Realistic Skirmisher Ammo + Siege Artillery Mod

For: All campaigns, but you do not need this if you have Volcano Battle Mod (that mod contains this and two other battle mods)

Do you feel like Skirmisher units have far too much ammunition and are too powerful? Would you prefer a more historically correct level of ammunition for all missile units? Do you prefer a minimalistic approach in that you don’t want to alter the standard unit values with other full batle mods? If so, this mod is for you!

Note that this mod takes a minimalistic approach to the problem; it strives to make as fewest changes as possible to address the the main issues of overpowered siege artillery, and unrealistic ammunition counts (ie. no adjustements are made to fortifications etc.).

Changes:

-All non-siege type missile units have their ammo reduced to 66% of the standard game’s ORIGINAL v1.0 ammo count. See reasons for this change below, as it must be extensively explained.

-Adjusted the accuracy level of javelins, slings and arrows. In the original game all three had the same level of accuracy but now that is changed here so that javelinmen (2) and regular slingers (2) are the least accurate, lead slingers are better (3) and archers (5) are unchanged (and therefore the most accurate). The historical trade off here is that javelins cause the most damage and have the fewest ammo, while slings cause the least damage but have the most ammo, and bows have the most accuracy, and middle damage and ammunition level.

-Roman (and Galatian Legionnaire) pilum is now no longer a precursor weapon thrown in the "charge" and can now be used more historically, with greater flexibility. Roman infantry can now use the pilum however they see fit — either as "fire at will" to throw it at anything they see, such as in the defense (historical), or to specifically engage an enemy with the missile "shoot here" type command. Keep in mind that you can (and should) turn "fire at will" off if you want to save their pilum for the right moment, and/or press "F" to enter/exit melee mode if you want to order hand to hand combat before pilum ammo is exhausted.

-Increased the armor penetration value of the pilum by 1.5x the normal javelin (8 -> 15), which puts it above the ordinary javelin (10). This was done because historically it has been said that the pilum had greater penetration power, being able to penetrate shields whereas a normal javelin could not.

-Reduced all javelin and pilum damage values by .75, which was done because it was felt that javelin/pilum units were too deadly.

-Reduce javelin and pilum ranges to more realistic levels.

-Added a moderate duration minor shield defense penalty for target units of pilum attacks (if the target unit has a shield).

-Reduced all slinger armor penetration (AP) by about 1/2 (not a uniform adjustment).

-Non-bastion type siege artillery now set to 2 guns instead of 4 guns, but scoprions are still at 4 guns, and polybolos are now set at +2 guns (6 total). Reason: siege artillery was large, expensive and these were not Napoleonic gun batteries; if you want more power then you should have to employ more siege artillery units, not be able to rely on one battery of 4 guns to destroy even the heaviest walls, and most importantly, 4 guns make them too powerful on the battlefield (employ more guns to do the same destructive work), because just 5 units of artillery gave you 20 guns — a rediculous amount of destruction that didn’t happen on the battlefield.

-Accuracy of the Scorpion has been increased by 6x the standard level, and now they are the most accurate artillery, because these weapons were used as a "sniping" type weapon on the battlefield. Polybolos is the second most accurate weapon at 1/3 the accurace of Scoprion, followed by ballista, then onagers and giant ballista, and the worst finally large onagers.

-Ship artillery is now comparable to their land counter parts, before they had an accuracy of 8x land artillery for some reason, probably because naval battles are so broken and fast. Recommend that you use my Naval Battle Mod with this mod.

-Reload times for all artillery has been increased to 2x, to make it more realisic.

-Reload times for torch throwing is now 2x, to make touch use more of a last resort (less effective, takes longer, and will be more costly when subjected to tower fire).

-Smaller siege artillery now does half the damage to walls than the giant/large siege artillery does.

-Increased the ammo count for scorpion, cherioballistra and polybolos artillery to more historically accurate levels – in the standard game they were woefully inadaquate to the degree of almost complete uselessness.

-Allowed Greek Royal Peltasts the ability to fire-at-will.

NOTE: Recommend that you field more giant/large artillery to destroy the largest city walls and use scoprion and polybolos as your preferred field artillery.

Reasons for skirmisher ammo quantity change:

1) By default, these orginial ammunition levels are historically correct, (to my surprise, they were well researched!) however the problem is that all factions can aquire a technology that increases missile unit ammo count by +50% (150%). For example, the Romans aquire this technology immediately, as their first military technology (Supply Reforms). Unforutnately, this means that the historically correct ammunition level is thrown out the window from the start! In other words, the ammunition level is correct initially, but broken by tech improvements, this mod makes it so that you need to aquire the increased missile ammo technology in order to obtain the historical ammunition level.

2) You can no longer field a full army of peltasts/javelin men, which was possible before. Their ammunition would last the full battle, and they could easily run and mutilate any persuing force of infantry. Now they will run out of ammo after a realistic amount of time, meaning that you can either more selectively employ them, or retire them back for hand-to-hand flank screening force (historical use after ammo was exhausted).

3) Slingers and archers now have an actual advantage. Javelin/peltasts are powerful, but have much more limited ammo and will run out of it quickly. Slingers and archers are weaker in power, but have a much higher quantity of ammo and higher range. While this was true before, it didn’t make an actual difference because the battle was usually over (or concluding) once the javelin/peltasts ran out of ammo. This is no longer true, purchase slingers and archers for longevity and range.

4) Infantry units can now weather skirmisher attacks. Before, javelin units had so much ammo that they could more or less eliminate a majority of the enemy’s front line infantry force. This was rediculous to the degree that the defender had no choice but to run after them and destroy his position, and become more vulnerable. Front line infantry can now hold and weather the javelins in hope that they will expend their ammo. This makes it so that skirmshers can do what they did historically: SKIRMISH, and attrition the enemy, not wipe them out entirely.

5) Land battles should last a little longer, because there is less total destruction happening from javelin units, and more infantry vs. infantry fighting.

6) This change makes naval battle less of a "shooting affair" and more of a boarding and ramming affair. Missile unit ships can eliminate some ships, but since they run out of ammo pretty quickly, they are realistically expended quickly and have to retire, board, or ram. This makes melee ships more useful. *See my "Naval Battle Mod" for more realistic naval battles — compatible and recommended.*

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=190978721

…full compilation my battle mods:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=205674098