SP - Battles & Sieges Exclusive battle mechanics for kingdoms

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So, I've just got into Bannerlord and man do I love it, but when playing the game, I noticed that the kingdoms could have so much more uniqueness to them. So i'm thinking about more exclusive things each kingdom has to bring to the table when it comes to warfare. I plan that each kingdom will have something that no other kingdom has that benefits them and makes things more unique when facing other kingdoms, because each kingdom are vastly different from each other, like the Aserai and the Vlandia, are two entirely different cultures and way of fighting. So it should feel like that, it should be more than just the troops looking different and having different equipment. It should feel like your in an entirely different environment. So here is my idea of accomplishing this.

Aserai kingdom:
War Elephants: War Elephants will be a siege unit you can use. War elephants will have 12 ranged troops on top of it's big saddle and the elephant will slowly march into the the corners/area of defensive siege weapons. It will use it's trunk to hit defensive ballistae or catapults (or any others) and will begin to destroy it after 3 trunk hits (killing the people manning the weapon too) After it destroys the defensive sieges weapons. It will then approach the nearest long wall (as in a wall with a long hallway where normally the big ladder tower things go to) and use it's trunk to attack any enemy units on the walls, when this happens. The 12 ranged units will then jump out of it's saddle and onto the walls. The pros of war elephants if that they are able to destroy defensive towers while leading a siege. So if you weren't able to destroy defensive weapons while setting up the siege, you can get rid of them during it. War elephants are also really tanky and can make the enemy lose morale the more the elephant attacks the walls, and it carries 12 troops on it. The cons of using a war elephant is that you can only have 2 of them at max and you have to have them set up while building your siege, and they do not do anything while set up until you lead the siege. Also, war elephants consume food so the longer you have a war elephant for while setting up the siege, the more food it'll consume. Another con is if the war elephant dies with the troops on it, then the troops die with the elephant.
Camels: I know this is already highly suggested, but here me out. I have a different idea for the use of camels. Camels will have slow speed but high mobility. They will be slow compared to horses, but due to their high mobility. They will be able to swiftly dodge melee attacks. So if you were to try to hit the camel from it's side, the camel will react quickly and turn the opposite side, making your hit miss them. Camels will also be able to carry more than mules and they also give a percentage decrease of required food for your army, they also are faster and even better at measurability when in sandy/desert terrain, and can carry stuff by itself without perks, and with certain perks (forgot which one) will boost how much it is able to carry. The cons of having camels is that they aren't heavily armored, slower than horses and is terrible at snowy terrain (makes them a lot slower, less mobility, and it's health is decreased.)

Sturgia:
Barbarian rage: Barbarian rage is a rare thing that occurs when tier 2-3 sturgian troops when their hp is low (around 10% of their hp). What would happen is the soldier will go into something like an adrenaline rush where they would go full on rage mode and have a temporary damage multiplier and faster swing speed. The troop will just be trying to kill as many enemies as possible until it either dies or some time has passed. When they are in rage, they will be immune to stuns and things like arrows won't get them to stop running after them. They will also reject using their shield unless arrows are being shot at them, and they will have a movement speed boost. Allies near a troop that is in rage will gain a morale boost, and enemies will have more decreased morale gained on each kill the raged troop has. Remember that his occurrence is rare, so in armies of thousands, only about 10 or less will go inside rage mode, and in big battles like those. They will die quickly. But in things like sieges or in small battles, they could be very deadly.

Morale focus: The Sturgians will be mainly focused on morale, overall in battle having high morale. Sturgians will rarely retreat, even if they know they will lose. They will fight unless they die and when they lost the majority of their army in battle, they will by default all group in in a small group in the battlefield and charge, this could be very helpful in huge battles. It will be harder to decrease morale in Sturgian armies compared to other armies, and it'll be harder to convince sturgian minor kingdoms (example being Kuloving) to betray their kingdom (Sturgia) so convcing them into joining your army will be a lot harder, and critical failure is much more likely. Also Sturgian armies will be a lot more aggressive due to their high morale. Small armies would be a lot more likely be in clumps, so seeing a single small army of 100 alone will be rare, but rather it'll be a bunch of small armies of 50 or 100 roaming around. They will also attack you if you have are barely above their troop count. So if they have in total 450, and you have 510. They will attack you.

Vlandia:
Royal dogs: Vlandia will train and use war dogs to aid them in combat. War dogs do a good job at knocking down calvary but tripping horses. War dogs overall won't do a lot when it comes to fighting individual troops. But they are excellent spotters and are able to find hideouts and territories in long ranges. Another bonus of war dogs is that they are able to scare horses away from your army. If you have an army of infantry marching in, war dogs could be useful when the enemy calvary charges into them. A dog can bark at horses and it would have a chance of scaring the horse away, ruining the calvary troop's chance to ram into the infantry. War dogs can attack enemy troops, but they do not do a lot do damage, but what what takes away from damage, increases in stun. War dogs have a chance to stun enemies with their bites and scratches, but that's basically it. War dogs don't come by itself, they are either bought in villages and are trained from village dogs to war dogs (village dogs are just raw dogs while war dogs are dogs with spiked collars and light armor) and have to be maintained by a troop. So if you have 20 troops, you cannot have 50 war dogs, you have to have a war dog per 3 troops. What dogs are assigned to troops are automatic, so if a pikeman has a wardog, in battle the dog will spawn with the troop and will guard and follow the troop. War dogs will also do the same inside of castles and towns, and the same goes for sieges. War dogs do not take a whole troop slot. War dogs can also be good with caravans. They provide more security The cons of using a war dog is that it is weak combat wise, it can be easily killed. camels aren't scared of wardogs and often ignore them, even in some cases trampling over dogs causing lots of damage to the dogs.

Improved crossbow tactics: Vlandias will use tactics with crossbowmen you can never see in other kingdoms.Vlandia's crossbowmen will place their shield down on the ground Infront of them, and reload their crossbow behind their shields, and shoot. This makes crossbowmen a lot harder to kill in a ranged sense. If a Vlandian army has a surplus of infantry (let's say an army of 400, 100 being crossbowmen and 300 being infantry) then spearmen will be Infront of the placed down shields, with their spears sticking out, with the crossbowmen behind them reloading and shooting. This can act like an anti-calvary combo, and you can tell your infantry to spare some units for the crossbowmen in the tactics tab in battle.

Battania

Terrain advantage: Battania will use the forest to their advantage, so they will be primarily defensive. Archers will tend to take cover behind trees and move between the sides of the trees to avoid getting run over by calvary. Battanian units Battanian troops also have an accuracy and manuevarbility buff when in forest terrain,and is faster and and easy to go around. When it snows, battanian ranged troops will either lay down on the ground or crouch and shoot from there to avoid detection and gain some cover. All Battanian troops also get skill increases while in that terrain, so calvary get more calvary skill just for being in the forest, rangers get more bow accucracy and skill. Infantry get one handed, two handed, and polearm skill just for being in the forest, but this buff is gone after entering new terrain.

More shield use. Battanian troops will be a lot more likely to use their shields in battle compared to other units, making it harder to hit them with ranged weapons. Battanian troops will refuse to let their shields down when attacking a ranged unit, unless there is another troop in front of it with a shield, but even in that case, it's only more likely they will put the shield down. Due to the slow debuff taken when blocking with your shields, Battanian troops will be faster than other kingdoms when it comes to using their shield, and they can move faster while blocking with a shield, giving them an advantage. Battanian troops will also have a new tactics that will happen either on command or automatically, it will be comprised of 3 troop units of any kind that is battanian, one troop will be blocking with it's shield on the front, the 2nd troop will have it's weapon ready, and a troop behind that 2nd unit while blocking with their shield, but it's facing the opposite direction of the 1st troop. So basically 1 guy blocking arrows and 2 anit calvary. This tactics is best at end of battles where there is nothing but ranged and calvary, so it'll be good to have their troops move like this. The only con is that this tactics is exclusive to this kingdom, and this applies to every single kingdom. So you either only see this when you are at war with them, or you are a mercenary or vassal that is commanding an army. Also the 2nd unit is exposed so it can be countered that way.

Khuzait
Improved terrain: Khuzait territory and land will be replaced witha lot more high hills and mountains. So unlike most lands in the game where it is flat and empty (that being very little environmentally in the way) Khuzait's land will be different. It will have steep hiils, small hills, and would rarely be flat., This would make calvary way better in their territory but also introduces a new challenge and forcing player to switch between different tactics when facing different kingdoms. Just to clarify, these hills will be placed in the middle/center of the maps, they aren't in the background or around the edges of the battlefield. Khuzait's troops will act differently in their terrain, using the hills to their advantage. An example of this is calvary lining up on the sides of the battlefield waiting for the infantry to charge, the calvary and then have both sides of waiting calvary crisscross the enemy infantry, so not only are you getting knocked down from the left, but also to the right. And because they did this behind a small hill, the ranged troop's arrows couldn't reach the calvary, or at least not all of them. Also siege equipment will have trouble maneuvering in these hills, often requiring more men just to push it up a hill. Just to clarify. The terrain have a lot more hills than the game currently has for them, and the hills it would have will be bigger and wider. At a point where it is no longer flat, but stumpy.

Dedicated mounts: Khuzait calvary will be tricky. Horses will be less likely to be stunned and horses will be a lot less likely to run away when being hit while dismounted. Also all Khuzait troops will have a bonus +15 riding skill by default. Also they have a decreased chance to be scared by war dogs or knocked down by them. The cons is that the Khuzaits will never use camels in battle, and that is basically it.

The empires (northern, southern, western)
Siege tunnels: Due to the empires being rather ancient, I would suspect they would know some ancient techniques used before in wars. So why not have them dig tunnels like how romans did in sieges? How the function would work is when you build your siege and start placing down catapults and ballistae, there would be an option to dig a tunnel rather than a battling ram or siege tower. This process would take longer than any other siege equipment but what it would do is create a new entrance into the kingdom that the enemy will have to defend against. The only con is that the tunnels are very condensed so it will get crowded really quickly and things like polearms are simply unusable in the tunnels due to their small space. But because it is underground, it provides protection against defensive enemy siege weaponry. The tunnel will open far behind the gate, around the middle/lower entrance of the city/castle. Allowing a flank to start. Some cons of using this siege tactics is that it makes polearmed troops and ranged troops going into the tunnel, practically useless. Also the tunnels are very long so it may take some time to reach your destination, and to add to this. The very cramped space could cause trouble quickly. Also when building the siege equipment, it takes a long time, exposing your troops when they construct it. You could lose troops while building this siege equipment so it is best to have catapults and other things destroying defensive siege weapons to prevent loss of troops when constructing this.

Sapping: Sapping is an incredibly lengthy process but could be pretty helpful in sieges. You would essentially send in a bunch of troops to dig big trenches onto enemy walls, slowly making the walls weaker and weaker. This could be an effective way to end very lengthy sieges. If the sapping was successful, the walls would collapse and it would basically make a nice big place for your troops to barge into. This is something that can be done during a siege, not planning one. The cons of using this is that it takes a long time to do, takes a lot of your men, and exposes your men to archers on the wall. But when you have armies of thousands fighting a castle, it could be a probable solution to making a siege that could take hours, up to about 30 minutes or less.

Tortoise tactic: This basically adds in that big scene where soldiers combine their shields to make a shell like wall to defend themselves against archers. This tactic would basically line all your troops in one formation where they would create a shell, less men means the shell doesn't cover everything but enough to block arrows, but with enough men it could create a complete shell that could defend itself against calvary, infantry, and ranged troops. Which could be very very tricky to counter, the cons of using this tactic it that it requires a lot of men, and when doing this tactic, it exposes your men until the shields are ready. Also crossbows are more likely to pierce through the shields when this is active.

I would like to remind you that all of these are only exclusive to the kingdoms attached to them. So the Azurai kingdom cannot dig tunnels or the Empires cannot have war dogs, it is strictly given to kingdoms and players can have access to these perks only if they are a mercenary or a vassal of these kingdoms. So if you make your own kingdom, you cannot get war dogs BUT...

Player picked kingdom perks:
When players create their own kingdom, they can create their own exclusive tactics, either being defensive. Offensive, or just siege stuff. These will be unique and not be like all the other tactics the other kingdoms have. For example. A player kingdom can choose to have an exclusive tactic of war hogs. War hogs are a counter to war elephants, having a high chance to scare war elephants, causing them to run away from the walls, until eventually slowly coming back. War hogs could also be a distraction to enemies.
 
I agree with you 100% that the different cultures should be more unique in the way they behave in combat and or on the campaign map.
I do have different idees as to how that could happen. Somethings may be easier to implement:
Khuzait:
Battle:
Only faction with horse archers, Give them back their good AI. I know they where a PITA but though ****, they where the only enemy that
required me to change my tactics and army compsition.
Campaign:
bonus to autocalc in open field battles and steppe terrain.
focus on fighting armies in the field and only siege after most armies have been defeated.
Give them a harder time to hold other culture towns to prevent them steam rolling,

Sturgia:
Battle:
focus on shieldwall tactics and two handed line breakers and slightly less cavalry then current.
Campaign:
give them a big bonus to snow movement speed and reduced food consumtion.
Give sturgian clans more clanmembers and reduce the party size. So more smaller parties for quick raids.
They would still be able to form big armies but would loose cohesion quicker outside snow borders.
autocalc bonus on snow and nerf in desert

hopefully the added movement bonus in snow combined with more parties that move already faster because of their smaller size would reduce the problem that sturgia has with defending such a long and narrow county.

Battania:
Batlle:
Focus on skirmisch and archers with less cavalry then current.
the goal would be to make them deadly in a siege defense or a forrested area or mountains, but easy prey in open field
campaign:
prefer to fight in forrested areas. Higher militia and cheaper garrisons.
give their villages a small garrison to help prevent raiding.
autocalc bonus in forrest.

Empire:
Battle:
Focus on combines arms. The empire being in the middle of the map is infuenced from all sides. Just loose the horse archers.
Campaign:
Easier to recruit mercenaries like tavern mercenaries, but also for AI.
focus on siegecraft. like your suggestion on sapping. Special units that give a speed bonus to siege equipment building speed.
Autocalc bonus: none

Vlandia:
Battle:
I agree with you, I like their focus on the cavalry charge. however their crossbow and pike combination can be better.
I would like to be able to form a formation of crossbow man with braced pikes sticking out and with a few man in the third row with those
smaller 2-handed polearms that can dehorse an opponent.

Campaing:
i don't have a clear idea for them. But maybe have them be vulrenable to infighting. When 1 clan gets to big it might start a new kingdom with
their friends. But whenever 2 vlandian kingdoms make peace they automatically become 1 faction again.
Autocalc bonus in field battles if ratio cavalry is >30%

Asserai:
Battle:
would like to see the addition of the leaked elephant. but just for field battles, with archers on top.
Defenitly would like to see some clans use camel units.
Campaign:
I would like to see a mamluk sytem introduced like in Egypt at the time of the mongols.
Have the Asserai make captives into slave soldiers. This would make it hard for them to build elite armies during peace time (or maybe buy
them through caravans, but easier to replanish during war. They would have reduces upkeep, but whenever the strength of the mamluk units
is greater then the combined strength of the regular units they would leave the party and roam like a deserter party in warband. Other
kingdoms would be able to negotiate with the deserters to add them to their party.
Alternativly, different deserter parties could join together (like in the mod) to become a big problem. After surpassing a curtain treshold they
could form an amry and try to take over a city and start a new kingdom.
Auto calc bonus in desert area + auto calc nerf in snow
 
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