Shogun 2 Combat Mod

***UPDATED FOR SILENCE AND THE FURY***

This mod overhauls Total War: Warhammer 2’s combat to mimic that of Total War: Shogun 2 and its expansion, Fall of the Samurai, as closely as possible. Basically, it re-imagines Total War: Warhammer 2’s combat system how it might have been if it was made with the same core design principles of Total War: Shogun 2.

The mod also takes inspiration from Medieval 2: Total War, particularly the Stainless Steel mod.

What changes does this mod make?:

It changes nearly everything combat related. This includes the general combat rules (e.g. how stamina, morale and melee hit chance work), unit stats to closely resemble how they were done in Shogun 2 and earlier titles, the health and damage system, unit movement speed, missile range, special abilities and magic.

The mod also makes changes to the Campaign. Stat bonuses from technologies and character skills have been tweaked to be adapted to the new balance set by Shogun Hammer 2.

For a more detailed description of how this mod works I’ll create a discussion further below but here is a small list of the most important aspects of Shogun Hammer 2:

a) Most Infantry, Cavalry and Monster units now have Loose Formation (‘Loose Spacing’).

b) Melee Combat now follows the ‘1 hit = 1 kill’ combat style of Total War: Shogun 2 and the games preceding it. In other words, if a unit lands a successful strike it will normally kill its target (unless mitigated by Physical, Missile, Magic Resistance or Ward Save). Monsters, much like elephants in Rome: Total War and Medieval 2: Total War, can still endure multiple hits.

c) The default armour stat of Total War: Warhammer 2 has been removed. Instead armour, to mimic how it worked in Shogun 2 and earlier titles, is now represented by the unit’s Melee Defense and Shield stats.

d) The Shield stat is now re-branded as ‘Missile Protection‘ and it works on all directions now as opposed to only the front. This is to mimic how armour in Shogun 2 and earlier titles protected from missiles regardless where they came from.

e) Armour Piercing damage has been removed. Instead, certain missile units will completely ignore the target’s Shield (Missile Protection) rating. This is to mimic how units like Matchlocks from Shogun 2 would deal consistently high damage regardless how much armour enemies would have. Which units can ignore the target’s Missile Protection is specified as a green bullet point (Piercing Shot) in the stats panel.

f) All units have been re-balanced to have much more noticeable strengths and weaknesses. For example, units with an ‘Anti-Large’ bonus in their attacks will deal damage to Cavalry and Monsters in much the same way as Yari Ashigaru would do against cavalry of any tier in Shogun 2. Creating a ‘doomstack’ (making an army composed mostly if not wholly of just one unit type) is still a viable option but carries a lot more risk than previously.

g) Towers in Siege battles have had their range drastically reduced. Their range increases with each upgrade but they cannot cover the whole map. There is no longer intense pressure on the attacker to immediately launch the assault.

h) Stamina works exactly as in Shogun 2. Units tire and rest at the same rate as in Shogun 2 and will not be exhausted by the time they finish climbing walls.

i) Many Spells and Special Abilities have been tweaked in accordance to the new nature of the game as established by this mod.

Known Issues:

a) Because Loose Formation takes the place of Skirmish Mode in the command panel, making it impossible to toggle on or off when playing Campaign, it has been removed for now. Skirmish Mode was never the best or most reliable way to keep missile units away from melee and most would often just toggle it off to do it manually, but I will investigate how I can bring it back somehow and keep it alongside Loose Formation.

b) Loose formation uses the same Icon as ‘Fire at Will’ or ‘Drop Siege Equipment’. As of now I wasn’t able to find the necessary tables in the data files to assign a specific icon to Loose Formation and the game now picks these two icons by default. It’s still usable although it can be confusing and is definitely not pretty. I’ll try again later to find a solution to this.

c) Only Empire, Dwarfs, Warriors of Chaos, Skaven and High Elves have had new bullet points added to their units. I will add the new bullet points to the rest of the races over time.

d) No German, French, Russian or other localization. Once I finish with the bullet points I will add the translations.

Although the mod has gone under considerable testing during the course of its development, it is still very likely subject to future changes and improvements.

***UPDATE 01/04/2021***

The mod no longer does the now scrapped changes described above. The game’s vanilla armor stat and armor piercing damage has returned and shields no longer work on a 360 degree angle, they work exactly as in vanilla.

Recommended Mods:

Mega Faction Unlocker: Shogun Hammer 2 is compatible with my unlocker mod that makes nearly every faction in the game (Rogue Armies included) playable.
—> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2199083173

Reloading: This mod adds reloading animations to firearm units (Handgunners, Thunderers etc). Highly recommended to enhance the Shogun 2 feel which had excellent gunpowder mechanics.
—> https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2216239108

CREDITS:

Special thanks to the creators of the "Advanced Autoresolver" mod which Shogun Hammer 2 utilizes (Reithan, Catclops, D’MARIOUS).

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1954849209

Not compatible with any mods that modify combat such as SFO and Radious.

Enjoy!