Tinkering with squads.txt

[Kissaki]

This being my first post, I suppose I should say hi. I bought CoW a few years ago as part of "the Ultimate Strategy Game Collection I" (which also contained Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis I). I liked it a lot, and it deals with a part of history not usually covered by games. But that's not what I was going to talk about.

Recently, I have started playing this game again after leaving it in my file cabinet for some time (yes, I keep games and DVDs in a file cabinet ). I thought I'd mess around with the .txt files this time, especially those pertaining to troops, as I found them a bit unbalanced, and do not necessarily fit their description in the manual as much as they should. So far I have only edited the following:

ChanceToHit
Damage
Agility
Armour


What I would like, however, is if someone could explain the following:

Rating
BattleRating
Men (obviously how many in a squad, but a high number is always listed)
Range (is this reaction range, perhaps?)
Movement (speed on the strategy map?)
Speed (speed on the battlefield?)
SpeedVariance
UpgradeFile
DisorderPenalty (how does this work?)
TrampleChance (there are four numbers here, how do they work?)
TrampleScale (I think I know how this works, but it never hurts to ask)

And how do these three affect eachother:
PanicEffector
Discipline
KillEqualizer



And just to make sure I got the names right, is this a correct interpretation of the names in squads.txt?

LevySpearmen=Peasant Levy
Javelinmen=Hupshu Skirmishers
Auxilia(I)= Khepetj Auxilia
BattleCarts=Gish Battle Carts
IrregSpearmen=Militia Spearmen
IrregSwordsmen=Sheridan Swordsmen
RegularSwordsmen=Menfat Swordsmen
RegularSpearmen=Madaya Spearmen
HeavySpearmen=Massarti Spearmen
MassedAuxilia= Sabum Qallatum Auxilia
EliteAuxilia=Gibborim Auxilia
LightChariots=Ne'arin Chariots
HeavyChariots=Ansukurra Mes Chariots
Lancers=Qurbuti Cavalry
CavalryArchers=Pethalle Horse Archers
IrregArchers='Apiru Skirmishers (except that they have "psiloi" listed as weapon type, instead of "bows", as other archers)
MassedArchers=Megau Archers
MeleeArchers= Sparabara Archers
SeaPeopleWarrior=Sea Peoples Warband
EgyptianSpearmen=Teheru Spearmen
LargeBattleCarts=Gish Gigir Battle Carts
BedouinCamels=Midianite Camels
MitanniChariots=Maryannu Chariots
HittiteRoyalGuard=Meshedi Spearmen
AssyrianSpearmen=Sha Qurbute Spearmen
LightHorseArcher=Skythian Horse Archers
CaananiteArchers=Sabu Nagib Archers
SkeletonWarrior=Skeleton Warrior
NubianArcher=Medjay Skirmishers



Well, that's about it, I guess. I was especially surprised to see the militia spearmen had the worst damage, agility and armour rating in the game, equal to that of peasants (all set at 90). Whereas the Medjay skirmishers were way too formidable in melee, with 150 (equal to that of Sheridan swordsmen!). So I took it upon myself to do a bit of tweaking. I would be much obliged if anyone could help me out with the above.

[honvedseg]

The disorder penalty occurs when the unit is in rough terrain or when it is fighting to more than one facing. Note than formed heavy units fare much worse at this than the light skirmishers.

The Militia Spearmen are pretty useless except against mounted units, where their higher trample resistance keeps them in the fight where other units break quickly.

I also found Medjay Skirmishers to be overpowered, whereas in historical situations they were very reluctant to engage in melee combat.

I lowered ammo for all skirmish units (not for formed archers) to reflect the limited number of arrows (around 8-10) or for javelins actually carried (usually 2 or 3) plus a reload (totalling 5 shots). As an added benefit, it sharply reduced the "friendly fire" casualties for both sides, besides the intended goal of making the skirmishers less formidable than most of the more expensive troops, while still easily capable of shredding an equal number of peasant units.

[Kissaki]

Hey, thanks! I suppose realistically I should lower the amount of javelins to 3-5 (and also increase their damage), and maybe I'll get around to that eventually. So far, though, I am rather enjoying the volleys and the friendly fire.

I wonder if "battlerating" signifies how the AI prioritizes recruitment? But from what I've seen that doesn't make much sense, as it seems to like peasants and Sheridan swordsmen very much.

I have also found that "shotarmour" does not realistically reflect how well protected units are from missiles. 300 for peasants, that's fine - I suppose that's what you get for not wearing any armour or carrying a shield. But then I see that the skirmishers are given pretty high ratings here - the 'Apiru skirmishers, for example, have an armour rating of 80, which is even worse than even the peasant armour at 90. Yet they have a shotarmour of 500.

I also noticed a unit called "InfantryStandard", which uses the peasant icon, but not made by any ethnic culture. It has about the same stats as Khepetj auxilia, but it costs nothing to train or maintain. A half finished unit that didn't quite make it into the game?

[honvedseg]

Shotarmour includes more than just armor in this case, it can also reflect the scattered deployment of a skirmish unit. Missle weapons are more likely to hit empty space between the individuals than in the case of a close-ordered formation.

I suspect that battlerating may be used if you elect to have the outcomes resolved automatically, rather than fight them out on the tactical map. It may, on the other hand, indicate the priority for the AI to build that unit type. If Peasants, Sheridan, and Hupshu all figure high in the ratings, that's probably the correct interpretation.

I'm also pretty sure that the PanicEffector rating determines how much the unit is hurt by casualties. Whether it determines how much each casualty affects morale or how much a drop to the next morale grade affects the unit's fighting potential, I've got no clue.

[Kissaki]

Wait - I feel stupid for asking this, but... you can auto-resolve battles? I know you can in Spartan, but I haven't seen that option in CoW. If that is the case, though, it makes sense that that's what battlerating is all about. Though the battleratings themselves do not always reflect the stats.

What you said about shotarmour and spacing makes sense, though. I think I'll have to adjust the skirmisher value again here (though Megau and Sparabara seem to be densely packed).

Speaking of morale... every unit has a standard-bearer, I wonder if it has any particular effect on morale if/when he is killed?

[honvedseg]

Sparabara would be protected by a wall of tower shields as well as some body armor, Megau archers wouldn't be, so I can understand the one getting a high shotarmour rating, but definitely not the other.

The computer auto-resolves battles between non-player factions, and I THINK you can hit a button somewhere on the deployment screen to auto-resolve (or maybe it was in Legion), but it was weighted pretty heavily against the player from what I remember, so I never used it after the first try.

It's been a few years since I hacked into the numbers to see what did what, and I only got bits and pieces of it then. At this point, I remember very little of what I did find out.

[Kissaki]

Historically, the Sparabara did indeed have large shields (and were rather spearmen than archers), but the Sparabara archers in the game have no shields at all. They are well armoured, though.

[honvedseg]

Sparabara were typically armed with both spear and bow, rather than consisting of two entirely different troop types. The front ranks provided the shieldwall protection for the rear ranks, who were free to use their bows while benefitting from the protection of the shieldwall. Dividing them into individual spear and bow units in the game, and giving the archers decent armor rather than shields, is probably just a convenient mechanic to represent the defense that they would have had if deployed in a historical manner, since CoW doesn't allow for different troop types or behavior within the same unit.

Incidentally, I've never had a game last long enough to see any of the most advanced troop types. Either I walk all over the major competition early on, or else the game bogs down into a tedious meat grinder affair, where stack after stack of both friendly and opposing troops get chewed to pieces over a single city, and which I generally lose interest in after taking about half the map.

[Kissaki]

I tend to be more meticulous in my advance, taking one city at a time and taking my time with it, too. After I manage to set up a stable core empire, that is, which is able to resist attacks easily. Because of this, I have indeed managed to get all units before I win the game. But I did find that the later technologies were too long in coming, so I edited script1.txt to get them a little sooner. Not a lot, just enough so that I won't have to postpone my final conquests to get them. And, of course, greatly increased the percentage of map possession required to win.

[Kissaki]

I'm also pretty sure that the PanicEffector rating determines how much the unit is hurt by casualties. Whether it determines how much each casualty affects morale or how much a drop to the next morale grade affects the unit's fighting potential, I've got no clue.

I will necro my own thread, mainly for my own nefarious purposes, as I have taken to playing this game again and will tinker some more. I have found an answer to this question from a post in the Spartan forum:

Its easiest to change values in the xls file and save out to test, as the values are all lined up nicely and clearly. Disorder is teh % eficiency when disordered, so lower for heavy infantry than light & cavalry. Panic is how much panic they instill in your own side if you lose them (routed). Discipline above 500 or so is almost unbreakable. Kill equalizer is a modifier to make archers gain less xp from kills than hand to hand troops etc.

Now, for some reason, the PanicEffector, for ALL units, has been set to 0. I shall use the numbers in Spartan's Squads.txt as a guideline, and see if I can do something useful with it.

I am also considering drastically increasing the food cost in recruiting all forms of cavalry, certainly the food upkeep. I am a bit hesitant, however, as I'm afraid this might mess with the balance as far as the AI is concerned. If I increase the food cost, maybe the AI will field fewer cavalry units.

I have also increased somewhat the trample figures for all infantry except spears (and also Gibborim auxilia, since they are disciplined and equipped with spears as well - I have given them the same trample stats as spear units). The reason being that I always felt cavalry dies too quickly. Oh, and I switched the trample stats of auxilia and swords, as I thought it odd that swordsmen should have better trample resistance than auxilia armed with spears.

The sea people warband unit puzzles me. The stats themselves are pretty mediocre, but then they have their own special unit type that no other unit has, and I think that's what gives them the edge - because they do perform really well.

Oh, and the horse archers were set to deal 150 melee damage, whereas the Qurbuti cavalry (lancers) only 125. I swapped these around, naturally.

[Kissaki]

Ok, now I know why all PanicEffectors were set to 0 - they don't work properly. This became immediately clear when I was attacked by Nubian independents, two different auxilia units which I had given 1 and 2 to this stat respectively. I had a full garrison and defeated them easily, but once the second enemy unit routed, all 9 of my own troops went from either ordered or disordered, to shaken. All of them. So while PanicEffector may cause a unit's routing to deal a blow to morale to its own side, it seems this affects both sides equally.

Another thing I noticed, which must be unrelated - surely - is that since I made these changes to Squads.txt, my monthly trade is disrupted, in that it fluctuates. I buy incense, horses and tin, since I produce none myself, and yet the monthly purchases are sometimes reset, sometimes reduced. It used to be that only gold fluctuated like this. I'll change Squads back to what it was, and I guess I'll see.

Edit: Changing the PanicEffector back to 0 for all units seems to have miraculously fixed the trade fluctuation. 12 months, and the trade figures have been stable. I can't explain it.