By popular demand, Update 1.5.12 adds a major new feature to the game – Allies.
It is now possible to choose to have allies from a different army list in SP and MP custom battle armies. The main army list provides the majority of the troops available for selection, the allies provide a smaller proportion.
The permitted allies for each list are based on known historical alliances. Hence some army lists can have as many as 12 possible allies, others may have none. Altogether, well over 400 allies are currently specified, which, together with the 281 single nation army lists, makes a total of more than 700 pure or mixed army lists in the game. This in turn means that, including “what if” games, the number of possible matchups is now over 500,000! And that is before unit selection.
For example, here we are setting up a custom battle representing an episode from the Third Samnite War (298-290 BC) in which an army of allied Samnites and Gauls meets a Roman army with Lucanian allies.
The army list previews show an asterisk in front of the allied units.
The two armies arrayed for battle:
Here we can set up a situation similar to the battle of Clontarf in 1014 AD, in which an Irish army with Viking allies fights a Viking army with Irish allies:
Stay tuned for further information!