Flavor Units Project

Kryten and I have been discussing the pack a bit lately through e-mail, and he had a fantastic idea for it that will really cut down on creation time.

And I want you to either provide a link for me for pictures that are online, OR if they're taken from a book, magazine, etc. then upload them to CivFanatics, and give me that link and I'll check it out.

If it works, and if I get enough that I can post them as one complete set of pictures, I will. To cut down on disorganization.

Good unit concept suggestions and names will be included in the big ol' list we've got over there...

Next Picture Pack: Tibetans


All of these next pics were taken during the 1940s up to 1950. All of these uniforms and weapons were the actual Tibetan army as it stood in this time period. Terribly out of date.



More Tibetan foot soldiers.



Tibetan soldiers with more elaborate dress.



The Tibetan cavalry.




The militia... these are the guys that didn't quite cut it for the regular army...



Yes, they rode yaks into battle sometimes. Of course, there's no battle here... actually, this photo was taken in the very early 1900s during a British expedition to Central Asia. Tibet was an integral player in what the imperial powers referred to as The Great Game... the power struggle for Central Asia between Russia, Britain, and to some extent China.



The end of an era. No these are not occupying Chinese forces. These are Tibetans. After a preliminary diplomatic mission from China that the Tibetans very courteously expelled, they rapidly prepared for what they knew would follow. This modernization and westernization of their army was a decent but futile attempt to meet the 20th century standards of military. It was too little and far too late. Truly sad...

Hmmm... these pictures don't seem to be coming up..... well, I have to go, but I'll try to figure it out later... buh bye!

Sorry just to bump in like this.

But i saw the english list was missing SM excellent harrier jet as a jet fighter replacement or am i just being inaccurate?

No, I'd say that works... I'll change it right now. Thanks

OK, I think (not 100% sure yet though ) I got it.

First a few things.

- Mongolians should actually be Mongols (not very PC otherwise)
- For Arabian galleon you could use embryodead's Dhow (even though it was used mostly in the Indian ocean), maybe it could be used by India too.
- Zulu : Utah did a fine Dawa soldier for guerilla or modern infantry
- French : Sworsdman could be Frankish axeman (actually in-between swordsman and medieval infantry), troubadour would do a fine scout (actually for Middle-Ages).
- Hebrews : Utah started a perfect Hebrews spearman (just lacking the David star), you should try to convince him to either give you the model or finsih the unit...

Now a few things : I am currently working on three projects, two of which would definitely fit here): Warring States Chinese Spear + Mongol Longbow (actually this one is on hold until your pack comes out ). Here are their pictures :




Consider they are on the drawing board

I've never seen this Hebrew spearman... hmm.

Yes, I was thinking about putting the Dawa for guerilla. Not for modern infantry since there is no modern infantry in Civ3... but personally, I have it in that roll in my mod.

I hesitated on utah's Frankish axeman because I heard a lot of comments that it wasn't very historically accurate and that it really was more of a Viking unit, and with that shock of red hair, I might tend to agree...

As for the Scout, a European Scout has been proposed and Kal-el drew up some sketches, so maybe we can expect to see it in the next version of DyP.

And that's cool about the Chinese units... we need those badly. Actually I got this book about Warfare on the Steppes covering the Mongols, Chinese, Tibetans, etc. and I've collected a lot of good names to fill spots.

And yes, I should put the Dhow in ... although, isn't a little small to be a Galleon replacement?

Dhow : well, technically it was a bit in-between caravel and galleon (and it is still used today) but since embryodead gave it a cannon attack....

The Frankish axeman is rather accurate, even if it was not representative of the entire period. It is very specific and Franks are at the origin of France (Germany too actually) whose name is coming from them.

Sorry the pictures don't show (they were in another thread of mine anyway). I am waiting for your pack for the Mongol bowmen !!

For pictures I could show you tons of but most would just be coming from dbaol.com/wargaming.net

Lou, if you spell the pic-links correct I think they will show. There's a difference between a Spear and a spear.

Originally posted by mrtn
Lou, if you spell the pic-links correct I think they will show. There's a difference between a Spear and a spear.

Click to expand...

Thanks !
(as if size did matter )

Alrighty, I finally got the Tibetan photos running... except for two... I think that made have been a problem when uploading... which I can't fix from this machine.

To watch Khartoum the other day gave me this idea : Egyptian rifleman with Fez (actually of Turkish origin), the ones who fought (and died) with Gordon.

I still have to work on the hat and cloth, but it would look like this, should I carry on ?

Carry on, good man! Carry on!





EDIT: Fixed the militia pic for the Tibetans.

i made the African Rifleman, African Horseman and African Marines. They're all on the same thread

Hi, thanks for the African units sims...


I would've responded sooner but I've been on "vacation" for a few days.

Also, a question for everybody: Do you think that the flavor units should, for some civilizations, be based on real world units or on what these units might have looked like if uninterrupted?

For example, the Egyptians. Much of their later units will be based on Arab-style units because they became an Arab country based in Islam. Or their units could be fictitious units based on what they would look like if the ORIGINAL Egyptians had not been replaced... if the pharaohs had remained and their old culture had remained intact.

Similarly for the Romans... go with fictitious Roman units, or Italian units?

Mughal units for India during the Middle Ages? There's really not a huge difference on a Civ3 scale between the Mughal Indian troops and Indian troops of previous eras.

Arab-style units for the Babylonians and Persians? Or keep to their original cultural style?

Personally, I feel there's an argument for either. Though I will say that sticking with historically-based Middle Ages and Industrial units for these ancient civilizations makes it easier for unit creators because then some units can be used for multiple civs and also because without concept sketches submitted by interested people for fictitious units, they have to rely on historical art for reference.

Not satisfied with my dictatorial authority over this thread (since I am the only one who can alter my own posts), I've created a discussion group at Yahoo! Groups where this can be discussed further....

People can open their own topics about flavor unit ideas and such.

The link is in my sig. I hope to see somebody join!

I think if the civ "transformed" into a modern state then go with that new nations units, i.e. Rome>Italy

Really nice work, thanks

For the Zulus and any other African Civ, there are several units that could be considered "flavor" units (simply, they are black-skinned equivalents.

Embryodead has done a terrific job africanizing the Warrior, Spearman, Swordsman, Scout and Archer.
Sims2789 has converted the Marine and the Rifleman to black skin colours, and the end result is quite satisfying. However, the sound doesn't work with them (it only requires short changes done on the .ini file)
I have just finished my first unit, the African Infantryn which is simply the infantry unit with a black skin; I think I have reached a satisfying quality with it.

I'll be slowly working on other units to africanize them, and I'll let you know once I finish them .

I think it would be good to have modern leaders ( looking like Businessmen or Businesswomen for example) in order to have era-specific leaders... It could be interesting to create a MF unit with for example a leader ( businessman ) with a secretary and a bodyguard ... just some ideas like that ...

I like your creations ....