The same will be true in Albania, where the more isolated and rural areas in which the Ottomans or Italians or Serbs never really spent much effort trying to subdue or interbreed with the goat-herders of the hills will be closer to the Illyrian ethnicity than the people of Durres or Tirana, where they experienced much more cultural mixing.
Anyway, I just wanted to say that while all ethnic Albanians are not descended from the Illyrians, many are, just as there are some Egyptians descended from the aincents, although theres been Arab, Turk, Greek, French, English, Nubian and probably several other invasions and mixings in the interim.
jlocke, you really are enlightened!
Illyrians were split up in tribes and competed with other. This is true with the Albanians, and unity (except for the rebellion against the Turks led by Gjergj Kastrioti) didn't come until around the 20th century.
Now, Albania has mountainous terrain and lowlands. Northern Albania has a region called "Malsia e Madhe" (the Great Highlands), which was split up with half of the region given to Montenegro by Europe in 1878. These mountaineers (until very recently) still lived in their elaborate tribal systems. They were cut off, pretty much, from the rest of the world; for this reason they are culturally rich and maintained older traditions while other Albanians in the lowlands interacted with different civilizations and adopted new ways of life. The tribal differences I mentioned above have evolved into regional differences which can still plague Albanian unity today.
These mountaineers that I speak of were practically declared "enemies of the people" by the communist dictator, Enver Hoxha. They were members of the Catholic Church which the communist regime deemed as a threat, so they were executed. It was these mountaineers that provided the sole resistance to communism in Albania and it was these mountaineers that killed communists. Thus, they were not only killed, but there was discrimination against them: southerners, more influenced by Greek culture, lived in cities and not in the tribal mountains like the north. They were more "modernized" and thus considered the mountaineers to be largely uneducated and "backwards."
This is a very sensitive subject because of the disunity and centuries old tribal competition that it entails. But, on the same token, it shows that these "backwards" northerners largely maintained the traditions of their Illyrian ancestors. They were largely innacessible to conquerors and were able to slowly develop "untouched." During the Ottoman Empire's occupation some of these tribes made constant warfare on the empire's armies, running on 'seasonal calendars,' decimating Turkish soldiers by Spring and Summer, then going back into their mountains for Fall and Winter.
These mountains are what saved the Illyrian and Albanian identities throughout the 33 armed invasions that the people have endured. Lowland areas were much more accessible and of course were more likely to be mixed, assimilated, etj.
I don't think that was the right way to balance the unit because of the concept you wanted of it. The problem in balance was caused by the fact that you didn't consider that hit-and-run units have generally considerably lower strength than regular units. I would have kept the 3 movements and flanking I at the cost of 2 strength points.
First, I'de like to thank you for offering your thoughts and suggestions about the balance of the UU.
Now, that is what I thought originally, lowering the strength to allow for the aforementioned stats. However, it is misleading. Let me tell you why: historically, Albanians have been much fewer in number, but stronger warriors. [This is true in some aspects even today, but the technology needed to become a "strong warrior" on today's battlefield largely makes this untrue.]
I have the most definitive work [that I know] of Gjergj Kastrioti's battles against the Ottoman Empire. The stats for the Kalorse I got from this book. It is not that they were inferior warriors that hit-and-ran, it is that they were brave, fearless warriors that had the element of surprise that attacked-and-withdrew. They employed these tactics mostly on stationary Ottoman forces, such as those situated in an Ottoman camp outside the fortress they were attempting to besiege: Kruja. But, in other instances, a small amount of such forces were able to route much larger Ottoman armies.
Later I will look through this book and copy down some passages to show you what I mean. And, for what they did, I believe the current stats of the Kalorse are fair (they should have a much higher withdrawal chance but I have to think about balance; don't worry though, they will be optimized in the scenario I'm creating of Gjergj Kastrioti vs. the Ottoman Empire
)
![[civ4]](/images/smilies/civ4.gif "Civ4 [civ4]")
. 
