INSULARIS DRACO is an overhaul of 2014’s Invasio Barbarorum II: Conquestu Britanniae. The setting of our main campaign: North-Western Europe, 452 AD. From Pictland in the North to the Alps in the South, from Ireland in the West to Jutland in the East.
As Attila retreats after the cataclysmic battle on the Catalaunian Fields, Roman Gaul is left in ruins, and the Imperial status quo is on the wane. Leaping into this power vacuum are various ‘barbarian’ peoples: the Franks, the Visigoths, the Alamans and others have set their eyes upon Gaul’s rich cities.
In distant Ireland, the rise of the Uí Néill dynasty has brought them much power: unopposed for now, Lóegaire Mac Níall stands to conquer the ceremonial capital of Temair. Should he claim the High-Kingship, however, he will face fierce opposition from his rivals the Laigin and Ulaid.
Ireland may be remote, but it is not cut off from the world: British missionaries are slowly but surely converting the ruling class to Christianity, and in return Gaelic raiders plague the coasts of Wales and Cumbria.
The former Imperial Province of Britannia, left to its own devices decades ago, has been divided among the civitates, with a powerful king, Vortigern, possessing much of what lies between the Severn and the North Sea. In what will become Wales, Guened is founded with aid from the Irish settlers who have taken advantage of the power vacuum, and Demet is even ruled by them. Above the Humber the petty kingdoms of the Old North each vie for supremacy to see who will succeed the old confederation of the Brigantes.
Beyond Hadrian’s Wall in the North, a fragile balance exists between Brittonic and Pictish petty kingdoms, while in the western isles, the Gaelic settlers of Dál Riada are emerging as a new threat. On the island’s south-eastern shores, however, strange tribes have set foot who stand to decisively tip the balance in favour of chaos: the Ængle, Seaxan and Ēotas, invited as Fœderati by King Vortigern, have real chance of upending the very ways of life which have defined this island for centuries.
Times of great trouble and uncertainty offer substantial opportunity, but it is reserved only for those who dare to grasp it.
Will you extinguish the guiding light of Rome or will you preserve it? Who will be Arthur, who will be Clovis?Shall there be a Bretwalda or shall there be... an Insularis Draco?
Articles
As we speak, Belovèse is preparing 'Insularis Draco' for its newest release which will be uploaded later today! A short look at where we are with the mod right now.
4 CAMPAIGNS
Insularis Draco boasts 4 very detailed campaigns set in North-Western Europe during Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval period. The main campaign is set in 452AD, right after the climactic Battle of the Catalaunian Fields. It features all 30 playable factions and a huge amount of unique scripts to make each of them more interesting, immersive and engaging. It moves through time in 2 turns per year and you can play all the way up to the year 685AD.
The Other Erascampaigns are very different experiences: the campaign year is divided up into more turns and there are far less scripts running in the background so they feel slightly more Free Build-y.
The most developed of these is the Britain 550AD campaign. 5 turns per year from 550 to 700AD. Beware the horrible Plague of Justinian which devastates the entire map within the first 5 years!
The map is by LughLámhfada with lots of updates and fixes from me and coastal smoothing from Werety
Next up is the most minimalist Other Eras campaign: Ireland 657AD. A handful of factions duking it out on a truly HUGE and detailed map of Hibernia made by LughLámhfada.
It has 12 turns per year and an unexpected late game invasion :)
The last and newest map is set in Germania 356AD I made entirely by myself (well, 'Outlander' from Meiji TW gave me a starting setup!) with the help of Werety for the smooth coasts again. It features the struggling Roman province of Gaul under Emperor Julian the Apostate, being invaded by all kinds of Germanic plunderers. It moves through time in 5 turns (exactly like Britain 550) and it is still a work in progress, however it features a ton of new features (well, in this case, hindrances!) to make governing Gaul more troublesome for the Roman player 👹
MAP AND UI IMPROVEMENTS
Our campaign map has been extensively beautified, with new vegetation models and custom ground tiles.
But we've also reworked the entire event pic databases, making the mod much more beautiful and visually consistent to play.
Our resident Scholar Benfras has also made around 70 (!) unique buildings that feature all over the map, highlighting unique regional landmarks that influence the way a province works.
UNIT MODELS
Our newest team member, PythagoreanBeans has kitbashed a truly staggering amount of units for the Roman, Brittonic and Germanic units. The results can be seen in the previous three articles which highlight those huge visual upgrades extensively.
As we've been working for six months (and arguably more intensively than ever) it's hard to list every change we've made and I've no doubt forgotten a bunch. I might update this article when I think of them :)
In any case: enjoy the new update which will be only later today!
Dev Diary: Continental Germanic Unit Redo
Feature 1 commentIn this Dev Diary I'm gonna explain our thought process behind our grand overhaul of all Continental Germanic units, led by PythagoreanBeans!
Dev Diary: North Sea Germanic Unit Overhaul
Feature 3 commentsIn this Dev Diary I'm going to update you guys on how PythagoreanBeans and me redid the Anglo-Saxon, Frisian and Danish unit models. Their rosters are...
Insularis Draco Faction Overview
FeatureIn the upcoming INSULARIS DRACO mod, you can control any of 30 factions vying for control in North-Western Europe, 452AD. Read about the available factions...
New Features
NewsAn update on where we are with the mod. Historical Battles are now working, battlemap UI is redone, I redid the situation in Brittany, Pictish Crossbowmen...
Files
Insularis Draco 1.0
Full Version 27 commentsFull, stable, Stand-alone and ready to plop into your 'mods' folder. The current release of 'Insularis Draco'. A huge number of substantial updates and...
Uncial Fonts Pack
Patch 6 commentsReplaces the in-game fonts with some more period-accurate Uncial/Carolingian Minuscule fonts (well, technically, the exact fonts reflect the script used...
Insularis Draco Updated Beta
Full Version 56 commentsMod-foldered, standalone version of the mod. Small-scale hotfixes can be found on the Discord server. This version boasts three stable fully playable...
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I'm really excited to try this out! It seems like a promising mod!🔥💯
Thanks!
We're getting slowly closer to a new release. A big list of things we've done over the past half year can be found on our discord.
Are the yellow saxons intended to be a better version of the west saxons? They have everything the west saxons have and more units. Is it not historically accurate for them to have the same roster?
Hey, I'm assuming you're playing the Britain 550 campaign? In that campaign, the Continental Saxons 'play the part of' Essex, yes. They do have an extensive roster but I've been culling it a bit to give them less of an advantage.
Hows the work coming along?
Hehe, still trudging forward. At this moment we don't have an active modeller/kitbasher so we haven't been able to redo the Irish and Pictish rosters yet, sadly. I have been doing A LOT of UI and Scripting work, and I've also created a separate culture for the Picts, which still needs ironing out (they have middle-eastern battlemap settlements now, lol), I've also removed the Ebrauc faction and replaced it with Gwent, which makes MUCH more sense historically, and we've also redone all horses and found a decently elegant fix for scripted armies attacking without siege engines... but for now a new release is not in sight. Too much work still to be done.
Then I'll keep my fingers crossed for you that things go well. I wanted to take this opportunity to make another suggestion of mine. I noticed that the Hun unit was also getting a new design, so I wanted to come up with my own suggestion for a new unit
Eškingillar
(Sword Companions of Chinglu/God of War)
Since I am aware that you already have your hands full, I don't want to force anyone to answer immediately. I would just appreciate some feedback.
I rarely have any Hunnic infantry so this is a good suggestion, however I don't know if adding another elite unit is good. I'm looking for inspiration for lower level Hunnic infantry units. I've already got warhounds and archer-pikemen, which is a really cool unit, btw.
I really love this mod despite not being too keen of the era, I still had such a blast. I saw that you think the viking era is overdone but to be honest, none of them are that detailed. With your map, I'm certain you can make a depiction of the era with much more detail as there are plenty of villages for them to raid.
Anyone willing to change ours into such a Viking Age map would be very welcome to do so however wouldn't it be a bit weird to not have Norway, Sweden and the Danish Isles on it at all? :)