Balance Changes:
- The purpose of these changes is to make weapon upgrades a more conscious decision for players. Auto-equipping an army with the most expensive equipment should require larger sacrifices. Limitations and the prices of weapons also now change depending on the time period, which should make the Age of Glory and Age of Rifles require completely different army compositions and strategies; smoothbores will be much more common in 1850s scenarios. 5 Cohesion heavy units are also more expensive, making the prospect of fielding armies completely comprised of heavy, range-drilled, breech-loading rifled units much more difficult. Limitations on rifles have been implemented for nations that were historically unable to field entire armies with rifles during the 1850s and early-to-mid 1860s, such as the United States, Confederate States, Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire, Kingdom of Italy, and even the French Empire. Finally, as aforementioned, the prices of weapons now change between each period. This means that compositions that are reliant on rifles are harder to build in the Age of Glory than in the Age of Rifles, even for nations who don’t have limitations on rifles. There are even more changes than what is listed below, but we couldn’t fit every single change to be listed.
- Cumbersome to go down in points from -40 —> -25
- Breakable to go down in points from -15 —> -20
- 5 Cohesion to go up by 10 points from 80 —> 90
- 2 Speed cavalry to go down by 10 points from 10 —> 0
- 3 Speed cavalry to go down by 10 points from 30 —> 20
- Infantry Polearms to now be 0 points (Japan only)
- Early Era Smoothbore Price to go from 0 to 20 points.
- Early Era Rifle Price to go from 30 to 50 points
- Early Era Breech-Loader Price to go from 40 to 60 points
- Early Era Rifled Breech-Loader Price to go from 100 to 120 points
- Early Era Muzzle-Loaded Carbines Price to go from 20 points to 30 points
- Early Era Breech-Loaded Carbines Price to go from 60 points to 80 points
- French M1842T Rifle to go from no limit to a 6 limit in the Early Period.
- French M1867 Tabatiere rifle to go from no limit to 6 limit in the Late Period
- Prussian Potsdam M1839 to go from no limit to 6 Limit in the early period
- Russian Krest’yane to receive shock
- Russian Grenadiers to receive shock
- Russian Grenadiers to lose melee drill
- Russian Guard Grenadiers to receive melee drill
- Russian Grenadier Guards to be given Berdan M1868 as default weapon in the late period.
- Russian Smoothbores to be available in the late period.
- Russian rifles to be limited to 4 in the early period.
- Russian Jaegers to be auto-equipped with smoothbores in the early period.
- Russian Greeks to be auto-equipped with smoothbores in the early period.
- Russian Grenadier Guards to be auto-equipped with rifles in the early period.
- Russian Finnish Guards to be given rifle by default in late period.
- Russian Jaegers to be given rifle by default in late period.
- Russian dragoons to be given M1847 carbine by default instead of M1867 Dragoon Krnka
- Russian M1867 Dragoon Krnka carbine to receive 4 Limit.
- Ottoman P51 to receive a 4 Limit in the early period.
- Ottoman “Rifles” unit to receive a smoothbore by default instead of a rifle in the early period.
- Ottoman P51 Enfield to receive a 8 limit in the late period.
- Ottoman to receive 6 limit on Snider-Enfields in the late period.
- Ottoman rifles to receive rifle by default in the late period.
- Ottoman Zouaves to receive rifle by default in the late period.
- Ottoman Dragoons to receive a P43 Victoria carbine by default in the late period.
- Ottoman M1866 Winchester to receive 2 limit in the late period.
- Austrian Landwehr to go from 4 limit to 2 limit
- Austrian Honved to go from 4 limit to 2 limit
- Italian M1860 Piedmontese rifle to have a 6 limit in the early period.
- Italian M1844/67 Breech-loading carbine to receive a 4 limit in the late period.
- USA to receive a 6 limit on M1861 Springfield rifle in the early era
- USA to receive a 6 limit on M1866 Springfield breech-loaders in the late era
- USA to receive a 6 limit on M1852 Sharps Carbines in the early era
- CSA to receive a 4 limit on their Springfield M1855 rifle in the early era
- CSA Texas brigade to receive smoothbores by default instead of a rifle in the early period.
- CSA to receive a 6 limit on Snider-Enfields in the late period
- CSA Texas brigade to receive rifles by default instead of breech-loaders in the late period
- CSA to receive a 2 limit to Sharps Carbines in the early period
- CSA smoothbores to be renamed to “Assorted Smoothbores”
- CSA rifles to be renamed to “Assorted Rifles”
- Italian early era carbines to be renamed to “Assorted Carbines”
Cavalry Update Changes:
- Prussian Dragoons to receive skirmishing
- British Light Dragoons to receive efficiency
- Russian Dragoons to receive efficiency
- Ottoman Dragoons to receive efficiency
- Ottoman Bashi Bazouks Cavalry to lose shock
- Austrian Dragoons to receive efficiency
- Austrian Hussars to lose disorganized
- Italian Dragoons to receive efficiency
- Italian Dragoons to lose skirmishing
- USA Lightning Brigade to lose breakable
- USA Lightning Brigade to receive disorganized
Artillery Update Changes:
- French Mitrailleuse to receive cumbersome
- French 12lb Field Artillery to receive 2 limit
- French 4lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 limit
- French 22cm Howitzers to receive 2 limit
- All French artillery to receive 3 cohesion from 2 cohesion
- Prussian 4lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Prussian 12lb Field Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Prussian 12lb Field Artillery to lose cumbersome
- Prussian 21cm Krupp Mortar to lose Range Drill trait
- All Prussian artillery to receive 3 cohesion from 2 cohesion
- British 9lb Field Artillery to receive 2 limit
- British 9lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 limit
- British 12lb Field Howitzer to receive 2 limit
- British 6lb Field Artillery to lose cumbersome
- British 9lb Field Artillery to lose cumbersome
- British 9lb Horse Artillery to lose cumbersome
- British 6lb Field Artillery to receive efficiency
- All British artillery to receive 3 cohesion from 2 cohesion
- Russian Licornes to receive 3 cohesion
- Russian 12lb Field Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Russian 6lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Russian 18lb Licorne to receive 2 limit
- Italian Mountain Guns to receive efficiency
- Italian 16lb Field Artillery to receive 2 Limit
- Italian 8lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 Limit
- Italian 12cm Mountain Guns to receive 2 Limit
- Italian 15cm Howitzers to Receive 2 limit
- Ottoman 11lb Field Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Ottoman 4lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Ottoman 25lb Howitzer to receive 2 limit
- Ottoman 8lb Field Artillery to receive 2 limit
- All Austrian artillery to receive 3 cohesion from 2 cohesion
- Austrian 8lb Field Artillery to receive 2 Limit
- Austrian 4lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Austrian 8lb Field Artillery to lose range drill
- Austrian 4lb Field Artillery to receive efficiency
- Austrian 8lb Field Artillery to receive efficiency
- Austrian 4lb Horse Artillery to receive efficiency
- Austrian 4lb Field Artillery to lose cumbersome
- Austrian 8lb Field Artillery to lose cumbersome
- Austrian 4lb Horse Artillery to lose cumbersome
- Union 3-inch Ordnance Rifle to receive 2 limit
- Union 12-lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Union 12lb Mountain Gun to receive 2 limit
- Union 12lb Howitzer to receive 2 limit
- Union 12lb Napoleon to lose cumbersome
- Union 3-Inch Ordnance to lose cumbersome
- Union 12-lb Horse Artillery to lose cumbersome
- Confederate 12lb Napoleon to lose cumbersome
- Confederate 10lb Parrot Rifle to lose cumbersome
- Confederate 12-lb Horse Artillery to lose cumbersome
- Confederate 10lb Parrot Rifle to receive 2 limit
- Confederate 12lb Horse Artillery to receive 2 limit
- Confederate 12lb Mountain Gun to receive 2 limit
- Confederate 12lb Howitzers to receive 2 limit
- Melee drill has been made a hybrid of what it used to be and what it is now. Now, it will reduce damage taken by -1 on charge impact and it will deal +1 damage at the end of every turn. This makes the perk as good as shock, making it more interesting.
- Melee Vulnerable units do not receive a charge bonus when charging into another vulnerable unit.
- Time of day speeds are all faster, making it more likely for your largest battles to end up taking 2 in-game days to complete.
Visual:
- Post-processing has been re from scratch and now battles look visually different depending on the season you’re playing on.
- New photo mode setting has been added for old-timey screenshots.
- Cavalry now wear their carbines on their unit card which helps you identify which units are armed with carbines.
- New loading screens and quotes added to the game.
- We got rid of the old tent in battles and replaced it with a proper war room with a fireplace.
- Slight improvements on animations, we will continue improving though.
- New highlight system shows were your units were and where they will go during execution phase.
- Arrows are now smooth and not pixelated and dotted.
- Cards now get bloody and flash red when taking hits, making it far clearer which units are damaged from combat.
- Units with only 4hp will no longer have 1 company within stop animating, now all 4 companies (hp) will animate in stabbing/walking etc, whereas previously they would get bugged.
- Configuring the AI and adding player slots has been improved.
- Scrollbar in the options menu has been re.
- UI for campaigns has been re from scratch.
- UI for scenario battles has been re from scratch.
- When units change formation they now animate.
- Arrows now will be removed as each order gets executed so they don’t clutter up the board during the ordering phase.
- The order page has been shrunk so it gets in the way of the battle less.
- Color picker added to the game. This replaces the current way we would color code players by overlaying blue or orange over their flag. Now, no color is placed over your flag icons in battles, and instead a colored ring now surrounds your flag based on the color you chose in the lobby screen (you can select a color by selecting your profile on the left side of the lobby).
- Tutorial map changed to River Path which is more visually appealing.
- Depth of field shouldn’t make everything a complete blur, though it will still be quite blurry if zoomed all the way in while using the cinematic mode. This can be disabled in options, or you can pan your camera up to reveal your units clearer.
- Pretty clouds added to the campaign mode.
- Godshafts added to battles.
- New UI scaler in the options. We got complaints from players that the UI above units was too large, so now you can scale it to whatever size is good for you.
- Moving into reserve the UI now appears over the flag icons so it’s easier to choose between frontline and reserve.
Campaign Changes:
- Austro-Prussian War campaign has been added to the game for free.
- Caucasus Campaign has been added to the game for free.
- Franco-Prussian War campaign has been made free.
- Western Theater campaign has been added to the American Civil War DLC.
- Two Japanese campaigns will go live when the DLC launches this week.
- Unit XP system with skill tree added, you can now level up your units in campaigns and give them unique perks/abilities to design your own custom units.
- Event system debuts with 80+ historical events added, they trigger depending not only on the campaign you’re playing but also the side you’re playing as.
- Military doctrine system added to the game, allowing you to pick between Deterrent Warfare, Mobile Warfare, and Attrition Warfare, suiting three distinct playstyles.
- Supply is no longer messy and confusing and works on a simple system of "in supply" and "out of supply" depending on how far you are from the nearest cache or HQ.
- Prices in campaign have been overhauled, weapons cost more, and units have dynamic prices based on what they cost in custom battles.
- Objectives added to campaigns which give you goals to take, and also help the AI better attack/defend tiles.
- Players can now upgrade their “objectives” which improves their economy and manpower gain.
- Cash/Manpower has been reduced drastically in all campaigns, you must now upgrade your objectives in order to see your economy/manpower improve over time.
- War Enthusiasm system re. It now judges your performance in capturing objectives and winning battles and will buff your economy or debuff your economy depending on your enthusiasm.
- Major restructuring of corps, removed historically inaccurate units and weapons. You can no longer have 4 divisions within a corps (24 units in one corps), we found that once the player brought in two full corps of 4 divisions, their battle would become too large and unfun to fight as turns would take a very long time.
- Reinforcement system overhauled for the campaign, now you can designate reinforcements and see them come in on the 2nd day of campaign combat. Campaigns utilize our new “dynamic” time of day speed which makes the 1st day of combat always faster. Therefore, you can try and stall the first day of combat in order to get your reinforcements in on day 2.
- AI behaviors change, they will be a little smarter and dynamic about attacking and defending based on difficulty. For example, in the Civil War Eastern Theater campaign, they will attack through the Peninsula on hard difficulty but not on eays.
- Nearly all campaign UI re from scratch.
- Barraging forts now subtracts manpower, making long sieges more costly.
- If a major battle is fought, crosswords will appear on the map which will keep a record of your most important fights.
- Unit limits implemented in campaigns so you can no longer have 100 iron brigades for example.
- Merit can be earnt by completing campaigns now!
- Every campaign now has a briefing video and voice acting, as well as a victory/defeat video that is unique to all 16 perspectives of every campaign.
- Hovering over tiles will display the names of the tiles, so you can identify where all the locations are and where you need to go to fight in historical locations, such as Gettysburg or Manasses.
Sound:
- Sounds now play when issuing movement orders instead of silence.
- When units die they make death sounds.
- Each weapon in the game now has its own unique gunshot sound including different types of artillery.
- Infantry and cavalry will use drums and bugles when changing formations. Artillery will make sounds too of wheels moving and the artillery being rearranged.
- Marching sounds now play on a loop until the unit is moving.
- When the AI ends its turn is no longer makes a very loud order sound.
- British Men of Harlech track added.
- Lots of sounds added to the campaign, new ambient sounds, voice acting, as well as mechanical sounds like repairing or bombarding a wall.
- Scenario battles now have voice acting to lead you into each scenario.
Content:
- The Shogunate and Imperial Court factions have been added to the game as DLC, but we are waiting on Steam to approve our store page. They will be added to the game in the coming days.
- Japan added on the main menu world map in anticipation of the Boshin War DLC.
- New maps added, bringing the total to over 100.
- Altstadt 1v1
- Arupusu 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- Balaclava 1v1 (Remake)
- Calatafimi 1v1
- Countryside 1v1
- Domain Fort 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- Frozen Reservoir 1v1
- Hakodate 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- Kirche 1v1
- Lille Brook 1v1 (Remake)
- Massif Stronghold 1v1
- Milazzo 1v1 (Remake)
- Missionary Ridge 1v1 (Civil War DLC)
- Monte Villa 1v1 (Remake)
- Mountain Lake 1v1
- Oases 1v1
- Poplar Station 1v1 (Remake, Civil War DLC)
- Prima Valley 1v1
- Rice Paddies 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- River Path 1v1 (Remake)
- Ryazan Hills 1v1
- Seaside Outpost 1v1
- Shiloh 1v1 (Civil War DLC)
- Takeda Streams 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- The Clearing 1v1
- The Forest 1v1
- The Grassland 1v1
- The Monastery 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- The Plantation 1v1 (Civil War DLC)
- The Redoubt 1v1 (Civil War DLC)
- The Ridgeline Pass 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- The Steppes 1v1
- Tokaido Road 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- Tosa Dockyard 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- Ueno 1v1 (Boshin War DLC)
- Valley Encounter 1v1 (Civil War DLC)
- Vicksburg 1v1 (Civil War DLC)
- Volturno 1v1
- Aizu 2v2 (Boshin War DLC)
- Black Sea 2v2
- Chancellorsville 2v2 (Civil War DLC)
- Chickamauga 2v2 (Civil War DLC)
- Custoza 2v2
- Darial Pass 2v2
- Federal Fort 2v2
- Fredericksburg 2v2 (Civil War DLC)
- Homestead 2v2
- Honshu Fortress 2v2 (Boshin War DLC)
- Kars 2v2
- Lake Fortress 2v2
- North Fort 2v2 (Remake)
- Reka Path 2v2
- Romagna 2v2
- Sakura Grove 2v2 (Boshin War DLC)
- Solferino 2v2
- The Alma 2v2
- Toba Fushimi 2v2 (Boshin War DLC)
- The scenario system has always felt limited and overlooked. We decided to rebuild the entire scenario system from scratch by including new "linear scenarios" which allow you to fight across multiple battles as part of a larger military operation. For example, there are now three battles as part of the "Expedition of the Thousand" led by Garribaldi. You can start in Calatafimi, but must complete that mission before proceeding to Milazzo followed by The Volturno. There are a total of 27 of these scenario battles.
Mechanical Changes & Features:
- Artillery has been overhauled. Artillery has always meant to be one of the most important tools on the battlefield, but we noticed many players did not find it to be too useful. Therefore, we have added a new suppression mechanic which allows artillery to pin down enemy cohesion each time that unit is hit by a barrage. Furthermore, we've added new formations, including a "limber" formation which allows you to move your artillery, a "concentrated battery" formation which allows you to receive +1 range to your artillery, and an "open battery" formation which allows you to receive peripheral coverage (with less damage output) like infantry in open order.
- AI “expert mode” has been added. We still have plans to continue improving our AI, but we're happy to announce that a new "expert" AI has been added which is used when the player maxes out the difficulty in a scenario, campaign, or custom battle. The expert AI has much better prediction capabilities, as they can now peak at some of your orders, BUT the ai does not cheat in the form of receiving buffs to their damage/health. This mode is recommended for those who have a firm grasp on the game and are looking for an added challenge.
- Fast forward button added to singleplayer games which allows you to skip the boring parts of the battle. Let us know if you want this feature added to multiplayer for either players to vote on, or for the host to use.
- AI will now designate troops to go and flank your position. We may improve on this in the future though for aggressive AI to send even more troops to be designated “flankers.”
- Fire at Will is now disabled after a unit moves.
- Units must now be in Attack Column or March column or Limbered formation to utilize bridges.
- Dynamic mode is now even faster during the first few turns of the match. Instant mode is now slightly faster.
- Road bonus movement is now only applied if a unit starts and ends their movement on a road.
- Added a new “dynamic” time-of-day speed setting which makes the first day of combat fast, second day of combat normal, and third day of combat slow. This way, your first day of combat feels more like an opening skirmish. We’re thinking of later adding a reinforcement system so that you could designate some troops as reinforcements who can come in on the second day of combat.
- You can now kick people from slots and close them after opening them, including the AI. You should fully be able to configure your room now to the exact amount of players/ai you want, and where you want them in the battle, without needing to recreate a room.
- AI will now go on fire-at-will if they have remaining orders.
- AI will now retreat from combat if their cohesion and HP is low, but they won’t move at all if they only have 0 cohesion w/1hp left (will die from attrition).
- Added a sandbox mode which allows you to increase the max order count, increase the max unit count, increase max funds, etc
Bugs:
- Reserve regiments are no longer able to fire in reserve.
- Players no longer spawn on the same side in quickmatches.
- Charging a unit who has previously moved earlier that turn is no longer considered a “clash.”
- Units can no longer phase through each other during a clash; if a clash occurs, both units will halt and fight in melee.
- Settings are no longer reset when someone joins/leaves a custom room.
- Line of Sight improvements with hills/buildings.
- Enemy AI unit spawn fixes in custom games.
- Melee can no longer go into fire-at-will if they don’t have a carbine.
- Regiments can no longer change formation if they’ve been charged before they had a chance to change formation.
- Orders no longer stick to your cursor when the player releases the left-click.
- If a frontline unit leaves a tile that is being fired on, the fire order will now go through to the unit that was in reserve.
- When targeting a unit who jumps into reserve, the fire order will now be reassigned to the frontline of that tile instead of being thrown away.
- Timer no longer disappears when you end your turn, so you can see how long your opponent has left to form their orders.
- Infinite movement bugs fixed.
- AI will now utilize perks properly, and will no longer utilize perks that it doesn’t have (ie: the ai moving twice despite not having efficiency, or the ai not firing twice despite having breech-loaders.)
- AI now can move two units at a time instead of needing to move every unit individually.
- When units charged a unit who died on impact, the unit would bug out. Now when you charge and kill a unit on impact, your unit is useable again.
- Target ground orders fixed for artillery to allow you to fire on fortified positions without the order getting thrown away because an enemy unit wasn’t on the tile.
- Arrows no longer stick around even after the orders are finished.
- Players can no longer start a custom battle with no units selected.
- Dismounted cavalry should now get range resistance.
- Bug in which river path was one of the only maps being selected for quickmatch has been fixed.
- AI no longer breaks on day 2 of combat.
- In-game chat improvements.
Edit:
-Hotfix, Battles for the campaign.