i love this mod, this is easily the greatest ck2 mod ever. thx so much for this

@Archidamos, sorry for the somewhat late response, feel free to DM me, though it has been some time since I've done much CK2 modding

@redtide hey i sent you a friend request regarding a question. do you mind me asking it in your DMs?

@Riekopo, I'm not familiar with CK2+, but this mod will conflict with any other mods that alter either the combat tactics or special troops files. @Iidku716, thanks for the kind words; I like the ck2 combat system and wanted it to work as good as it can. Sorry to say that I still haven't looked into the camel issue mentioned by WalrusJones. Maybe one of these days.

Does this work with CK2+ ?

This is the best mod for Crusader Kings 2. Thank you for making this.

It was utterly strange give, you know, looking at the script you have there should be no way this is possible, but it happened like 10 times and I got oddly confused.

@WalrusJones, thank you, I will look into that

Oh, and oddly.... The horde camel troop where its like 60% camels.

I found exactly one bug with this mod: For some reason camels triggered swarm, I managed this with a pure camel flank...

Oh, I see then. Thank you for the info.

@Kaiser, Both of this mod's content files (00_combat_tactics and 00_special_troops) will overwrite Folgi's Tech mod and cause crossbows and berserks to not exist (but other files will still reference them so other stuff like certain mercs will break too). You'd need to manually merge both files to bring them back and make sure they correctly add weight to combat tactics. Folgi's also has different rebalances of special units so you'd need to pick which you want to use.

Hmm, is this mod Compatible with Flogi's Tech Mod by chance?

Oh cool, glad to see this mod has been updated while I was away from CK2. Thank you for your work!

@lidku716, I haven't used that mod, but it looks like the changes it makes to some defines.lua entries don't conflict with this mod, so they should be compatible.

Is this compatible with Decisive Battles?

@acthornt, The recent update fixes a vanilla bug that had prevented terrain checks in provinces with no holdings. In order to get Swarm tactics to fire in provinces with no holdings, a commander must be assigned to the flank. Swarm tactics will continue to fire in provinces with at least one holding even when the flank has no commander.

@Kryndude, I added the new skirmish and melee tech bonuses that were introduced with v 3.1

Great !

@acthornt, Thank you for the feedback. I will take a look at it.

Cool mod. Just installed and played a bit as a horse lord to finally get a “retreat and ambush” tactic fire. I’m fielding a horde of LC and about 40-42% HA with an Altaic commander but I don’t seem to be getting this tactic even in the steppe. Granted, I also don’t think anyone is surviving skirmish against me either so that could be it. All in all, good work!

@Kryndude, It does still work, but it doesn't incorporate the new skirmish and melee tech bonuses that were introduced with v 3.1. I'm not sure whether I'll update it. I don't like the tech changes. In my personal mod I reverted them to the pre-3.1 versions.

Amazing work. It's been some times since last update of this mod, does this still work fine with the latest patch version?

Great mod, shame that Paradox disables achievements with any mod, especially when they won't fix the same bugs after multiple patches. 😢

@Smith Lee and Tanais, I believe Paradox made a slight change to tactics based on one or two of the new technologies. I've looked at it only briefly, but I remember it not seeming like a profound addition. IIRC, it's something like some "bad" tactics are less likely to fire when you've achieved certain technology levels. If that's indeed all that it is, then the mod should continue to work fine. I may or may not incorporate it into the mod. I haven't played on 3.2.0 yet, so I haven't developed an opinion on the technology changes, but I didn't much care for them when I read the Dev Diary. I'm glad you're enjoying the mod.

@Smith Lee, I don't think so, I believe nothing has been changed for combat.

@redtide, awesome work, this mod looks like what I wanted to create!

any update with 3.2.0?

@Muradin Bronzebeard, I'm unfamiliar with HIP and the other total conversion mods. This mod changes both the combat tactics and special troops files, so it will conflict with any other mod that also changes those files.

Is this compatible with HIP 3.0.1.1 ?

@redtide Thanks for the response. Looking forward to the new additions!

@Male Maldives, I've been dealing with some IRL stuff recently, so I haven't had the free time to finish the update to ARCEM. I've added the new feudal retinues except for the animal ones, but I'm still trying to figure out how to handle prestige and piety retinues. I would also like to add horde retinues and devise a better model of morale (but I might push these off to an even later update). In the meantime, I have updated the second post in the ARCEM thread with a new ranking of feudal retinue compositions. I hope to eventually make a version of ARCEM for this mod, which I might use to adjust unit stats.

Nevermind didn't realize the new retinues aren't out yet.

Is there an ARCEM version beyong 0.3? Is there one for this mod?

@sahartaxel24, for Roman culture I recommend the same compositions that I would for vanilla (the flank can be any size as long as it reduces to the quoted ratio):

Praetorian 6:1 Shock for maximum skirmish defense but with very little skirmish offense
Praetorian x 3, Light Skirmish x 5, Shock x 1 for decent skirmish offense
pure Praetorian to get to melee more quickly but with less skirmish defense

what will be the best retinue composition for roman culture?

@Anubis, this mod doesn't change the way that the AI composes its flanks, and it doesn't change the composition of event troops. But almost all flanks (whether human or AI) with "cooperating pairs" should perform better than they do in vanilla (Pikemen + Heavy Infantry being an exception due to this mod's removal of the vanilla Force Back tactic). As an example, I have calculated that this mod will result in an increase in the average attack per troop of the Mongol event troops.

While this mod looks interesting and I'd like to try it, I have a question:

Does the AI make good use of this?

I'm asking because if they don't this would (or at least I think it would) give an even bigger disadvantage to the AI when the player is making good use of the tactics.

Excellent work, thank you very much!

Amazing work. Exactly what I was looking for after noticing the uselesness of vanilla cataphract retinue. Keep it up.

@Gonzo, pure Cataphracts will perform much better than they do in vanilla because at the start of the battle they will now fire only Swarm or Generic Skirmish. During melee, they will fire only Powerful Charge and Embolon Charge, the latter of which now gives a bonus to Horse Archers. But I can also recommend a couple of combinations that perform better than they do in vanilla. Cataphract 4:1 Cavalry demonstrates improved cooperation between Horse Archers and Light Cavalry (by firing Harass Swarm 51.4% of the time). Cataphract 5:6 Light Skirmish demonstrates improved cooperation between Archers and Horse Archers (by firing Swarm Volley 51.4% of the time). If you can access the Paradox User Mods forum, you can follow the link above to see more details about these flank compositions.

What would be the recommended retinue ratio as Byzantine Empire in this mod? Pure Cataphracts or mix them with something else?

Before using this mod, I didn't know that horse archers can be really powerful by just adjusting their tactics. I played as turkish iqta and was very satisfied with better horse archer retinues. It's wonderful mod and thanks again.

I'm glad you like it. Fixing the Horse Archer unit was one of the main motivations of this mod, and I was happy to achieve it. Don't forget to give the mod a thumbs-up rating so that other people might take note of it.

Thank you for answers. Finally I really can use non-bugged Cataphracts!

And a flank composed entirely of Cataphract retinues should have the following initial skirmish tactic probabilities (on flat terrain):
Swarm: 77.1%
Generic Skirmish: 22.9%

During melee (when led by a Byzantine commander and assuming the initial troop fractions):
Powerful Charge: 50%
Embolon Charge: 50%

With this mod, the Horse Archer unit no longer counts as Light Cavalry during the determination of which tactics a flank can trigger. Earlier versions of this mod accomplished this by modifying the special troops file, but that caused other unforeseen and unwanted changes. The current version of this mod accomplishes this by modifying the form of tactics triggers. For more information on this change, please visit the Paradox forum.

With this mod, a flank composed entirely of Horse Archer retinues should have the following initial skirmish tactic probabilities (on flat terrain):
Harass Swarm 46.2%
Swarm: 23.1%
Harass: 15.4%
Generic Skirmish: 15.4%

During melee (when led by an Altaic commander on flat terrain and assuming the initial troop fractions):
Retreat and Ambush: 66.7%
Raid: 33.3%

With this mod, don't Horse Archer and Cataphract retinues fire Harass, Raid, and disorganized Swarm anymore?

I made the changes, and I believe that things should now work as I had envisioned.

I believe there is a problem with using "base_type = special_troops". It seems to cause the unit type to be improperly accounted for during calculations of the flank's composition. This affects Horse Archers and War Elephants in the current version (0.7) of the mod. It also affects War Elephants in vanilla because "base_type = heavy_cavalry" behaves the same way; the code should read "base_type = knights". I believe I will have to revert Horse Archers to "base_type = light_cavalry" and change War Elephants to "base_type = knights" and then change the form of some combat tactics triggers in order to yield the appropriate tactics probabilities.

Why so few comments? Amazing job done, as for me. I will test this for a bit.

By "unique unit strategy" do you mean that it is better to have a flank based around a single unit type? It doesn't completely kill that, but it improves the cooperation between some unit types. If you can access the Paradox Mods forum, then you can see some example flank compositions that I've posted in a comment in this thread:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/mod-adjustments-to-combat-tactics.1107413/

My approach with this mod has been to have a "light touch".