Crusader Kings II

Crusader Kings II

29 ratings
Manic's Byzantine Units
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Tags: Graphics, units
File Size
Posted
Updated
118.112 KB
2 May, 2020 @ 3:21pm
22 Aug, 2020 @ 10:46am
2 Change Notes ( view )
You need DLC to use this item.

Subscribe to download
Manic's Byzantine Units

In 1 collection by ManicMayo
Manic's Units
18 items
Description
Welcome to Manic's Byzantine Units, a mod that aims to diversify the armies of the Roman Empire of the East with separate units for the mid and late game and remove the excessive Scandinavian/Germanic influences.

Despite being the most powerful and technologically advanced civilisations for virtually all of the game's timespan, at least in the Christian world, the Byzantine Empire has a notable lack of any flavour after the initial transition from the early-game troops. From 950 to the 1450, the Byzantines are stuck using the same-looking units.

The one unit model you will almost always see on the map, the heavy infantry, are also somewhat inaccurate as far as their frequency on the battlefield goes. As a Swedish company, Paradox seems to have gone for that 'Varangian' look. Initially made up mostly of Norse warriors, then by Anglo-Saxons who had fled England following the Norman Conquest, the Varangian Guard was the elite force of Germanic, axe-wielding warriors that served the Byzantine emperor.

However, they were never even close to being the mainstay of the Eastern Roman Army, which fought primarily with swords and spears. As such, this mod's chief aim is to do away with the chiefly Scandinavian feel of the heavy infantry, with a secondary objective to better replicate the evolution of equipment through the ages by making the models different for both the mid and late game.

For the mid-game, the heavy infantry has been replaced by the current light infantry model. Similarly, the Cataphract model has also been slightly tweaked. Weirdly, from what I could find, the Finno-Ugric heavy cavalry model seemed to be the closest fit for 11th century Byzantine cavalry.

Late-game alterations are exclusive to the heavy infantry, which no longer wields an axe and uses a more historically accurate shield. The main body remains unchanged, since it would seem this style of lamellar armour was used by heavy Byzantine infantry during the 13-14th centuries[i.pinimg.com].

While not currently touched upon in this mod, I would be open to make alterations to the early-game units in the future should people feel they need to be tweaked/updated.NOTE: This mod affects all cultures that use 'byzantinegfx' for their unit graphics. Aside from Greek, this includes Georgian, Armenian, Alan, Gothic, Coptic, Arberian and Assyrian cultures.This custom unit pack should be fully compatible with any and all mods for Crusader Kings II, so long as they don't also edit units tied to the 'byzantinegfx' culture (specifically the 'byzantine_avatars.gfx' file).Want even more modded units? Or perhaps you're just the nosy type like me? Then I humbly suggest that you check out my other unit mods, located in the Manic's Units workshop collection.For those experiencing issues with the Workshop, or otherwise wish to bypass it for whatever reason, you can download a file containing all of the Manic's Units mods and add-ons here[www.dropbox.com]. Simply place both the folder(s) and the .mod file(s) in your CK2 mod folder (Documents\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\mod by default).All of these mods are both Ironman & savegame compatible.
6 Comments
Proctor 6 Mar, 2021 @ 4:08am 
Is it possible to only change the cataphract horse armor into the serbian heavy cav horse armor and keeping the cataphract unit model? I really like the cataphract unit model but would only like to replace the horse armor. Would be awesome if you could some how make a seperate mod for only this.
ManicMayo  [author] 22 Aug, 2020 @ 10:56am 
Taking into account people's concerns and suggestions, I've decided to restore the old heavy infantry shields to the mid-game units. Hopefully people won't be too sad over the loss of the heater shields (they're still used in the late game!)

Alongside this, from what I could find, heavy cavalry/Cataphracts from the mid-game period used a small round shield instead of the heater shield and thus they have also been replaced. Be aware that, as a result of this, you will now need the Persian Unit Pack to run this mod properly. I wanted to use the Russian heavy infantry shield since they looked more accurate to the reference images I could find but, unfortunately, the Byzantine heavy cavalry model didn't want to hold it properly...

Anyway, hope everyone approves of these changes :)
EchoDelta4 10 May, 2020 @ 10:47pm 
The more rounded on the top kite shields would be the most accurate for mid-game Infantry, not too sure about the cavalry though.
larbarbarb 7 May, 2020 @ 9:02pm 
i think just make it the coolest looking shield
ManicMayo  [author] 4 May, 2020 @ 7:43am 
@Nikophoros II Phokas - Thank you for your support and for your feedback! Would it be more accurate then if the mid-game infantry/cavalry retained the vanilla kite shield design? If neither is particularly accurate for the era, please could you link me to some reference images? That would help me greatly.
Argonauts_0014 4 May, 2020 @ 12:57am 
I like this mod, although i think the heater shield is more Empire of Nikaea/Palaiologoi Byzantium