• Sacking now deals 65% damage to buildings (up from 50%).
  
• Sacking now causes -15 public order (instead of -5), decreasing each turn.
  
• Looting and occupying removed due to limited relevance.
  
• Archers now have reduced accuracy during fog, rain, and snow.
  
• Running fatigue slightly slowed; fatigue thresholds increased for longer battles.
  
• All factions can now annex same-culture factions.
  
• Minimum diplomacy payments lowered to 1 for more nuanced deals.
  
• Reduced fog spotting distance for archer balance.
  
• Campaign AI improved in military and construction spending, influenced by political context and AI personality.
  
• Base cultural relations adjusted to reflect historical political situations.
  
• All UI buttons now have updated color styling.
  
• Circenn renamed to Alba.
  
• Old languages implemented; settlements, units, and factions now use medieval-era names.
  
• Normandy replaced by West Francia; faction flag updated.
  
• Norse endgame invasion flag replaced.
  
• Updated Norse and West Francia faction colors.
  
• West Francia land units renamed.
  
• Culture group names updated for historical accuracy.
  
• Fixed grammatical error in Wessex campaign screen.

• Taxation system reworked for greater historical accuracy and impact.
  
• Unit replenishment now scales with levying (tax) level.
  
• Lower tax = fewer replenished men; higher tax = more replenished men.
  
• Added more detailed tooltip info explaining replenishment and levying effects.

• New combat interaction animations added; increased frequency without FPS loss.
  
• Units now march with shields lowered until combat begins.
  
• Fixed longbow animation issue.

• Northumbria diplomacy issue fixed.
  
• Added -25% income debuff to Northumbria for vassalage payments to Jorvik.
  
• Fixed “Puppet king of nothing” not clearing after breaking vassalage.
  
• Increased negative attitude between Mercia and Ledeborg.
  
• Updated Mercia’s first mission description.
  
• Armies now run out of supplies after 3 siege turns (instead of 2).
  
• New riot effects implemented; all broken riot effects fixed.
  
• New riot events and dilemmas for all major settlements.
  
• Jorvik’s “Abolition of slavery” effect replaced with “Warrior settlers.”
  
• Endgame Norman invasion renamed to Frankish invasion.
  
• Improved food stores explanation in pre-winter popup.
  
• Updated food effects relating to army supplies.
  
• Minor town garrisons reworked; lowered size.
  
• English minor towns gain one extra unit to reflect Alfred’s burh system.

This update would not have been possible without the following contributors:

• Musculus Maximus – colored buttons
  
• Anisvara – old languages
  
• Il-Khan of Persia – late game invasion replacer and culture group rename
  
• Vic and Caligula – longbow animation fix
  
• Filay – shields-down marching
  
• WhiteSushiEater – ultimate animations (credited despite inactivity)

Full rework of faction traits
New dilemmas, events, and missions
Improved and expanded decrees

minor patch to ui main menu

• Lowered the negative speed effect caused by fatigue
  
• Slightly increased archer fatigue
  
• Added Loose Formation to all skirmisher units
  
• Added accuracy penalties to the negative effect modifiers from fatigue
  
• Increased maximum unit width — units can now be stretched out more
  
• Custom Battles revamped:
  
  • Introduced campaign units to Custom Battles
    
  • All major factions included in this first iteration
    
  • Land battles only for now
    
• Added Loot and Occupy option for all factions when winning a siege
  
• Added basic decrees to all factions (first pass, more work to come)
  
• Removed home screen smoke (big deal!)
  
• Adjusted Wessex starting vassals - Welsh vassal's removed and Cent & Suth Seaxe are now defensive allies instead of vassles.

Gameplay Adjustments
• Increased fatigue thresholds slightly to make battles last longer
• Reduced fatigue bonus from being in shield castle formation
• Removed fatigue resistance from basic bowmen.
- Hunters (16 men) remain resistant to fatigue
- Bowmen (24–30 men) are no longer resistant
- Other skirmishers (except slingers) retain fatigue resistance
This change encourages choosing between larger, less enduring units or smaller, more resilient ones.
• Increased speed, acceleration and mass of all units
- Units now fell less sluggish and more akin to Shogun 2, charges are more impactful

New Features
• Night battles are now available from Authority level 6 onward
• Victory conditions have been added for all factions

Developer Notes
As always, thank you for the continued support and feedback — great work everyone!

• +8 Shield Armor
  
• +30 Shield Defense

• Decreased calibration distance (point at which accuracy decreases substantially)
  
• Increased calibration area (the general area in which projectiles can land)
  
• Slightly reduced AP damage of javelins

• Default stance: Costs -20 supplies per turn. You can survive 5–10 turns in friendly territory without resupplying, but in enemy lands you’ll need to raid, sack, or occupy villages to stay operational.
  
• Fortify stance: No longer allows replenishment or recruitment. Provides +3 morale, -50% attrition from snow/swamp, and costs 75% of your total campaign movement range to assume, a real commitment.
  
• Raiding stance: Now the only stance that lets you “live off the land”, granting +20 supplies. Unit state is winded in combat. Other mechanics are mostly unchanged.
  
• Garrisoning armies: Grants +50 supplies. Towns and cities are now the central hubs for full replenishment and recruitment. Replenishment in friendly territory still occurs, but at a minimal rate.
  
• Sieges: Now consume -30 supplies per turn, making prolonged sieges far more risky. You’ll need to engage in combat or carefully manage resources to avoid heavy losses.

The goal is to force meaningful tactical decisions. Armies can’t endlessly roam the map and you’ll need to plan your movements between settlements, manage supplies carefully, and use raiding strategically.

Theory
A level 2–3 town should stand a chance against the small armies of Shieldwall and provide useful province support since the AI cannot resist attacking an army in a town.

Building out your countryside is worthwhile early-game, especially with double-industry villages.
More interesting battles makes the game more playable.
For cities, the sizes are only slightly larger to fully accommodate units from a future garrison building.

The city battles will now be massive and display some of the best upgrades of TOB over Attila/Rome 2.

Sizes

• Garrison for towns = Level + 2. (Minor 1 = 3 units, Minor 5 = 7 units)
  
• Most Shieldwall towns max out at level 2.
  
• Some towns (pastures, foreigners, alehouses) provide 1 additional low-tier garrison unit.
  
• Irish pastures grant +1 extra unit as a faction perk.

Cities garrison sizes:

• Major 1 (M1): 8 units (mostly levy)
  
• Major 2: 10 units (mostly levy)
  
• Major 3: 12 units
  
• Major 4: 14 units
  
• Major 5: 16 units with cavalry

Garrisons:

• Garrison 1: 3 mid-level units
  
• Garrison 2: +2 strong units (one cavalry) on top of Garrison 1

Unique features

• Factions with special capital cities receive a hero unit if that city is besieged.
  
• The unit mix is diverse, making siege battles more interesting.
  
• Strong units only available in late-game will appear in M4/M5 garrisons even if the tech isn’t researched.

The fatigue system has been totally overhauled:

• Archers now gain fatigue from shooting and reloading
  
• Battles are longer
  
• Unit fatigue has been slowed
  
• Unit fatigue recovery has been slowed
  
• Tired, very tired, and exhausted states now apply -3, -6, and -9 morale debuffs respectively
  
• Debuffs from fatigue revamped (melee attack, defense, speed, reload speed, and morale)

The player must now cycle their units effectively to prevent mass routs due to exhaustion!

• Fixed the Northumbria starting situation
  
• Fixed the Mercia faction crash

• Named the nameless child of connact
  
• Westmoringas now playable
  
• Added a couple of new factions traits to factions in the gaelic culture & changed some for historical accuracy