Citadel Total War interview with Ignoramus
Ace Cataphract gets a chance to speak with Citadel Total War representative, Ignoramus.
Ace: So, when did your team begin this project, and what was a major catalyst that made you guys decide to begin this modification?
| Ignoramus: It began back in about October. Silver Rusher began the Mod, which is aimed at converting the vanilla Rome Total War into an effective, fun, historical Renaissance Mod. |
Ace: You mentioned that the mod covers the Renaissance. Roughly which years will it be covering, and how much of an overlap is there with, say, the Late Medieval period?
| Ignoramus: The Mod will begin in 1402, and end in about 1600. There will be about a 50-year overlap, in which most gunpowder units will be unavailable. |
Ace: Sounds good. How will your team be treating the campaign? Will you be overhauling things like sieges and naval warfare to whatever extent it is possible, or will your main focus be battles?
| Ignoramus: We will be leaving the naval battles as they are. We may change the forts to stone, but this is not definite. The battle interface will be changed to represent the Renaissance era. And of course, there will be gunpowder siege units! |
Ace: According to what your team has done so far, what role do you think gunpowder units such as forms of arquebusiers and cannons will have on a battlefield? Will the role of cannons be similar to the role of onagers in Vanilla version; will they be more or less accurate?
| Ignoramus: Gunpowder infantry will have more dominant roles than most other units. Cannons' accuracy will depend on the type of cannon. Earlier cannons will be less accurate than later versions. |
Ace: Your modification's name is Citadel Total War, so can I correctly assume that sieges will be a major aspect of this game? If it's possible, will you be changing the structure of cities to be more similar to castles and provide more defensive positions for the defenders and more obstacles for the attackers?
| Ignoramus: We will try to make the fortresses stronger in every aspect possible. Towers on stone walls will fire cannonballs, the walls, hopefully, will be stronger, and we will try to have a palisade ring around stronger fortresses. This is to accurately portray this increasing importance of cannons in siege warfare. |
Ace: Will there be any incentive for besiegers to attack fortresses now that they're apparently much stronger than cities were in Vanilla version? Or will people be even more inclined to allow a city to starve into submission?
| Ignoramus: The incentive, apart from being fun, is that it will allow the attacker to hold the fortress more easily if attacked in turn, as well as conquest. We may introduce some incentives to get people to attack, if possible, such as some casualties during the winter, or maybe random plagues in besieging armies. The whole idea is to make it a great challenge and make it more strategic, as sallying garrisons would be better protected. |
Ace: The mod covers a very rich period as far as military history goes. Does the team have any plans for historical battles? If so, are they classified projects or can you give some examples of a few noteworthy ones that you are working on?
| Ignoramus: We will have battles such as the Siege of Constantinople 1453, Agincourt 1415, and other great battles between the Turks and major European powers of this period. The Ottoman siege of Vienna also will be included. |
Ace: It sounds great so far! The battles that you mentioned will be included inspire this next question: How diverse will the unit selection be? Was there much diversity between soldiers of different European countries during this time period? Can you give some examples of some unique units?
| Ignoramus: There will be many unique units for the different factions. Janissaries, of course, will be unique to the Ottoman Turks. There will be pikemen unique to the various European factions, Venetian Infantry are unique to Venice, Longbowmen will be unique for England, and a Scottish spearman or pikemen unit will be unique to Scotland. The selection will be diverse, from heavily armored pikemen, to arquebusiers, to lightly armored archers, to light infantry, to javelineers, all historically accurate as possible, there will also be various mercenaries around the place too. |
Ace: Will the team make the mod playable online; will prices be balanced to make online play more fair, or does the mod focus solely on singleplayer?
| Ignoramus: More so on singleplay, as although massive multiplayer gunpowder battles are exciting, we also want to make you work hard to conquer the world in the singleplayer, so even though the AI may be pretty bad, it will be harder than Rome. We probably will get around to multiplayer though. |
Ace: I heard that you will be using the Papacy and 3 orders of knights to get around the hard coding of the Roman factions into the game. Which orders of knights will be included and where will they start out?
| Ignoramus: We have changed the "Roman" factions; unfortunately, we didn't have much about it in Rome TW's Heavengames. We are now using the Imperial Diet instead of the Senate, and 3 German factions to replace the Roman families: Saxony, Bavaria, and the Hapsburgs. |
Ace: This all sounds interesting. When do you plan on releasing the modification? Also, do you plan or releasing any preliminary versions before the main version to whet our appetites before you hit us with the main course?
| Ignoramus: We don't really know, but hopefully sometime this year. Yes, we will be releasing a demo entitled: The Ottoman Invasion of Malta: 1565. |
Ace: So, will the demo be a historical battle, or a very short campaign? Is there any other detailed information that you can reveal to us about the demo?
| Ignoramus: It will be a series of four historical battles between the Ottoman Turks and the Knight's of St. John. Three of them are siege battles; the fourth one is a field battle. |
Ace: Does the team have a release date planned for the demo's release?
| Ignoramus: No, but hopefully within three months or so. |
Ace: Ignoramus, I thank you for taking the time to do this interview. I'm looking forward to this mod, as I'm sure is most of the mod loving community.
| Ignoramus: Thank you Ace Cataphract, I've enjoyed it a lot too! |