Adding New Units to your Faction's Roster - Papal Varangian Guard!? [Medieval II Total War - Guides]

[@hardywatkins7737]

Ireland now have a very impressive roster of cavalry units. I stole the Iqta'dar Turkish general bodyguard unit (armoured horse/archer cav), gave them a custom 'deadly_bodkin_arrow' (high damage/accuracy/230 range) and used it for my Irish generals. - now they can easily rack up experience helping my archers clear the walls. The Lords Retinue are now super heavy 'Knights of the High King', my Ridire are now heavy cav on barded horses, the Hobiguir are now heavy cav on heavy horses (using the Ridire model/textures), and my Horseboys are now cav archers on mailed horses (also using the Iqta'dar model/textures). Add in the mounted Calivermen (fast ponys) and i'm spoiled for choice of cav units.

[@Pilps]

tried doing it with the vanilla kingdoms mod, game just doesn't launch, followed everything to a tee, any ideas?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Are you moving units from DLC to base game (or vice versa)? Because that has some different steps I talk about in another video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fqWVm5yOi6iFqpYsi=LLptCiQBIS2VcPve

[@Pilps]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH I believe the mod has already done this, the mod makes all the european/middle eastern dlcs into one campaign map already, i managed to get culverins to work for the kingdom of jerusalem, but soon as i follow the rest of your video to fix the silver surfer issue the game just doesnt want to load. Ill check out this video now, thank you!

[@spamhonx56]

reinstalled rome:tw today, and remembered something- a file from my old folder with old total war mods in it. mostly the old "export_descr_units" and such, but also a .txt named "how to fix these mods" which was just the URL of this video. Useful now as it was years ago.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Amazing! Glad the old videos are still helpful. :D

[@IvicaArmanas]

*You're the man, Thomas, thank you! I had in mind Idea of switching "Lybian Spearmen" &"Long shield cavalry" (turned into "Spanish cavalry") to mercenaries - since Carthaginian army was mostly them. Maybe even "Bull warriors"?*

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Whoever not! Expanding the merc pool could be a lotnof fun. Here it's simply for convenience but it can be good for cartage!!

[@charlesarmstrong1888]

Clear and simple explanations as is your ability. Great! The "quick and dirty merc fix" for silver surfers. I can see you'll get to making the textures file path point to the unit models textures in the relevant Papal States texture folders in time. Then they'll be in Papal States colours. You can, by the way, get a formatted modelsdb at the TWC. This makes navigating the file much simpler. I don't know how you'd make this available to your followers. It is, by the way, safe to format an entry yourself using carriage returns (press enter) so it's more readable. A minor point. The "7 Denmark" refers to the number of letters in the faction name. The modelsdb file is full of error checking, with character counts for most of the lines. This would pick up many typos and such for the devs, and there is a tool that will check all the parameters are correct and highlight errors (also at TWC) PS: If you add an entirely new unit you have to increment the number of models at the start of the file. It isn't at all clear, so here is the code line that starts the file: 22 serialization::archive 3 0 0 0 0 790 0 0 10 mount_pony 1.12 0 0 3 0 0 52 The number 790 refers to the total number of models referenced. If you were to add a completely new unit, for example, importing the extra units from the Crusades expansion, you would need to increment the 790 to 791. If the unit has both a normal model, and an armour upgrade model then you need to increment the model number by 2.

[@wild6702]

Since you seem to know how to do it, why don't you tell people how to get the texture file paths pointing to the right textures.

[@feliksssander1554]

better yet could you do it for every one of us?

[@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014]

Can someone help me? at 0:50 there is nothing that shows up in my case, no export_descr_unit.txt, I do not know why? Maybe for outdated/Definitive Edition?

[@cerdic6586]

I say, old chap, you could not explain how to make dismounted Norman knights have England's colours, could you?

[@hardywatkins7737]

@@saguntum-iberian-greekkons7014 You need to unpack the files to find it. Go to the 'unpacker' folder and run the batch file to unpack all the files. - watch the first video in the playlist where he explains what to do.

[@michaelaburns734]

You make really interesting gameplay set ups more interesting with the mods being edited.

[@hardywatkins7737]

Really good guide for just making new mercenary units to add to the mercenary recruitment file. Last night i made the Samogitian axemen and Sudovian tribesmen into mercs available to hire in Rus/Baltic /armenian lands. There definitely needs to be a billman merc in England and voulgier merc in France so i'll do them next, maybe a jannisary troop for hire in Byzantium/anatolian lands. It's really fun going through the mercs file and rearranging things a bit ... giving some decent troops and increasing the variety a bit. Likewise i really like altering the troop rosters for the rebel subfactions so those rebel armys spawn with decent troops. I've also made a few generals dotted around the place for the slave faction also. - Yeah nice, i've now made mercs and slave faction versions of Bill Militia, Prussian Archers, Gotland Footmen, Sami Axemen, Zweihander and Reiters and added them to various regions as mercs and also as slave subfaction troops for the rebel armys.

[@hardywatkins7737]

I've been messing with mortars recently and made them into a really fun, dangerous and useful artillery piece. In export descr_unit i increased the number of mortars to five and increased the crew accordingly, increased crew armour, damage ect, made them very_hardy, frighten_foot, frighten_mounted, gave the unit a speed mod of 1.6 and increased the range of mortars to 450 and 100 ammo. In descr_projectiles I increased the velocity just a little, gave it the same damage as the basilisk, gave it the exploding shot graphics only (so they don't explode they just look like they do) and ground impact effects of the culverin, increased the max angle by just 5, increased the area of damage to 18 (same as the basilisk exploding shot) and increased all accuracy to 0.001. In decr_engines i removed like 80% of the animations it uses so it fires and reloads really quickly. - These 5 mortars in a unit can move about pretty fast, they're really tough, will keep cav and troops at bay up close , and can deliver rapid barrages of cool looking exploding fire on the enemy, quickly take down walls and towers, can devastate ranks in the field and behind walls at a distance. Lots and lots of fun blowing things apart.

[@taasch2505]

I always thought Scotland having no missile or cavalry units in cities was a serious handicap. I'll throw in some basic Archer Militia and add their Border Horses to the city roster to diversify their units slightly and make them more usable. It keeps them historically accurate too. No reason they cant have some light cav and basic archers in garrisons. And I'll give them some arquebusier as well. I might slightly buff Milan's cavalry units as well and maybe add in some spearmen to castles for Portugal and Spain.

[@TheAleatoriorandom]

Awesome! You can have quite a bit of fun like this.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Absolutely. And pretty practical for unlocked factions too.

[@Mango-kb2ex]

Great content 👍

[@olivemalteser]

How did you learn how to do all this? I really enjoy these videos learning so much on a how to do a bit of game modding.

[@MrAhnassi]

Total War Center has alot of modding tutorials for RTW and Med 2

[@olivemalteser]

@@MrAhnassi I am glad he's showing a video how to do it though as it's easier for me to take in

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I honestly just mucked around in the files and experimented repeatedly. I've learnt pretty much all of this since starting the channel. Occasionally I look at total war centre if I hit a dead end but it can be very dense at times. If I help make some of these things more accessible then that's job done! 😁

[@olivemalteser]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH it’s made my Medieval campaigns a lot more interesting, adding the units to different rosters and making my pikes never put there pikes down has made the game so much more interesting. It is a job well done indeed 😂

[@Vaessen13]

Thank you for this, I was able to replicate this process and now every faction has access to Arquebusiers and Musketeers in late game :) , now Scotland has become the terror of the world since i bequeathed guns and proper pikes whahahahahaha

[@earvindinoso7689]

I might try this tut since I wanted to add pikemen to Byzantium.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Good idea! That and some gunpowder troops would be nice!

[@earvindinoso7689]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH The prob for me would be wanting to use Byzantium's colors instead of what the model I added in to the roster.

[@RedSamurai91]

As a small tip, when I first open that spaghetti file it was horrible no separation at all just a blob of text. If yours is like that I highly recommend looking for that file already formatted, and download it. It will save you from much pain.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

A very sensible suggestion. Is there such a copy on the total war centre forums I wonder... 🤔

[@RedSamurai91]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH www.twcenter.net/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=1180 credit to KnightErrant did a really good job in my opinion

[@feliksssander1554]

@@RedSamurai91 I did not see this. I brute forced it, but after 45 minuets of looking and sore eyes i managed.

[@samh98239]

how does it work for a created faction? I created a faction in the Americas DLC. I used Tarascans as my faction model and now I am @7:23 but I am not sure what number is assigned to the new faction I created or where to find that. any ideas?

[@dessertfox5995]

Is there a way to make the colors match the nation they are part of? Like have the war clerics in white and gold?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Not something I have tested so how accessible that is, im not sure. If a unit has multiple factions then I tend to use the '4 merc' line to replace the faction colour that best fits. I shall look into that!

[@yehudiramirezortega726]

You would need to make a new texture file (as in, you need to actually edit the texture in Gimp or Photoshop) and then make an entry for it in the moddb file. Editing that file by hand its a nightmare, but there is a tool called the Unit Editor by gracul you can find in the TWC. It makes editing the moddb so much easier.

[@charlesarmstrong1888]

@@yehudiramirezortega726 Oh, would you need new texture files? I was hoping that if, say, you pointed the papal armoured clerics texture files to, say, the papal states men at arms textures that it would work as if by magic and they would appear in papal colours.

[@chaoticentertainment3478]

I know im a little late on this video but i really need some help. Ive been trying to give the Byzantines the ability to recruit more gunpowder units so i wanted to start with mortars but the crew are all silver so i tried doing what you did with replacing one of the factions that control that unit with mercs but i still didnt work. I don't know if I'm just being stupid or since its a crew and not just a regular unit maybe it's different in the files?

[@charlesarmstrong1888]

I'm wondering if you followed Thomas' vid carefully. Did you add mercenary_unit to the attributes line in the export_descr_units.txt (edu) file? Did you also add byzantium (not replace anyone) in the ownership line in the same edu file? If you do these things then load the game, select custom battle, and look at the Byzantine roster. If you've made the correct entries in the edu the mortars will appear at the end of the Byz roster. If you've also added the unit_info.tga and #unit.tga to the merc (mercs for unit tga) folders then you'll see the mortars. If you haven't added the tga's correctly you'll see a grey peasant holding a knife. If that's fine start the battle. If you still have silver surfers then the error is with the modelsdb file. If you have correctly replaced just one of the factions that have mortars (say 7 England) with 4 merc it will work. You have made a back ups of the modelsdb file and the edu file, of course

[@chaoticentertainment3478]

@@charlesarmstrong1888 I found what the problem was the ctrl+f search function kept skipping 2 of the lines i had to change but thanks for seeing if i still needed help

[@aleaiactaest6503]

I can't wait to datamine rerome.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Absolutely!!

[@ClamMan1989]

Is it possible to add a custom building for training the elephant units that's only available in certain provinces? A reliable source of rocket elephants would be nice if you've got the money.

[@hardywatkins7737]

Arachîr Galudirithon on youtube has some tutorials ... he has a 'building stats' tutorial which i think covers making new buildings and also hidden resources. Making either is something i've not done myself but i imagine it's not too difficult. Google your topics and find some tutorials at TW Center perhaps?

[@maximvsdread1610]

Is there a way to get mercenary units like pilgrims and crusader knights recruitable from churches and cathedrals? And, Frankish knights and mercenary crossbowmen recruitable from brothels and pleasure palaces?

[@hannahneal1601]

Goodbye Silver Surfers... 😢

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

They were fun while they lasted!

[@olefredrikskjegstad5972]

Could you perhaps provide some insight on how to "port" a unit from one of the expansions into the main game? Say, for example I wanted to give one of the Britannia units to one of the vanilla game factions, how would I go about doing that?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I've got a video tomorrow on doing this for the stone forts in Britannia DLC being used across the other games... Units I think is more of a faff but certainly very doable! I will get onto it at some point.

[@OStam]

I tried giving my apaches some cogs to be able to occupy islands. Without giving ports to make them. But the campaign will not run anymore. I added apachean in ownership area for cogs but it didn't help. Any suggestions maybe?

[@eidoneverchoosen1171]

Can I add armored Spearman to the england faction, and dismount french longbow men, and dismount chivalric knight to the french faction? Because those three units are in the game but not the vanilla game.

[@sashagotanoa6291]

I'm trying to make it so that the Hussites can be recruitable by the rebel faction, I made churches the required building and made them a mercenary unit in the unit file. It says that I can recruit them when I right click on the church, but none show up for recruit once I build the church.

[@serkandurmus4262]

So with this video, is this possible to add Royal Mamluks and Varangian Guard to Turks in main campaign. I really wonder that

[@jeremy9416]

If i wanna do the same but in a mod ?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I imagine most mods are likely to have all these files inside the mod folder as they will almost certainly have changed them. So change their version of the file. (With backup of course).

[@neman135]

Why I may have wrong icon of the (existing, but originally not belonging to a faction) unit when trying to recruit it?

[@drcatsville4467]

Can i do the same but with adding units from kingdom campaigns to a grand one?

[@xXxMonkeyBoomxXx]

Can you please make a tutorial "how to add musketeers to French/English roster" ? Would be very helpfull.

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

If you follow the principles in this video then you can make it happen! :)

[@thegreatsallingerkaiser2545]

It's actually possible if you add it from the Americas DLC, I did it too

[@cmasonw]

@@thegreatsallingerkaiser2545 How did you do this?

[@thegreatsallingerkaiser2545]

You just insert the first model parts from the arquebusiers, and the second ones from a random musketeer unit (also works with all factions with arquebusiers)

[@thegreatsallingerkaiser2545]

That's the more easier way, you can also add whole model and graphic files from the DLC it's just a more experienced modder way to do it

[@cesarmillan5657]

If you ever read this, is there a way to add Spanish Dragoons from Americas to vanilla?

[@mahdykamali4138]

Can you please post a guide on adding spearwall to units instead of schiltron? I have tried doing so but can't get the button to appear in unit selection UI

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I shall look into it! In Rome you can only have 2 formations listed. It is likely similar in med ii. It could simply be that but it might need more work...

[@yehudiramirezortega726]

If i am not mistaken, the phalanx formation only works correctly with units using the pike or halberd animations. Be sure to make the phalanx formation the second one on the unit (as in "square, phalanx")

[@mahdykamali4138]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH First of all it's an otherworldly feeling, seeing a youtuber playing your favorite game from 15 year ago; And responding to comments made on a video. Secondly I thought it through and decided that something like what I asked for would require much hassle for little reward. I just wanted an ability instead of schiltron with actual uses. I think adding shield wall to units must be easier than making them function as a pike

[@mahdykamali4138]

You are right. Such course of changes would be really tough to figure out and be made to work

[@charlesarmstrong1888]

There is a way to do it simply, but it leaves questions. European and Middle Eastern spearmen didn't actually have a spear wall they had a shield wall at best. True spear walls require long spears so several ranks can engage and you get a wall of spear points. The solution is perhaps neither realistic and/or satisfactory but you need to change the animation by changing the soldier type. Up to you. Anyway, in the edu: 1. On the formations line replace shiltrom with phalanx 2. On the soldier line replace Armored_Sergeants (sic) with Pikemen (or Halberd_Militia) - note the spelling of the Armored is as it is used in the game file edu for soldier, although Armoured shows on the ui. You need to know this if you want to revert. The spear wall button will appear in place of schiltrom for both. As Pikemen Armoured Sergeants will have the quicker move that outstrips other units. They will defeat Dismounted Feudal Knights. Basically they have been turned into Pikemen with shorter spears, which is what you're asking for really. As Halberd Militia they will march as slowly as Halberd Militia do, whether they are in spear wall formation or not. They will lose to Dismounted Feudal Knights but defeat many other units. For example, they will massacre Saracen Militia even if the Saracen Militia has the armour upgrade and the Armoured Sergeants don''t. (Why CA made Halberds march at the same speed as their spear wall formation I really don't know. In Rome 1 phalanxes could march at normal pace and then advance slowly in spear wall formation. Curiously you can make Halberd Militia run at normal speed with spear wall off.) Is it realistic? Is it satisfactory? Up to you. It's only a game, after all. Enjoy!

[@alcerscruro6107]

I want to add Hand Gunners to Byzantium but i cant find them in the units models

[@HungTran-nk6bj]

Hi, I have a problem about editing, I tried to edit Naffatun unit into Byzantium roaster, did every step in your guide but it still did not show up, what could be the problem, can you help me with that ?

[@orestislazanakis4960]

I want to give Templars to Byzantium (as remnants after the order's official arrest), and so far everything's succesful EXCEPT the skins of the riders, no matter which I give them, the Templars always appear as regular crusaders! The horses seem alright, the problem is with the riders only. Please advice!

[@paultermure141]

Maybe because they are tied to be a Catholic religious order?

[@manschier0816]

How to find unit_models and ui this two file on where ? I only download unit_mod this file folder .

[@TheKaernd]

Hi, i wanted to tank you alot for there guides, very well done. I was wondering if u could help me. I managed to add the flemish and swiss pike (as well as the hussites xbow) to the hre, even to the building i wanted. Unfortunatly i can't get rid of the silver surfer for any of those units. I also added the Landschneckts and with those all went fine. i tried messing around a bit with the formatted_battle_models but had no luck... If you see this comment (or anyone) some ideas would be nice, thanks again

[@user-tk9fm2sw5g]

I have run into an issue. In the unit_models file there were only two files, _units and _generals_and_captains. I am unsure why this is the case.

[@21Arrozito]

having a hard time giving the HRE musketeers and pikemen, tried adding "hre" to the the required factions of the military academy, as well as adding the hre to the recruit pool, but game crashes when I try to load a campaign, help please

[@earvindinoso7689]

Don't load a campaign, start a new one. The saves check if the data is the same. If not, then it crashes.

[@Godzilla-bo4jj]

I tried to add armored swordsmen to the timurids and it doesn't seem to work

[@jeremy9416]

If i want to do the same thing, but in reverse? Turning a merc unit into a recrutable unit

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

It is the same process. I only use the mercenary trick here to simplify the process of getting the skins to work. :)

[@jeremy9416]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH thank you very much :)

[@richardtaylor215]

Will we be seeing varangians in the grand finale of the Papal States? :D

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

We could do... wasn't planning it but I probably won't bother editing them out... need the norse war clerics.

[@alexkerr5804]

Is there a way to make the dismounted chivalric knights for France in custom battle available to them in campaign ?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Once you've followed this guide they should be available. The part that makes them recruitable in the campaign is editing the export_descr_building file. Hope that helps.

[@alexkerr5804]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH thanks mate 🤝

[@marusky2439]

can you make a video about adding the musketeers and the new world curassiers from americas to vanilla medieval 2?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

It's on the list! :D

[@marusky2439]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH Nice i can t wait to see

[@cerdic6586]

Just use 'total vanilla beyond' mod or the 'kingdoms grand campaign'. They both add kingdoms units, without changing much of the vanilla campaign experience.

[@kennyhoneycutt2952]

Followed everything I was adding a few units to Scotland, once I start the game it comes up like it's going to start and then it just crashes or stops running? Any tips?

[@feliksssander1554]

nope, but i was doing the exact same thing. only added units to Scotland, run fine as silver surfers but when i tried to put the skins in it crashes on start up.

[@King.Leonidas]

Trying to do this for rome 1 remastered. but it looks a little bit different it seems like

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

There are a few kinks to modding the Remastered files although the files themselves are essentially the same... I will make a guide to those differences once they are clearer! :)

[@archdeakon5022]

i know this video is 3 years old, and no one will probably respond. but, I've done every step to add Musketeers to the French and HRE in grand campaign, and the game will not load. kingdoms will, but the base game will not. i don't know what went wrong. Edit: i forgot a comma so it broke. look at the system log if game wont load.

[@serkandurmus3642]

Hello everyone. Right now i am playing Total Vanilla Beyond 3.7. And i would like to have Khassaki and Quapukulu in Abbasid Caliphate. Can anyone add those units and send me the files? Because even i try to add myself i think its very complicated.

[@jeremy9416]

Can i add a unit from another mod ?

[@thegreatsallingerkaiser2545]

Yes

[@jeremy9416]

@@thegreatsallingerkaiser2545 how can i do It ? It's the same process?

[@abscbn6599]

Why did you replace 7 denmark to 5 merc???? Is that safe???

[@xViolentDeathx]

I followed your tutorial but instead of making it a mercenary, I added a unit from Antioch Faction into Turks Faction. I found out during my testing the unit that I added into the Turks faction is having no problem but the Antioch Faction is having the silver surfer bug. Instead of me replacing Antioch to Turks in the battle modelsdb file, should i just add the turks alongisde the Antioch?

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

I suspect you could add a new line into the file so that it had a skin for both factions. I didn't do this only as I was making a shortcut. Didn't test it further. I can look at this in the coming days and see what I find

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Ps. Great work! Love seeing people make use of these fiddly tutorials

[@hardywatkins7737]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH That's a great idea, i hadn't thought that. I usually remove the unit from the faction i'm stealing it from so they don't get the silver surfers, although i usually give them something in return .... billmen or something.

[@hardywatkins7737]

@@ToNerdistoHumanTNH Just to confirm that you CAN add lines to the models database. I've been doing it, it's really useful.

[@fachriyulfiansyah1927]

wtf is that descr_models file? In Rome Total War, it's not that disgusting 😬

[@ToNerdistoHumanTNH]

Lord only knows why... most modders do format the file though. Too easy to make mistakes in this mess.

[@Armistitium]

👍

[@thesmilyguyguy9799]

:)

[@PatriciaRocha-kr7ut]

First in the run xD