Amazon:Total War

[SubRosa]

The last new unit for version 2.4. A reskin of Rhodian Slingers, who like the Cretans are now recruitable by all of the Hellenic factions in the Aegean.

[SubRosa]

Amazon Total War version 2.4 is now out!

That is right, a new version of ATW is now awaiting. 2.4 contains many bug fixes, changes, and additions. Most notable are the sweeping changes that New Amazonia have undergone, including their name changing to The Valkyrja. They now have a much more barbaric flavour to them, with new units that show a definite barbarian and steppe influence, and even a new temple. Expect a full Faction Preview of them in the days to come.

Here is a full list of additions and changes.

• New Amazonia renamed to The Valkyrja, added Berserkers, Horse Archers, Amazon Warband, Amazon Skirmishers, Militia Axewomen, and Amazon Spearwomen to their roster. Removed their Temple of Ares and replaced it with Temple of Freja.
  
• Edited Campaign Script to reduce the population bonus to AI controlled cities.
  
• Edited the map to prevent pirates from spawning in Lake Tritonis.
  
• Numerous bug fixes, including new Macedon banner not appearing over empty cities, advanced amazon walls not appearing correctly on the battle map, sprites not working for many units, Gorgon camel units being recruited where they should not be available, and Gorgon Companions not being recruitable from royal stable, and bug of Iberian General using Briton General skin.
  
• New strat map captain models for nearly all factions.
  
• New unit cards for Amazon Companions.
  
• Made Generals recruitable.
  
• Condensed EDU and DMB again.
  
• New load screen overlays courtesy of Divus.
  
• Added Nubian Spearmen Mercenaries.
  
• Made Barbarian Archers female and gave Briton Light Chariots a female crew.
  
• Added more Amazon names.  
  
• Created Female Gladiators for the Romans and Rebels.
  
• Created new skins for Cretan Archers and Rhodian Slingers and made them a regularly recruitable unit in the Aegean by the Greek culture.
  
• Partially implemented Signifer One's Animation Pack (for some of the archers).
  

Expect a full implementation of Signifer One's animations in version 2.5. It is something I have to work on, as his hoplite animation causes the soldier to turn her shield sideways when in Shield Wall. While that is fine if they have a round shield, it looks very strange with an oval or crescent shield. Currently the Amazon Spearwoman unit has a temporary workaround, using the javelinman skeleton in order to have the overhand spear use.

As before there are two separate copies of Amazon Total War. One for use with the Rome Total War executable, and the other for use with the Barbarian Invasion executable. You can find both here:

Amazon Total War 2.4 For BI - Full Version

Amazon Total War 2.4 Beta For Rome Total War - Full Version

[SubRosa]

I took a few interesting screenshots while gathering pics for my upcoming Valkyrja preview, so I thought I would post them here.

Athenian Marines


Greek Sacred Band


Spartans Under Fire


Watch Where You Put That Spear!


Who Put That Banana Peel On The Battlefield?

[SubRosa]

The Valkyrja

Daughters of the Dragon

So weave we, weird sisters,
Our warwinning woof.
Now Warwinner walketh
To weave in her turn,
Now Swordswinger steppeth,
Now Swiftstroke, now Storm;
When they speed the shuttle
How spearheads shall flash!
Shields crash, and helmgnawer
On harness bite hard!
- Nj

[SubRosa]

I will be taking a break from major work on ATW. The reason being that I started a Valkyrja AAR here. So follow the link to get a look at ATW in action.

[Jubal]

I should wirte more AARs... hm.

[SubRosa]

Why not give a Mount and Blade AAR a go? I have not ever seen one.

[SubRosa]

Since I have been playing them, I have been thinking about the Valkyrja and how I might make feel more distinct. Not with dramatic things like units or temples, just with a little more depth to their background.

Since they are a democracy, I am thinking of calling the leaders of the Valkyrja "Equals". The Faction Leader would be "First Among Equals". Rather like the title Princeps, that the Roman emperors used during the Principate. I could use Greek or German/Norse words for the titles, or just stick with it in plain English as it is.

I have also been thinking about the Spearwoman unit they get at 3rd tier.


I would like to give them a less generic name the simply "Spearwomen". Going with the shield design I might call them something like the Dragon Guard, or Drakonis, or Dragon's Teeth (I rather like that one, as it is a nice play on their spears). Does anyone have any other ideas?

[SubRosa]

While I think about a name for the Spearwomen, I went and renamed the internal faction name of the senate to slavs for both the BI and RTW versions of the mod. This means no more senate tab when playing the Romans. It also means I can now do emergent hordes in the BI versions if I want.

I was originally thinking of doing the Gorgons that way, and have them emerge at a predetermined date during the game. Perhaps 20 years in or so. That would give them a lot of largish cities to sack when they turned up in North Africa, and allow the other factions a chance to get situated there before facing them. So I might go ahead and do that. Of course if I do make them an emergent faction, I will create a Provincinal Campaign that would allow you to play them as normal.

[SubRosa]

I have created complete map showing every territory, city, and port (click on the thumbnail to see the full version):


Basically I took map_regions.tga, blew it up, and added the names of all the territories and cities. While I was at it I changed the internal names of many cities and a few regions to match the names being displayed in-game. I also renamed Neo Themiskyra to Vanahemir.

[SubRosa]

I did a little work so far today. I made farms destroyable, and since I have noticed that the cities in the Crimea are growing at insane rates, I reduced their base farming levels and removed the grain resource from Chersonesos. I also noticed that the Amazon Warband cost was far too low, and brought it up to be more in line with that of other Warbands (but slightly cheaper, as they are not quite as good).

[comrade_general]

Great work on everything!

[SubRosa]

Thank you comrade.

As you can see I am still working on little things in between the Valkyrja AAR. I went through the bottom and mid-tier units and raised the morale of all of them. Now your basic 1st tier infantry unit (Warband, Town Watch, etc...) will have a morale of 4. 2nd tier is usually a morale of 6, and 3rd a morale of 8. This varies slightly by unit. I even gave all Peasants a morale of 1. This ought to make the bottom end units the AI loves to spam last a little bit longer in a fight.

I also decided to rename the Valkyrja Spearwomen to Drakones (Drakon being Greek for Dragon), and updated their campaign description to shed more light on their use of the dragon as their faction symbol.

It was also at this time that the Valkyrja adopted the dragon as their symbol. To their barbarian neighbors the dragon was a monstrous beast which they all feared. However, the Amazons had always known the serpent as a symbol of women's wisdom and power. A creature of the Underworld that knows the secrets of regeneration and rebirth. They saw the northern dragon as nothing more than a new face upon their old and dearly loved serpent, and laughed at the fools who dreaded it.

I am now thinking of creating a few new Valkyrja mercenary units. The old Amazon Hoplites look kind of odd on the steppe. I might create an Axewoman merc to replace them there. Maybe a merc Amazon Horse archer too. I am also giving thought to changing the model for the Valkyrja's base archer unit to the new female Barbarian Archer.

[SubRosa]

Since I have discovered that I have much more room to expand in the EDU, I have decided to create separate entries for all of the Valkyrja units. This will allow me to give them unique descriptions and give them all snow bonuses.

I have also noticed that the Valkyrja have been very difficult to play. Even for me. I know from email that other people have not been nearly as successful with them as I. So I think a little balancing in their favour might be in order.

One of the big problems I have been having in my own Valkyrja campaign is the large distances between my cities. They are really more like islands in a vast ocean, each essentially on its own. Compounded with this the capital is located far from everything else, so as you expand it quickly is too far away to be a viable troop recruitment center. Contrast this to a Carthaginian, Greek, or Amazonian campaign where their capitals and other beginning cities remain viable troop production centers for nearly the entire game.

So one thing I know I will do is move Melanchlaeni to the east and a little south, and Careote to the west and a little north. Then I will put a new province with Vanahemir in the middle of them. The old Vanahemir will remain as either a rebel settlement or a starting Valkyrja one (with a different name of course).

I am also thinking of doing things to improve their economy in general. Increasing base farming levels, the number of resources, initial populations of their regions, making their units cheaper, or somewhat more powerful, etc... I might even put a grain resource in one of their territories to push up the population growth, but I am uncertain about that.

[SubRosa]

I moved Vanahemir south between Careotae and Melanchlaeni, and created the new territory of Mari in its old place. I gave more resources to the starting Valkyrja territories, and gave them another starting General.

Here are their new starting territories: