantry Units:
**Yari Ashigaru (Light Spearmen)
**Yari Samurai (Heavy Spearmen)
**Samurai Archers
**No-Dachi Samurai (Offensive Infantry)
**Naginata Samurai (Defensive Infantry)
**Warrior Monks (Elite Infantry, not available to Christians)
**Arquebusiers (Basic firearm unit, unlocked through trade with Europeans)
**Musketeers (Superior late-game firearm unit)
:
*Cavalry Units:
**Yari Cavalry (Light Lancers)
**Cavalry Archers
**Heavy Cavalry (Heavy Melee Cavalry)
**Hatamoto (as Heavy Cavalry, bodyguard of a general and not recruitable)
:
*Agents (on the strategic map):
**Diplomat
**Shinobi (Spy)
**Ninja (Assassin)
**Jesuit Priest (Diplomat for Christian factions)
**Legendary Geisha (late-game Elite Assassin)

====The Mongols====

[[File:Shogun Total War unit mongols.jpg|400px|right|One of the possible new mongol units]]
The Mongol Invasion expansion added a new faction and with it a set of new units:
*Infantry Units:
**Korean Skirmishers (Light Infantry, javelins)
**Korean Spearmen (Heavy Spearmen)
**Korean Guardsmen (Heavy Infantry)
**Thunder Bombers ("Grenadier" infantry with bombs)
:
*Cavalry Units:
**Mongol Light Cavalry (Superior Cavalry Archers)
**Mongol Heavy Cavalry (Heavy Melee Cavalry)
:
Additionally, the Japanese factions gained several new units in the expansion:
*Japanese Units in MI:
**Naginata Cavalry (Medium Cavalry)
**Battlefield Ninjas (Elite stealth unit)
**Kensai (Elite Swordsman, extremely powerful 1-man unit)
**Ashigaru Crossbowmen (MI Campaign only, replaces gunpowder units)

==Expansions and sequels==

Shogun Total War had one expansion, [[Mongol Invasion]]. Its main addition was to add a new campaign set in 1230, played as either the invaders or as Japan, hypothesizing a successful Mongol landing in Japan. This campaign had only 2 factions, the Hojo (possessing all of Japan) and the new faction, the Mongols. The gameplay of this campaign was notable in that the Mongols were unable to recruit troops in any conquered provinces, but instead had to rely on reinforcements periodically appearing in coastal provinces to replenish their troops. In addition to this campaign, the expansion also added "eras" to the original campaign, as well as several new units and Historical Battle Campaigns, Campaigns played through Historical Battles.

[[Creative Assembly]] also subsequently released Shogun Total War: Warlord Edition, a compilation package containing both the original game and the expansion, and featuring a new introductory movie.
The Total War series has been continued with ''[[Medieval: Total War]]'', ''[[Rome: Total War]]'', ''[[Medieval II: Total War]]'', ''[[Empire: Total War]]''. and ''[[Napoleon: Total War]]''.

In June 2010, it was confirmed that a direct sequel to the original game was in development, entitled ''[[Shogun 2: Total War]]''. The game is planned for release on March 15th 2011.

[[Category:Total War Series]]

File:Shogun Total War unit no-dachi.jpg

2011-03-05T18:46:01Z

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