Robs Empire Total War mod collection

[Clockwork]

Hello,

I've been creating some ETW mods recently which has been a great learning experience and quite fun. I'm running into an issue with one of them but I'll get that sorted soon I hope as I've found a mod that does something similar but sucessfully!

What I have been trying to do is create more of a flavour for each faction, eschewing most hisorticity. For example, Poland now get full Line Infantry size Grenadier regiments (double what the standard size is), Russia get access to a ton of local troops in eastern europe and the caucuses that they didn't before and I've taken away Dutch Line Infantry altogether if they stay as a republic and I'm now looking to give them access to a greater variety of mercenaries. Does anyone know what sort of thing is appropriate apart from generally, "The Swiss^TM". I'm also running out of ideas for Spain if anyone has any idea what sort of thing makes the Spanish army especíal and Sweden is the one with the issue (I can't get their Line Inf to use swords).

Other than that, I've given Desert Warriors more of an identity by having them use the Skirmish skill, letting them all fire at once (with 5 ammo, they run out really, really fast) but also want to give them swords as a backup weapon and having the same issue as with Sweden. Dahomey Amazons now have Rifles as stated on their unit description so will be the easiest way to access a 125 range unit. Grenadiers have a larger unit size generally (Polish still bigger), France gets access to the Superior Line Infantry unit that Sweden and Prussia has to turn their lategame absolutely monsterous. Lastly I increased the size of the Ottoman sword infantry to Line Inf unit size as they were practically useless.

Does anyone still play ETW at all? Which faction would suit supersized dragoons? Sweden maybe?

What can I do for Austria - they have superior cavalry already and oversized but worse infantry. Might see if I can make them more a collection of states, give them access to more regional units same as Russia but if so who would be in that, Swiss, Saxon, Bavarian, Polish, Italians maybe?

Cheers,
Rob

[Jubal]

Ooh, interesting I never really played much ETW, maybe I should sometime, I think I must own a copy (though at this point it might be simpler to get a new copy on Steam than see if I can dig out an ancient CD from anywhere).

For Austria I think regionalisation makes sense: I'd think of the big divide line as being between Austria proper and Hungary, with Bohemia and the Balkans as the other segments, and a lot of their typical/historical expansion prospects as being eastwards. Italian stuff does make sense, they definitely historically got down to Trieste etc: but from a historical angle I'd be more inclined to look at e.g. Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia as regional unit zones for Austrian expansion than Switzerland or Saxony (Bavaria could make sense as that's quite culturally similar to Austria anyway, and Swabia next door was a Habsburg crown possession for a long time so I guess that provides some Swiss cultural overlap).

[Clockwork]

Fantastic info, thank you as always mate!

The only reason I mention Swiss is because they're already in the game, I left out Scots and Irish as a stretch too far though

There's Grenzers from Czechia I think, Boyars from Wallachia that I modded in for them already actually, I forgot (Bulgaria is the same province in game I think). Oh and I added Bosnian Pandours and Bozniak Lancers, made from the Ottoman Bosnian Panduk unit and Prussian Bozniaks.

What would Swabia be famous for? I'd ideally like either a Cavalry Guard or Line Infantry Guard unit as Austria is swamped with low tier units at the moment but I can't really find anything about the makeup of their army at 1600 :/

[Jubal]

So I think Swabia culturally would be pretty equivalent to the eastern/German parts of Switzerland so I think you could sort of roll them together culturally from a units perspective (indeed, the historical definition of Swabia in the medieval period included both the modern German province and places like Zurich, and also I think rolled in Vaduz and Vorarlberg).

And yeah, I mean I think a high diversity of lower tier units does kinda sound like Austria from a military perspective, I'm not sure there was a solid "imperial guard" core or anything. If I get some time in the next week or so I'll try and take an hour and see if I can dig out any actual papers on the pre-thirty-years-war Habsburg army, it feels like something someone must have written about.

[Clockwork]

So a Swabian Infantry, Infantry+ tier based on the Swiss Infantry unit should be ok? That's great thank you!

If that's how they with no elites then that's it - I also like emphasising or adding weaknesses of each faction as well (see above, Dutch lost the main battle line unit ). Although being in such a precarious position next to three aggressive factions is quite a weakness in itself!

[Jubal]

Yeah, that sounds good. Incidentally the Swabia thing in that period is where the tiny country of Liechtenstein comes from: the Liechtenstein family wanted a seat in the Holy Roman Empire's assembly of nobles, and the rule was you got a seat if you were a direct vassal of the Emperor in his position as Emperor. So their holdings in Austria didn't work because that was them being a vassal of the Duchy of Austria, not directly of the Empire. But Swabia didn't have a Duke so all the non-Swiss bits were direct Imperial possessions, so these guys who were already rich as hell just bought two counties of Swabia so they could get the seat. And that's now Liechtenstein. The family never even went there until the 20th century.

Overall I think the Habsburgs are quite a weird one in a Total War system because TW is broadly built around the idea of geographically defined factions slogging it out in pure manpower, economy, & battlefield terms, and Habsburg power in the 16th-18th centuries was very much not about that stuff: it was supranational, diplomatic, marital, a lot of it based on persuading everyone not to rock certain boats or being in the position to lead on certain things etc. But all that side of things doesn't fit the Total War engine as effectively.