About this mod Tweaked and improved vanilla troop trees Permissions and credits Credits and distribution permission Other user's assets All the assets in this file belong to the author, or are from free-to-use modder's resources

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Conversion permission You can convert this file to work with other games as long as you credit me as the creator of the file

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OVERVIEW



This mod contains tweaks to almost every unit in the base game's equipment and progression with the goal of making each faction more unique from the others, as well as more consistent within itself as well as consistent with the original spirit of each faction. I began tweaking the troop trees because there was too much crossover and ambiguity in the roles of the troops, such as Imperial Veteran infantrymen having longer spears than the Menavliatons, as well as having shields. This made the Menavliatons effectively useless. Also, many units classified as spearmen never actually use their spears. The name "Marian Reforms" does not mean that this turns the Empire's troops into historical Roman legionaries, its a reference to my character, Marius Ludus Calradius, who reformed the Empire's army in order to better fit the style of war which his newly reunited Empire was waging against foes on every side.



This mod has a heavy focus on the Empire troop trees, as that is the faction I have the most experience with and knowledge of its troops' functions. The names, equipment, and function of its troops have been modified to reflect the Byzantine army which it is based off of. Inspiration is drawn from across the span of the Byzantine army's existence; so it is not necessarily historically accurate to a particular period, but it does make sense within my limited knowledge of its history and the greek and latin languages. This includes the Limitanei (garrison) and Camitatenses (field army) system. As the predominant established power in Calradia, the empire is able to better equip its "militia" to defend its territory. However, being untrained, morale is still a issue when a garrison is fighting a trained enemy army without support. The comitatenses are field armies led by strategoi which patrol the territory under their jurisdiction as well as contributing troops to armies for campaigns against the Empire's enemies. These are equipped and organized in the manner outlined in the Strategikon, with a metal helmet, linen or mail armor, a large kite shaped shield (the Byzantines used oval shields as well, but there isn't one that fits their aesthetic in game) and a spatha. Light skirmishers and archers are used to widdle down the enemy before the infantry close with it, and heavy cataphracts are used to destroy it.



Other major factions have been overhauled as well to reflect more historical equipment, as well as more consistency within troop trees and diversity between them, all while staying faithful to the look and feel of the vanilla factions and troops. I did not do as much research on the other factions in order to bring them in line with their historical inspiration, instead I tried to maintain the look and feel of the vanilla units but increase variety of items as well as make equipment progression flow better along upgrade trees. I have not edited upgrade paths or names as extensively as I have done for the Empire, but skills and equipment sets of almost every unit in every major faction (and some minor ones) have been analyzed and adjusted as of version 1.4.



TO INSTALL



Simply take the spnpccharacters, spitems, and spnpccharactertemplates files and replace the existing files in Modules > SandboxCore > ModuleData in your Mount & Blade II Bannerlord directory. It is highly advisable to create a backup of the original files just in case anything goes wrong, or if you simply want to switch back to the original troops trees.



CHANGELOG



1.2

- Skills overhaul and minor equipment tweaks.



1.3

- Greatly increased variety of Khuzait troops' equipment.

- Updated Sturgian troops to reintroduce much of the slavic inspired equipment. Made certain troops resemble slavic culture and other troops resemble norse culture.

- Minor balance changes to certain Sturgian armor values.



1.4

- Aserai troop overhaul. Makes use of many Aserai culture armors that were not in use. Reduces crossover in armor types with Khuzait and Sturgian troops.

- Overhaul of Empire culture mercenary companies (Hidden Hand, Legion of the Betrayed, Eleftheroi). Hidden hand now appear more like shady bandits, the Legion of the Betrayed have more of a late Roman, early Byzantine aesthetic but retain their manipular legion inspired names. Eleftheroi have more of a Vlachian/ Cuman feel to them; a sort of cross between Aserai and Khuzait with a bit of Imperial culture.

- Edited Imperial cavalry troop tree to have a more logical progression of equipment.



1.4.1

- Adjustments to Nord (Skolderbrotva) and Darshi (Ghilman) culture troop trees.

- Equipment and skill tweaks to Sturgian noble (Varyag and Druzhinnik) troops trees.

- Minor equipment adjustments and tweaks to various units.



Marian Reforms - Equipped Recruits



This separate version of the mod attempts to resolve the issue of lords only using hordes of recruits by simply replacing their equipment sets (but not skills) with those of a higher tier troop. Having dudes using nothing but clothing and a stick running around a battlefield makes sense for game balance and player progression, but its unbecoming of kings and emperors. This version makes battles feel more like they're between armies instead of gangs.



That being said I made this just to make my battles look and feel better. I have not done any balance testing on this as that is not the purpose. I just got tired of mowing down thousands of Vlandian recruits with my army of all Palatine Guards and Legionaries. There are also discrepancies as many factions have a Tier 2 troop that will be more poorly equipped than the base troop.



This version of the mod will probably also not be updated unless it becomes game-breakingly incompatible.