Hi, Bretonnia is the nearest thing to medieval army and Total war Medieval, which fans may have in this game. It is the last faction without dlc and is very deficient. To become proper faction it needs a few units and bigger map with more settlements. It would not cost many charlemagnes.

Reddit does not allow more than 20 pictures in post, so I am suggesting to visit CA forum to see more and also comment and upvote the idea there. It is my old DLC idea, but improved.

https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war-warhammer/forums/8-general-discussion/threads/9113-bretonnia-deserves-dlc-and-expanded-map

There is still time for CA to make the dlc. We just have to keep demanding. For ze Lady!

I DLC Army:

1. Pages – melee /range infantry with bows with flaming arrows and good strength mostly not armor piercing similar to imperial crossbowmen, good accuracy and range, decent melee combatants, melee stats similar to imperial swordsmen, bronze shields and axes or swords and at least 30 armor. Number of units in squad like archers have or smaller. 

GW is selling similar model for Old world. Model in game could be based on remodeled swordsmen in melee and archers in range. 

https://www.warhammer.com/en-PL/shop/kingdom-of-bretonnia-squires-command-2024

2. Foresters (or stalkers, or trackers, or guerillas sounds better and Herrimaults would be unit of renown) – skirmish archers with spears and decent combatant trait, at least 25 armor and charge defense against large and reflection, melee bonus versus large, stalk, vanguard, fire whilst moving, poison arrows, good accuracy and range, range damage similar to imperial huntsmen, mostly not armor piercing. Unit generally similar to Huntsmen, but better.

They could be forest guardians, ensuring safety of the forests against monsters and protecting lady’s holy shrines there. Also protecting villages against bestmen raids. They should use spears because would operate in vanguard mostly without help, so would need to defend against skirmish cavalry and monsters. Also thematic because spear is easy to get in the forest, while sword is expenisve. It will also distinguish them from imperial huntsmen.

They have lore and GW could use them in future projects for Bretonnia. 

Their model could be based on Kossars (Spears) skeleton.

​https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Herrimault

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JMujHT13O4

1:30

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7uhPbdSPPpc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsZVVJiiqcg

3. Hermit knights - unit similar to chaos warriors’ Aspiring champions.

Group of 16 warriors, wielding long swords and having 90 armor. They would deal high armor piercing, magical damage and have bonus versus infantry. Their other stats would be similar to Aspiring champions, but speed and charge bonus would be higher while health lower.

They could have Encourage atribute. Also 25% magic resistance. They could have Blinding radiance and Guardian passive abilities. Also usual Bretonnian grail knight abilities: Perfect vigour, Immune to psychology and The blessing of the lady (15% ward save).

Their weakness would be lack of shield. They would also be susceptible to cavalry and monster charges. They would be one of the most expensive Bretonnian units.

Due to their low number of only 16 and high price, they would not change Bretonnian faction character of weak infantry, but would be useful tool against small, single and very strong targets, like for examples vampire Vlad and chaotic Sigvald. They would also help on walls in sieges. 

Now Bretonnia has problem dealing with small, single threats due to weak range and melee infantry units and cavalry unable to hit such units due to game engine (cavalry either pushes, or sends them flying or circles around them).

In lore they are the oldest knights, defending holiest places. 

They are cheap to make. Simply reskins of paladins on foot.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Grail_Knight#:~:text=wake.%5B1%5D-,Hermit,-Knights%C2%A0%2D%20Grail%20Knights

4. Ballistas with flaming arrows option, could be Bretonnia’s anti large artillery. It should be late game, hard hitting unit. Not crap like curent midget bolt throwers. Currently the only artillery Bretonnia has are trebuchets, which are good against infantry.

 Ballistas damage and range should be better than dwarf and elf bolt throwers but reload time longer. Damage and range should be worse than dwarf cannon’s.

The model could be of remodeled dwarf bolt thrower, but of proper size instead of midget version. Though model with new skeleton would be better.

They have lore and GW could use them in future projects for Bretonnia.

GW made mistake long ago, making lore prohibiting such weapons by Bretonnians, because considered not honorable.

They based it on pope law forbiding use of crossbows against christians, though, they were still allowed against for example muslims.

GW made many mistakes and many times changed its lore. It could be done again or walked around. For example it might be said in new lore, ballistas are allowed against non-bretonnians. 

 Important thing about ballista damage is that current bolt throwers of dwarfs, goblins and hobgoblins are badly done so need rework, thus ballista damage should be calculated based on bolt throwers improved stats.

Bolt throwers should have increased missile strength. For dwarfs I suggest trying total damage of 133 plus antilarge bonus between 13-58 and firing speed of 10 seconds.

Similar stats for goblin, hobgoblin, and even anti-large modes of high elf and dark elf bolt throwers.

Therefore Bretonnian ballista should have damage between 133-191 plus anti-large bonus between 25-50. Range between 340-440. Reload time 20 seconds and four units in group.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Bolt_Throwers#:~:text=Human-,ballistae,-are%20giant%20crossbows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dup5OSK5LQ

2:10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVLGwTggO8U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQrTGyph4Jk

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballista#:~:text=were%20able%20to-,penetrate,-body%2Darmour%3A

5. Grail champions (The lost sons could be unit of renown) - would be slow, hard hitting monstrous cavalry. Similar to imperial demigryphs and kislev war bears. 

They would also share attributes of other blessed bretonnian knights. Some of the Green Knight too, because rider would also be spectral, though mount physical.

They would have armour piercing and magical attack with frostbite. Also frenzy, fear, blessing of the lady (15% ward save), 20% physical resistance (because only rider spectral), perfect vigour.

Thanks to mounts, which are are semiaquatic and naturally resistant to poisons (what is even increased with Lady’s Blessing), they would have aquatic, woodsman, immune to contact effects (unique for Bretonnia), hide in forest traits.

They would have less armor than bear and demigryph cavalry but more than Great Stag Knights, have more health than gryphs but less than bears, be faster than bears but slower than gryphs, weapon strength similar to demigryph, similar but better melee attack and defence than gryph. Number of units per group the same like demigryph knights.

In campaign, the Champions could require certain level of chivalry, like green knight, and could have caps limit based on number of cities.

Riders would look similarily to the Green knight, as knights from magical world, so spectral, but would use some long weapons, for example 2 handed swords. There is plenty of models to use for reskin, for example questing knights.

Lake lions would be their mounts, which could be imagined not as ridiculous mutated lion with gills, but as giant animal of Mustelidae family, like extinct great wolverine Megalictis Ferox. Good mix might be created from the species: wolverine, honeybadger, weasel and otter. It could use remodeled skeleton of demigryphs, or bears but in size of demigryphs.

It should look muscular like wolverine and the body shape from the first picture is perfect.

It should have longer and wider tale, like the white mink’s art of the fifth picture.

Its colors would be similar to honey badger from the sixth art but reversed in places. Black should be up and white or silver down, similarily to the big otter from the seventh art, because it is camouflage for semiaquatic animal, living in clear but deep lakes. Up black makes it invisible if seen from above water, and light down makes invisible if seen from the bottom of lake.

CA graphic designers have proved their greatness in Total Warhammer trilogy, so without doubt can create such magnificent and unique mount, cooperating with GW. The unit model would be new and GW could use it in future projects.

Knight on giant weasel is not more ridiculous than knight on giant cat with chicken head.

Mythical creature called Dobhar-chú, imagined as giant otter, exists in celtic folklore, so fits Bretonnia theme. Lake lions are animal, monstrous, guardians of the Lady of the Lake, which is goddess of Bretonnia and elfs and has, hidden, magical realm in which lives with chosen people, like the Lost sons and Damsels. Entrances to the world are hidden in lakes, so the animal must be semiaquatic and mustelidae are more so than cats. There are no lions in Bretonnia, but people heard about them from crusaders. So they called the Lady’s pets as lions because they look similar to imagination. Weasels were used in Europe before cats, to hunt rats.

The lost knights and lake lions are mentioned in the lore.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Sons

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Lake-Lion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leUdgeeBqns

​https://youtu.be/MBmYt3QGNC8?si=lcw1k_5fUwgRmpxA&t=97

https://youtu.be/jO-Nr88tn_0?si=JtjqXmr3t49Xtc5e&t=41

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SOjmJG73UI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkvLCjFiODw

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/iA6uIKpw4EI

https://youtu.be/A3RDzEpc6ow?si=x9JF462c67s41rza&t=5

https://youtu.be/Glg-nELDERU?si=ruqrEkr2fZGcTS7J&t=1

https://youtu.be/qli1Hb6cNeU?si=LU5QTLm1QLtF_TsC&t=89

6. Chief hero could be melee/range hybrid, similar to imperial Huntsman General lord, but should have spear with charge defense against large and reflection. Poisonous attack by bow. Medium armor. Stalk when not mounted and vanguard. Fire whilst moving, good accuracy and range. Should have passive ability buff providng extra leadership, melee attack, defense and reload time to peasant units.

 Also net ability similar to Net Dem Up! and Prey of Anath Raema to stop enemy. Also active buff ability giving melee and range fire damage for himself and allies around him for a time, similar to Hail of Fire and Flaming Sword of Rhuin. He should have unarmored horse mount, the same as Mounted yeomen.

Chief leads forest dwellers who live in wilderness, where fight against beastmen to protect holy shrines. He is like Robin Hood. They still come to fight alongside state forces when foreign danger, like orcs, chaos and undead, threatens to overpower whole Bretonnia.

There is little lore which could be expanded. Chief could share model with Foresters.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Outlaw_Chief

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LkmTzbqd5A

0:40

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN96rrew-cM

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7uhPbdSPPpc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsZVVJiiqcg

7. Faceless lord would be melee/range/mage hybrid duelist, with good melee attack and defense stats. Sword and maybe dagger and small bow with short range. Bonus versus infantry in melee, medium armor, access to horse and pegasus mounts. Shadow spells without arcane conduit, similarily to elf Loremaster of hoeth, or just few bound spells free per battle like Druchii Anointed’s. 

Also ability to hide units around him for a time (similar to Skarsnik's Tricksy traps) and vanguard and stalk when not moutned. Also 20% physical resistance due to dodge trait. He could also have active buff ability, giving magic damage to himself and maybe allies around him, for a time. In campaign faceless could have extra cost and upkeep in chivalry points.

They are noblemen who fight silently for good of Bretonnia. Many enemies, like vampires and chaos worshippers, lurk in shadows and Faceless hunt them there. There is something magical about their secretiveness. They may have natural sensitivity to shadow magic, but be only self-taught in it.

Abilities are based on lore from history of Calard, where invisible Bretonnians attack Norscans. Faceless has lore and model could be reskin of Markus Wulfhart or new one with sword and dagger in melee and bow in range.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Faceless

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Calard_of_Garamont#The_Rescue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq1o2VG1ogY

2:37

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6sBQfGHSFU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI-EOVpDvo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo50aybqlak

1:13

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjQ6ZtyXoA0

1:00

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVNfLKS_iiw

1:13

8. Bertrand the Brigand would be legendary Chief hero, with the same abilities but better. Similar to Markus Wulfhart, but worse in range and better in melee. Could use bow and spear or sword and knife. He should have horse mount. 

He could have Black arrow epic enchanted item, giving special, strong range, magic attack against single entity, to always hit and stop it for a while. Also could have a talisman, providing for him and allies around, immunity to psychology, perfect vigour and immunity to contact effects. It could be called the Lady’s phial (LOTR Galadriel phial easter egg). Another item could be melee weapon giving magic attack and long range spotting of hidden units, including with stalk (LOTR Bilbo sword easter egg).

Warhammer Robin Hood. He has lore. He could share model with Chief and Herrimaults, or Faceless.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Bertrand_the_Brigand_%26_the_Bowmen_of_Bergerac

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/7uhPbdSPPpc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsZVVJiiqcg

9. There are 4 options for legendary lords. 1 faceless and 3 knights who are similar to each other:

- Hooded Blade – famous faceless. Could have epic sword, giving magic damage and active melee attack and damage buff with executioner ability. Also enchanted item quiver, giving magic range damage and active ability increasing bow damage and making arrows to always hit target. Other traits and abilities like normal faceless, but better. Horse and pegasus for mounts. Stalk when not mounted. Shadow magic. Ability to hide units around him for a time (similar to Skarsnik's Tricksy traps). Etc.

He has little lore, which is fitting for faceless character, so does not even need much expanding. He could be made vampire hunter. Hunting them in shadows even far from Bretonnia. He could be more melee warrior than other faceless. Bretonnian Batman.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Hooded_Blade

https://youtu.be/n1HLG3xy8Ow?si=pd6m9wzHNQC3zZsY

The knights:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gpaz0etTqJw

0:47

- Amalric of Gaudaron is undead slayer.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Amalric_of_Gaudaron

- Bohemond Beastslayer is beastmen slayer.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Bohemond_Beastslayer

- Reynard the Hunter hunts monsters, who could guess?

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Reynard_the_Hunter

Any of them could start in Myrmidens, Border princes, if CA gave up on Southern realms dlc. There are Bretonnian nobles in in Borderlands. 

Otherwise in Elven ruins which would have to be brought back to Araby great desert, which by the way needs its current only building fixed. 

https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war-warhammer/bugs/12794-great-desert-s-of-araby-the-only-settlement-has-only-1-building-slot-and-has-wrong-description?page=1

If not there then in castle Bastonne.

II FLC Army: 

1. Hunting hounds should be given to Bretonnia. They would be useful because as small entities hounds are more effective than cavalry in 3 situations: 1. against spearmen, 2. in forests, 3. at hitting anything, but especially small entities, simply due to animations, because cavalry wastes time by pushing around and encircling.

Also hound units work the best by supporting cavalry and Bretonnia is faction focused the most on cavalry.

I proposed them 2 years ago in the forum, as Bretonnian dlc unit, and players liked it.

Beastmen got multiple units from other factions' dlcs, so Bretonnia should this because it fits. There is no reason for Empire to have them and Bretonnia not.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Reynard_the_Hunter#:~:text=1%5D%5B3%5D-,Groffe,-and%20Griffe%2C%20the

The Hunting Hounds of the Empire and Bretonnia, should have 25 armor, so more than all other hound units except khorne warhounds, which also have 25. The Hunting Hounds even have armored models. They should also have higher leadership than all others.

Being just normal, trained dogs, they do not have to fight for their lifes every day, like mutated wild dogs, so do not have as athletic form. They are to chaos warhounds what normal humans are to Norscans. Also the Empire and Bretonnia are not supposed to be better in melee than Chaos.

Hunting hounds should be generally worse melee combatants than all chaos warhounds versions, by having lower melee attack, defense, strength and charge.

They should be generally better combatants than vampiric wolfs, which are just zombies.

They should have better strength and charge than skaven wolfrats, but worse attack and defense.

2. Peasant Mob war scythe version could be easily made, based on Men at arms (polearms) skeleton. It would be different from current Peasant mob, by having antilarge bonus and charge defense. So, similar to skaven slaves antilarge version, but with better armor piercing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_scythe

3. Foot Squires halberd ordinary version could be easily made, based on the Beastslayers of Bastonne unit of renown. It would be useful versus large focused factions, like ogres. It would not be too strong.

4. Trebuchet should have fire and vortex damage too, or there should be another version with fire and vortex damage.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/g-Ft0p6xq0I

https://youtu.be/ScUxcRGZeZI?si=aSrh5veECAf7-RiN&t=33

III Stats changes:

​1. Royal Hippogryph Knights and Hippogryph mounts should get bloodroar passive ability, which imperial griffon mounts have.

2. Unicorn mount of Damsel hero should provide, in addition to 40% magic protection, also magic damage, fear and woodsman trait.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Unicorns

3. Prophetess lord should get unicorn mount.

4. Fay enchantress lord lacks Aura of the lady buff.

When mounted on Silvaron she also lacks woodsman and 5% magic protection.

5. Alberic de bordeleaux should get magic attack because has magic trident weapon, with even magic active ability.

He should also get charge defense and reflection when not mounted,  because has long weapon.

6. Henri le Massif should deal magical damage, because is grail knight and rightfully wields sword glowing with magic power like other grail units.

As grail knight he should also get immunity to psychology and perfect vigour.

He should also get his epic items, as legendary hero.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Henri_le_Massif

7. Paladin hero should lose shield and get two handed sword with armor piercing and magic damage. Foot squires model can be used.

Alternatively should lose bonus versus large and his sword should not shine, as if had magic damage.

Paladin is small boy, in comparison to Henri le Massif who can wield 2 handed sword in 1 hand.

Therefore paladin with 1 handed sword should not have bonus versus large. Also if does not have magic damage then sword should not glow.

IV Campaign changes:

1. Basic settelement building has no units to recruit. At least should give basic peasant archers and basic peasants mob and there could also be antilarge peasant mob variant, which I had described. Next to Bretonnia only Nurgle lacks units in basic settlement building.

2. Alberic could get confederation event with Aquitaine, for example when captures whole starting province or when Aquitaine has only 1 city left. It will make game more interesting and should include AI factions.

3. Karak ziflin dwarfs should start with war against againt Kemmler and Grom instead of minor Bretonnia. They should also control Karak azgaraz city. Now their war with Bretonnia makes Kemmler and Grom starts too easy.

4. Bretonnia needs a few settlements added, especially hostile, to make game more interesting:

​https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Bretonnia?file=Dukedoms_of_Bretonnia.png

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Bretonnia#Settlements_of_Bretonnia 

https://scentofagamer.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/oldworld_bretonnia.jpg

Interactive map near the bottom https://www.theoldworld.com/

A) Skaven in Black chasm and vampires in Barrows of cuileux as starting foes of Grom. They would be minor settlements (could start with third level and walls) part of Massif orcal province and have wasteland climate. They should be surrounded by rivers. Aquitaine city should be moved to place of south western bridge on the nearest river.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Black_Chasm

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Barrows_of_Cuileux

B) Magical forests settlements in Forest of Chalons and Forest of Arden. They could belong either to beastmen or wood elfs. They should be surrouned by rivers.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Forest_of_Ch%C3%A2lons

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Forest_of_Arden?file=Forest_of_Arden.png

C) New, Krinal, 10 building slots, single  region province could be added, in the Vaults mountains, between Bretonnia and Tilea, and Kemmler could be moved there. Still could fight Bretonnia, but would become foe for future Southern Realms faction, whilst the Empire has other vampires to fight. 

Skullsmasherz greenskins of Grung zint could be put in Blackstone post instead of Kemmler.

https://warhammerfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Heinrich_Kemmler#:~:text=of%20Kemmler%27s%20fortress%2C-,Krinal,-%2C%20within%20The%20Vaults

Older Total War games like Rome 2, Attila and Thrones of Britannia can’t use DLSS on their own. I’m working on a set of add-ons that get around that by handing each frame to a small 64-bit helper that runs DLSS and frame generation.

What you get:

• DLSS: DLAA, Quality, Balanced, Performance, Ultra Performance
• Frame generation 2x / 3x / 4x (RTX 40: 2x, RTX 50: up to 4x). Upscaling works on RTX 20 and up.
• Real motion data for soldiers and horses, so units don’t smear
• F12 panel in game to change settings live

Attila: Available now (beta). https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3828791891
It needs the Attila Engine Performance Fix 6.3, and you should turn the game’s own anti-aliasing off.

Rome 2: Coming Soon

Thrones of Britannia: Coming after Rome 2

Coming next: Rome 2, then Thrones of Britannia, then the other Total War games. AMD FSR support is in the works too.

Source: https://github.com/JSa25/TotalWarUpscalingFramegen

Big shoutout to u/Goldkoron for the idea of doing it through a separate 64-bit process.

Full disclosure, I used AI (Claude) to help with the reverse engineering and the code. Everything was tested in game on my own campaigns and battles.

My CPU almost burst into flames.

After the Attila and Rome 2 fixes, Thrones of Britannia was the obvious next one: it runs on Attila's engine.

And yes, it has Attila's big problem. Almost every memory allocation in the game goes through one shared heap with a single lock. On the campaign map the 16 worker threads spent about half their time just waiting on each other for that lock, and the main thread a third of its time. Rome 2 didn't have this issue in practice, Thrones does. Replacing the heap alone more than doubled the campaign frame rate, and game CPU use dropped from about 10 busy cores to 3.

**Results** (Ryzen 9 9950X3D, RTX 5090, 4K, CapFrameX, same save / same battle):

| | Vanilla | With mod | |

|---|---|---|---|

| Campaign map, average FPS | 68.3 | 174.3 | **2.5x** |

| Campaign map, 1% lows | 42.7 | 91.9 | **2.2x** |

| Big battle (2 x 20 units), average FPS | 115.3 | 145.9 | **+27%** |

| Big battle, 1% lows | 70.4 | 88.0 | **+25%** |

| Big battle, 0.1% lows | 61.4 | 79.9 | **+30%** |

Even at 4K the game was CPU-bound on my PC: on the campaign map the graphics card was busy only about 5 ms of each frame. End turn time didn't change (10-11 s on an early save), that part is mostly one thread doing AI work. I'd love to see your numbers, especially on CPUs with fewer cores.

**What it fixes**

- **The heap lock:** small allocations go to mimalloc (no global lock), big ones stay on the game's own allocator so the 32-bit game keeps its address space.

- **x87 rounding:** about 1,270 old-style float-to-integer conversions switched the CPU's rounding mode every time. They're replaced with modern instructions that give identical results.

- **Smaller stuff carried over from the Attila fix:** faster small-object pool frees, two draw-list sorts about 11x faster, a fast path for small memory copies, prefetching in a few battle render loops, loading tweaks (loose-file checks, save reading, distant-unit texture compression) and keeping menu pictures loaded. These are the same code as in Attila and were checked against Thrones' own code before porting.

Fun detail: one Attila fix (draw batching in battles) wasn't needed at all. CA had already fixed that bug in Thrones.

Every patch gives bit-identical results to the game's own code (tested against it on millions of inputs) and checks the game's bytes before touching anything. On a different game version it switches itself off and the game runs normally. No game files or saves are changed: it's a single `dinput8.dll` you can delete at any time.

**Download**

- Steam Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3828420829

(Steam can't put DLLs in the game folder, so after subscribing run `install.bat` once in `...\steamapps\workshop\content\712100\3828420829\`. Updates install themselves after that. Run `uninstall.bat` before unsubscribing.)

- Source code: https://github.com/JSa25/ThronesEnginePerfFix. You can read it and build it yourself, and GitHub builds it on its own machines and gets exactly the same DLL.

-Nexus: Coming Soon

**Compatibility**

- Current Steam version of Thrones of Britannia. Works with pack mods.

- Not compatible with other `dinput8.dll` mods (only one can load).

- It doesn't show up in the launcher's mod list, that's normal. `tobfix.log` in the game folder shows what's on.

If something goes wrong, post the `tobfix.log` from your game folder. It shows whether the mod loaded, your game build, system and settings, and where a crash happened.

Made with the help of AI (Claude), tested in game by me. Free, always will be.

Honestly better than his default name.

This post is a guide on how to bring this game into the modern era. The game was released in 2009 and suffers from numerous bugs and limitations that prevent the game from reaching it's full potential. The vanilla game's excuse for a battle amounts to a minor skirmish. Let's fix that.

I have pushed battles to over 69,000 troops without crashing using these methods.

Starting From Square One

*Disclaimer* I am not tech support, I will try my best to be helpful but please do not expect me to walk you though each step if you're having a hard time. This also only applies to Windows. Yes, this can be done on Linux and Mac but I'm not making a Linux/Mac guide or version

It goes without saying, the #1 first step to expanding the game, is installing mods. The focus of this post is to be more or less mod agnostic in terms of making a specific choice of which mod to install, with this being said, the following are some the most complete and comprehensive mods for the game (in no particular order) I am not affiliated with any other these and don't endorse any particular one.

Pirates Uber Alles
Darthmod Empire
Empire II: Total War
Imperial Splendour

Down to the Bone

The game has some mathematical limits that were baked into the game, that probably made sense in 2009, that prevent us from really experiencing full scale battles.

But talking about crashing the game is putting the cart before the horse. How does one increase the scale of battles in the game? There are two methods. Unit size, which is the number of men in each regiment, and the number of units in an army.

Increasing Unit Size
Unit size is relatively easy to increase. It involves editing a text file called preferences.empire_script

1. Navigate to the base directory of where this file is located by typing %appdata% in the Windows file browser and pressing enter.

The full directory of the file is:
C:\Users\*Your Username*\AppData\Roaming\The Creative Assembly\Empire\scripts

1. You will need to open the preferences.empire_script located in this folder, open the file (using a text editor is fine) and change the following line:

campaign_unit_multiplier 1.00; # campaign_unit_multiplier <float>, Set default unit multiplier for campaign

Change the value after campaign_unit_multiplier to increase the maximum unit size. I set mine to 2.75, which gives a unit size of around 600-800 men per regiment. Once completed, save and close the file, and you're done with this step.

\Note that editing your graphics settings or unit size from within the game's menu will reset the unit size to "Ultra", which is a lower value than I'd recommend for large scale battles*

Increasing Army Size

This step I'm going to link a video, I am not the author but I think this is the best resource for this step:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIxWGPdWiLo

For this particular step, I set my army size to 60, so 60 units can be placed in one army.

Replacing DirectX and TBBMalloc

TLDR - Replaces rendering software in the game to something more configurable to overcome certain issues, and replaces a memory allocator that is flawed.

DXVK Installation

Release Build Link

You will need WinRAR to extract the archive and place the files in the Empire game directory. The files you will need are in the x32 folder.

\dxvk-3.1.1\x32

You can extract the entire archive and copy the file, or extract the specific file but only copy the d3d9.dll file to the game directory. This is very important.

If you don't know how to use WinRAR, or find the game directory find additional resources to help, this post will be long enough as it is.

OneTBB Installation

OneTBB Download Link

Scroll down, and download the ZIP file, make sure it ends in -win.zip

Open the ZIP file, and navigate to the following folder:

oneapi-tbb-2023.1.0-win.zip\oneapi-tbb-2023.1.0\redist\ia32\vc14

Within this folder, you will copy one file, tbbmalloc.dll to the Empire game folder, and replace the file when asked.

DXVK Configuration

You will need to create a file titled dxvk.conf in the Empire game directory with the following content.

Use notepad, create a new file, when prompted to save, save as type "All Files" and set the file name to dxvk.conf

ini, TOML

d3d9.maxAvailableMemory = 2047

d3d9.memoryTrackTest = False

d3d9.evictManagedOnUnlock = True

d3d9.textureMemory = 512

d3d9.maxFrameRate = 75

Patching The Game

Up to this point, none of these things alone will actually allow you to push the game past a limit, without immediate or eventual crashes during battles.

The game has a hard coded limit that is likely a legacy piece of code, or a 2009 era optimization. I will not go into detail because I don't think most people will understand or care. I can make a follow up post if people are really curious.

This was extremely difficult to figure out and I spent many days on this. Follow the instructions in the readme on the github page below.

Patch Download

One final, very important disclaimer - verifying the game's integrity in Steam WILL undo the replacement of tbbmalloc.dll AND the game patch step. Proceed accordingly.

Enjoy your big battles.

If players want to do that then whatever, but the vampire Count AI is pretty frequently steamrolling in my experience by pulling extremely powerful lords out of their asses before turn 20 when no one can cobble together a force that can resist them.

I've seen the dice roll the Ordertide's way a couple times but 70-80% of the time Vlad and Khemmler have wiped out Bretonnia and the Empire or are well on their way to doing it by early-mid campaign. These OP early lords are just icing on the cake of the VC fielding huge numbers of armies and just being generally strong right now.

Hey all,

A little while ago I started this journey because I was sick of playing Empire at 4K with a UI the size of a postage stamp. I posted the first release here, then 1.0.2 with the sorted armies and real unit stats. Back then you had to choose the lesser of two weevils: play at 1080p or squint at blurry text at 4K. Aim small, miss small. That part is sorted.

At the end of the 1.0.2 post I said the next thing on my list was the end turn, especially that late game crawl through the Ottomans' turn. Well, here it is.

1.0.3 is out today. Waiting on the AI always felt a bit like Wellington at Waterloo: hard pounding, gentlemen, let's see who pounds the longest. So I timed it.

Same save, same turn, one AI end turn:

Vanilla: 48.7 s

The mod, default settings: 34.1 s

The mod with AI army merging on: 15.7 s

(Diplomacy popups not counted. The trailer has all three side by side with stopwatches.)

Merging is optional and off by default. Small AI armies that sit idle next to each other for a couple of turns join up, so instead of Sweden parking six tiny stacks around Copenhagen you get a few proper armies. "Thousands of 'em!" Well, not anymore. It also stops the AI endlessly splitting its armies, which is where a lot of that wait was going. Give it a few turns after loading a save before you see merges.

Also new in this update:

-Mod Options right inside the game's Options menu, no more ini editing

-Next turn's income on the treasury tooltip

-Battle camera up to 150 m (the game stops at 60)

-Grass drawn out to 320 m instead of ending in a ring around your camera

-The game goes quiet when you alt tab

-Leftover entries in your mod list no longer crash the game

The older stuff is all still there: sorted unit cards, real unit stats, full government names instead of a lonely "C", borderless window and sharper shadows.

It now works at 1080p too: the interface stays the game's own size there, but Mod Options and all the campaign and battle features are on.

Nothing in the game files is touched. One DLL, one ini, one font pack, and deleting them gets you vanilla back. Made for the current Steam version (the April 2023 update). It can't run alongside other version.dll mods like EIP, so pick one.

Is it perfect? No. Tooltips are bigger but still a little soft, and the AI still thinks as long as it likes when merging is off. But as Sir Henry Simmerson would put it, "That's my style, sir."

Nexus: https://www.nexusmods.com/empiretotalwar/mods/29

Trailer: https://youtu.be/I2SPicYkUyM?si=fhWvnj2Kk-il7pi_

Happy to answer questions. If something breaks, send me your sharpfonts.log in a private message on Nexus and I'll take a look.

Up, Guards, and at 'em!

AI disclosure: I built this with a lot of help from an AI coding assistant. It helped with the reverse engineering and most of the code. All the footage is real gameplay I recorded myself, nothing in it is AI generated. The music is old public domain tunes arranged for the video and played with MuseScore's sampled instruments.

With the new Vampire layer system, I am curious as to how and why you make your vampires the way you do.

Personally, I favour Strigoi as a 1 man doomstack.

I Max out 'Memories of Blood', Gravebound Relics, and if the layer is in my territory I usually give them at least 1 point in 'Enduring Lair' for the upkeep reduction and blood.

For Combat I focus on 'The Silent', 'A Love of Battle', and 'Master of Death'.

So I ask again, how do you build your vampires, why you build your vampires and that you have a wonderful day.

This post concerns my one-man army, Emperor E. You can find his stats here: https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/1xdzz2a/comment/19rqud2jfg3dw/?screen_view_count=1

Is this the record for most kills in one battle? Or did to many enemies run away?

So I usually get Wizards with good aoe to decimate the enemy infantry, but with Toddy I want my own infantry to decimate them. Since it can.

But the enemy monsters and large anti-infantry units in general aren't easy to deal with so was thinking maybe the wizard can help the wolfbros out there. I kinda don't wanna use anti-large infantry, would rather cav do that part.

Even if going the thematic choice, not sure what kinda wizard Boris would actually use? With Elspeth I stick to only death wizards for the theme, with Volkmar I use fire etc.

Thoughts?

What wizards have you guys used during the Middenland campaign?

I play a lot of Welf campaigns. Really, a lot of Welf campaigns.

And every time I play the SoT, I notice that their aiming is off.

That doesn't mean they are weak/broken, they are still my favorite LL, but they could be better.

It has gotten to the level where I can micro their aiming by picking and choosing their targets.

Not to maximize kills, but to work with the weird aiming.

Please take a look at the pictures for examples of the aiming issue and a few more bugs.

And, if you're convinced and/or experienced the same, please upvote these bug reports:

https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war-warhammer/bugs/17218

https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war-warhammer/bugs/17219

https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war-warhammer/bugs/17217

https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war-warhammer/bugs/13663-wood-elves-battles-units-and-heroes-bugging-out-regularly-with-8-1-0

Edit: another bug report: https://community.creative-assembly.com/total-war/total-war-warhammer/bugs/7955-fire-while-moving-targeting-logic-aims-at-the-same-entity

Thanks for your time and enjoy the rest of your day!

This post concerns my one-man army, Emperor E. You can find his stats here: https://www.reddit.com/r/totalwar/comments/1xdzz2a/comment/19rqud2jfg3dw/?screen_view_count=1

For clarification the Chaos Dwarf Blunderbusses are holding strong against my weak ass zombies, as they should, but also have formed a separate ring and quickly isolated the accompanying Corpse Cart with the same regiment. Also holding back the skelly spears there. I know the AI can just do weird stuff but is there a way I can encircle solitary units with a single regiment in the way the AI often seems to? How can I avoid this? The Corpse Cart started out behind everyone, I'm pretty sure...

Malus and co. were already enough of an issue.

Any tips on this?

I'm trying to branch out into different playstyles in WH3. I've tried WoC, Khorne, and now Boris Todbringer, but I'm just not getting it.

For reference, my favorites are Wood Elves, Chaos Dwarfs, and Empire. I enjoy Malakai, but Dwarfs feel a bit boring, Kislev is a slog, and Cathay doesn't do much for me.

Playing Boris against Festus with mostly early-game melee infantry, a cannon, and a few other starting units, I feel like I'm just sitting there watching once everything engages. I understand unit matchups, flanking, and positioning, but there's so much less to actively manage compared to gunpowder and magic factions, where positioning, baiting enemies, landing volleys, and casting spells are key.

With melee-heavy factions, it feels like I just tell my units what to attack and wait for the battle to play out.

Am I missing something, or is that just how melee-focused factions play?