I expected nothing less.

I will work on a global guide.

I hope you will have fun with the mod :)

Not sure how it's meant to work given the stats listed, but I will continue to use it and explore because you clearly are committed and responsive. That's good enough for me.

The video has two identical parts:
- One without using stances.
- One using the defensive stance.

In the second part, when the defensive stance is active, the general’s unit is much tougher in melee (see 4:37):
- 48% physical resistance → all damage reduced by nearly half, which is huge.
- +42 armor from the shield → about 28% less non-AP damage.
- +25% +12 defense → higher melee resistance.

Enemy units deal much less damage due to the debuff (see 6:09):
- -42% AP damage
- -14% lethality

Meanwhile, my archers can shoot into the enemy’s rear and cause devastating damage. My general is unaffected because the stance gives him +25 missile parry, reaching 100%. As a result, arrows never hit the general’s unit.

The demo video is not helpful in understanding what the intent of the mod is or how it affects combat. It simply plays out a fight without explanation as to the effects. You know what and how but this is not clear for the player trying to use it.

The figures I mentioned are the numbers showing for the defense status in game in the mod.

Here a video :
- Without Defensive Stance
- With defensive stance

Without and With Defensive stance [drive.google.com]

Please read the mod description carefully, especially how stances work — in particular the defensive stance and its debuffs. The goal of the defensive stance is to slow down combat by reducing damage. For example, if a spear unit normally holds a chokepoint for 5 minutes before routing, in defensive stance it can hold for around 10 minutes. That gives you time to flank with another unit and strike from the sides or rear.

The mod has been tested for dozens of hours in 1v1 battles and campaigns. Thanks to the defensive stance, I’ve managed to win sieges I should have lost, while keeping casualties to a minimum.

Do you know the damage formulas in TW Pharaoh well? There are some inaccuracies in your description:

You mean Melee damage, not Melee. That refers to non-AP damage. It’s normal that if you prioritize defense, you deal less damage — but the enemy also deals less (due to debuffs).

You mean armor-piercing damage, not armor. That’s very different; we’re talking about AP damage.

Defense stance, which one might expect to increase defensive capabilities has these debuffs:
Melee -39%
Armor -39%
Speed -35%
Lethality -11%
Attack -11%

Sort of counter intuitive.

Hi wm.j.olson,

One might think that’s the case. The stances were tested in 1 vs 1. They don’t give a direct advantage. Otherwise, their use would be systematic and we would use them all the time. The AI would then be at a disadvantage.

In terms of balancing, you have to take the debuffs into account. For example, the defensive stance doesn’t just reduce the damage of our unit, but also that of the enemy unit. When a melee unit is engaged, you can read the debuff on the enemy unit. A unit that is Master in defensive stance completely nullifies the lethality of the opposing unit. It can therefore tank a large number of enemy units on its own for a long time. This gives time to perform flanking maneuvers and attack with another unit from the rear.

I’ll prepare some tutorial videos showing the advantages of stances in specific situations.

There are so many negatives associated with the stances that it makes no sense to use them.

Hi Pietralunga,

That’s a good question. I did some implementation tests for the AI, but using stances is too complex for the AI to handle. The AI kept switching stances constantly.
This doesn’t improve the gameplay experience. So for now, the AI is disabled.
But I haven’t said my last word on this, and I’m going to look further into the matter.

The AI won't use them, compared to vanilla stances, right?