Age of Fire and Thunder (New minimod available now)

[Lancer]

This is a miniature conversion mod that I have been working on for the last few days. It initially sprung out of a desire to recreate a 17th Century European battle in M&B, one of my favourite periods for military history. However with no artistic ability I wasn't able to do much more then import a few gun models from the Pirates! mod. Wanting to add something more in terms of distinguishing content, I arrived at the idea (loosely inspired from the novel Gunpowder Empire by Harry Turtledove) of combining this with an Ancient Roman theme, made possible by RR_Raptor65's excellent Roma Invicta. Initially it was intended solely for my own amusment, but being sick for the week and with nothing better to do I worked on it to the point that someone else might actually enjoy it. Here is the result:
 

Age of Fire and Thunder
The Map:

Features:
Essentially a total conversion of the original game in terms of setting, although the gameplay remains essentially unchanged.
  - New campaign map and towns.
  - Two joinable factions, Roma and Gallia, as well as redesigned bandits and other parties.
  - New troop trees for joinable factions, most other troops have been redesigned or reequipped, and some have been expanded.
  - New items, and some existing items have been removed.
  - New character classes and starting inventories, companions have been changed, and much text has been rewritten.
  - A couple of minor new gameplay features such as officers and commanders for enemy parties.
  - These changes alter the game balance somewhat. In particular enemy parties tend to be more numerous and significantly better
    equipped, meaning a focus on large engagements with strong enemy troops, hopefully making players rely more on using troops
    and companions and selecting the right kind of soldiers for the enemy at hand.

NOTE: While this is hopefully obvious, as someone who usually supports historical accuracy in game content I feel compelled to point
out that this mod is in no way intended to be historically accurate and should not be used as an educational material.

Some screenshots:

And the download link itself: Available via the Unofficial M&B File Repository or via Rapidshare (9.3mb RAR archive)
http://www.mbrepository.com/modules/PDdownloads/singlefile.php?cid=7&lid=240
http://rapidshare.de/files/24374207/AoFaT_M_B.rar.html

See readme for installation instructions and more details.

Special Thanks to Yoshiboy and RR_Raptor65 without whose excellent models this mod would not have been possible, and of course
to TaleWorlds for making M&B.

Thank You,

Lancer

EDIT: Updated with images and link to the M&B Repository. Thanks to Janus for providing this service.

[Highblood89]

Romans and Gauls with guns?

[Lancer]

You should see some of the ideas I threw away...

Lancer

[TheMany]

You asked Yoshi and Raptor?

[Lancer]

via PM, yes.

[Chel]

Looks like fun! So is there any 17th cent stuff? Or did you replace it all with a Roman vs Gaul conflict?
A 17th cent European Battle would be great I think.

The image thumbnails aren't working for me, can't click on them.

[Odin Doomhammer]

Hmm, intriguing.  Sort of a "what if the Roman empire had lasted another 1000 years" mod?  I'd thought about something similar but with greeks instead.  Lots of factions dedicated to different gods, plus Spartans, Trojans etc.  No historical accuracy whatsoever, just artistic license.

[Lancer]

Looks like fun! So is there any 17th cent stuff? Or did you replace it all with a Roman vs Gaul conflict?
A 17th cent European Battle would be great I think.

The image thumbnails aren't working for me, can't click on them.

Well, the 17th Century aspect is in the equipment of the higher-level troops (Pikemen, musketeers, cavalry) I would very much like to see more 17th Century stuff in M&B, but I think it might have to wait until things like formations become available. Pike & musket formations with cavalry and artilliery would be absolutely awesome, although I don't know whether it'll ever be possible in M&B.

As for the thumbnails, they are intended to be clickable but apparently this board has issues with combining URL and IMG tags as ImageShack is wont to do. Or maybe I'm just not using it correctly. I'm going out now but I'll try and fix it later on. Thanks for your interest. 

Odin Doomhammer: That's pretty much the idea. This is a small thing, I'm not a very experienced modder, and it kind of spun off something more ambitious and realistic that didn't work out. I got the initial idea from the novel Gunpowder Empire, which posits a world in which the Roman Empire never fell but also changed very little, then only really notable scientific advance being gunpowder. I didn't much like it it's actual plot and characterization TBH, but I found the premise intriguing. It has some other interesting ideas about how religion might work and how the Empire's civil service would swell up into a vast and all-consuming bureaucracy. But it was mostly the image of Romans fighting with pikes and primitive matchlock muskets.

Lancer

[Odin Doomhammer]

Quite a likely concept I think.  But for a few freak occurrences the Roman empire could have lasted a lot longer.  But it was unlikely to develop very quickly as they didn't really go in for science, mathematics etc. unlike the greeks and arabs.

[Chel]

Good stuff

[Lancer]

Updated with link to the Unofficial File Repository. Thanks, Janus!

Lancer

[Swordmaster]

Good mod. Good work Lancer.

[dagorkan]

This is an awesome conversion. I was kind of skeptical but I haven't had such a good time playing M&B for months as just now... 18 mixed gallic musketeers and swordsmen against a Roman patrol 30 strong. The mix of horseback, muskets and swords just works really well.

[Munchkin9]

Hold up where is the readme?

[The Pope]

You can have my breastplates etc. if you want. There's a few animation bugs with swinging attacks, but apart from that they look good and look very similar to gear still in use during the 17th century.