Slower, More Realistic Darthmod
This mod of Darthmod makes the game much, much slower and way more methodical. No more units disintegrating in 10 seconds, as they can fight for minutes on end and even bog down to a never-ending stalemate if you let them reach exhaustion. But they won’t fight to the death either as morale is finally back.
Note that I haven’t touched Rise of the Samurai (because I don’t own it) nor Fall of the Samurai as of yet. The changes only affect the base game, in particular ground combat. I haven’t touched naval combat yet either.
PLANNED FEATURES:
- Melee Combat, Balance and Realism: Getting there
- Ranged Combat, Balance and Realism: Bit iffy, but getting there. Note that artillery units have not been touched yet.
- Naval Combat, Balance and Realism: Haven’t touched boats yet
- Fall of the Samurai Rework: Haven’t touched it yet
- Rise of the Samurai Rework: Initial changes. Needs testing.
KEY FEATURES:
- Slower combat, with less models dying over all (by a factor of around 2,000). It takes around 5 minutes for two katana samurai units to rout each other unless you flank charge one with another unit.
- Complete Combat Overhaul: No more explicitly rock-paper-scissors gameplay. Now combat is less about unit stats and more about creating optimal battlefield conditions to secure victory. Order your No-Dachi Samurai to charge an ashigaru unit and they will still maul them on impact, but their low melee defense means they will be whittled down by enemy reinforcements. The solution? Relieve them with your own Yari Ashigaru unit, order them to retreat, let them recover their morale and stamina, and then get them to charge the flank of the enemy line.
- Morale is back. Thank God. No more units fighting to the death. Now you can utilize tactics based on morale shocks again.
- More methodical and exciting gameplay as interesting behaviors have emerged from the changes, such as clearer mass routs, holdouts, and broken units rallying more frequently.
GAMEPLAY CHANGES:
- All units are harder to kill, beyond the combat being slow. Ashigaru in particular have increased defense across the board.
- All ranged units are now able to actually defend themselves to a degree. A Bow Ashigaru unit defending against an exhausted Yari Samurai unit at half strength will bog it down long enough for help to arrive.
- All ranged samurai units are now capable of actual swordsmanship. You can now comfortably send your bow and matchlock samurai into the fray if you need to. They won’t be as good as dedicated melee samurai, though.
- Ranged combat is redone. Archers have 250 325 220 range now (originally it was 150) so they can skirmish without being in charge distance all the time. Matchlocks have 200 275 180 range.
- Ranged weapons suffer a massive penalty across distance. A unit firing at max range is only 30% 25% effective. Per volley of 100 guns, your matchlocks will fell 3 – 5 samurai at long range, 8+ at half, and 20+ within 50 yards.
- Veterancy now matters more as each level gives +2 melee defense. Might be OP though, let me know. Turns out it was OP. Every two levels of veterancy now gives +1 melee defense instead.
- Creating a corps of veterans in the campaign is now actually possible because proper tactics can keep your men from becoming casualties, preserving their experience.
- Units are now more resistant to fatigue and have higher thresholds for it. You will only really see exhausted units in a melee that’s been grinding for a long time.
- Morale works again, and well enough that armies don’t have to annihilate each other. Units will run away to save themselves, as you can see in the screenshots of some post-battle statistics above.
- Standardized unit sizes: infantry are at 350 men per battalion; cavalry around 120; specialist units 100 and below.
COMPATIBILITY:
Not compatible with mods that change unit_stats_land_tables. This means the fix to starting campaign unit sizes too, unfortunately. Not compatible with mods that change kv_rules (important), kv_morale and kv_projectiles. Also not compatible with mods that change campaign technologies, character trees, etc.
It is, however, compatible with everything else, including those great mods that expand the Japanese campaign map.
And that’s pretty much it so far. I’d appreciate feedback since currently the mod is still a work in progress.
