Steam & Steel makes elite armies pay for their advantages
Image credit: cghopk / Steam and Steel: Total War / ModDB
Steam & Steel’s next update is taking a more systematic approach to the armies of Medieval II: Total War: Kingdoms. In a new development diary, the team explains how it is balancing more than 1,200 units across 30 factions: shared baselines for troop types and weapons, four broad training tiers, then individual faction modifiers. The changes discussed here concern custom battles; campaign balance also depends on provincial development.
The useful wrinkle is that a higher tier does not automatically buy a stronger army. Sweden–Norway’s better-rated troops carry a substantial price premium, while discounted Russian units can make Russia the stronger custom-battle choice. Other modifiers preserve differences such as Boer accuracy and Zulu morale and melee strength. The diary previews the wider 1.2 release, rather than announcing a new public download on ModDB.
