Longer Battles Mod
This mod is intended to lengthen battles so that the large battles are not a frantic click-frenzy. This mod builds upon experience from my Longer Battles Mods created for Rome 2, Attila, Thrones of Britannia, and Shogun 2. It is save game compatible and also should work with all expansions.
***The changes are intended to be minimalistic in nature. No unit values are adjusted!***
✅ Is save game compatible
✅ Can be turned off and on whenever you want
✅Works in multiplayer campaigns (as long as your friend also has it)
Unique changes:
-Base "to hit" percentages carefully reduced over the standard version of the game. This was done carefully so as not to affect hero combat too much – just enough that it slows down combat slightly, to allow more time to react and develop the battle.
-Although battles may last longer, hero duels were adjusted to be more decisive and dramatic. Heroes are powerful, but they are no longer tanks – care must be taken with them! Heroes will duel on horseback for a longer period of time, and killing blows will do more damage. Repositioning and battle survival times have also been adjusted. The adjustments also help to keep hero duel resolution quicker, in line with the standard game.
-Adjusted the coefficients regarding missile (bows and crossbows) penetration and piercing of shields and armor, and increase the base "saving" (negation) value, so that armies are not shot away as rapidly by these units. Bows and crossbows should weaken an enemy force, not totally annihilate them (this change also makes the increased ammo type hero perks more important).
-Adjusted battlefield terrain data so that restricted terrain now has a more significant impact on movement. Forests now provide a substantial penalty to movement speed, especially for large units, and significant protection from arrows. Rocks and scrubs also slow movement more than before as well. The result is that built up terrain will slow movement in such a way that becomes a more significant factor in the tactical equation (terrain only provided a slight movement penalty before, making it more or less the same with no significant advantages).
-Adjusted spotting distances to make tactical reconnaissance more important. Also reduced night spotting to increase the possibility of blundering and surprise.
(Note: The following fatigue related changes are made so that you are required to manage your fatigue better. The side that effectively manages fatigue well (i.e. from reserves) will have an advantage. It also seeks to prevent the perpetual "running battlefield" phenomenon where there is no incentive to walk anywhere).
-Reduced fatigue recovery. The problem with the original values is that it only takes a matter of minutes to recover full fatigue from exhaustion to fresh, where as in reality it should take at least twice as long in order to better stress and reward intelligent use of reserves.
-Increased fatigue threshold levels so that units will become very tired and exhausted quicker.
-Increased fatigue accumulation for running. This was done because fatigue accumulation does not happen fast enough from these activities, especially from running. In the standard game, you can essentially run halfway across the map before dropping one level in fatigue to "active". This change encourages approach marches (which gives more time to skirmish) as opposed to one side running completely up to the other and engaging.
