Empire Abilities and Reskin
This mod adds abilities and buffs to the Empire roster to provide a bit of differentiation and make some of the often forgotten units (at least for me) much less forgettable.
Spearmen get an animation, name, and ability change to Pikemen using ChaosRobies pike animations.
Spearmen with Shields get an animation change and a precursor javelin weapon.
The Passive Abilities:
The State Troops passive ability will activate when a unit has reached a casualties threshold (50% for melee, 75% for ranged and missile cav) and deactivate if they route. The ability will give the unit a buff at whatever they do to help pull out a victory when things aren’t going well
The Hunters Senses passive ability buffs archers range and ROF when standing still and with high leadership.
The Stubborn passive ability gives Knights and Greatswords a temporary surge in performance if their Lord falls.
Halberdiers get the "Compulsory Halberdier" passive that buffs armor and physical resistance and a melee contact effect that debuffs enemy speed and acceleration, so the Halberdiers can excel at holding an enemy in place.
Halberdiers and Spears w/Shields get a phalanx ability that gives a lesser buff to bracing than Pikemen get, but allows them to keep more of their movement speed.
Handgunners, Crossbowmen, Free Company, Archers, and Huntsmen all get the Deploy Stakes ability as created by ChaosRobie in his Deployables mod.
Pistoliers get a passive that buffs AP damage and Outriders get a buff to speed. Pistoliers and Outriders also have a dismount function.
Here is how the Dismount function works. The unit must be still and out of melee. They have a 4 second wind-up. The cav unit will transform into an infantry unit, losing as many men as the original unit had lost. Then the riderless mounts will spawn as a 60-horse unit automatically on the infantry. The positioning of the new units may look a little weird. I find yhat selecting the spawned horses and hitting J will move them to a better position. There is no re-mounting function as of yet.
War Wagons have a passive called Mobile Fortress than buffs their speed, missile blocking, and fire rate, but adds a significant weakness to fire. They also have an Ammo Refill ability that replenishes a small percentage of friendly unit ammunition.
