The Battle for Antares IV: Main Thread, FAQs & Discussion

[Jubal]

Jubal Barca presents a sci-fi total conversion mod...

The Battle For
ANTARES IV

FAQs & INFO

Okay, so what the heck?
The Battle for Antares IV is (so far as I know) the only attempt to use the Rome TW 1.5 engine to simulate a sci-fi battle for another planet somewhere far into the future. It involves a muddle of figures from different famous sci-fi universes having bitter turf wars over a mostly uninhabited planet. The two main factions are the human colonists and the Lizardmen.

How does your brain come up with this insanity?
This very much span off from A Game of Colleges, where the Lizardmen may well also make an appearance - they're the only species banned from being members of the Cambridge University Science Fiction Society. As to how it developed, I tried to keep the parody feel of A Game of Colleges, and the result ended up looking progressively more like the classic sierra Space Quest series as I went along; as such various Space Quest monsters found their way in as well as a number of other classic fantasy tropes (most of which you'll be able to tell; a glance at the redshirt infantry or the Space Knights shows where their inspirations might have partly come from).

What sorts of units will there be?
The colonies have a roster that's a mix of human factions from other games/settings; their basic unit is a line infantry body of redshirts, with tanks, heavy super-soldiers, and the ability to call down orbital strikes later in the game. The Lizardmen have massed combat and bow-armed infantry, but they're certainly no primitives; their higher end units include the fast and powerful hoverchariot, as well as being able to unleash powerful and unpredictable Teravores. There are quite a few rebel groups as well; in human-centric regions a mix of rebel colonists and browncoat infantry will pop up and fight your forces, there are plenty of rebel Lizardman tribes, and primitive clans of Trogs also hold many settlements. Finally, there are mercenaries, which so far include the Sarien space-pirates and Destructonator(tm) robots (Impress your friends! Destructonate(tm) your enemies!).

Do you have a ModDB page?
We do! It's here:
http://www.moddb.com/mods/total-war-the-battle-for-antares-iv

Can I like you on Facebook?
Why yes, yes you certainly can! We're found here:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Total-War-Battle-for-Antares-IV/1384381071838762

[comrade_general]

Great job Jubal!

Now I know how it feels to be on the receiving end of a sneaky ninja mod.

[Tom]

This looks cool, does it need testing?

[Silver Wolf]

A wild mod appears!

[Clockwork]

Nice! Looks great Jub

[Cuddly Khan]

A sci-fi? Interesting...

[Jubal]

Yes, do go download and test and give feedback

There will eventually be a version 2, but not for a while I suspect.

[Tom]

Sounds good, I'll try my best

[Jubal]

Updated with our ModDB and FB links

[Tom]

Okay, I've given this a brief run through and it's looking very good so far. I have so far only played the colonists on medium/medium and it's intimidating at first being surrounded by so many rebel towns with very large garrisons compared to your total army count of 0. However, you can quickly train up some redcoats and hire mercenaries in the different provinces to build up a large army which is great as it makes it feel as if you are actually a colonist having to establish a military/defensive force. On medium/medium the campaign is not overly challenging as I just stampeded around my section of the map subjugating the rebel settlements and building an empire. Battles are not that difficult but with just redcoats it devolves in to firing lines and if a single infantry unit were to attack you you're pretty much portugaled. Bearing this in mind I'd advise hiring mercenary trogs (I think they're called that) which admirably act as a berserk buffer against enemy close quarters infantry. I haven't yet come up against the lizard people but I'm now producing tanks and space knights at my capital so it will be interesting to see how they fare in battle. Nice model for the tanks btw No bugs atm but we'll see. Overall, a very fun mod with lots of potential.

[Jubal]

When there are actually factions nearby in future versions it should get a lot tougher.  The addition of a few more enemy units will also help, I hope, particularly a couple more fast attack elements. Have you used the destructonators or the Sariens yet, and what were your thoughts on those?

And yes, Trogs are excellent

[Tom]

I've used the Sariens (space pirates) and they're ultra powerful once they've lobbed their grenades however, they're liable to get mobbed by infantry as they have to get so close to use their weapons which is a shame as they are awesome. I haven't used destructonators yet, haven't run in to them for hire I should be able to carry on my campaign tomorrow.

[Jubal]

I think them being liable to getting mobbed is  probably fair, the idea was heavy power at closeish range but needing to get close enough to do damage.

[Tom]

Yeah but it's not nice spending 850 on them + upkeep then losing half the unit in the first battle. If they were made with a bit of a longer range perhaps as atm their arc of fire is very high and if they were really chucking nades (which I think they are) then surely they could have more like a 25 metre range? Give them a bit of a chance to run away from impending death. I agree with you that they can't be too overpowered at close range though.

[Jubal]

Longer range may well be a good shout, oui. I'll do some testing at some point.