Ladies and gentlemen, fans of the Middle Ages, I present to you

the complete preview of our ambitious project, the War of the

West! Our team is proud to display many of our mods features to

you today! Take note of the fact that this is quite a long read prior

to starting!

Introduction to the Mod

War of the West is a mod centered on Western Europe, much like

Broken Crescent is centered on the Middle East and the Far East.

The events of this mod take place from the 13th to the 15th

Centuries, which will be encompassed in two distinct campaigns.

The first campaign, called War of the West: Britannia, starts in

1245 and ends in 1315, and the other campaign, War of the West:

The Golden Age, starts in 1245 and ends in 1454. The Britannia

Campaign features 4 Turns per Year and the Golden Age Grand

Campaign features 2 Turns per Year. Because of this, the

modification will give the player the opportunity to experience

the seasons, as well as develop an attachment to his or her

characters and technologies. This mod has three goals: historical

accuracy, challenging gameplay and innovation. Expect

difficulties and restrictions to the player since, as you know, the

initial version of Medieval 2: Total War was far too easy.

The Map

When we initially began this project, we already had a workable

map template. Unfortunately, some things have changed; as the

map files were, for some reason, corrupted. But now it doesn’t

matter, our mappers have created a new, more ambitious map

with even more regions.

The campaign map will contain 150 accurate settlements and

preplaced permanent stone forts (details on this are available in

the Permanent Stone Forts section).

The Factions

Please note that the factions featured in the War of the West will

be differentiated by campaign (certain factions won’t be featured

in both campaigns). The following factions will be featured in the

War of the West:

Kingdom of England - Kingdom of England

Kingdom of Scotland - Rìoghachd na h-Alba

House of O’Neill - Uí Néill

Principalty of Wales - Tywysogaeth Cymru

Kingdom of Norway - Kongeriket Norge

Kingdom of Denmark - Kongeriget Danmark

Kingdom of Sweden - Konungariket Sverige

Kingdom of France - Royaume de France

Duchy of Brittany - Duché de Bretagne

County of Flanders - Graafschap Vlaanderen

Duchy of Burgundy - Duché de Bourgogne

Swiss Confederacy - Eidgenossenschaft

Holy Roman Empire - Heiliges Römisches Reich

Duchy of Austria - Erzherzogtum Österreich

Kingdom of Bohemia - Königreich Böhmen

Crown of Castille - Corona de Castilla

Crown of Aragon - Corona d'Aragón

Kingdom of Navarre - Nafarroako Erresuma

Republic of Venice - Repubblica di Venezia

Republic of Pisa - Repubblica di Pisa

Republic of Florence - Repubblica Fiorentina

Commune of Genoa – Comune di Genova

The Main Features

The War of the West has several new features that will almost

entirely revamp the existing vanilla version.

Culture

The War of the West replaces religion with culture. The primary

reason is that all the featured factions were Catholic (until

Renaissance, when different religious movements occurred), but

they were culturally different. Culture will be linked with the

recruitment, public order, and a few optional building features.

Certain units will require a specific cultural percentage in order to

be recruitable, just like the recruitment system featured in the

Britannia campaign. There will be a total of ten cultures:

Germanic

Spanish

Italian

Scandinavian

Mediterranean

Gaelic

English

French

Baltic

Other

Each faction will possess a primary culture. Certain factions will

have a secondary culture, the propagation of which may up

special features, but restrict others. For example, the Duchy of

Brittany will have access to more longbowmen if they spread

more English culture in their regions, and if they spread more

French culture, they will have access to more cavalry.

One Settlement Type

This mod does not include castle settlement types. Here are some

reasons for that alteration:

More fluid customization of settlements (this will be

expounded upon further in the preview)

Ease of modding buildings.

Better AI functionality.

Better regional representation.

More historically accurate (many cities often featured

interior castles).

We will also create new strat models to represent the new

settlement types, along with new battlemaps that feature castles

within cities.

Recruitment

This mod is not easy; even hardcore gamers will be challenged.

No longer will you have a single settlement that can create army

after army. No longer will you have plenty of reserve units in

your settlements. There will be several restrictions in place that

will provide for more, balanced armies and less, over-

exaggerated, elite armies.

First, let’s look into unit recruitment and organization. I invite

you to take a look at my current unit guideline (MUG). This link

will provide more information:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=466086

Area of Recruitment System

Conquering factions will have the opportunity to recruit the units

of other factions in their native lands, as long the percentage of

that factions culture is sufficient to make them available. That

being said, the refill rate and unit pool size will be reduced for

conquering factions, as some natives would naturally be

unwilling to fight for their conquerors.

Let's use Ireland as an example. The Ceitheirne will be able to be

recruited in the largest abundance in Ireland by the Irish faction.

If Ireland captured London, the Irish faction would be unable to

recruit Ceitheirne until the Irish culture was at a high enough

level. Until the Irish are able to raise their culture to that point,

however, Ireland will be able to recruit levied Longbowmen, as

the English culture would be high enough to do so.

So basically, this is an Area of Recruitment system coupled with

cultural requirements. Lesser soldiers require lower levels of

culture, while higher quality soldiers require a higher cultural

percentage. As it is, the system works very well, and will provide

conquering factions with incentives to conquer certain factions

and to preserve their cultures.

Unit Categories

The following is an overview of unit categories:

Feudal Levies

Feudal Levies were conscripts who served as foot soldiers

summoned by a local lord or by the sovereign. These men were

usually required to arm themselves in accordance to their wealth,

either as light infantry with a bow or spear, or as medium

infantry with heavier equipment. The length of service in the field

carried out by these forces varied slightly from country to

country, but on average their length of service was limited to

forty days. This service could be extended by paying the troops,

although many were reluctant to stay away from their lands for

long periods of time and this made it exceedingly difficult to field

an army of these men for any length of time. Usually, the Feudal

Levies were used in emergency situations, such as the French

Arrière-Ban organization.

Warrior Levies

Compared to the Feudal Levies, who were generally used in

emergencies, the Warrior Levies were a conscripted and

organized soldiery found in cultures that were more military

inclined, and were used as the bulk of most of their armies. As

with the Feudal Levies, these men had to provide their own

equipment, but, since they are from a more militaristic culture,

they would often get equipment from loot and spoils of wars.

Due to their militaristic orientation, this type of levy would be

much more effective than their feudal counterparts.

For recruitment, the Levy categories have the best refill rate and

unit pool size in game. To recruit these units, a specific

percentage of your faction’s culture will be required. These units

will have their fullest availability in their native lands, and

outside of these lands their availability will slightly be diminished

and will require a larger percentage of your faction’s culture.

Regulars

Regulars are an all-encompassing unit type, which represent men

who made a living out of waging war. Regulars could be partially

or fully employed, and could be paid either by the crown or by a

local lord. Although they were regularly paid (and well paid),

loot and plunder were supplementary of their salary. However,

since military campaigns were temporary, their employer would

often dismiss these men, who would then use their equipment

and money to search for another employer who was ready to

purchase their services. As such, this class was mostly

encompassed by mercenaries. They were highly disciplined, as

disciplined as was needed to earn their wage. Their training and

equipment varied greatly from culture to culture. Their

equipment was also highly dependent on their personal wealth,

in stark contrast to Militia and Sergeants who are often equipped

by the crown.

Regulars will be an interesting choice when planning a military

campaign, as recruiting them provides easy access to professional

soldiers. No cultural percentage is required to recruit Regulars.

And, while they are cheap to recruit, they have an expensive

upkeep. In fact, their unit cost will be equal to their upkeep cost

because, when you sign a mercenary contract, you are already

paying them a trimester wage. Regulars are worthy units in the

short term, but should be disbanded when there's no war to be

fought, as they will constantly drain your royal coffers while

garrisoning – a job that militiamen can do on the cheap.

The Regulars are excluded from the Recruitment Limitation

feature (this will be further explained in the future), therefore you

can recruit these men and it will not count towards your army

size limit or affect your population! Certain Regulars are available

only in specific regions, such as the the Galloglaìgh, that can only

be recruited in the Hebridean isles. Conquering certain regions

will give you access certain mercenaries.

There’s another very special feature that certain Regular units

have; recruitment access via Alliances! This will enable Allied

factions to recruit a faction specific Regular unit. The unit will be

recruitable as long as the alliance is maintained.

There is also another option to gain access to that unit is when the

Regulars owner is eliminated. Upon such a case, that unit will be

accessible to any and all factions that hold region(s) native to that

unit.

Household Nobles

The knight in shining armour leading a cavalry charge against the

enemy is a good depiction of the Household Nobles. The

Household Nobles were major landowners who were vassals of

the sovereign. When the king ordered the "Call-to-Arms" or

similar order in which force-readied men to go at war, the nobles

would answer the call. On some occasions, they would prefer not

to answer it and instead paid a fine (or scuttage tax) so the

sovereign could hire mercenaries or other armed bodies in their

stead. When summoned, the noble would form what was called a

"retinue", which was compromised of the noble and his servants,

armed and ready for battle. As with the Sergeant-at-Arms, the

Household Nobles have access to high quality equipment, often

equipped with the latest armaments. Each culture has their own

method, but generally, the Household Nobles were the ones who

lead the heavy cavalry and/or heavy infantry.

These are the elite units of your kingdom, and every faction has a

unique set of Household Nobles that will lead your army into

battle. The mere presence of these men on the battlefield is a great

inspiration to lesser men, and therefore, nearby units will get a

morale bonus until the nobles die or flee. These units are usually

the strongest units available to a faction, having access to the

finest equipment and training available, and therefore have the

best stats. That being said, the Household Nobles are rare, quite

rare. A single unit of knights needs to be treasured, losing even

one unit can be disastrous for your army, as they are not only

rare, but their availability and refill rate is very low. You will

have to keep an eye on these units in battle if you want to have an

advantage over your enemy. As far as recruitment is concerned,

the nobles also require a certain amount of cultural percentage.

When a conquering faction establishes a hold over a region, it

needs a good establishment of authority and new public order to

grant lands to nobles. The Household Nobles are also quite

expensive, as these knights are summoned rather than trained,

and they will have an accordingly high upkeep cost. As was true

of the Regulars, keeping these men in pay when not at war is both

unnecessary and costly.

Sergeants-at-Arms

Sergeants-at-Arms are members of the royal bodyguard. Selected

for their battle prowess and loyalty to the kingdom, these men

perform several tasks, such as guarding an important figure,

carrying out orders on the battlefield, leading men, and forming

an elite body of trained soldiers. Equipped by the sovereign

himself, the Sergeants-at-Arms have the finest and latest

equipment available to the kingdom.

This unit type comprises your General’s bodyguards. This unit is

much smaller than in vanilla, but they are still very powerful

soldiers, disciplined and loyal till death. They have no upkeep

cost, and the player will be able to recruit generals from educative

buildings. Generals will also get either a military or

administrative education depending of their way of learning and

where they were educated.

The Sergeants are sub-tenants who hold less property than do

Household Nobles; squires, petty knights and rich Burghers are

legible to be part of this category. The Sergeants were the class of

professional soldiery raised by the king, not by local lords. Until

the emergence of standing armies, the Sergeants formed the

nucleus of professional armies. They were equipped in the same

manner as Household Nobles, but in slightly lesser quality.

Generally very disciplined and loyal, they were well trained and

equipped, at cost to the king, who would raise royal taxes to

maintain these armed bodies.

The Sergeants are, in other words, the royal standing army of a

kingdom. Very few factions will possess a great variety or

availability of this type of unit type to start. They will have a high

unit cost, but a fairly low upkeep. Sergeants will eventually be

more available and varied the further a player gets into the game,

as this unit type was slowly incorporated from a minimal role in

feudal armies to a more prominent role in national standing

armies. The Sergeants will also require more than one turn to

recruit; this is to simulate the required training needed to field the

unit. Infantry Sergeants will have lower recruiting time than do

Mounted Sergeants. Only settlements of the Military

Development type will have access to them (more on this later).

Recruitment Limitation

We will be adding an existing submod called Recruitment

Limitation, created by Tsarsies for Stainless Steel quite some time

ago. This brilliant modification will severely increase gameplay

challenge. Here’s the original thread,

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=165287, but

let’s break this down anyways, shall we?

This modification will prevent the player from creating an

endless number of large armies. A predetermined army size

limit will be in effect that will increase or decrease based on

the size of your kingdom. The bigger your kingdom is, the

more armed men you can produce and vice-versa.

Secondly, when you recruit and train a unit, the population

of your settlement will be reduced by the type of unit (a la

Rome Total War). Now you will have to think twice about

recruiting cannon fodder. Dead men can’t be retrained; if

you want to retrain your units, then your population will be

further reduced.

And lastly, there’s only one type of unit that will not affect

your population: mercenaries. This will incentivize the

recruitment of mercenaries, mercenaries who will provide

you with instantaneous, decent quality, extra soldiers – for a

price.

This feature will not restrict the AI whatsoever. They will be

able to recruit any number of units they wish and it won’t

affect their population. Unfair? No, not really. You already

have an unfair advantage over the AI: a brain.

Periodic Recruitment

All the units in War of the West are completely accurate; this

extends to the era in which they are recruitable. Certain units will

be unavailable until the proper historical event transpires. For

example, England will only gain access to Yeoman Archers after

The Archery Law Event (in 1272) transpires.

Replenishment and size of the Unit Pool

A unit’s replenishment rate and unit pool size is determined

by its unit category. There are 7 types of unit categories in

the War of the West; Sergeants-at-Arms, Household Nobles,

Sergeants, Regulars, Urban Militia, Warrior Levies and

Feudal Levies (explained above). (#4)

The size and replenishment rate have been greatly reduced;

the maximum unit size limit is 3 and the replenishment rate

can vary between 2 to as many as 30 turns (again depending

on the unit category). Surprising? This is to force the player

to use all his resources to build a large army, in effect

removing the “one settlement army factory”. The rarer units

are indeed the strongest and they must be used wisely,

otherwise, you will have to wait for some time before you

can raise a new one (particularly knights!)

Mercenaries

Mercenaries were an integral part of most Western armies.

The first thing we have changed about mercenaries is there

recruitment, and their unit upkeep costs. They will be

increase drastically from vanilla.

Most mercenaries are Regulars, but a few rare units can be

an exception to this rule.

Mercenaries will no longer be recruitable from the

Campaign Map; they can only be recruited from settlements.

The main reason for this is historical accuracy: most

mercenaries moved between large urban settlements to offer

their services to the highest bidder (rather than standing in

the middle of forests and mountains, as they seem to do in

vanilla). Still, under certain conditions (particularly sieges)

mercenaries will be recruitable during the siege for both

sides (the besiegers and the besieged).

And, as was mentioned above, they will not be affected by

the Recruitment limitation system, making mercenaries an

interesting option for extended military campaigns.

Desertion Script

This script will be devastating if you fail to pay attention to your

funds and income. If you go bankrupt, all Regulars (mercenaries)

will be disbanded right away from your armies and settlements.

Since you can no longer pay them, the mercenaries will simply

move on to be hired by a wealthier employer.

Permanent Stone Forts and their characteristics

Since the game’s engine has certain limitations, we have bypassed

the hardcoded regional limitations by adding Permanent Stone

Forts (PSFs). The PSFs will have distinct types that will affect the

game in their own way. There will be three types of PSFs;

Villages, Fortified Ports and Castles. Each region will be

represented with a capital, much like in Empire Total War. These

satellite settlements will provide various advantages to the capital

of the region.

Villages

Villages are a PSF that will provide food production to the capital

of their region. Each village will provide +2 Food Production to a

settlement. Each region may have up to 2 villages at one time. As

long the owner of the capital holds the village(s), that capital will

receive bonus food production from these settlements. If an

enemy captures a village, the conqueror will not have any

benefits until he captures the capital, but by doing so he strips the

owner of his regional capital’s bonus food production. Villages

will not be heavily defended, and will only have simple wooden

palisade wall for protection on the Battle Map. These PSFs are key

targets for a region’s development as well a tactical target for

invading armies. Certain buildings will be available to the capital

only if they hold at least one village. This represents a regions

need for an increase in agricultural technology, food production,

and food quality.

Fortified Ports

Fortified Ports are PSFs that are on ports and protect sea trade

from enemies. Controlling a Fortified Port will provide additional

health and sea trade bonuses for the regional capital. If an enemy

captures the port, the capital will not be able to build ships and

their sea trade will be blocked, just like when ships blockade

ports in vanilla.

Castles

Castles will provide additional defences to the region; castles

were usually built in strategic positions to disturb aggressive

enemy advances. The regional capital will also receive an

increased professional unit production rate as long as the owner

holds the castle. If an enemy captures the castle, the unit

production bonus will be no longer be available to the capital and

the original owner will lose an important military outpost.

Building and Development

The War of the West is more than a simple retexture of unit

rosters and factions. We have totally overhauled the way in

which your settlements develop, faction development, building

trees. We have completely redone the building browser, by

including new buildings and adjusting existing ones. When you

combine this with the new Development Path, each campaign

will be unique!

Over 60 new and redeveloped building trees, with more than 100

different buildings have been added. We have given each

building tree their own unique advantages and disadvantages;

some may be limited, but will grant additional advantages to the

settlement. It should be noted that we also took the time to

redesign building icons, as well.

The Settlement Paths

This is one of most important features of the War of the West. The

regional capital will be able to specialize in one of three

developmental paths. Each path will provide individual

advantages and disadvantages. Not only will this be more

historically accurate, but it will provide the player with a greater

sense of immersion (and will give the campaign role-playing

elements to boot). Each campaign will be unique; it will depend

on how you choose to develop your settlements.

Each settlement will have to choose between three developmental

paths; Militaristic, Cultural or Economic Development. It’s

important to note that once you choose a path, you will be unable

to change to another path (though there will be an exception for

faction capitals, but that will be discussed later).

Military Development

This path will make the settlement a military center, providing

bonuses to professional unit recruitment, along with increased

experience and morale to your units. This path will enable the

settlement to train Sergeants and Standing Armies (discussed

later in the Unit Category section). In the early period, this

settlement type can be beneficial to certain factions or completely

useless to others, as national standing armies were more

prevalent in the 14th century onwards. This settlement will also

have limited access to economical, educative, cultural, and

entertainment related buildings.

Economical Development

As the name implies, settlements of this type will become

economic powerhouses and trade hubs. It will provide semi-

professional, strong units, generally of a mercenary background.

This settlement path will be of obvious importance, for what is an

army without the money needed to pay its soldiers? Decadence

and corruption will be common problems for this settlement path.

Managing these settlements will provide quite a challenge, but if

you become masterful in controlling them, the advantage

provided by economic settlements will be incomparable!

Cultural Development

A center of knowledge, late technology and great advancement,

this path will give you access to the highest levels of education,

administrative, technology related buildings. In the early period,

this settlement will see little use save for educational purposes,

but in the late period, this settlement type will be key in faction

development.

Faction’s Capital

The capital of each faction will have several bonuses, and losing it

may prove disastrous for that faction. The features of the capital

apply only to a faction’s initial capital; if you decide to move your

capital, you will be unable to access these features from your new

capital.

Capitals will have unique development paths that remove the

restrictions that other development paths have; all buildings and

units will be accessible from your capital.

Capitals also have access to special buildings that provide large

bonuses for the settlement. They even have some extra features,

such as recruiting royal ladies, unique improved laws, unique

character traits, etc.

Management of your kingdom

The second major feature of the War of the West is a total revision

of kingdom management. Each faction will have their own

personal goal to reach their “Golden Age”. At the beginning of

the campaign, each faction will have an overview of the political

situation and goal targets. A player may or may not follow these

goals, but these missions will provide superior historical

advantages, such as military reformation, the birth of factions,

and the advancement of the faction’s conquest. Once you succeed

in fulfilling the “Golden Age” goal, you will have an even larger

goal; the Empire Goal.

The Empire Goal is the original “vanilla” goal of Medieval 2 Total

War: to control a fixed number of regions and to eliminate your

rivals in order to form your empire. The War of the West team

will also try to represent something that has been overlooked by

many other modifications; Imperial decadence. When managing a

small kingdom, most faction leaders will be adequate. When

managing an empire, the faction leader may have issues

maintaining the control of his people and nobles.

The player will have several interactive events that will affect the

faction leader’s authority. We want to provide further immersion

by encouraging the player to envision himself as the character

they are managing in game. Each major action you perform will

affect your authority. We intend to remove from the player the

feeling of God, by forcing him to make difficult decisions and

sacrifices. Every choice made in these interactive events will

provide a positive and negative consequence to the player. Let’s

view an example of the interactive script that will affect your

faction leader’s authority:

A rival faction declares war by attacking one of your villages. At

the beginning of the turn, you will receive a message that explains

to you that you are now in war with your rival and war costs

money. You will be given a choice to raise conscription taxes on

the nobles and the commoners alike in order to raise an army to

defend your kingdom. If you accept, your authority will decrease

and your dread will increase, due that your people and nobles

dislike additional taxes. If you decline the option to raise taxes,

your people will respect you more because you improvised and

found another way to finance your war, causing your authority

and chivalry to increase.

That was a basic example, but the general premise is explained by

it. There will be many more interactive events such as that. Not

only will your faction leader’s authority and stats be affected, but

the loyalty of your generals may also be affected.

Now let’s discuss the negative consequences of having paltry

authority.

A faction leader with low authority will not only upset your

people, but your nobles will be less willing to follow you and may

even conspire against you! This is the worst consequence of

having low authority; if you authority drops to a low enough

level, the chance of internal rebellions will increase. If such a

rebellion does occur, your kingdom will be shattered by rebels

and a initially hostile “shadow faction” will emerge from your

faction, which will attempt to eliminate your fragmented

kingdom.

The heir of your king may also have serious problems if your

king had low authority, as the nobles and commoners will

already despise the royal blood, so killing off a weak faction

leader will not resolve your problems. For these reasons, the

player will have to work even harder to increase his faction

leader’s authority, as authority may increase with successful

military victories.

Production Buildings

The building feature that has had the largest overhaul is the new

building type called Resource Production Buildings. These

buildings are only available if a region possesses the specific

resource needed to construct that building. For example, in order

to construct the Vineyard buildings, the region will need access to

the Wine resource. These buildings will provide great trade

income bonuses, and some of them will give you additional

bonuses.

We have also added some penalties and maintenance to buildings

as well. It’s only logical that buildings require certain

maintenance expenses to keep the building functional and to pay

the wages of the workers.

The penalties are logical disadvantages that certain buildings

would have. For example, markets are a cities main source of

income, but public order can get more difficult to maintain as

markets become larger, and corruption and blackmarket penalties

will rise in higher tier buildings as well.

Guilds

We have also redesigned guild buildings. Now, in order to build

a specific guild, you will not only need to accumulate guild points

but also take into consideration what development path your

settlement will take. You want your settlement to possess a

Merchant’s Guild? Specialize your settlement into the Economical

Path. Some vanilla guilds have been removed, particularly

Religious Orders as, usually, these orders didn’t fight against

other Christian factions. New guilds have been introduced along

with new bonuses and traits to replace the removed guilds.

Interactive Event and technology

As was mentioned previously, the gameplay will be affected by

your choices. This will include technological advancement, which

will affect which new units and buildings a player will receive.

Once a historical event occurs, the player will receive an

interactive event that enables him to invest in and adopt various

advances, such as gunpowder, or metallurgic advancements.

Technology is a large investment and the player will have only

one opportunity to gain access to that technology. If a player

accepts, investments will be taken from your coffers and you will

gain access to the new technology. If a player declines (if the

player seeks a challenge or is experiencing a lack of funds), he

will not be granted access to the new technology, and will instead

receive an income bonus to help him to continue to play the

game. Military technology will not comprise the entirety of these

interactive events; advances will be made that are cultural,

agricultural, medical, entertainment-based, etc in nature. Because

the AI is incapable of properly dealing with interactive events,

opposing factions will automatically gain the technology without

penalties.

Historical Events

While our modification was made primarily for player

enjoyment, we will be adding various, interesting historical

events as well.

Historical Battles

As was explained before, we intend to add some historical

information; because this is a Total War mod, this includes

military history. This special feature of our mod will allow

players to experience historical battles. We will try to include at

least one historical battle per faction in order to allow the player

to better familiarize himself with said faction.

At a specific historical date, the player’s faction will command an

automatic battle that involves his faction and his rival at the end

of the turn. Each side will feature a preordained army, along with

the historical figures that were involved, and if you win the

battle, you will receive a reward for that accomplishment. This

feature will be optional at the beginning of the campaign; while

we don’t want it to interfere with players whose primary interest

in our mod is gameplay and continuity, our intention for this

addition is to give the historically oriented players an interesting

feature.

Garrison Script

This script will provide additional challenge to the player by

spawning additional units for a besieged AI’s settlements. Once

the siege ends, these units will be disbanded. Since the AI has

issues with pathfinding and balancing armies, this will give the

AI a much needed boost.

Sieges

Sieges will increase in difficulty, and will be made more difficult.

In the Middle Ages, sieges were long, but the besiegers did

everything within their power to capture besieged settlements as

quickly as possible. We want the player to experience this.

Siege engine script

This script will enable a general to recruit trebuchets when they

are besieging a settlement. Because trebuchets were historically

built at the siege site, the most logical way to represent this is

enabling them to be recruited on site. Once the siege is over, the

trebuchet(s) will be disbanded. Some sieges may even have

mercenaries available for instant recruitment.

Siege Turmoil

This script will increase turmoil in the besieged settlements.

Historically, stress, risk of disease and starvation, and death

caused turmoil. The longer a siege lasts, more the turmoil will

increase.

Disease and ration Script

This script will make the besieger lose some of his soldiers over

time. Historically, disease, lack of hygiene, infected wounds,

death from besieged archers, etc, made life hard for the besiegers,

which is why they tried to take settlements as quickly as possible.

On the besieged end, settlements will have a Granary building

tree. It will reduce the casualties and increase the number of turns

that a settlement can hold off a besieging force. Destroying it will

severely lessen the length of the siege, and increase the rate at

which besieged soldiers die.

White Flag Script

This script will enable a besieged army to, allowing their army to

safely leave and forfeit the city. Accepting this offer will increase

a General’s chivalry, but it will reduce the amount of money

received by sacking the settlement. By declining it, a General will

gain increased levels of dread, and the siege will continue.

Improved Walls

The War of the West modification aims to do the first major

overhaul of settlement walls. We will create custom new

settlements, in order to better represent our singular settlement

type, to increase the challenge of capturing large settlements, and

defensive castles, to improve pathfinding, etc.

We also intend to increase the health of walls and the range of

towers. This will further increase the challenge of siege warfare,

forcing the player to do more than create a single ram.

We also intend to increase the thickness of large and huge

settlement walls in order to allow the player to place siege

weapons on the walls (such as catapult or cannons)! The AI will

have siege equipment that will appear through the garrison script

to help him to exploit this wall’s advantage. Large settlements

will have preplaced squares in their wall in order to enable the

positioning of siege weapons. Huge walls will have entirely wide

walls, which will enable to player to exploit the feature and place

siege engines wherever he desires.

Speaking of siege weapons, the number of engines per unit will

greatly increase, making a player’s army even larger; as well

giving some much needed functionality to siege weapons in the

open field. Siege engines will also have their unit cost,

availability, and upkeep improved in order to give them

increased functionality.

Agents

The agents will be greatly improved and altered. We will be

introducing two new agents; the Knight and the Royal Lady.

Knight Agent and Tournament resource

The merchant has been removed in the War of the West – a

drastic change to be sure. We felt that the merchant agent doesn’t

really provide enough income to warrant the near mini-game

status of fending off irritating enemy merchant seizures.

Instead, we will be converting the merchant agent into a new one;

the Knight. This agent, recruited from your Royal Court, will

represent your kingdom in jousting tournaments across Europe.

You will be able to control up to 2 knights at the same time.

The knight will participate in tournaments and earn money from

them. The tournaments will be represented as a new resource in

game. Tournament resources will have up to five levels, the

higher the level, the more quickly your knight will gain

experience. The resource will also generate income as long as the

knight is in the tournament, much like merchants do.

The difference is the in the new feature, the knight’s challenge!

Your knight will wander the map in searching for great prizes,

challenge, and a chance to better his skill. Your knight may even

be challenged by rival knights. If your knight defeats a rival’s

knight, you will receive a monetary reward (taken from the Rival

faction) and your knight will gain experience. If your knight is

defeated, then he may even be vanquished himself.

The knight will have different traits and models. Just as the priest

can become a bishop or a cardinal, the knight may become a

stronger challenger, the progression of which goes like this:

Knight --» Chivalric Knight --» Knight Champion.

The more experienced the opposing knight is, the more money

will be received by the faction of the victorious knight! Therefore,

the player’s aim will be to gain access to the best tournament

resources and defeating opposing knights!

Royal Lady

The royal lady acts similarly to the royal princess; the difference

is that the royal lady is recruitable from the Royal Court. The

royal lady will also be able to gain an education based on

courtesy, manners, and diplomacy at the settlement from which

they were recruited. She will be able to “bribe” rival generals by

marrying them, but, as with the princess, the marriage may

backfire.

Assassin

The assassin agent has been completely overhauled; they are now

even more useful and deadly! The assassin will be recruitable

from either the Prison or the Dungeon, where the worst criminals

may find redemption, if they help their sovereign do his dirty

work, that is.

The assassin will now have no upkeep; the payment will be based

on contracts. Each time the agent succeeds at assassinating a

target or destroying a building, the agent will receive a payment

from you. Doing a risky job will be quite expensive, but the result

may worth the price. The higher ranked the character is, the

higher the contract cost will be.

The assassin may evolve, just like the priest and the knight, and

they have new skills and models. This progression will be as

follows: Criminal --» Assassin --» Specialist.

The assassin also has the ability to spread disease and plague

after successfully destroying a building, at a small but increasable

chance.

Spy

Spies will also be changed. Their initial role will still be the same;

infiltrate a settlement and increase unrest in it. This agent will be

recruitable from the Tavern building tree and will have access to

an evolution system, just like the assassin. The progression will be

as follows: Thief --» Spy --» Infiltrator.

The spy will also have the ability to disturb characters. The spy

may attempt to infiltrate a characters security, and, if he succeeds,

he may impose penalties on that character. These penalties range

from a decrease in personal security (for easier assassination) or

the robbery of equipment (the removal of certain equipment

related ancillaries). Coupled with an assassin, these two agents

can cause enormous trouble to rival factions.

Diplomat

The diplomat will gain access to education. The settlement in

which the diplomat is recruited must possess a school and library,

which will increase the quality of the diplomat’s education. So far,

no new skills will be implemented for the diplomat, but we will

make the diplomat able to become an ambassador. The agent will

have receive an increase in diplomacy, along with an increasing

the chance to bribe a general and a new character model.

For now, these are the planned alterations and additions to

agents, but we may introduce new or improved agents later in

development.

Education

The mod will introduce an education system to your characters.

There will be new buildings that will specifically teach a your

characters in a certain manner, depending on how you want those

characters to progress. Generals will receive either a military or

administrative education. Dependably on the alignment of your

character, the level of education may reach a normal level or

beyond. For example, a militarily-minded general will be able to

get the 3rd (maximum) level of military education but will not be

able to exceed the 1st level of administrative education. The

development path will also come into play, as will interactive

events.

Certain agents will also gain an education, as well. The diplomat

and the princess/royal lady will be able to gain access to their

educational domain.

Diplomacy

At the beginning of any given campaign, you will have the choice

of setting the factions to their historical relations or setting all

factions to neutral. Players who prefer challenge will generally

opt for the first option.

Diplomatically, we have decided to remove the “gift” agreement.

Historically, when coming to diplomatic agreements, nothing was

free; tributes, marriage and trades arrangement were usually

expected after the conclusion of a treaty. Therefore, you will no

longer have free agreements. For example, if you wish to form an

alliance, then you will have to offer something in return in order

to conclude the treaty.

Relations will also improve greatly; betraying an ally will be fatal

to your reputation and making an alliance afterwards will be very

difficult. Remember that all your actions will affect your

reputation in Europe; a peaceful faction will be a better target for

an alliance than a faction that starts opportunistic wars.

Vassalage will also be improved, as the player will now actually

have the option to perform a vassalage (in vanilla, performing a

vassalage was nearly impossible to do, as AI factions would

generally fight to the death).

The AI will be very aggressive from now on. If they are at war

with you, it will really be Total War! They will sign a ceasefire

only if they can’t defeat you or their economy is suffering to

heavily. Expect to offer a large sum if you are the one proposing

the ceasefire.

Even though they are aggressive in war, they will still be loyal as

allies, to a certain extent. If a player has a poor relation with a

faction and an allied faction decides to ally with it, there may still

be a chance for the player to be backstabbed by this ally.

You will now have the chance to ask a faction to start a war with

another faction! Having a well established alliance with the

faction in question makes this easier, of course.

Conclusion

There are many other improvements that aren’t listed in the

preview, suffice it to say that we are reworking the whole vanilla

game; we intend to improve all of the game’s features and to

make this modification the best Total War experience possible. If

you have any questions, concerns, or comments that you want to

address to the War of the West or its team, feel free to express

them on our thread.

Thank you very much for reading this preview. We hope you

enjoyed it!

War of the West Official Members

St. Polycarpe (Team Leader, Coder, Scripter)

Kjertesvein (Right Arm, Researcher, Management)

Lord Hamilton (Unit Modeler, Texturer)

SonofPeverel (Researcher, Mapper, Coder, Scripter)

David93 (Coder, Scripter)

Warman222 (Animation, Cinematograph)

BLIP99 (Mapper)

Ancient Aliens (Researcher, Content Writer, Publicist)

Kevindrosario (Coder, Scripter)

Tsarsies (Coder, Scripter)

Ichon (Researcher)

Credit, Permission and Special Thanks

o Germanicus Custom Settlements

o Chivalry II: The Sicilian Vespers

o Raaka's Norse Roster.

o Narf of Picklestink ( M&B Open Source)

o Ferrum Aeternum

Complete Byzantine Unit Roster

Mr, Crow Weaponpack

Mr. Crow/Johnwhile War Wagons

Dejawolf Medieval Helmet Pack

Narf's Transitional Pack

Broken Crescent (Alpha Delta)

Rusichi Total War

Tsardoms Total War

Lord Calidor Weapon Pack

Point Blank RC/RR Compilation Set

Baltic Total War

Shredzorz Weaponpack

Wrath of the Norsemen

Swagger's Mod Pack "L'Outremer"

Germanicus5 BAI

King's Banner

Royal Lady of the Court

Eothese's Expanded America Mod

Crimson Tide 4.2

DLV Europa Mod

Blood, Broads and Bastards V.3.2

Davide.Cool Cog Warships

Davide.Cool Merchant Ships

Davide.Cool Better Water 2.0

High Quality Sky Texture 1.0

1066 Mod

Redesigned Strat-models Settlement

Xeryx AI (XAI)

Hunter Makoy's Ultimate Education Mod

Magyar Mod

XIIth Century Totalwar Version 2.5

RR_Raptor65 (M&B Open Source)

Thick_1988 ( M&B Open Source)

Tsardom Total War

Byg Grim Reality

The Last Kingdom

Agart and Overlord.U Improved Strat Models (Castle and

City)

Briarius Animation Pack

Deus Lo Veult Kaiser1993 Sound Mod 0.91

Louis Lux's Building UI from TATW.

All the fans that support us, the modders from the Mod

Workshop that always help us to continue our project; Gigantus,

Ishan, Moon, Taiji, Withwnar, Eothese, TNZ.