This mod adds replacement troop trees for all 6 normal factions, as well as a replacement normal mercenary tree for each culture area. It uses only vanilla assets, with a handful of customized weapons, arrow bags, armor pieces, and face keys where I wanted to add them.
I apologize for the novel. I tried to keep it "concise"... :|
I apologize for my items having somewhat inflated costs, as that is what the Bannerlord engine does automatically. I don't know how to modify the multipliers.
First things first, this is a more arcade-y troop tree mod. I have taken inspiration from history and the real world, but by no means do I intend this to be historically accurate. Many names and such are definitely fanciful, and this only exists because I wanted to treat myself to more aesthetically pleasing troops, for all of Calradia apparently...
I have changed the vassal reward troops a bit, to give the player two different kinds of the culture's vanguard troops. 3 of each.
I have added horse archers in some capacity to each normal tree... Some of you may hate this, but I like pole-vaulting horse archers off their mounts :). Also, I just like the thought of them all trying to field some sort of ranged cavalry, and what that might look like... If you are tearing your eyes out right now, know that I am laughing maniacally in your general direction.
I have also used a lot of lord pieces and such, and the average skill per tier is higher, so beware! You WILL have a slightly harder time personally fighting these units(especially with 1.2.0's AI upgrades... uff da). You will reap some pretty awesome loot in return, though!
I have not reworked the minor faction, militia, bandit, and caravan guard ones for various reasons. The militia and bandit ones, because I never use them or I'm fine with them. And the minor faction and caravan guard ones because I don't feel like going through the extra steps. Maybe in the future, especially the caravan guards. They dilute mercenary recruitment. :(
Be aware the mercenary units I have added are as good as the best of the normal troop trees, so they are definitely worth using.
I also generally designed the merc trees to be complementary to the normal trees for their area, as well as introduce troop sub-types and units I couldn't nicely fit into the normal trees.
Western and Southern, Northern and Far East. Some neighbors do not share mercenary trees in semi-realistic fashion. The Sword Sisters can still be found everywhere. The Empire has three other merc trees, and the other nations have two extra. With the sword sisters bringing the total up to 4 and 3, respectively.
I you see the custom bandits.xml, I only made one so you can upgrade bandits to my mod's troops. I supoooose I may eventually take that as a sign, but not today, I've already spent way too much time and sanity on this.
I added a 0 to 3 chance of mercenaries from the area spawning with new lord parties to increase the mercs the AI field.
The mercenaries also all have the culture of their area, even where I could have added Vakken, Darshi, Abyzinian, or Far East. It's just nice to be able to use that one perk as much as possible...
All of my troop and item ids have _tc added to them to more or less ensure compatibility with mods you may have that may have items with the same name, just in case.
Be aware that I could not do that with the actual names, so there might be conflicts or at least potential confusion there.
If you see a skill stat lower than expected, it is for balance or because it needed a chill pill(I'm looking at you, Wildling).
Custom item names, for reference, are:
Noble Recurve Bow(stats between Noble Bow and Noble Long Bow, added because I wanted it to exist)
Light Imperial Arrows & Heavy Imperial Arrows(uses the unused imperial arrow bags and arrow skin that Taleworlds abandoned for some reason)
Sturgian Arrows & Heavy Sturgian Arrows
Western Bodkin Arrows(are essentially the same as stacked bodkin arrows, just located on back like the Lowland Arrows)
Two Handed Scimitar(mamluke guards wield this at 50% chance with the bardiche axes)(I didn't like the Two Handed Cleaver)
Battanian Pillager Axe
Varangian Guard Longsword(varangian guards wield these or Avalanche axes)
Sturgian Battle Axe
Heavy Sturgian Battle Axe
Decorated Sturgian Druzhina Sword
Sturgian Dane Axe
Knight's Lance
Champion's Lance(The knights' lances needed oriflamme banners)
Two Handed Knurled Mace(I said I was going to give the Pikeman a bardiche, but I decided this was more interesting, and still balanced)
Horseman's Crossbow(an attempt to make the horsecrossbowmen/women more effective
Nihardan Glaive, Ronin Tachi, Swordmaster Tachi, & Qiangnu Crossbow
(Yes, the Oni and Eastern mace are gone. I wanted a Two-Handed Scimitar Wielder.)
Hackapeliita Sword & Nordic Hamarr
Abyzinian Shotel
Thacian Rhomphaia(Taleworlds' is too long) & Highlander Claidheamh-mor
Breltic War Mace(you want spiky mace on battlefield? you're welcome) & Breltic War Axe(Brings Nordic Heavy Axe head out of obscurity)
Sturdy Vakken Hevonen(Extremely light, agile, slow, medium trample dmg, is tank, smol)
(^I dub thee My Little Pwny, my sweet little steed)
Medium Camel Saddle(36 armor) & Heavy Camel Saddle(50 armor)
Champion Knight's Helmet(50 armor instead of 45 like vanilla's)
Veteran Warrior's Hauberk, Northern Woodsman Hood, Ulfhednar Hood, & Berserker Armored Hood(I said I had to buff Northern mercs...)
I include this so you can know that they're not vanilla items.
Troop Tree Highlights:
Aserai:
Faris and Mamluke Guards(This was how I chose to make room for the camels) in noble tree.
Infantry and camel riders in left normal tree, archers and mamluke horsearchers to right.
My apologies if you like the faris' to have the bronze scale armor, but it looks better on the camel riders, and I wanted to use the silver scale stuff too, so the chosen faris gets retrofitted. I've only played since 1.7.1, but I remember what they used to have in vanilla.
Southern merc tree consists of Darshi troops, and kush*te archers that wield longbows and spears, with the Abyzinian warrior only occupying tier 5 now(the new AI changes allowed me to tune the Abyzinian up a bit, it's not overpowered in comparison to the last one).
Battania:
Fians in noble tree. (I purposely did not give the Honored Fian the plated rough bear pelt in an attempt to detune Battania, and the normal rough bear pelt diverged from linearity...)
Infantry and riders in left normal tree, falxmen and ranged cav to right(glen rider has been moved to right normal tree).
Woodland merc tree consists of Thracian/Dacian inspired troops(rhomphaia rider has an imperial horse for a reason), and Celtic shock inf.
Empire:
Cataphracts and Praetorian Guard in noble tree.
Shield and Shock Infantry on Left side of normal tree, archers and horse archers on right.
(The Varangian guard has been detuned to tier 5, as it has moved to the northern merc tree.)
(Despite the new arrows, the horse archers kept the bodkin arrows, for better single slot capacity, even if it is only 4 more...)
Imperial merc tree consists of sword sister shield inf and crossbowwomen with proper armor.
Khuzait:
Noble horse archers and Darkhan in noble tree.
Infantry and archers on left side of normal tree, horsem*n and more horse archers on right.
(Archers with shields has been moved to Khuzait, because Sturgia didn't have enough ranged stamina, and khuzait is a blunderbuss of arrows already, so they don't really need it and lack melee potency.)
Far east merc tree consists of Nihardan(a play on Nihon, id est, Japan) shock inf(Khuzait is the only one that lacks shock inf, so this is a good compliment), and Gyu Lóng Qiangnu crossbowmen(Gyu Lóng means Lone Dragon. Chinese inspired, of course.)(I felt the manshu horse archers were redundant, even if they had shields. Instead of trading with the Khuzait normal horse archer line[which would mirror B.A.R.D.], I thought using Chinese crossbow history a bit would be more interesting[even if the light crossbows aren't accurate])
Sturgia:
Horsem*n and Housecarl in noble tree.(the druzhinniks only have 2-handed axes in their first slot, for some interesting but balanced melee power)(The tier 7 shield inf has been removed, as the shear amount of inf Sturgia fields is already overwhelming, and it became too hard to detune them nicely without removing it. Don't worry, I halved the druzhinnik's armor with the plate armor the original huskarl had, so you can find it as loot still.)
Shield and shock inf on left side of normal tree, archers and mounted archers on right side.
Yes, I used Norwegian for the Sturgian shield inf names. I could have used Icelandic, but it'll do...
The scout and outrider both have one of their horse slots filled with a Vakken hevonen instead of a normal Sturgian horse. I never found a Vakken hevonen when I played before, so hopefully that should increase the odds(All of my custom config weapons have "is merchandise" set to true, so it must have been a rarity thing)...
Northern merc tree consists of Vakken bowmen(I am more than aware that Hackapeliita wielded pistols and swords, and are from the Kalmar union times, but I wanted to add a strong horse archer for the north..., and nordic shock inf.(like sturgia needs more shock inf, but it gives some interesting and non-skirmisher-hybrid options.)
Vlandia:
I have changed Vlandia's infantry-ranged bias a bit. It is more normal now. Having the entire right side of the normal tree be ranged proved too hard to balance nicely.
Noble cav and a horsecrossbowman grace the noble tree.(I swapped the banner knight and champion names from vanilla on purpose, because it bugged me. Also, these two only have two-handed swords in their first slot, for the same reason the druzhinniks have dane axes.)
Shield inf and more cav on left side of normal tree, crossbowmen and the shock inf on the other.(I admit having the shock inf with the crossbowmen is odd, but that's the only way I could get the percentage balance right... :/)
The sharpshooter was moved back to Vlandia, as a second option to the Pavisier, with more ammo instead of a shield.
Western merc tree consists of 2-handed swordsmen(this was a no-brainer), a cavalryman with the 2-handed Cavalry Axe, and longbowmen(They have been moved here, and have been tuned up).
