Rusichi Total World

Rusichi Total World
Platform	Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms
Mod Type	Total conversion
Era	Medieval
Mod Leader	Sargon-1, Tchouk
Release Status	Released
Mod Foldered	Yes
Forum / Thread	Here

Description

Rusichi Total War is a very famous mod which mesmerized the TW players when it was released on TWC on 25 August,08. The mod is famous for it's beautiful units and additional aspects given by it but the fact the goal of this mod is not just replace it with graphically superior units over vanilla ones but also to change the playsytle of it by eliminating the monotony of vanilla gameplay.

As we all know the main objective in vanilla grand campaign is to create competition by conquest and expansion, a large number of well-balanced and almost identical factions. In this mod it's entirely different which is why it makes it special here the factions are differing from each other in military and economical structure. Each faction has it's own gamesytle and other variables making this mod unique.

It begins in 1157AD on the birth of Christ (the year of the death of Yuri Dolgoruky) and ends in 1350AD (year of birth of Dmitry Donskoy). Here a single turn is of 6 months and so a player has 386 turns to complete it's victory conditions and historical objectives.

Features

Factions

Rusichi Total War has three playable factions:-

Kiev- It is the religious and cultural center of Rus. It is the residence of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kiev (the highest ranking Rus church member in those days) which brings the city great benefits. A balance of trade and agriculture allows for a steady stream of revenue, while the Metropolitan residence helps to keep residents happy. Their army is balanced as well — they can hire excellent horse archers in the form of Torki or Chernye Klobuki.

Novgorod- It is the greatest mercantile center in all of Rus and thus the wealthiest kingdom as well. Trade and the city itself are indivisible, you can't have one without the other. By developing trade, especially by sea, you can be sure of a full treasury. The Novgorod army has the strongest militia of any, but completely lacks horse archers among its ranks; which will cause a myriad of problems when facing nomadic armies.

Vladimir-Suzdal- It is a powerful feudal center with a highly developed agriculture but little opportunity for trade. It has excellent elite troops in service of the Kniaz and the ability to hire mercenaries from the steppes.

Campaign map

AI Factions

Seljuk Sultanate of Rum
Byzantium
Hungary
Poland
Sweden
Polovtsians or Cumans
Lithuania (if we can get the units)

Emergent Factions

Mongols
Teutons

Campaign Map

A lot of time and thought went into creating a better map. And not just in terms of the actual map (which is obviusly new): the mod includes a bunch of innovative, game-play-changing features. It contains three big changes namely:-

Villages- These take the form of the minimal allowed (3x3 pixels) regions on the map (inside bigger regions) with a level one town that non-upgradeable. They form a significant part of your budget (lots of them), but are very hard to defend. Besides that, the AI has a (scripted) strong desire to take them from you. So sitting behind stone walls while the enemy lays waste to the countryside is no longer really an option.

Capitals- A completly new type of capital, and not just in terms of the model but a new concept that is the castle is inside town walls! And yes, the only way you can reach it is by going through the town. The capital and town merge to become one unit. And since it becomes so difficult to take, the capital in this mod is proportionally important with it's loss practically equating to game-over.

Here is the Pictorial view of it:-

New strat models- This doesn't effect the game-play but the Rusichi team reworked the strat models for all major cultures, the towns for Russia and a few other bits and pieces. The strat models for agents belonging to the Rus Kingdoms are simply gorgeous.

Here is a sample View:-

Other notable features of this map are as follows:-

Gigantic map stretching from Scandinavia to Eastern Rus Kingdoms, Eastern Europe, Mediterranean & Covering parts of middle east.
Completely reworked political map, historically accurate regions and starting positions.
Added resources: horses, glass, olive oil, salt, copper, lead, honey, hides.
New and completely worked our strat models.
Custom AI:- Making the AI smarter and tougher to beat and fits the unique playstyle.

Game Play

In addition to economic and military factors, GP depends on new scripts and "scripted" events, which divide the game into several phases:

Early Expansion - is different from the vanilla expansion. Rebels are stronger during the siege and storm of the player real hard. The losses that a player takes by losing a city next to it will take some time to recuperate. In such a case a player can try to take an enemy city by a long siege or use the "general's" stack. But there are chances during a long siege of a city that epidemics breaks out, which begins to destroy the player's army after taking the city. Players will find out that when using the generals every general's unit is free when garrisoned in town, but worth a lot of money for maintenance in the field and in addition you can lose a whole family of the prince which would result in an instant lose. A player during the early game will get historical tasks or missions that will give him access of a strong military and upon its completion will get a large sum of money which would lead to an abrupt economic development of his kingdom. To eliminate the monotony of the game at this stage will begin regular Polovtsian forays or attacks. Aggressiveness of the Cumans or Polovtsians depends upon the type of AI Cuman army in the script. During the raids, they become extremely aggressive towards Russia and the factions are indifferent towards the other factions. In doing so they can attack the player even in the minority.

Completion of expansion- After the early expansion the beginning of conflict between the principalities of Russia will take place. At this stage all the lands of Russia will be divided among the three factions, and the player will have to go to war with its neighbors.

Civil Wars- A player may be tempted to continue its expansion at the expense of non-Slavic lands but its futile as the rebel regions will stay permanent. Therefore the player will have to go to war with their neighboring kingdoms. Civil war outbreaks when a Player reaches a count of several towns under his possession, which works as follows: after the death of Grand Duke, with a weak successor, and a sufficient number of regions, there is an uprising in the most disloyal cities. Typically, the cities distant from the capital or the cities with disloyal generals (here, the player will regret not watching the pedigree). Rebel faction (has the same set of units) will seek to destroy the player.

Mongol Invasion- The invasion of the Mongols in 1237 will be a new twist, which strongly dethrones the player's elevated position. Mongol hordes invades from the steppe, quickly grabbing all the Polovtsian provinces and then invade several parts of Russia. In this case, the strongest army will act against the player. The player will have to suspend their wars and concentrate fully on the Mongol threat. With heavy losses and with sufficient development of armies will allow the player to repel the Mongolian attacks, after which they will depart in the desert and start to develop. It is at this point the player must gain access to the most rare elite troops coz without them stopping the Mongolian armies is practically impossible.

Teutonic Invasion- It occurs simultaneously with the Mongolian one. Teutonic Order comes in vast numbers & captures the Baltic region and overwhelm Novgorod and because of its remoteness from the steppes they will not be able to face the Mongols. At this stage, the player will have the opportunity to hold a historic battle, So for a player playing as the Suzdal he will fight the battle of city while with Novgorod he will face the Battle on the Ice, and for the Kiev Galic assault against a known Volhynia Prince Daniil Galitsky. All historic battles will take place on a specially created "huge" Battle maps using the full range of units.

Unification of Russia- At the last stage of the game the player will recover their lost ground and further expand by acquiring Russian territories. But during this stage player has to face the Mongolian raids but by this time the player will be able to train the highest quality troops, with the superiority which he had met in historical battles. The Mongol raids will be more numerous and of good quality, compared with the early attacks by Polovtsians during early expansion.

Final Phase- After acquiring a large portion of Russian territories, player will realize that to win the game he has to take the two enemy capitals. By focusing on 3-4 armies against each city, the player will be able to do it and win.

Economy and Military

Globally, the economy is different in this mod the cost of buildings and their construction time is much larger than vanilla. This part is conceptually different from vanilla. Each of the three fractions have differing construction lines. These differences are based on by different sources of income.

Suzdal: It's economy is based on agriculture. This means that the maximum level of agricultural improvements is available only to Suzdal, and the effect of each such building and upgrades give more benefits to Suzdal in comparison to the other factions.

Novgorod: It's economy is entirely based on trade. So the player has to make sure the flow of income via trade remains intact in order to gain the upper hand in this mod.

Kiev: Kiev receives the income equally from agriculture and trade. Kiev has also more developed structure of church buildings (Church of the maximum level of St. Sophia's Cathedral is built exclusively in Kiev) .

The development of the cities in this mod is a bit harsh and the player has to pay full attention to move ahead in game. Cities and provinces are uneven in the game, there are both city and small villages, and each of them has a limit of development. There are a maximum three cities in the game which serves as the capital of each playable faction. Therefore we can see the game is much more diverse this way making it more intense and fun at the same time. There are places with dense population around the capital, within the Principality and a number of regions between the centers which becomes a whole structure of development.

Costs of war:

Items of expenditure will vary depending on war and peace. During the war, players have to keep a large number of princely teams outside the city, it will lead to huge costs and almost complete cessation of the construction. During a war expenditure of the princes will fall to its lowest level, and freed resources will be able to assist a player to build. The game is balanced so that the build up and fight at the same time is impossible.

Military Balance:

Since the factions differ in their economic systems, and to reflect this fact the armies of each faction type differ in their parameters.

Units are divided into three categories:

Mass - This comprises the majority of the army. They can be recruited anywhere in vast numbers but are weak in stats.
Regional - These comprises of unique units that are employed only in certain regions. In addition to unique names and models each have it's unique battle feature. Regional employment is done in this mod by the clever use of hidden resources there are 11 slots used for it.
Elite - These are the professional soldiers for hire available when a player has very developed economy. The possibility of hiring them appears at best a little before the middle stages of the game. Very expensive and rare - the top unit can be hired only once in 20 moves. Recuitable only in castles which is one for every faction. Therefore, to replenish a squad of elite units in the distant zone is near impossible. Despite the complexity of their production and cost, these units are absolutely necessary: for example, they have the capability to break or even slow down the invasion of the Mongols. Without them it will be really hard for the player to do so.

The Grand Duke, the head of the faction has to keep an eye on the development of his faction and watch out from Civil Wars. He needs to constantly monitor the performance of his successors for a stable development of his faction.

The generals, they are also princes are very expensive, but they have excellent characteristics. In this case, the general's troops are very expensive in the content, but if they are in town, their content becomes free. In every city there can be only one free general. Now the general is a very important unit and the player will have to closely monitor the pedigree and their individual qualities, to avoid the military and economic losses. And a "adopted" general will soon be a traitor or worse yet, will provoke a civil war because of their unwillingness to take a grand table.

This changes the balance of the principles of warfare. Mass unit types are played on the similarity of vanilla. Regional forces differ according to their regions since their characteristics are used to reflect these features. Finally the elite units comprises the backbone of the faction's army and they require constant monitoring and maneuvering. Their timely application in warfare can change the tide of battle. And one more feature: organized resistance in the major parts of the opponent player by dealing with the mobilization of all available units in the principality i.e. actually "collect troops from all over the earth."