LukeUeda-Sarson
Prince
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2007
- Messages
- 341
I know Rhye doesn't want "new" units and doo-dads like that. However I have a set of proposals that would IMO (with my military historian's hat on) improve flavour without changing any game values, etc.
The first concerns a few unit names. Like many people I am irked by Legionaries being called Praetorians. That's probably the most egregious, simply because so many people are familiar with the Roman legions.
But here are some others that I think really should change:
Malian "skirmisher" should be "yam baka". (Every army has skirmishers, whether Roman, Rennaissance Spanish, or Napoleonic French - it's a description of a troop role, not type). Yam baka were the levy archers that formed the majority of some armies from the Western Sudan area that is encompassed by RFC "Mali").
Viking "beserk" should be "huscarl". Beserks were (sic, even their existence is disputed) a minuscule number of individuals. The professional warriors were huscarls (and spelling variants), backed up by the amateur bondi.
Ethiopian "Oromo" (Oromo warrior ?) should be "Askari". Oromo is the name of an ethnic group. It would be like calling the German UU "Swabian tank".
"Galleon" should be called "carrack" or just "sailing ship" (in the manner of plain old "galley") or perhaps "square-rigger". Galleons were sleek warships, which preyed on carracks, and were not themselves freighters or transports.
Which means the Portuguese...
"Carrack" should be called "nau".
And of course Praetorian should become Legionary.
There are other things I would rename too, but they would involve a troop-type change, that isn't likely too happen. (e.g the non-existent Arab camel archers... could just rename them "jund" I suppose. I don't mind camels coming out of the Sahara though as Tuaregs and Nobades. Even if they shouldn't have bows...)
The second concerns spawning natives and barbarians.
In North Africa, all horse archers IMO should be replaced by the Carthaginian UU equivalent (the Numidian unit). Shouldn't effect game play as they are essentially equivalent, but will actually look appropriate for the area. Horse from this area didn't use bows, whether 2nd century BC Numidians, or 15th century AD Songhai or Hausa. They used spears and javelins.
In the south of the Andes, the spawning dog-soldiers would better be represented by Holkan. These represent the southern Araucanians that the Inca couldn't subdue, and even Spain couldn't conquer until the 19th century. They were armed with long spears. After 1550 it would be appropriate to spawn them as "pikemen" rather than "spears" because by this time they had leant from the Spanish how to employ them in European-style tercio formations that could successfully resist the Spainsh mounted troops. (If these guys are still spawning post 1700, I'd transform them to Numidians, as they took up the horse when they moved east of the Andes). The only "problem" is that spears are not so tough against the Inca, once the Inca have bronze and therefore axes. So I would recommend they spawn as mixed groups of one dog soldier, two holkans/pikes. In the north of the Andes the guys spawning there should be one dog soldier and two archers. These Columbian guys weren't so tough, and were for the most part archers. Not very good ones at that.
In North America, I would keep the "Barbarians" as groups of 3 dog soldiers; I would make the "Natives" a mixture of 1 dog-soldier and 2 archers. Or maybe to give the same threat level, 1 dog-soldier and 3 archers. Archery was the prime tactic of most north American, as opposed to central American, native peoples.
Cheers, Luke
The first concerns a few unit names. Like many people I am irked by Legionaries being called Praetorians. That's probably the most egregious, simply because so many people are familiar with the Roman legions.
But here are some others that I think really should change:
Malian "skirmisher" should be "yam baka". (Every army has skirmishers, whether Roman, Rennaissance Spanish, or Napoleonic French - it's a description of a troop role, not type). Yam baka were the levy archers that formed the majority of some armies from the Western Sudan area that is encompassed by RFC "Mali").
Viking "beserk" should be "huscarl". Beserks were (sic, even their existence is disputed) a minuscule number of individuals. The professional warriors were huscarls (and spelling variants), backed up by the amateur bondi.
Ethiopian "Oromo" (Oromo warrior ?) should be "Askari". Oromo is the name of an ethnic group. It would be like calling the German UU "Swabian tank".
"Galleon" should be called "carrack" or just "sailing ship" (in the manner of plain old "galley") or perhaps "square-rigger". Galleons were sleek warships, which preyed on carracks, and were not themselves freighters or transports.
Which means the Portuguese...
"Carrack" should be called "nau".
And of course Praetorian should become Legionary.
There are other things I would rename too, but they would involve a troop-type change, that isn't likely too happen. (e.g the non-existent Arab camel archers... could just rename them "jund" I suppose. I don't mind camels coming out of the Sahara though as Tuaregs and Nobades. Even if they shouldn't have bows...)
The second concerns spawning natives and barbarians.
In North Africa, all horse archers IMO should be replaced by the Carthaginian UU equivalent (the Numidian unit). Shouldn't effect game play as they are essentially equivalent, but will actually look appropriate for the area. Horse from this area didn't use bows, whether 2nd century BC Numidians, or 15th century AD Songhai or Hausa. They used spears and javelins.
In the south of the Andes, the spawning dog-soldiers would better be represented by Holkan. These represent the southern Araucanians that the Inca couldn't subdue, and even Spain couldn't conquer until the 19th century. They were armed with long spears. After 1550 it would be appropriate to spawn them as "pikemen" rather than "spears" because by this time they had leant from the Spanish how to employ them in European-style tercio formations that could successfully resist the Spainsh mounted troops. (If these guys are still spawning post 1700, I'd transform them to Numidians, as they took up the horse when they moved east of the Andes). The only "problem" is that spears are not so tough against the Inca, once the Inca have bronze and therefore axes. So I would recommend they spawn as mixed groups of one dog soldier, two holkans/pikes. In the north of the Andes the guys spawning there should be one dog soldier and two archers. These Columbian guys weren't so tough, and were for the most part archers. Not very good ones at that.
In North America, I would keep the "Barbarians" as groups of 3 dog soldiers; I would make the "Natives" a mixture of 1 dog-soldier and 2 archers. Or maybe to give the same threat level, 1 dog-soldier and 3 archers. Archery was the prime tactic of most north American, as opposed to central American, native peoples.
Cheers, Luke
