Mod - Improved Light Cavalry

[apoger]

Just sent Illwinter/sunray another mod.

This one makes some mods to light cavalry which I felt needed more than the 3 strat move to justify it's cost.

Hope you guys like it.

[PvK]

Care to give us a summary of what you modified?

PvK

[Keir Maxwell]

Something that might help me play Tien C'hi Barberian Kingdoms as a Horse Nomad nation - I must try this.

This could be very interesting regarding decisions I'm looking at around adjustments to light troops in the War of The Ring mod.

Thanks Alex.

cheers

Keir

[apoger]

From the file:


Ever since Dom1 light cavalry has had issues. Most LC has the combat power of militia or light infantry, at a cost of 2.5 times their infantry counterparts.

In Dom2 Illwinter attempted to upgrade LC by giving it a strategic move of 3. This helped, however fast movement on the map doesn't justify the heavy cost (in my opinion).

LC face problems as their hit and run battlefield tactics are difficult to model in Dominions. What they should do is circle around the enemy formations, making lightning strikes into vulnerable spots and withdrawing before the enemy can react properly. Since Dominions battles are toe to toe affairs this doesn't offer much to the LC.

What I have done is given LC extra attack and defense skill. This is an abstraction that represents that the LC aren't really sitting in front of the enemy troops. They are moving back and forth, exploiting weak spots and avoiding entanglements. They still have little or no armor, and die fast if they get hit.

I think this is a reasonable way to adjust LC and I am hoping that this will inspire players to actually use them.

Of course you may think LC are fine, or may disagree with the modification. No problem, don't use this mod. Play the game the way you like.

The Bonuses:
Very Light Cavalry (pro 7 and less) get +2 attack and +3 defense.
Light Cavalry (pro 8-10) get +1 attack and +1 defense.
Cavalry with armor 11+ got no adjustment, they use armor not speed.
I adjusted some Centaurs, as that seemed fair.
Also the Wolf Riders got benefits as I felt they are also LC.

[ January 15, 2004, 06:17: Message edited by: apoger ]

[Saber Cherry]

Did you include all the light cavs? There are quite a few - for example, TC, Arco, Horse Brothers, Tribals. Just curious, because I've been planning to mod the light infantries... and there are a WHOLE BUNCH scattered through all the unit numbers in the game.

Also, I have not figured out a use for shortbow LCs, with short range and bad precision, costing 3X indy archers but no better...

[ January 15, 2004, 06:19: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[apoger]

If I missed any let me know, but I think I got them all. It wasn't as many as I thought there would be. Less than 20 I think. Keep in mind that I drew the line at cavalry that are very low on protection.

Yeah, light infantry, that would be a hard one. Good luck on that.

Although I'm not going to have more fun with trying to mod all the mages precision stats. I'm stalling on that one because it's a real job.

You could give the archery 1.5x hp and a shield defense modifier (Say buckler or Kite without actually having the shield). This would be represented that when an arrow or a sword blow strike the cavalry unit a % of the damage is done to the horse and not the archer.

Without being able to change the straight forward tactics of the horsearchers this is the only way I could think that they would be on par with anything else cost efficent.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by apoger:

I adjusted some Centaurs, as that seemed fair.

The Centaur Longbow will certainly be pretty scary with that high a defense and I would certainly think about using them again as I have moved away from them.

I'm not sure increasing LC's attack makes sense. You are representing there ability to get flank attacks etc and currently there is no mod for such things. Problem is it still applies in front on situations where LC could find themselves with higher attack than HC. Front on LC are not exactly high attack value troops.

Increasing LC defense makes perfect sense to me We already have examples of low prot/high def units that work so it is a viable approach and its a good abstractio of LC's ability to skirmish.

One of the fixs to LC is allowing them to fire then attack which does seem to be in the pipeline.

Cheers

Keir

[ January 15, 2004, 06:51: Message edited by: Keir Maxwell ]

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by apoger:
Yeah, light infantry, that would be a hard one. Good luck on that.

...fortunately...

Once everything is in the simulator, I can set a parameter (if creature=human and resource cost less than 10) and autogenerate a mod. For example: (then gold -2, def +1, mrl -1, hp -1)

One adjustment for LI, one for MI, and one for HI... then manually ensure everything looks right.

[Keir Maxwell]

Hiya,

After failing to get Alex's mod off the dom library I quickly made up my own for Tien Ch'i and came up with what I believe to be an important break through in dealing with quality LC - fear.

The difficulty of simulating LC as that they are not involved in full on frontal combat but instead ride in shooting, throwing javelins, feint charges etc. High defense can simulate how hard LC are to catch but its harder to simulate the impact of the LC which is primarily on the cohesion/morale of the units attacked. If the LC involved are of low to moderate quality they will cause a few casulties but are unlikely to shake steady opponents. On the other hand if the LC involved are fierce and keen to close when the opportunity presents the results were described by ancients as terrifying.

So give low to moderate quality LC high defence, as Alex has suggested, to make it hard to shift and give the hard buggers (Huns, Xiongnu, Turkomans, Mongols, Szekeler etc) a fear ability to represent the greater stress they could apply. This is not just about fear but about representing the overall impact of aggressive LC.

So my Tien C'hi Barbarian Kingdoms mod gives the LC bucklers, raising both defense and prot, I've raised precision to 11 (ouch), removed the lance, tinkered with res cost and added fear -4 (good for pillaging). I've given the other cav precison 9 - lower than the LC to reflect the impact of heavy armor on shooting from horseback.

The changes in equipment and precision are to my understanding more accurate for what is being modeled and provide the HC with a clear role - the shock - while the LC are the multi role troops - generally either delaying and shooting or else attacking the flank. While there were lunatic LC with lance I have not heard that the Xiongnu of similar steppe nomads fought this way. My understanding is that the standard is a light lance able to be thrown and better classified as a spear till the weapon mod comes out - then I'll give them scimitars and a one shot light lance.

I'll do a bit of play testing then post the mod. Should provide me with the basic mounted troop types for the Easterling WoTR mod.

cheers

Keir