Skip to main content

Scots, Free: War Of The Roses Gets Huge Update

I'll admit that I haven't been back to War of the Roses since shortly after it launched, but maybe now's finally the time for me to de-rust my steed and feed my armor some of the good carrots. Or wait, no, the other way. Feed my carrots some armor. There we go. Anyway, Paradox's medieval melee's seen yet another free content drop - this time taking the form of armor and weaponry forged in the image of the Scottish Gallowglass mercenaries. Apparently, they "brought brute force and fighting spirit to the battlefields like none could," so probably get ready to smash first and ask only the most necessary of questions. But, even though the update's named after them, the mercenaryfolk aren't the main event of today's update. Rather, it's complete reworks of core systems - for instance, armor, weapon speed and power, and movement - that stand to make the Middle Ages feel young again.

Watch on YouTube

There's a bastard-sword-sized list of patch notes over at ye olde Paradoxe Plaza(e), but the biggest hits definitely stem from this particular portion.

  • Armour has been revamped
  • Armour reduces incoming damage by:
  • Cloth removes 10% damage
  • Leather removes 20% damage
  • Mail removes 30% damage
  • Plate removes 60% damage
  • Damage needs to end up over 15 to pass through and is then modified by hit zones
  • Hit zone damage has been modified

Among other things, weapons also had to be tweaked to accommodate the changes, so now maces go right through armor but do less damage, axes dice skulls with tons of power but very little grace, thrust attacks move more slowly, and armor-absorbed hits no longer result in interrupts.

Perks and movement have also gone under the knife to better suit players' new suits, so the changes ought to be fairly pronounced. Whether or not they're for the best, however, I can't really say at this point. Do we have any regulars among the RPS ranks, though? If so, is this a much-needed evolution for Paradox's game of decidedly non-modern warfare? Or are we looking at fixes for a few things that weren't quite broken in the first place?

Read this next