Gunpowder Age

[Velensk]

While on vacation I've been working on an era that uses the napolenoth art.

EDIT: The gunpowder age is a single faction, but a faction with a huge number of units that you can recruit. The idea was to capture the feel of napoleonic battles (though not to simulate them in any way). Having tested it a few times it plays quite a bit differently from anything in default, but uses the same basic mechanics. Many unit will have in addition to their normal attack a flanking attack (a less powerful attack with backstab), a charging attack, or both. Gunpowder age works on a slightly more determined scale than mainline at each unit is about a battalion. Most units primary attack is called engage and has first strike, and basically represents them moving into effective range of their muskets and unloading all their firepower. Some units may have an attack called snipe, which represents staying out of effective range and taking pot shots at the enemy formation (except for the marksmen who are more effective outside 'effective' range.
This era is designed to be well suited to massive multi-session games and to be playable and fairly balanced on random maps.

A list of the current units:

Infantry: The backbone of most forces. Hits hard, can charge, flank, snipe and is fairly tough/cheap. Its disadvantages include that all its attacks are pierce except the charge attack (which can be painful to use due to the number of units in the era with first strike), and that it is not very savvy in rough terrain (it loses defense in forests rather than gaining) and has all the movement penalties of the loyalist spearman. Is lawful

Cannon: Bombards most units for little retaliation. greatly resists pierce and slightly resists blade. High hp but low defense. Very slow (especially on rough/forest terrain) and a bit expensive. Is lawful

Mounted: a scout unit which can charge/flank very susceptible to most units with guns, however they are one of the best chargers in the game and they have the ability to get around a set up flanks in addition to being cheap for a scout. Is lawful

Mountaineer: Not as powerful as the infantry, more expensive, and cannot charge, but gets good movement and defense in hills/mountains and no penalties in forests. Also is slightly better at sniping. Is neutral

Marksman: Has a poor engage, but has a snipe only slightly less powerful than the mountaineers engage with marksman. Plays the roll of an archer unit/mage. Is neutral.

Skirmisher: fast/skirmishes has a very weak, but many strike attack. Is very useful for getting multiple flank attacks. Has good forest defense/movement. Is chaotic

Grenadier: has the same move type as the mountaineer (though it's planned to remove the movement bonus and keep the defense), provides fire damage which is great against cannons/ships and lousy against infantry and gas canisters which are a poison attack.

Militia: Are cheap and armed with axes which do decent damage for its cost. Is level 0 and thus costs no upkeep. Is chaotic.

Scout: Cheap fast unit with several stealth abilities. Has an attack with it's own range that does nothing unless you backstab with it in which case it does minor damage and sabotages (slows) enemies. Has very high defense.

Medic: A mounted unit that heals and cures poison.

Ensign: A mounted officer who provides a damage bonus to adjacent units and very slight healing.

Sloop: A small warship that moves fast and is chaotic. Fights better in shallow water or reef than on the open sea.

Frigate: A large warship that moves fairly slow and is neutral. Fights better on the open sea than in shallow water and cannot enter reefs or swamps.

Transport: A slow weak warship that can carry land units (including your king). This is operated through a right click menu.

[Zigg]

Infantry spam is very effective on Cynusan Battlefield, and cheaper than having Cannons, Mountaineers, Mounted etc.

[Velensk]

I know infantry are cheap and effective. I mentioned this in my description. If you think this should be changed then please provide something I don't already know or more to the point a replay. As long as infantry can be countered I'm quite content to have them be the mainstay of the army because they should be. If you are saying that they can't be countered then please back it up better than saying their cheaper than other units.

[Jean]

Very cool era. I have some ships sprites for units of my era being done that you might find useful, like Frigate and Sloop. Want to share them when I get them done?

[Velensk]

If they are better than what I have, that would be nice.

[Velensk]

The latest version is on the add-on server. I've decided to allow ships to be slowly dragged across the open/sand to make it so that castles just a few hexes away from the cost can build ships. This also means that ships can temporarily beach themselves to give support to things inland (though they will be very exposed when doing so)

[PapaSmurfReloaded]

I'm very interested in this era, but I think there are several improvements that could be made. Especially regarding unit attacks.

Elite Artillery unit appears as Elite_Artillery, name should be fixed.
Level 3 Doctor units crashes the game.
Crackshot descripton has a typo "feild"

[Velensk]

Thank you I'll fix those problems.

[Madlok]

I would prefer to give Ensign better healing and to remove Medic. IMHO better climate.

[Velensk]

I'd prefer to remove the healing from the ensign and keep the medic than that.

[Velensk]

Released a new version with some new art, a few bits of polish, a few minor stat tweaks.

The biggest change was that the scouts price was increased but he can now capture villages. I decided that the way it was was simply too counter-intuitive.

[Velensk]

The version in the first post is now for 1.8 but the server won't let me upload it for some reason.

[Velensk]

Gunpowder Age is up on 1.8 and I should have dealt with the problem with the pbl being uploaded with it.

[Flameslash]

The first post still says that Ensign can heal, but you said you would remove it.

[Velensk]

I said I'd rather remove healing from the ensign than remove the medic. I didn't say that I especially wanted to do either.