Better Battles(more tactical, morale, better AI, better fort, etc)

This is a battle overhaul mod that changes a few things to make battles longer and more tactical, without removing damage or hit modifiers so that units aren’t just slapping each-other with pool noodles. I will list the modifications below. It also changes some things with wall and fort durability and fatigue.

This is where most of the changes are made to how battle plays out. I didn’t like how battles were over so quickly. Especially with how powerful heroes are. I didn’t want to remove that aspect however. So morale is increased across the board but in a tactful way that doesn’t just make all peasants and elite alike, unbreakable.
For Example: Base morale boosted. Morale hit for initial casualties are lessened… but they are increased for quick sudden spikes in casualties and for casualties over 50%. This makes sense to me because units actually had decent morale hits for just losing 15% of its number. This makes initial clashes last longer, but if you have a good advantage and elite units against bad, you will win quicker than a fairly even match up.

Also. More emphasis on flanking and rear charging to increase morale shock. So if you manage to get a good rear charge in on a archer militia, they will break and rout very quickly. Where as if you charge straight at an archer militia, they will not break on instant charge and they will hold the line longer due to the increase in morale.

Morale for defending a fort(camp), city and capture points has been increased. There is actually a modifier in the data files that gives a bonus to units inside a fort or capture point. It was left at 0. Don’t know why. To me units defending forts and cities should feel safer and less likely to run. This change actually makes using encamp stance useful if you know you will be outnumbered. Even militia will hold the line inside a fort or capture point until they reach amost 75% casualties. This also makes minor settlement battles more costly to win, so that starving out actually may be a tactic sometimes.

Morale hits and buffs increased for some things concerning generals/heroes. I increased the bonus units get for being near a general. Also, increased the morale hit for generals routing. I left general death alone as I think it could go either way, it may inspire or scare a soldier to see them die. So now, a cowardly routing general will cause a greater hit than them dying. Creating more of a swing in battle, if all 3 generals rout, then the troops will all break quickly.

So to sum up morale: Better base morale for ai and player, units will stand and fight longer, better bonus for tactical maneuvers(bonus for being on hill, bonus for defending fort/capture point, larger morale hit for rear/flank charge, no morale hit for being tired(exhausted yes), units will rally more if casualties not too high. More morale emphasis on total unit losses than initial losses. And more.

Increased the thresholds for some tired/very tired/exhausted modifiers. This will help units fight longer. Again i found it silly that after minutes of fighting some units were utterly spend. Now they will fight longer but not forever, again more emphasis on creating high casualties quickly!

Units will recover better if idle. I did test with exhausted units sitting idle to recover and found they almost never recover in time to be useful before a battle was over. It made more sense to just smash them back in. Now, it pays to pull your tired units out and allow them to recover. Since battles last longer, if you can hold the line long enough you can rest and send your boys back in. More tactics!

More fatigue gain for traversing water and steep terrain. Did you ever notice that occupying the high ground in TW games(compared to real life where it was huge deal) was never much help? Now units not only get morale boost from high ground, but enemy units scaling the heights to attack them will be more tired and stressed out by the time they get there. More tactics! (same goes for climbing ladders)

Running and initial combat fatigue has also been lessened a bit mostly because the AI always runs. And the AI will behave oddly if tired. I recommend using my force march mod to fix this! link coming soon!

I mentioned the morale boost for fort defenders. Now the towers and walls are more fire resistant and have higher hp. I found that fort battles just bottled your army up and the AI ALWAYS has fire arrows, so in mere seconds your fort is ablaze and your men are exposed anyway. This is in contrast to the novel and the times where forts and tactical camp setups could be huge in deciding the outcome of campaigns. This places greater importance on catching enemy armies outside of encamp stance and maybe now you have to think more carefully. More tactics!

Now its better to try to get units with guerrilla deploy and hide in woods to shoot fire arrows at towers and walls. Or bring more men to storm the fort. A small morale boost is received for units breaching the walls, so if your men fight their way through, they will be invigorated!

Small changes here but worth noting.

Heroes are more likely to get dismounted charging into braced/charge reflect units. I like how powerful heroes are. i didn’t want to change that. But I did want you and AI to have to think harder about how to use them. Now AI generals wont charge in and out of your spear and braced units. If they get dismounted, the sync animations are increased slightly to make them less deadly and likely to get bogged down. Now be more careful with you heroes and attack archers, cav or moving units. More tactics!

Hero defense modifier in duels reduced. I found high melee defense in heroes led to duels taking too long. This is a new change that I haven’t tested and will look to see how duels go.

Damage for archers increased slightly if on a hill(makes sense right). So more reason to TAKE THE HIGH GROUND!(someone tell Anakin)

AI also does not get a damage bonus on hard/very hard . The AI above normal difficulty uses better tactics.(believe it) so now I recommend using Hard difficulty on battles over normal.

That covers the changes in this mod. I have used this as a personal mod for a long time and never intended on uploading it but due to the increase in players again(thanks WH3) and the many combat mods that are outdated, I decided to. It isn’t just BATTLES LAST LONGER RARA fight forever! It places more importance on some tactics and using units/heroes better. The morale changes are also more focused on causing casualties quickly or taking tactical positioning. This does lead to longer battles than vanilla, but I think that is better because now you can immerse yourself more in the beautiful combat.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy this mod!