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Cataph's Mauryan Empire - faction overhaul

== Updated for Desert patch ==

Warning: I haven't played R2 for years, can't check full functionality in campaign.
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Here we go with another faction overhaul! Are you excited? No? That’s ok, just sit tight and wait for the buffet.

So, what it’s all about?


This pack is as far as I could reasonably historical, or at least based on feasible assumptions. Of course there can be material I didn't find that could negate or expand what I assembled.

Historically, the game start is set right after Seleucos I let the flourishing indian empire of the time have some of the eastern satrapies, before and beyond the Indus (in exchange for 500 flashy war elephants, the Seleucids were quite sensible about noisy vehicles).
At the game start, the current ruler is Ashoka (the Great), overall quite a nice guy who went like “this escalated quickly” after a hugely bloody battle for the Kalingan province (said to have costed 200k+ lives) and then embraced and promoted Buddhism in remorse. Between his competence, religious/philosophical influence and surely other factors, the Mauryan Empire was riding a period of efficiency and relatively low corruption. Of course, it didn’t last long, but that’s another story.

As the Mauryans never went for further expansion, of course we are under the assumption that a "F*** this, I wanna smash stuff" moment is going on.


One of the things peculiar of this age was that civilian conscription was pretty much abolished and warfare was in the hands of the warrior caste, fueled by the royal treasury. Pretty handy but costly. Also that there were a freaking lot of war elephants. Like, a lot. The basic ‘platoon’ formation of the Mauryan army was the patti, a composite squad with one elephant, three horsemen and five infantrymen operating in concert. Multiples of these units scaled up to form the imperial regiments. Of course the game engine doesn’t allow for such a composite unit but you may want to replicate it for kicks.

But I am hearing cries of “we wanna see dem elefents!” so I’ll skip to the crunch.

Complete new units list:
- Swordsmen
- Spearmen
- Levy Spearmen and Levy Skirmishers
- Longbowmen (with poison arrows!)
- Shreni Guild Warriors
- Veteran Warriors
- Indian Light Cavalry
- Kambojan Cavalry
- Gandharan Heavy Cavalry
- Indian Chariots
- Elephants and Cataphract Elephants
- Indo-Hellenic Infantry and Noble Hoplites

Please note that the mauryan elephants, while only vaguely superior in stats, are most importantly superior in numbers per troop! Enjoy your stampede. Whatever side it hits.

Vanilla units include a few eastern levies as garrison or later recruitment.

Of course, Indians don’t go around hoarding skeletons on a tower or stuff like that, so they were given three new temple chains: (Greco)Buddhist, Jain and Hindu. All affecting order, cultural conversion and economy in their own way: respectively enforcing cosmopolitan society, meditative ethics and organized religious culture. Buddhism was especially popular among foreigners, at the point that the Bactrians made efforts to protect it against persecutors. Jain councillors in the royal court, together with Brahmins, were instrumental in reducing corruption and strengthening bureaucratic efficiency. Finally, many Hindu temples included schools and libraries, encouraging their use among devotees.
An additional building was also added to the military chain as parallel to the fourth level. It will recruit auxiliary and allied units and only those, so you’ll need parallel conventional barracks for the indian troops.
Finally, the heavy stables were removed (as they were redundant) and with them the slavery economic city centres (unfeasible as slaves were few and well-treated).
I also swapped some tech nodes around so that they made more sense, i.e. removed references to cataphracts Mauryans don't have and added some to elephants.

New faction traits were also applied.
- natural bonuses of eastern factions (ranged ammo and secret police) and diplomacy with them are neutralized.
- Greco-Buddhism makes public order easier over hellenic culture (max +5).
- Silk Road economic bonus, quite obviously (+25% from commerce buildings).
- Rampant pacifism negatively affects public order during times of war (-2 per enemy).
- Slavery has reduced impact on public order (-85%) but also produces less income (-50%) due to mild treatment.

ISSUES:
I mainly work with vanilla assets so I had to make do in regards of some variants. Hair knots are not perfect, turbans should be more varied, two handed swords would need different handles, etc, but I only could modify existing textures, so that’s that.
Also, as with Bithynia, your first general is a native satrap, deal with it. His name is Pluffy and only eats at noon.

USE AND COMPATIBILITY:
You'll need a recent faction unlocker.
Military_grouping has been changed and thus some other unit additions to Arachosia will not work.
However, Arachosia in our own Persian Expansion will be harmlessly overridden.
As usual, this mod is made with vanilla game in mind. Not tested with DEI or Radious or other overhauls.
Includes a compatibility table for Auxiliary recruitment (if you are using Auxilia for Everyone or similar).

CRUNCH SYNOPSIS AND BALANCE:
Balance is based on the assumption that elephants are the key to a complete victory or potentially fatal havoc in your own lines. If your elephants are not there, or down or rampaging, good luck with that.
Your rank-and-file units will need to be supported by veteran units able to inspire them. Your cavalry is historically quite limited so you might have to support them with elephants as well, since good spearmen will come only later with the level 4 special barracks. Unit expenses are not mild but trade and temples WILL support them. Beware of cataphracts.



As there is an unprecedented (to me, ofc) amount of custom variants, please report any visual glitch you may find. Also, I am especially concerned about the elephants being OP, sooo, yeah, please do report your feedback.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Sebidee’s team for separating the model of the iberian bucula/cataphract facemask.


Among my other mods, I especially recommend the persian expansion for proximity, but of course you might find the rest of my workshop as interesting, likewise the collection of mods I use and that work together.

Whatever you do, remember to thumbs up or down or sideways or whatever fancies you! Everytime you don't give feedback, a moustache dies. Think of the moustaches.

Changes compared to screenshots/shown stats:
- Veteran Warriors have a second handle on their two-handed swords.