Loose Unit Spacing 2

This is the Warhammer 2 version of my mod Loose Unit Spacing. That page has some better screenshots.

This mod makes it so that certain units don’t line up in straight columns and ranks. This mainly affects more mob-like races and their units. In vanilla, all units sit in relatively evenly spaced rows and columns. While good for consistent gameplay it doesn’t have as much visual appeal to me so I changed it. Races such as Orcs, Beastmen, Skaven, some Undead, and some other miscellaneous units will now appear more mob or ‘rabble’ like. There’s no hard and fast lore behind these decisions, just some reasonable judgement you may or may not agree with.

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Changes Overview
Note, unit spacing is determined by spacing archetype. For example, all ungor units use the same spacing template. Same for minotaurs. Same for all chariots regardless of race. This oddity is why all empire units minus Demigryph knights will appear in their regular formations. Demigrpyhs use a ‘monstrous cavalry’ template, not a professional calvary template.

Details:

Beastmen: All units, from ungors to bestigors to boars and minotaurs now are more mob like. I think it fits their bestial nature.

Chaos Warriors + Norsca: Marauder tribesmen now appear as a rabble. While strong, they’re not especially disciplined. Unfortunately, Chaos Warriors, which are disciplined, however violent and terrifying, use the same spacing template as marauders, and therefore are also more mob like. However, Chosen have their own spacing template which has been unchanged, so chosen will appear in neat rank and file.

Undead: Zombies and ghouls will appear more mob like, but skeletons and grave guard will appear in neat formations. It would look odd with their in sync movement otherwise. Note that some undead grave knights, while far from mindless and still containing martial pride, will appear a little more scattered because they use some interesting ‘chaotic’ spacing stances, instead of the regular cavalry ones.

Elves: All elves stick to vanilla. Some of the Wood Elf skirmishers and elite units are a little more mob like than before, but that doesn’t seem particularly egregious. Sadly they share a lot of templates with obviously more ‘mob like’ units.

Bretonnia: All units are vanilla, minus peasant mobs and some monsters/skirmishing horse units.

Empire: Vanilla, but Demigryph Knights will be rabble like because they use a monstrous cavalry spacing attribute shared with actual undisciplined monster units.

Dwarfs: No changes. Debated on making slayers a little less rank and file, but kept them vanilla for now.

Skaven: All units are more rabble like. I wanted to make stormvermin have vanilla professional spacing, but sadly they share a template with other skaven units. Oddly enough, Plague Monks use a ‘normal’ spacing template rather than the ‘chaotic’ ones of all other skaven.

Lizardmen: Skinks of all varieties are more mob like. Saurus are untouched. Their monstrous cavalry will appear more random as well. Kroxigors, which use the troll template, will appear more mob like, even though you could certainly argue they are smarter than that.

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Compatibility:

This mod should work with just about anything that doesn’t also change the unit_spacings_table. Very few things do.

This mod should also be compatible with all game updates that don’t affect the existing tables. That being said, I will try to update it every patch, but it shouldn’t break your game if the ‘out of date’ caution sign comes up in the future. There is another loose spacing mod on here which changes a lot more (open up each in the editor and check it out). Mine has a smaller scope of affect, which helps.

Also, note that some of the ‘oddities’ above, such as Chaos Warriors/Chosen and Plague Monks are due to their selected space archetype on the Land_units_table. Now, I could change warriors and monks to appear closer to their, in my interpretation, loreful ways, but this would require editing another table, and the table that affects many unit stats. Doing so would ruin mod compatibility.

In the interest of ultimate compatibility I have not modified this table. I’d rather live with one little visual inconsistency than affect many, many mods

Unit spacing archetypes are weird. By all accounts, Bretonnian Battle Monks and Harpies have their spacing type. Why them? Who the hell knows. Meanwhile human sized undead knights have chaotic cavalry templates. And Kroxigors are trolls. Why not.

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Notes

This is another personal preference mod. Playing with loose unit spacing for the less disciplined forces makes sense to me. Visually, it just *feels* right. If you don’t have the same taste then that’s cool too.

Balance wise, it’s a crapshoot. Sometimes ranged and artillery will hit fewer units than it would have, sometimes it will hit more. That’s the nature of a more randomized spacing. This RNG was probably a factor in making all factions have uniform unit spacing. As someone who only plays singleplayer and prefers a more cinematic experience this isn’t a huge concern for me.

Enjoy, let me know if there are any issues. Ideally, as more factions are released that could conceivably have more loose formations of troops I will update this.