Patch 1.5.5

Battle Changes

- Grapeshot and canister shot now consume about -20% less ammunition

- Artillery now takes slightly higher morale damage from all sources of gunfire

- Artillery damage radius against enemy artillery crews increased by ~15%. Near misses are now slightly more likely to clip nearby crew members, meaning shots that land just beside a gun position have a better chance of dealing some damage.

- Artillery now deals double damage to other artillery. Recent reductions to fire damage have improved musket combat balance, but made counter-battery fire too ineffective. This change should make it more viable to damage enemy guns before advancing, especially when facing artillery-heavy armies. It should also reduce the effectiveness of the exploit in which players used a forward artillery battery to absorb enemy counter-battery fire while taking practically no damage.

- Charge resistance when fully braced has been increased by about +20%. This doesn’t impact melee, just the initial impact. Braced units weren’t able to hold their ground well enough, which made it very hard when the AI is using a charge-based personality against you. For clarity, charge resistance does not affect the morale damage sustained by units that are charged; it affects the morale damage dealt to the charging unit. So this won’t reduce the impact of charges; it’ll just make the morale loss a little higher on the unit that is charging a braced unit.

- To compensate for slightly greater brace effectiveness, I’ve made rear and side charges deal +10% more morale to reward flanking.

- Cavalry bracing has been reduced by -25%, meaning it’s not as effective to stand still and receive a charge as cavalry.

- Fixed a bug where the general equipped with a carbine wouldn’t fire if he had infantry in front of him. Now he can fire over their heads just like cavalry can with carbines.

- Fixed a bug where losing a battle as a non-DLC nation would not grant any Insight. Losing a battle now provides a decent amount of Insight as a catch-up mechanic. Sweden and Poland gain much less Insight from defeats, since their progression systems have the potential to be more powerful, but they will no longer lose any reform power from losing a battle.

- Fixed a bug that prevented you from retreating a unit who was below half morale. I also changed it so a unit is allowed to retreat manually once its lost at least 30% morale instead of requiring a loss of 50% morale. The reason this mechanic exists in the first place is so that players don’t load into a battle and instantly retreat their whole army to avoid the attrition loss penalty that you receive whenever you retreat on the campaign map.

Campaign Changes

- Britain’s Thin Red Line doctrine has been simplified to a flat +20% veterancy gain bonus. Previously, it granted +80% veterancy gain, reduced by -5% for each unit fielded. While interesting, this created extreme early-game results before eventually turning into a late-game penalty. Since Thin Red Line is Britain’s starting composition, we felt it sat in an awkward spot compared to other nations’ starting compositions, which generally provide a modest passive bonus without drawbacks.

- Fixed the “Clausewitz Would be Proud” achievement which wasn’t triggering when you had 5 max-level officers

- Regular canteens provide slightly more move speed (3/4/5) instead of (2/3/4)

- Large canteens now provide stamina recovery + stamina instead of morale as its secondary effect. This should help for Swedish troops who need good stamina if they’re taking the “Ga Pa” reforms which has the side effect of lowering stamina.

- Fixed a bug that wasn’t letting you rename your general

- Fixed the jewelry encounter, which would have you sell your jewelry item without compensating you

- Improvements made to the game’s “endless mode” so that it’s not constant marauders

AI Changes

- Defensive AI will be a little more willing to give up on holding its position and push if it’s suffered a lot of losses

- Improved AI Polish armies to make them slightly more challenging. Previously, Polish armies could field too many smaller units, such as Magnate Artillery, without enough overall strength to compensate. This occasionally resulted in Polish armies being much weaker than intended, even in encounters that were meant to provide a serious challenge.

- Saxe AI personality can’t be used anymore if an AI army fields all cavalry, since Saxe provides infantry-based buffs

- Lacian AI should be found slightly more commonly

Swedish Changes

- The indelta troops now start with a good-quality, large canteen instead of a basic-quality regular canteen. Because large canteens provide stamina recovery AND stamina now, it is more viable to take the ga pa reform, which lowers stamina. Their starting cash was reduced by -25, however, to compensate.

- All Swedish compositions start with 5% more starting reform progress

- Contributing items into the Swedish military school has been rebalanced. So basic/good/excellent items are 15/25/35% boosts instead of 10/15/20% boosts.

- Indelta Methods now provides +8% casualty replenishment instead of +5%. The -20% reservist cost it also provides has been kept the same.

- Sveaborg principles now reduces melee by -5% as its downside instead of -6%. The bonus of +10% accuracy in cover has been kept the same.

- War College Expansions now provides +15% officer radius size instead of +12%. The +4% combat effectiveness has been kept the same. As a side note, for those who don’t know, combat effectiveness is a stat applied in battles and can be checked by hovering over a unit and holding left alt. Combat effectiveness decreases when your troops are tired, and this is the reason your combat stats go down as a result. Combat effectiveness can increase if your morale is high. Finally, combat effectiveness as a stat specifically impacts reload, accuracy, charge, and melee.

- The “All in a Day’s Work” achievement has been updated to now only require you to boost research 5 times in a row with items in a day, you’re no longer required to finish an entire research in a day.

Polish Changes

- “Expand the infantry” reform now reduces morale by -6% instead of by -8%; the bonus of +100 size for infantry remains the same.

- “Expand the artillery” reform now reduces combat effectiveness by -6% instead of by -8%; the bonus of +25 size for artillery (+1 gun) remains the same.

- “Expand the cavalry” reform now reduces move speed by -6% instead of by -8%; the bonus of +50 size for cavalry remains the same.

- The Commonwealth Army’s starting Captured Uniforms item has been replaced with Good Pelts. Good Pelts can be sold for slightly more money or given to the Sejm for more power than the basic uniforms previously provided. This gives Poland-Lithuania a small early boost to either its economy or its Sejm's progression, while also better aligning with the fact that the Commonwealth has not formally entered the war yet.

- Fixed a bug where the Polish and Lithuanian dragoons had no emblem appearing on their flag by default

- Improvements made to the RNG system of requesting items from the Sejm

Unit Changes

- Swedish indelta recruits, musketeers, veteran musketeers, grenadiers, and veteran grenadiers have had their morale raised by +5. Their morale was as low as the French/HRE troops which isn’t as reasonable considering that Swedish troops are smaller than the standard 1400-man regiments.

- Swedish veteran cavalry charge skill +5

- Varvade are just all-round better than the Swedish national troops due to equal morale, equal melee, and better reload as well as having +200 extra troops. All of the varvade troops have had their melee skill reduced by -5 so the Swedish nationals are slightly better at melee and much better at charge.

- Polish hungarian infantry +5 reload

- Polish magnate grenadiers & magnate cavalry have slow replenishment instead of very slow replenishment now

- Prussian frei-infantry jaegers +5 accuracy

- Prussian grenadier & veteran grenadier +5 melee

- Austrian jagers & veteran jagers take -1 less veterancy point to upgrade into. They also get +10 reload but lose -10 accuracy, giving them a niche that sets them apart from grenzers who are more accurate but reload slowly

- Austrian hungarian veteran fusiliers +5 charge

- British veteran highland foot +5 reload

- British subsidy battalion artillery +5 accuracy

- British subsidy field artillery +5 reload

- French volontaires hussars +5 morale

- Russian pandur grenadiers +5 charge, +5 melee

- Russian field hussars +10 melee

- Russian settled hussars + 5 melee, +5 accuracy, and now start w/carbines

- HRE imperial hussars +10 charge, +5 melee, -5 reload

Localization / Visual Changes

- Fixed a bug where “Good Halberds” were being classified as “Excellent Halberds.”

- Updated the Jönköping muskets’ tooltip to say “excellent charge” instead of “excellent melee” since that is its true strength

- Updated Austria’s “Imperial infantry regulations” to correct say infantry replenishment speed -35% instead of morale -35%

- Fixed Russian text not fitting

- Gustavian personality icon is more of a sea green color instead of light blue, since it looked too similar to Carolean

- Made a compromise with the row system so now gaps are formed again, but only for every 8 ranks of men. This helps you identify when your formation becomes an assault column or march column once you begin seeing the divider. But if you draw any standard battle line, you will not get a gap.