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Historical Grand Campaign

This mod is supposed to bring you a less arcadey experience of the vanilla gameplay - without new mechanics or increased unit sizes or changing economy or unit balance. Think of this as a "DeI Vanilla" or something like that. I started this mod a while ago for myself because I liked the patched vanilla game a lot, but didn't like some "rushed" aspects of the campaign, like short build times, quick growth and research etc. compared to the previous TW games. But some mods take it to extremes that sometimes aren't fun to play anymore. So I made something that suited my tastes, incorporated the work of other modders and decided to publish it.

The mod should be compatible with all visual mods, unit packs, battle system mods, and basically all mods that don't add completely new factions or touch the startpos (campaign map). I recommend that you pair this mod with visual mods only because it already changes and adds a lot of other smaller mods. You can combine it with some mods that ADD extra things to the game, like "more diplomatic outcomes" and such, but they shouldn't touch the campaign map or factions at all. And make sure to load this mod above them.

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Main objectives:
1. Balance the Grand Campaign for 4TPY, without making it slow and boring and without touching the battle system or "vanilla" core gameplay
2. Make factions grow into their historically accurate locations and sizes (featuring a heavily modified Rhetor's Realistic Expansion script)
3. Add a select few "emerging factions" that keep the game fresh and interesting, showing a progression through the ages - including THE SASSANIDS as major late game challenge for Rome (if they spawn out of Persepolis - it's not scripted)

#1: Some aspects of the game were rebalanced to make it feel more organic, but the economy, units and combat are completely untouched. Only stuff like region growth, build time, gravitas etc. were adjusted, and never to the extent of becoming a grind where you end turn all the time without doing anything.

#2: This has scripting that guarantees historical expansion of all factions. The effect is that the factions can only conquer the territories that they historically held at their greatest extent. Basically you will never see Sparta conquering Germania. The above image shows you what a game can look like after 200 turns. You can see that the distribution is correct by faction but there are still many shifts of ownership compared to the start. Who wins and loses is still up to the game dynamics - it is NOT scripted. The major factions are allowed to grow as you grow, so that your rivals are as large or larger than you. Also note how Carthage, Seleucia and Egypt survived long into the game, and Parthia has considerable power in the east.

#3: Extra factions are taken from other Rome II campaigns and not touched at all, they are pure vanilla just placed in the GC as emergent faction. Includes Sassanids, Thrace, Dacia, Judea, Palmyra and a couple others. Now with the Sassanids as an emergent faction, you can really be Rome and fight your enemies through the centuries!

Also, it contains some smaller mods that fix problems or unlock features, that were created by other modders:
- Enabled banditry and plagues for GC
- Dresden's Sack and Liberation Mod
- Sea Sickness Mod
- Benjin's faction party colors
- Immersive character names by Bill

Thanks to all Rome II modders.