The Battle for Sicily, an early playable version of a mod based on the 11th century Norman invasion of Sicily, is available here:
https://www.mbrepository.com/file.php?cid=7&id=251
The mod pits the Normans under Duke Robert the Cunning against a confederation of Arab emirates, with Byzantines, Berbers, and others also making an appearance. It doesn't have much in the way of new features, although there are a few new models and textures and the beginnings of a unique look. It uses the combat system (ie, the item stats and properties) from 1066, which I think do a really good job of simulating early medieval battles and make for a more challenging game.
I find this particular place and period particularly fascinating. The politics were wildly baroque -- the Normans came in as outsiders into an existing free-for-all involving the Byzantines, the Holy Roman emperor, the Muslim emirates, the local Lombard nobility, and the Pope. Everyone cut tactical alliances with everyone else, Pope and anti-Pope dueled for control of the Holy See, pirates roamed the sea lanes, and freebooters carved out their own kingdoms. It was also unusual for medieval warfare in that naval battles were almost as important as land battles, which I'm hoping to try and simulate at a later date.
I've put this out here as sort of a proof-of-life, because I'm looking for contributors with modelling and historical research. The downloadable version does make for reasonably fun play, I think, particularly if you skip the quests (which are the same as in vanilla) and spend time in the middle of the map where there's almost always a few battles in progress, helping out your friends and looting your enemies.
If anyone wants to help, I'm desperately in need of new models and textures.
* North African and Iberian Islamist architecture (I have lots of pictures of various monuments which could be the basis for models)
* Distinctive clothes, weapons, and armour. Here, help from anyone who has the relevant Osprey books would be very much appreciated
* Ships! Dromons, knorrs, and Norman warships. Again, I have pix.
There's further historical background and notes in the Readme
I would like to thank the following designers for their models and textures:
Fisheye for the use of the Norman shields in 1066
RR_Raptor for the weapons xpack
Septa Scarabae for his scale armor
Yoshi for various nautical items (mostly yet unimplemented) and for showing how a naval system might work
Ancientwanker for permission to use TLD's dark courser
Thanks also to the 1066 team for adapting the item stats to create what I think is a much more challenging combat system that is more appropriate to the early medieval era than the Native system.
And, of course, thanks to Effidium and Thorgrim for their invaluable tools, and Janus for the installer script.
https://www.mbrepository.com/file.php?cid=7&id=251
The mod pits the Normans under Duke Robert the Cunning against a confederation of Arab emirates, with Byzantines, Berbers, and others also making an appearance. It doesn't have much in the way of new features, although there are a few new models and textures and the beginnings of a unique look. It uses the combat system (ie, the item stats and properties) from 1066, which I think do a really good job of simulating early medieval battles and make for a more challenging game.
I find this particular place and period particularly fascinating. The politics were wildly baroque -- the Normans came in as outsiders into an existing free-for-all involving the Byzantines, the Holy Roman emperor, the Muslim emirates, the local Lombard nobility, and the Pope. Everyone cut tactical alliances with everyone else, Pope and anti-Pope dueled for control of the Holy See, pirates roamed the sea lanes, and freebooters carved out their own kingdoms. It was also unusual for medieval warfare in that naval battles were almost as important as land battles, which I'm hoping to try and simulate at a later date.
I've put this out here as sort of a proof-of-life, because I'm looking for contributors with modelling and historical research. The downloadable version does make for reasonably fun play, I think, particularly if you skip the quests (which are the same as in vanilla) and spend time in the middle of the map where there's almost always a few battles in progress, helping out your friends and looting your enemies.
If anyone wants to help, I'm desperately in need of new models and textures.
* North African and Iberian Islamist architecture (I have lots of pictures of various monuments which could be the basis for models)
* Distinctive clothes, weapons, and armour. Here, help from anyone who has the relevant Osprey books would be very much appreciated
* Ships! Dromons, knorrs, and Norman warships. Again, I have pix.
There's further historical background and notes in the Readme
I would like to thank the following designers for their models and textures:
Fisheye for the use of the Norman shields in 1066
RR_Raptor for the weapons xpack
Septa Scarabae for his scale armor
Yoshi for various nautical items (mostly yet unimplemented) and for showing how a naval system might work
Ancientwanker for permission to use TLD's dark courser
Thanks also to the 1066 team for adapting the item stats to create what I think is a much more challenging combat system that is more appropriate to the early medieval era than the Native system.
And, of course, thanks to Effidium and Thorgrim for their invaluable tools, and Janus for the installer script.
