FEATURES:

• Four new skirmish/multiplayer maps
  
  • River's Kiss (4)
  • Surrounded (5)
  • Island Peril (6)
  • Armour Harbour (2)

GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

• Most AI castles have been reworked, so they build up more efficiently and intelligently
• Changes to AI build orders and building limits to account for the new AI building system in place
• The AI has a completely reworked system for dividing up its gold intelligently between troops, buildings and resources
• AIs will now capture villages according to their individual frequencies
• The Sultana now uses assassins to attack other players in skirmish games
• Up and down arrow keys can now be used to scroll through maps in the skirmish lobby
• Tower Mantlet, Tower Ballista, and Tower Haybale Launchers are now limited to 5 of each type per estate
• The number of goods carried in each CartHorse load is now set individually for each good type, instead of per storage building
• Man trap balance changes:
  
  • Duration reduced from 6 to 3 seconds
  • Siege weapons no longer trigger the trap, but will receive damage if soldiers trigger it
  • Passengers of vehicles (war wagons) no longer trigger or receive damage from man traps
• Whirling Dervish splash damage reduced by 25%
• Inns, Mosques, and Churches are now limited to one each per estate (Note that this does not apply to Sandbox mode)
• Capture points will no longer be contested by a capturing player's allies entering the capture radius. The player that first began capturing the flag will gain control of the estate or gatehouse normally unless contested by enemy troops.
• Allied AI lords now coordinate their capture of Village Estates more carefully, and can now call off or redirect the forces if appropriate.
• The Knights mounting horses system has been overhauled:
  
  • Horses now appear directly at the knights' positions, rather than having to run in from long distances first
  • Fixed a number of cases where mounting horses and knights could get stuck, including with legacy save games
  • Improved the Speech and UI feedback from knights when mounting fails or succeeds
  • Fixed knights not restoring their attack scans after mounting
• Added hotkey "V" to select the Market (double-tap to move the camera to it) (Existing hotkeys to go to individual market pages: SHIFT+G, SHIFT+H, SHIFT+J for the granary, stockpile, armoury market pages still functional)

FORMATIONS OVERHAUL
Troop control and formation movement have been overhauled to look and feel much better:

• A number of performance optimizations have been added to all troop movement and formation control
• Troops select form-up positions much more accurately
• Troops now hold their relative positions much better in all formations
• Formations turn more smoothly and adjust their heading while following moving targets
• When ordered to attack an enemy unit, all formations hold their shape better, and troops on the outskirts will engage other enemies as expected
  
  • This greatly improves the interaction of large armies attacking each other in formations such as box & line
  • This fixes an issue where nearby troops would wait idly by if the commanded attack target was already fully surrounded
  • Box and line formation members will now stay together when ordered to attack enemy units, as expected
  • An exception is made for units that have their sprint ability activated in this way-- they will sprint at full speed and leave the formation behind in this case
  • Sprinting units include Macemen, Whirling Dervishes, and Sassanid Knights
• Rabble formation (default)
  
  • Responds more quickly and holds its shape much better. Troops turn on the spot and move right away after initial form-up.
  • Note that in this formation troops move at their own pace and don't wait for one another.
• Box formation
  
  • This formation keeps all members together at the slowest member units' pace
  • Missile units now attempt to stay in the center for protection.
  • Pikemen are placed on the very outside if possible
  • Now forms up much more accurately, starting off slower and accelerating so troops can reach their positions
  • Now allows the slowest units to keep pace much better in most cases
  • Addressed a number of cases where faster units would get ahead and turn around
  • Now attempts to make course adjustments and rotate without swapping formation position slots
  • When units are leaving combat, this formation will attempt to retreat a bit before re-forming
• Line formation
  
  • Has had the same enhancements as Box Formation, except that the formation is spread out in a wider shape

BALANCE CHANGES:

• Knights now mount horses instantly, rather than waiting for the horse to run from its stables to the knight’s position in order to mount.
• Knights cost 200 gold, from 150.
• Crusader Grand Towers cost 220 stone, from 180
• Whirling Dervish cost increased to 150 gold from 140, spin attack damage reduced to 15 from 20
• Catapult damage reduced to 850, from 950
• Warwolf damage reduced to 1600, from 1800
• Crossbowman damage reduced to 3600, from 4000
• A number of the original trails have been rebalanced to account for the improved AI

BUG FIXES:

• Fixed player Lord selection in Custom Skirmish and multiplayer lobbies to include all available Lord avatars.
• Fixed cost of diagonal walls being cheaper than those of straight walls
• Fixed an issue where ranged troops could sometimes shoot through diagonal walls
• Fixed village estate carter horses crossing bridges
• Fixed an issue where workers could not path through village estates during Peacetime.
• When patrolling, troops now reset formation form-up time to allow box/line to reform normally when reversing direction
• Fix for carter horses that were unable to deliver to a stockpile with one of it's entrance blocked off
• Fixed an issue where AI's mantlets would not leave the siege camp
• Small changes and fixes to several skirmish maps
• Fixed an issue where AI enemies would get stuck packing and unpacking trebuchets repeatedly
• Healers will no longer heal engine tower units
• Fixed an issue where players could place walls in captured village estates
• Fixed a bug where pitch ditches could linger and burn endlessly
• Fixed certain Lords entering a T-Pose occasionally when idling
• Fixed a crash that could occur in rare cases where AI attempted to place a workshop building off an estate
• Fixed Scribe settings for minimum interval on the emigrate speech
• Fixed multiple buildings being selectable when using shift+click or shift+marquee in certain ways
• Multiplayer lobby browser:
  
  • The number of players x/y in a given game is now updated during gameplay to show "Alive Players" / "Starting Players" including AI
  • Before the match, only humans and available human slots are shown, since the host can easily change the AI lords and they will not block humans from joining
• Fixed certain hotkeys functioning when the game was task switched in fullscreen modes
• Fixed the Apothecary unit using default unit rules instead of his own
• Fixed siege equipment requiring but not deducting multiple peasants when built
• Building and Unit build buttons no longer function if the game is paused, preventing issues with lingering building proxies and enqueued troops tying up peasants who have not yet arrived.
• Fixed the unit orders buttons' tooltips sometimes popping/sticking open if the button function was changed, even if the mouse had left the button
• Fixed an issue where the Lobby's Advanced Options menu would stay open if a prior game was started without closing it first
• Siege Equipment is now always in "Hold Ground" stance to match its behaviour
• Set VSync to always enable in the Map Editor to prevent excess rendering (Thanks to Marius Radich!)
• Fixed Greatest Lord screen being disabled upon loading a custom skirmish game from a story game
• Fixed area-of-effect indicator particles sometimes lingering in the world when their owner had died
• Fixed the building tooltip remaining open if cancelling a build via a hotkey
• Fixed potential crash problems with the invasion and siege controllers
• Various performance optimisations
• Added low water detail option
• Added a no shadows option