Small armies campaign

This mod sets the maximum size of armies to 12 units (configurable with MCT).

I like small skirmish battles and created this mod in an attempt to get more small armies fighting each other.

This mod makes quite significant changes, so please read the description below carefully.

• Enforces a maximum of 12 units on all armies (configurable with MCT)
  – for the AI it simply removes random units until the limit is reached, with a slightly increased probability for removing the cheap units first.
  – for the Player it puts a penalty debuff on a player army if the army has more than 12 units at the start of a turn.
• Adds dummy units to AI armies to prevent the AI from going into an infinite loop of recruiting troops that are then removed again. Hence the dependency on the completely harmless dummy unit mod.
• Adds +100% upkeep (configurable with MCT) on all troops, heroes and lords. Without this you will simply have twice as many armies, often moving together, defeating the purpose of this mod.
• Removes one slot from local and global recruitment points to keep "time to fill" armies in line with base game design. Can also be configured with MCT!
• The background income is doubled to ensure that the game start economy is viable (use this background overwrite mod if you only want +50% increase on the background income).
• Modifies the game engine that generates random armies to adhere to this limit.
• Caravans can only receive recruiting events if there are two free slots in the army below the configured limit.
• Dread fleets have double upkeep reduction bufs on buildings to compensate for not being real armies.

The player penalty for going over the limit is +200% upkeep, tired troops and no replenishment. The debuff lasts for 1 turn, and you won’t see it removed instantly when you remove troops, but it will be gone at the start of your next turn.

Dummy units are added to AI armies when they enter recruitment mode to help the AI planner, so you will often see a lord with 8 dummy units in a settlement.

If you also want to reduce the size of garrisons, please subscribe to the companion mod:
Small armies campaign – Garrisons.

Since lords and heroes can become strong in the context of smaller armies, I made a mod to nerf them: Nerf lords and heroes. Everything configurable with MCT.

I also added an option to reduce the challenge of quest battles to better fit an army size of 12 units with this companion mod: Small armies campaign – Quests. This includes the myriad of quest battles introduced in the latest DLCs for Malakai, Changeling, etc.

Can I safely add/remove this mod?
The dummy unit mod, which is a prerequisite for this mod, cannot be removed from your campaign, but the dummy unit mod makes no gameplay changes, so it is safe to leave it in. The small armies mod can in principle be added to or removed from a campaign, though not really recommended. If you plan to remove the mod reconfigure the upkeep debuff and recruitment slots to zero as that may linger otherwise.

The AI armies seem to be stuck in recruitment mode?
AI armies may occasionally remain stationed in a settlement with a full stack of 20 units (including dummy units) and the recruitment icon displayed. This is not a bug or a forced inactivity. While it may sometimes seem like the AI is hesitant to act, it will move out when it finds a reason to do so.

Can I have more units in my army than the maximum?
The limit of 12 units (default) is purely visual, and it is therefore possible to exceed it. The game only strictly enforces a cap of 20, so you can indeed push your armies to 20 units, which can be useful if you for instance want to do a quest battle designed for 20 units. However, be sure to reduce your army size before the end of your turn to avoid the penalty debuff at the start of the next turn.

How do I know how many real units an enemy army has?
If you click on an AI army and hover the mouse over the title bar, the tooltip will give you a description of how many normal and dummy units are in the army.

The upkeep modifier seems illogical?
As upkeep modifiers are additive, this means that the +100% upkeep debuff from this mod puts the upkeep at 200% as expected. This also means that, for example a -50% upkeep buff from a skill or trait will move the upkeep from 200% to 150% in this scheme. However, the picture is complex. The actual savings in total gold pieces is the same as before (vanilla: 100% of 250 with -50% means a saving of 125, this mod: 150% of 250 is 375 which is also a saving of 125 from 500), so the upkeep reduction buffs are unchanged when it comes to building settlements, hero actions, hiring new troops, etc, but are effectively nerfed when it comes to army expenses/upkeep.

There is a data value in memory when the game is running that controls the army size, and using "cheat engine" software it is possible to manipulate this value. Changing this value and using a mod to disable attrition (some bug with attrition and 20+ units will cause crash) will allow you to set a hard limit of army size up to 40. Search "Da Modding Den" discord for "Army Unit Limit Addresses Found" to find the details. I am not using it myself, so I don’t know more than this.

I have worked on this codebase both in WH2 and now in WH3. I have spent hundreds of hours using it (and have fixed quite a few bugs along the way). However, there is just sooooo much that I have no idea how well it works, so be WARNED that this is not a fully tested product. 🙂

I made this mod for my own enjoyment, and am now sharing the code in case anyone else wants to use it. Unfortunately, I will not have the time to do major revisions. Feel free to copy the code base and improve upon this mod. 🙂

I do drink coffee when I code, so feel free to buy me a coffee[buymeacoffee.com] if you want to support the work.