Empire Realism

Empire Realism is a hosted mod for Empire Total War which adds tweaks and other changes which are intended to enhance the realism and challenge in the Grand Campaign, and which make some significant gameplay changes towards realism and historical accuracy.

What it does

• Reworked unit stats,weapons,fire drills (based on system in Napoleon Empire Realism)
• Different military tactics for Nations - clear distinction between western and eastern military doctrine
• Richer naval experience - every ship type has its realistic use - small ships (Brigs, Sloops, Corvettes) are considered to be Privateers - they have 0 upkeep - blocking enemy trade lines with those ships adds profit to the crown. Due to higher movement radius, they are uncatchable by the Ships of the Line, so Frigates must be used for that (they have same movement radius)
• Naval stats adjusted so ships behave realistically, Large maindeck guns shoot double-shots at short distances, chasing long guns are able to cripple sails due to higher accuracy (chasing guns are placed only on prow), Ships of the Line are hard to sink, destroying guns and killing crews is the best way to disable them
• New damage textures for ships so they now dont look weird when shot at (no longer those big ugly squared holes)
• New radar map icons

Features

Doctrine

Western Infantry will be formed in tight formations, mostly in 3-4 ranks, firing voleys from 2 ranks. Infantry will be skilled with bayonets, will be able to form squares. Their main advantage over others will be massive firepower at close ranges. Western cavalry will be formed into 2-3 ranks again in tight formations using long cavalry swords or sabres. Western artilery will be represented by standard calibers used at that time, with switch to lighter more maneurable pieces as the time progreses.

Eastern military doctrine (if we can call it that way) will be based on older drills - For example Ottoman Janissaries will still represent a medieval warrior force, using ranged weapons as a suplemental - they will fight in deeper fomations firing from first rank only. (upgrading to NIzams units will be a huge benefit to Ottomans) Same will be true for Indians - less skilled units will be formed in mob like formations, equipped with older type of weapons. Cavalry similar to infantry will fight medieval style - they will charge in (mob) columns trying to overwhelm enemy. but without any advanced cavalry drill they will be relativly easy prey for profesional western (heavy) cavalry.

Eastern Artillery wil lbe composed mostly of heavy fixed pieces, which will make Eastern armies very slow to move on campaign map.

And as an bonus - Natives - their units wil lbe no match against western infantry in open terain, but they will have other benefits - their bowmen will be able to hide anywhere and shoot without being spotted, melee troops thanks to lightweight weapons will be able to move fast, which will make them very deadly at charging into reloading infantry (especialy from flanks or rear.)

Weapons

Standard flintlock will be able to fire 2 rounds per minute, elite units with high experience will be able double that. obsolete matchlock muskets will be able to fire one round every 45 seconds, but will have higher lethality than flintlocks due to larger projectiles (0.9 vs 0.8). Bows will be the fastest shooting weapons with rate of fire 10-12 arrows per minute. their dissadvantage will be low lethality in comparation to gunpowder weapons (0.25 vs 0.8), but together with other abilities like hiding in long grass and stealth firing they will have its place on battlefield. Just dont expect them to survive long in head on duels at short ranges (50m) against western Line Infantry...

Artillery

Howitzers will get overhaul - they now will be able to fire solid shots at medium ranges directly, explosive or special shells indirectly at long range and later even canisters (again direct trajectory). Explosive shells will have reduced amount of splinters and lower accuracy so they will be usable only in larger numbers (like 2-3 batteries firing at one target)

Direct fire artilery will be adjusted as well - larger will be the caliber of the gun, more accurate gun will be,greater range it will have,but reloading will be slower. small guns (3-6pds) will be able to fire 2-3 shots in time heavy battery will fire one salvo, which will make light guns very usefull for their rapid reactions, but once you start using them to artilery duel at longer ranges they will have no chance against heavy pieces.

New unit structure

Empire Realism is recommended to play with preference multiplier x2. this is important as all units will now represent Regiments, Battalions or Companies.

Regiment - 320 men (160 without multiplier) - All Line infantry units will be represented as regiments.

Battalion - 160 men (80 without multiplier) - Specialist troops will be formed into Battalions - Grenadiers, Light Infantry, etc

Companies - 80 men (40 without multiplier) - Another specialists units - this sub-unit will be used for all Skirmisher units armed with Rifles or bows. even with lower numbers, they will be much harder to hit thanks to open formation and taking cover(smaller silouethe value will make them harder to get hit by fire). this formation is not representing a Company, but several detached companies of skirmishers.

Several eastern units may have different numbers, especially irregulars.

For Western Cavalry every unit will represent two cavalry squadrons. cavalry units will be formed into 2-3 rank formations. Units which are able firing from horse on move will get only limited amount of ammo (2-4 bullets to symbolize carbine and several cavalry pistols) as it was practically imposible to reload a carbine on horse, plus, normaly ranged weapons were practically never used in combat in large numbers. Ofcourse, bow armed cavalry is the exception, almost all Eastern cavalry units will not use closed 2-3rank formations, but more open ones more suitable for their usual behavior on battlefield.

Naval Combat Changes

One of important changes are total redesign of ship maneurability. Sailing against wind will be very slow, trying to maneur against wind will be problematic for large ships, so proper maneuvers will be very important in ship to ship duels. (because of stupid AI, it might happen sometimes that it will sail against the wind, but AI maneuver properly once in range)

Another big change is complete rework of ships hit points. Ships of the line will be abel to take quite a lot of punishemnt without sinking. (in tests one 74gun SOL took several salvos from 4 SOLs until it had just half of its guns when it routed and sailed away from map - because it was french SOL which are slightly faster than English 74's, i was not able to catch it and capture it) Naval batles with Ships of the Line are now epic, but thanks to wind proper maneuvers can decide outcome of battle..

Morale now plays very important role - dead crew, destroyed guns, hull damage are now crucial - once they are very high, ship will surrender - as in reality - once ship has half of its guns destroyed, 1/3 of crew dead, it will not fight and rather surrender - ofcourse not always - experience is crucial - very experienced crew will fight much longer even against impossible odds.

Very important factor in naval battle will be raking file - placing your ship so you can fire a broadside into enemy ship rear will result in huge morale drop - low morale ships (traders) will surrender very fast that way...

Last i will also mention new hull damage textures, which will now eliminate all boxy holes which were so ugly in original game so now you can zoom in and feel the battle from close perspective...

Campaign Naval Game

As mentioned earlier - every ship type in game will have its historical purpose - practically we can divide all ships into four groups - Battle Ships or Ship of the Line, Fregates, Corsairs/Privateers and Trade ships.

Battle Ships / Ships of the Line - most powerfull ships with strong hulls, trained crew - bigger is the ship, more accurate guns it has due to being very stable firing platform which was very important in naval gunnery. Due to large crew they never carried a lot of supplies so their combat radius was rather limited - on campaign map all Ships of the Line will have 60-65 movement points, so they will be best used for protecting the ports or fighting off enemy fleets. There will be two types of Ship of the Line - Admiral ships (usually 1st or 2nd Rate Ships) and standard Ships of The Line (3rd and 4th Rates) - no buildable admiral Frigates or 3rd Rates (exception are small nations that actually used those ships as Admiral Ships as they were not able to use anything bigger - like for example Sweden, Netherlands or Denmark due to shallow harbors..) Naval research will be more important as it will unlock new generation of Ships of the Line later on - new 74gun Ships with heavy 32pdr main battery (older 3rd Rates will have only 24pdr guns on main battery) and 1st Rate Ships (only 2nd Rates will be available without research, but SOLs will be available even from lowest military dock)

Frigates - first true cruisers - on contrary, Frigates will have about twice as much movement points as SOLs. THis will make Frigates the best patroling, scouting and antipirate alternative in game - they will we able to outrun everything stronger and outgun everything faster - also they are suitable for convoy duty (Ships of the Line would slow the convoy down a little) Again, with Naval reform heavy frigates will be available with more powerfull guns (18pdrs vs 12pdrs in early Frigates)

Corsairs / Privateers - small Brigs ,Sloops and Xebeks - while they will have movement points comparable to Frigates,they will have one benefit that makes them extremly usefull ships - they will have Zero Upkeep - they are ships runed by private captains with leter of Marque - once you place them at trade line, they gain pure money for the crown! - richer trade line is, more money you will get that way, thanks to this, if you keep them on the tradeline, they can pay off the building price easilly - ofcourse, their big enemy Frigates will be able to hunt them down... ofcourse, you can use Frigates for Privateering too, but their upkeep is usually quite high to be profitable.

Tradeships - not much to say about them - they will have slightly more movement points than SOLs (so they will be able to evade them, which makes Frigates again best for hunting down enemy tradeships). normally they will stand no chance in combat even against small privateer ships so it is crutial to protect them with adequate escort.

The Team

• DaVinci (mod founder, former mod leader)
• JaM
• Naimad
• Shaggy1973
• Count Zimoa of Flanders
• vonPeretz

External Links

• Empire Realism's subforum