Civilopedia work

Did some buildings.


ARMOURY
An armory is a building in which weapons and ammunition are distributed, stored, maintained, or produced.

While dedicated armories have existed throughout history, the need for them increased significantly with the development of interchangeable parts and the mechanically intricate workings of modern firearms. Swords, bows, and even muskets could conceivably be maintained using only conveniently portable tools, but machined components for a rifle or machine gun require concentrated facilities.

The increasingly elaborate organization of armories and arsenals has formed a key element of the rise of logistics in modern militaries. An army with large, well-organized, well-maintained stockpiles of weapons has a major advantage over an irregular or ill-equipped force that lacks them.



BATHS
A bath is a system for cleaning various forms of dirt or filth by use of water.

Bathing is a common (though not universal) human custom. It is both pleasurable and utilitarian; it ensures that the body is not covered in noxious substances, and is often considered highly relaxing. It can also kill pests and parasites by submersion in water, especially with the addition of various soaps and other chemical substances.

Primitive societies generally bathe in naturally occurring bodies of water, but this is impractical in a large city. Even if customs permit the level of public undress this would require, there would be too many people making use of the same water supply. Therefore, public, communal bathing systems and bathhouses were a popular and common form of public infrastructure in large cities.

Examples of public bathing infrastructure were found in (but not necessarily limited to) the ancient Indus valley, in classical Greece and (famously) Rome, in Japan and the Ottoman Empire, in Indonesia, and in Scandinavia up to the present day.

Public (and indeed private) bathing declined in Europe during the Middle Ages due to religious strictures encouraging increased body modesty and condemning bathhouses as sites for prostitution. However, increased awareness of sanitary needs and greater availability of fresh water in the industrial era led to a resurgence, first of publicly available baths that allowed relatively greater privacy than in Roman times, and later of private bathing facilities in every individual home with the rise of indoor plumbing.




CEMETERY
A cemetery is a plot of land allocated for burying the bodies of the dead.

Not all cultures practice burial of their dead, but it is nonetheless common. Setting aside a specific area of land for this purpose makes it easier to arrange funeral ceremonies, easier to ensure the graves are not disturbed by construction or other activities, and easier for attendants to secure the graves from unwanted access.

It is common for graves to be marked with stone markers, statuary, or mausoleums of varying size; all these features can be found in burial grounds throughout the world. In some cases, individuals are buried with certain types of goods (weapons, tools, precious metals); in other cases, they are not. The unifying feature is that cemeteries serve as a symbolic and ceremonial center for humans' interaction with the legacy of their dead.


CINEMA
A cinema or 'movie theater' is a facility designed to allow moving pictures to be displayed to large audiences, typically by use of a large projection screen.

Movie theaters emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the most convenient way to make a profit from the silent films of the era. They were often set up with facilities such as musical instruments or phonograph players to accompany the silent film- and later with sound systems of varying types after 'talkies' took over from silent movies.

Movie theaters remained one of the most common forms of entertainment throughout the twentieth century, serving as one the main vehicles for popular culture in the developed world. Today, with widespread technology for individual viewing of moving pictures in the home or on portable devices, the movie theater still holds its own, due to the social nature of viewing the movie in a public space, and due to the larger-than-life quality of seeing events unfold on the gigantic "silver screen."


CIVIC SQUARE

A 'square,' in urban planning, is a large open space in the middle of a city, placed at an intersection of transportation lanes, but considerably larger than is strictly required for the needs of the intersection itself.

Virtually all inhabited cities of significant size have recognizable large, 'main streets' that evolved either by deliberate advance planning, or by natural flow of traffic forcing builders to leave wide paths for goods and travelers. The sides of these streets are generally extremely attractive to business owners, advertisers, street vendors, and the like. However, while such operations are an economic necessity to the life of the city, allowing them to operate freely would tend to block the flow of traffic.

One solution to this problem is the creation of 'squares,' large flat areas free of major construction. In such a square, merchants can set up shop freely on a temporary basis, vendors can wander, and the general population can mingle.

As squares become more established and enshrined in a city's culture, it is common for some of them to be repurposed. Monumental architecture in the square is likely to get much attention, so it becomes a favorite place to construct statues and memorials. In some cities, a particular square may be placed in front of the royal palace, or in another key political location, from which political leadership can address the masses... or in which the masses themselves can directly discuss the issues. This serves to strengthen the ties between the general public and the ruling elite, and creates a stronger sense of collective 'ownership' of the state, even when the state itself is a totalitarian dictatorship.



CLINIC

A clinic is a facility for treatment of health issues. In traditional modern parlance a clinic usually refers to a facility that cares for 'outpatients' who enter and leave under their own power, as opposed to a 'hospital' where dangerously ill patients can stay for days while being tended by nurses.

Clinics provide a valuable first line of defense in the health care system, providing preventative maintenance, medical advice, and treatment for a variety of issues such as dental problems, broken bones and muscle injuries, and low-level infectious diseases.




CONSTABULARY

A constabulary is a standing body of law enforcement officials charged with keeping the peace, arresting criminals, and otherwise acting as a civilian enforcement arm of the law.

The idea of civilian law enforcement as a neutral body of servants of the state, as opposed to being the personal minions of individual rulers or magistrates, is tied into the concept of constitutional law. The law authorizes the creation of officials whose office is, in itself, to enforce those laws, and these enforcers are to be loyal not to the ruler, but to the law itself.

When this principle is properly enforced and established, it has tremendous social benefits. The "social capital" and public trust of a society are strengthened when people of all classes and races can be confident that the police are enforcing the laws fairly. Doing business on an honest, reliable basis becomes easier and safer. Private citizens have less to fear in their daily lives.

Efficient, orderly, enforcement of the rule of law is one of the cornerstones of civilization in the modern developed world.




DISTILLERY

A distillery is a facility which produces highly concentrated forms of liquid chemicals, through the use of boiling.

The art of distillation emerged during the classical era, and was first applied by alchemists seeking to concentrate a variety of the new substances they had discovered, and also to accomplish goals such as the creation of highly purified water.

One of the earliest results of this study that survived to modern times was in the Muslim world, where alchemists discovered distilled essences of varying kinds. These became known in Europe as "alcohols," and in particular the distilled essence of intoxicating fermented drinks became known as "alcohol of wine." Due to the wild popularity of this discovery, and the development of more sophisticated chemical vocabulary in the 1800s, the very "alcohol" soon became synonymous with the intoxicating compound found in beer, wine, and other such drinks.

Purification of alcohol, or increasing the concentration of alcohol in an existing solution, remains a major application of distillation to this day. However, other applications have emerged over time; distillation can separate gases or liquids from a mixture such as air or crude oil. Today, gasoline is produced by distilling out different fractions from the raw oil, for instance.



HOTEL

A hotel is a large structure in which furnished rooms suitable for sleeping are made available for short term rent.

Hotels have existed in some form throughout recorded history. However, prior to the rise of rail and steamship travel in the 19th century, travel was typically slow enough that travelers' lodgings would be decentralized affairs. As the upper and middle classes gained more access to fast transportation, it became more necessary to accomodate itinerant travelers who would literally be "here today, gone tomorrow," in accordance to a predictable schedule.

This gradually led to the evolution of the hotel in its modern form- a large, typically multi-story building with individual rooms or small suites for one or more guests, including bathing facilities, a bed, and various other amenities. Rooms are generally cleaned and maintained by a permanent hotel staff, with clerks present at all hours of day and night to track the flow of guests in and out of the building and to reserve rooms for future clients. While the details vary (and prices can vary by as much as an order of magnitude depending on quality), hotels following this basic outline can be found throughout the modern world.

Since travelers depend on professional hotel services to keep a roof over their heads, hotels have become an indispensible part of modern travel. Having a network of well-maintained hotels helps transform a given city into a nexus of travel for both business and pleasure.



KILN

A kiln is a large oven designed to reach intense heat, for the purpose of producing chemical changes in a material.

One of the earliest applications of kilns was the 'firing' of ceramics such as pottery and bricks. The firing process 'sinters' the individual grains of porous clay together into a single solid surface. As a result, fired pottery is relatively impervious to water and relatively easy to clean, making it a good choice for storing liquids, as well as things like seed grain that must be kept thoroughly dry. Kiln-fired bricks are harder and more waterproof, likewise making them desirable.

Kilns are also used in traditional societies to process ores, to anneal glass, to produce charcoal, to make substances such as lime and cement, along with other uses. As a result of this, they represent a vital part of the industrial infrastructure of a premodern society, critical to the production of commercial goods that are indispensible to even a Bronze Age way of life.

However, kilns often produce choking quantities of smoke, sometimes foul-smelling, demand massive amounts of fuel (wood, in premodern environments), and sometimes produce toxic 'slag' as byproducts of the firing process. Therefore, they were often pushed out to the outskirts of a community, operated by low-caste workers or slaves.
 
Ah it's so good having all these gaps filled. Thank you so much.
 
Sea units!



GALLEY

A galley is a ship powered mainly by rowing, though one or more sails may be used.

Consistent with this means of propulsion, the hull of a galley is usually long (to allow inclusion of many oars), low-slung, and slender (to limit the weight the rowers propel). The galley is not a particularly efficient vessel for carrying cargo, due to the great need for provisions to supply the rowers. However, galleys are very well suited for transporting large numbers of able-bodied men, so long as those men are prepared to row! Thus, early galleys often served as combination troop-transports and warships.

Galleys generally had between one and three banks of oars, with one leading to the simplest construction style, but with two or three banks permitting broader, taller ships that could carry more goods or be more dangerous in battle.

Galleys were extremely well suited to the sheltered, island-dotted waters of the Mediterranean Sea. However, their large, heavily worked crews demanded constant feeding and watering stops, and the low, narrow hull of a galley was vulnerable in a storm. Therefore, many other parts of the world relied less heavily on oared warships than did Mediterranean civilizations such as the Egyptians, Greeks, Phoenicians, and Romans.

Even after the decline of the Roman Empire, ships built on the basic hull plan of the galley remained dominant in Mediterranean warfare until the 17th century AD, although they went out of style a few centuries earlier on the Atlantic, due to the impossibility of mounting heavy broadside cannons on a galley.




WAR GALLEY (as opposed to regular cargo galley)

Organized naval warfare involved a few basic adaptations to early galley-type ships. The galley was the first type of ship to be heavily modified for war. Introduced by the ancient Egyptians to raid the Levant, galleys were powered by banks of oars on each side, manned by oarsmen. High-quality rowers meant a faster ship, so warships generally used highly paid professionals or patriotic citizens when possible.

The galley's main armament was generally a large metallic 'beak' at the bow, intended to ram and sink enemy vessels. The galley's other means of fighting an enemy generally relied on the sailors themselves, who would be equipped with bows, slings, spears, swords, axes, and often with shields that could be used both in personal combat and to protect the rowers from the enemy's arrows. In the Hellenistic era it was sometimes possible to mount mechanical artillery on a galley as well, but this rarely had much effect on the enemy compared to ramming, archery, and boarding by infantry with hand weapons.

Galleys tended to be lightly constructed and were long compared to their width, both of which made them unseaworthy. As a result, early galleys seldom ventured out of sight of land.






PIRATE

A 'pirate' is a mariner who devotes themselves to robbing and plundering other mariners. This practice of robbery may also extend to anyone else so unfortunate as to find themselves near a coastline and within reach of the pirate's weapons.

It is reasonable to assume that piracy has been practiced for as long as humans have used the oceans for commerce. Piracy has been documented as early as the 14th century BC in the Western world, where it was practiced against the Egyptians, Mycenean Greeks, and others, by the "Sea Peoples."

For most of naval history, piracy occurred on a routine basis and was a major hazard for seafarers and coastal settlements of all kinds. Many nominally peaceful merchants and explorers armed themselves to defend against pirate attacks... and then gave in to the temptation to use their weapons to commit piracy against others. Accusations of piracy have been levied against virtually every major seafaring people to emerge in human history, and these accusations are generally true.



COG

A cog is a flat-bottomed ship of Northern European design, ancestral to many modern sailing ship designs.

A cog can carry a reasonably large volume of goods for its tonnage. Its flat bottom and relatively high sides are suitable for being towed into or over a sandbank into difficult harbors and through coastal waters. The cog is seaworthy enough to survive Atlantic weather, although not well suited for journeys far away from the coast. It can also be modified with large 'castles' at the bow and stern for defense in naval combat, although these tend to make the cog more unstable in bad weather.

The cog was a common workhorse of the medieval period at sea, until being supplanted by types such as the hulk, the galleon, and the fluyt.


CLIPPER

A clipper is an extremely fast square-rigged sailing ship, with a narrow, streamlined hull and sails that were very large relative to the ship's tonnage.

The clipper was best suited to long range sailing from one continent to another, where its ability to travel at a good 'clip' and move a few knots faster than other sailing ships could result in weeks or even months of total time being 'clipped' off a voyage. Clipper ships could cover tremendous ocean distances under sail in relatively short times, setting a number of sailing speed records not broken until the 1980s.

Clippers dominated the trade between the east and west coasts of the United States, and the trade between both the US and Europe on the one hand, and Asia and Australia on the other, throughout the early and mid-19th century. These trade routes could require a ship to travel ten thousand miles or more, each way, and a typical sailing ship could do so at no more than ten miles an hour. Clipper captains, with ships built for speed and the willingness to USE that speed, could generally get their ships back to port in much more favorable time.

However, this came with some drawbacks. The narrow clippers were usually limited to carrying small cargoes, and therefore traded in the highest-value commodities (opium, spices, mail, passengers, and comparatively fresh tea). Moreover, it required crews of great size and skill to handle the very large sailing rigs, and to ruthlessly wring all possible speed out of the rig in dangerous weather.

Nonetheless, the clippers dominated the long range luxury trade on the world's oceans up through the 1860s. Some of the last of the clippers were actually built with iron hulls rather than wood, representing the transitional era between sail and steam. Similar evolution was seen in the bulkier windjammer ships, as well.

What finally put an end to the dominance of the clipper was the construction of the Suez Canal. The canal allowed European sailors to shave thousands of miles off a journey to the Far Eastern ports of Asia and Australia, but weak, inconsistent winds made it impossible for a sailing ship to use the canal safely. Henceforth, sea commerce would be dominated by ships with steam engines... which made it increasingly uneconomical to bother with the labor-intensive and heavy sailing rig used by a clipper.

Clippers retained at least some utility specifically on the run from Britain to Australia, which used no canal and which profited from the clipper's extremely high speed (still superior to that of a steamship). Thus, sailing vessels continued to be used in this role on a limited scale into the early 20th century.
 
And buildings!



MILL

"Mill" is generally used to refer to an industrial facility characterized by its reliance on a mechanical source of power built into the structure of the facility.

The earliest known mills date back to Roman times; the Romans built large water-powered facilities to grind grain and process iron ore. In the early Middle Ages in Europe the art of milling was largely lost, and was rediscovered after about the year 1000 AD.

Reliance on water and wind power for industrial purposes followed similar trajectories in other lands, generally without the hiatus which occurred in Europe after the fall of Rome.

Water-powered mills in particular played a major role in the early phases of the Industrial Revolution in Europe. While perhaps not as seemingly 'high tech' as steam engines, the power of a flowing river or waterfall could be every bit as forceful and far more reliable. Thus, in many areas, the early centers of industrial production were those areas with convenient access to mechanical water power, which could be used to grind grain, spin cloth, turn lathes, and perform other tasks for which early machine power was needed.




MUSEUM

A museum is an institution dedicated to the preservation of cultural and historical relics.

The first "museum," so named for its dedication to the Nine Muses of Greek Mythology, was founded in Alexandria by the Ptolemaic dynasty during the Hellenistic Era. It was in many ways more like a modern institute for advanced studies than what we now call a 'museum.'

Modern museums, as distinct from display halls for the personal property of elite members of society, are mostly a phenomenon of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Public access to the museums was gradually broadened as they evolved from being kept 'collections' and also became facilities for displaying the artifacts and educating the public on their significance.

Associated with the rise of archaeology and the investigation of our ancient past, and with the spread of higher levels of literacy among the general public, museums serve to keep and preserve relevant historical artifacts, often placing them on display for the public.

Today there are museums of varying size on almost every subject imaginable that relates to our past, including but not limited to art, history, paleontology and ancient life, the sciences, technology, and various crafts.




NEWS PRESS

A 'press' is an instrument that copies text onto a background such as paper using physical pressure. The printing press as we know it today was invented in Europe in the 1400s, with some earlier examples of less commercial success but comparable technical innovation around the world.

At first, printing was used mainly to mass-produce books. However, it soon became apparent that printing could also be used to produce, on one or a few sheets of paper, cheap copies of advertisements, essays, or a regularly issued release of whatever events were of local interest. This last became known as a 'newspaper.'

The first known printed newspaper was published in Strasbourg by Johann Carolus in 1605 (along with, within twelve weeks, the first editorial grumbling about the difficulty and expense of operating a newspaper). The practice of printing newspapers spread gradually over the 1600s. Early newspapers were often extremely propagandistic, sensational, and selective in their coverage, but over time a degree of what we now call journalistic ethics began to emerge- usually.

Improvements in printing press technology allowed production of newspapers for the masses to begin in the 1800s; the advent of telegraphy in the 1840s further allowed news from across the nation to be put into a single daily paper every day. Over time the modern newspaper with its corps of reporters, typesetters, copy-editors, and so forth took shape.

Virtually every city and town in the developed world would produce a newspaper on a daily or at least weekly basis, to be distributed en masse to a large minority (or majority) of the population as their main means of informing themselves about local and world events.

Advances in radio and television took away some of the newspaper's uniqueness as a means of spreading information to the masses, but did not destroy the newspaper as an institution. Today's development of the Internet may be presenting still further danger to the newspaper's business model; it remains uncertain how organized daily news agencies will adapt to changing circumstances in the 21st century.



PARK

A park is a large open space filled with a natural, semi-natural, or cultivated environment.

Parks are often found in the middle of an urban or suburban area, to provide contrast with the surrounding built-up setting. Such parks are typically landscaped with decorative and utilitarian plants, and contain facilities for outdoor play and meals such as picnics.

In addition to grasses, shrubs, trees, and bodies of water, parks may contain playing fields for athletics, monuments, fountains, playground structures for small children, and trails for walking or cycling.

In less densely populated areas, parks tend to double as wilderness reserves, allowing large tracts of unspoiled land to be maintained for the sake of ecological preservation.





SOLAR PLANT

Solar power uses the energy of direct sunlight to generate electrical energy.

Solar energy is typically gathered through one of two basic methods. One is solar-thermal, in which the sun's rays are concentrated in a specific location through the use of mirrors until the heat is great enough to boil water. The boiling water then drives turbines which run electric generators.

The other method is to use 'panels' of photovoltaic materials. Being struck by light causes electrons to flow in these materials, generating a steady electric current.

Both methods have varying advantages and disadvantages. Among the advantages are that solar power requires few or no moving parts and emits no harmful gases or other pollution, aside from that associated with manufacturing the panels themselves. Among the disadvantages is the obvious one that power derived from sunlight is not available at night, is of limited availability on cloudy or misty days, and is available only for a short time or at unfavorable angles in the polar regions or during winter.

The massive supply of sunlight striking the Earth's surface (including in utterly unpopulated, desert regions, and the surface of the sea) makes solar power an attractive choice for providing human energy needs into the distant future, as fossil fuel availability diminishes. The key challenges to be overcome are:

1) Storing massive amounts of energy, comparable to those released by nuclear explosions, overnight. This needed so that solar plants can 'charge up' our storage infrastructure so that it can provide electricity at times of low or no sunlight.

2) Producing solar panels at a cost that makes them broadly competitive with energy-rich fuels such as coal and uranium.

3) Supplying any rare metals needed for production of the panels, and

4) Establishing long-range transmission infrastructure so that efficient solar plants in sunny regions can be used to provide power in foggy, cloudy, or high-latitude regions.
 
Some unique units!

[Namely, the ones I could do more or less off the top of my head without further research]








ATLATL

An atlatl is a handheld stick designed to assist in throwing spears. A short dart or javelin is fitted into the stick, which is then swung forcefully. This effectively extends the length of the user's throwing arm, allowing them to achieve a higher speed with a thrown spear. This permits ranges of up to 250 meters, far greater than is practical with a hand-thrown spear or for that matter most bows and arrows.

Various versions of this device appear to have been in use since the mid-Paleolithic era. Native American peoples made extensive use of the atlatl in hunting and war; the word comes from the Aztec name for the weapon.

Crafting effective atlatl darts could be challenging and required fine craftsmanship, but the darts were very effective weapons and proved capable of penetrating Spanish chain mail when conquistadors arrived in the New World.






BLOWGUNNER

A blowgun is a narrow pipe. A fletched dart is loaded into the breech of the blowgun, and the user blows into the pipe, propelling the dart out the muzzle in much the same way that a bullet is propelled out of a gun.

The blowgun is an extremely quiet and unobtrusive way to launch a ranged attack, making it desirable for hunting. It comes with the major drawback that the human lungs cannot power a large or high-velocity dart.

Therefore, the blowgun is limited to short-range attacks, and the small size of the darts makes them relatively harmless to a man-sized opponent. The typical solution is to tip the darts with poison, making them ferociously lethal and turning the blowgun into a devastating ambush weapon.

The blowgun was used by many peoples, especially in southeast Asia and by the Native Americans.






GEOBUKSEON

The geobukseon or 'turtle ship' was a special type of coast-defense galley pioneered by the Korean Navy in the 15th and 16th centuries to defend against raiding Japanese fleets.

In most respect the turtle ships were similar to traditional war galleys of the Far East, with high vertical sides, a variety of cannons (including one or more heavy guns in the dramatic dragon-head figurehead at the bow), a limited number of oars to improve maneuverability, and a substantial complement of soldiers.

Unconventional aspects of the turtle ship included the smoke-screen device built into the dragon head, and a fully enclosed deck that covered the crew from above. This unique feature served to protect the crew from small arms fire, incendiary weapons, and enemy boarding parties- these last being greatly discouraged by the sharp iron spikes built into the 'turtle shell.'

Some have asserted that the turtle ships' decks were made of iron and acted as heavy armor, but this is deemed unlikely by most scholars, as it would have been staggeringly expensive and made the ships dangerously top-heavy. Moreover, Japanese naval tactics of this era made virtually no use of heavy cannons, so heavy iron armor would not have been useful- whereas spikes and a thick wooden roof would have been.

Nevertheless, the turtle ships were powerful, dangerous short-range combatants. They were highly maneuverable, well armed, virtually impossible for the Japanese to stop due to their lack of artillery, and proved immensely effective at defending the Korean coast during Yi Sun-Sin's campaign to defend against Japanese attack in the 1590s.





MAN OF WAR

During the age of fighting sail and blackpowder cannons, the English (later British) Royal Navy proved itself to be the single most powerful (and largest) war fleet of its era.

Combining technological innovation, access to a large pool of skilled sailors, and a growing tradition of professionalism in the officer corps, the British fleets of the late 1600s and the 1700s routinely defeated equal or larger forces of rival warships from Spain, France, and the Netherlands.

While British warships of the period were generally not more heavily armed than their rivals, they often had better-trained crews, officers with more combat experience, and a deep reservoir of confidence that kept them fighting in the face of adversity.




SAVARAN

The Persian Empire pioneered the use of heavy, armored cavalry in classical times. Even before the invention of the stirrup, the Persians cultivated a class of aristocratic warriors whose skills with hand weapons and the bow combined with their ability to afford heavy armor and fast horses.

Persian cavalry were one of the few forces that proved able to persistently score victories against the Roman legions on the field of battle. Ultimately, the Eastern Roman Empire was forced to evolve its cataphract cavalry specifically to counter the Persian threat.






VIET CONG

The Vietnamese began their war of independence against the French immediately after World War Two, when the French sought to regain control of a colony they had abandoned to Japan five years earlier while their own homeland was under German rule.

The Vietnamese rebels, dominated by the communists under Ho Chi Minh, proved extremely effective guerilla fighters, both against the French and against the US troops who entered Vietnam in the 1960s.

Both the Viet Cong guerillas and the North Vietnamese Army regulars were remarkably willing to endure privations in the field. They were experts at creating defensive entrenchments and tunnel networks to conceal their operations, and at 'hit and run' tactics that allowed them to fade back into the jungles and forests of the country.

Ultimately, the endurance, cunning, and resourcefulness of the North Vietnamese soldier proved more than either the French or the Americans were prepared to overcome, and more than the rival South Vietnamese government could resist. As a result, the country was consolidated under communist rule in 1975.




YEOMAN

Perhaps the most formidable medieval archers of Western history were the English longbowmen.

Archery was not only a common tactical practice among the English, it also found its way into their cultural traditions, as with the story of Robin Hood, a legendary bandit who (according to the legend) used his great skill at archery to protect and avenge the common English people against high-handed and aggressive government.

English longbows were cut from the wood of the yew tree, which was unusually well suited to bowmaking. Moreover, there was a large class of prosperous English farmers ('yeomen') for whom the longbow was a traditional weapon. As the Robin Hood tradition might suggest, the yeomen farmers considered themselves to be above the normal oppressed lot of European peasantry- partly because they had the wealth to make use of leisure time.

Many of the yeomanry used that leisure time to practice archery, and indeed some kings mandated that they do so, as the yeoman archers were seen as a key part of the defenses of the realm. From early childhood to achieve high accuracy, range, and rate of fire with their heavy bows. As a result, they could unleash devastating barrages of arrow fire into a targeted area. At closer range, the archers were still dangerous, defending themselves with hedges of stakes and heavy mauls.

The longbows of the English yeomanry proved a powerful asset for the English cause in the Hundred Years' War against France, inflicting tremendous slaughter against heavily armored French knights in a number of major battles, including the famous Battle of Agincourt in 1415.

English longbowmen were also highly sought after as mercenaries. However, the tactical value of the longbowmen began to decline after around 1500. Cannons and arquebuses could inflict considerable slaughter against an army of longbowmen, from comparable ranges- and an arquebusier could be trained in far less time. Eventually, the practice of archery largely faded from the English cultural landscape.
 
Some unique buildings!



BELLTOWER (russian lighthouse)

Russia, like many nations with a Christian religious tradition, has a rich tradition of using bells as musical instruments, to summon the people to worship, to proclaim important events, and to bolster the confidence of worshippers about the joy and power of their religion.

Thus, bell towers were a common feature of Russian communities, generally associated with churches. Tsarist Russia maintained a thriving industry for casting bells from bronze, often with silver alloyed into the metal, and used designs that differed from those of Western nations. The Russians cast bells of prodigious size and excelled in this field.

Russian Orthodox religion makes use of bell ringing as a sacred function, and use and polyrhythmical sequences of ringing to produce a wide variety of sounds from both individual bells and from sets of them. As a result, bell-ringing is a characteristically Russian art, one which was never completely extinguished even during the Soviet era when Russian Orthodox religion was severely out of favor and often suppressed.



BLAST FURNACE (nubian forge)
[Should be renamed BLOOMERY]

A blast furnace is a type of furnace used for smelting metals. In a blast furnace, the fuel, ore, and flux are supplied with a continuous hot blast of air from below to keep the fires burning hot and steadily...

[found that the ancient Nubians did not in point of fact use blast furnaces, they used the usual sort of ancient bloomeries, proceeded to write article on that instead. Now, the Haya people in Tanzania apparently had blast furnaces, but they're quite a ways to the south and it would be more appropriate to give them to the Ethiopians than to the Nubians...]

BLOOMERY

A bloomery is a type of traditional furnace used for smelting iron from iron ore. The bloomery consists of a pit with refractory walls, with one or more pipes at the bottom to allow air to enter.

Once charcoal and iron ore are made available and prepared for use, the bloomery is preheated, and the ore and charcoal are put in throught he top. The charcoal typically burns incompletely, producing hot carbon monoxide that strips oxygen atoms out of the iron ore. This process proceeds without melting the ore, which is important if the resulting iron is to be forged. A loss of temperature control causes the ore to absorb too much carbon from the fuel, at which point the resulting iron cannot be worked by forging.

When the process is performed correctly, the bloomery creates a porous mass of iron and slag, known as 'sponge iron,' which can then be consolidated by heating it until the slag melts, and then beating on it with a hammer until the molten slag flows out of the bloom. After repeating this process enough times, the bloom can be forged into strong, durable wrought iron.

It is possible to make steel in a bloomery by careful control of the conditions of the bloomery's operations.




CANDI (javan clinic)

'Candi' is an Indonesian word for 'temple.' However, it was also used to refer to many non-religious structures of pre-Muslim Indonesian times, including bathing pools.In their capacity as temples, a candi would follow typical Hindu architecture, symbolically recalling the divine mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods. The candi was thus devised into layers and zones separated by a hierarchical status. Indonesian temple architecture included a variety of distinct characteristics, however, that make it quite different from that of Indian Hindus.

[I am unable to find any specific reference to the 'candi' that would

explain why it replaces the clinic...]


CARAVANSERAI (kushan tavern)

A caravanserai is a roadside inn or resting-place for travelers to rest from their day's journey. The word comes from Persian and is a compound word meaning, roughly, "caravan palace" where 'palace' means simply 'building with enclosed courts.'

The caravanserai is typically a square or rectangular building with a wide gateway so that wagons or heavily laden pack animals can enter into a large open courtyard. They provide stalls to accomodate the merchants, their servants, their animals and their goods. Animal fodder, as well as food and water for the travelers, would also be available.

Caravanserais were a common feature throughout the Middle East, and were particularly indispensible aids to travelers on the long 'Silk Road' across the steppes and mountains of Central Asia. This unforgiving, arid region presents a formidable obstacle to travelers on foot, and the network of caravanserais founded by the Persians and expanded and maintained by their successors played a critical role in making the Silk Road into a flourishing trade route.


DJALI (mande post office)

'Djali' is a French transliteration of a West African term for a bard, storyteller, and/or historian. Such figures are also known as griots in areas outside the Mali Empire.The djali, like bards in other traditional societies, is a repository of stories both ancient and modern, a master (or mistress) of song, poetry, and prose. Djali typically married among themselves and represented a distinct caste. As a result of their role and cohesion, the djali exerted considerable influence.

In traditional Mande culture, the djali served to advise rulers, arbitrate disputes by reference to tradition, and recall cultural traditions. In the Mali Empire in particular, no ruler of note could be considered significant without having a personal djali.


DOJO (japanese barracks)

A dojo is a Japanese term meaning "place of the way," and refers to a center in which initiates are trained in the Japanese fighting arts, including unarmed combat, swordsmanship, archery, and other such 'ways-' although typically much of the teaching takes place outdoors or in other less ceremonially important locations.

The Japanese traditions surrounding the dojo are rich and complex. By custom, they are maintained, cleaned, and supported by the students who train there, rather than the traditional 'school' model in which the teaching staff maintain their own school.
 
Some unique units!



ATLAS ELEPHANT

The elephants of North Africa were related to the modern-day African bush elephant, though they may have been a separate species.

Native to northern Africa, these elephants were hunted into extinction in Roman times. They were, it is generally agreed, easier to tame than the formidable bush elephant (which cannot be tamed), as well as being smaller (on average).

Prior to their extinction, they were popular targets for domestication throughout the Mediterranean region. The Carthaginians made extensive use of them, as illustrated by Hannibal's incorporation of them into his army when he crossed the Alps to attack Rome.

Given the elaborate organized character of Rome, it is unsurprising that they exhausted the available supply of elephants and hunted them into extinction. This is a likely explanation for the effective end of the use of elephants in warfare and industry in the Western world, whereas elephants remained in use in India and points east.



BALLISTA

The word 'ballista' is a Latin term adapted from the Greek word for 'thrower.'

Ballistae were developed during classical times (they are referenced in the Bible) as an alternative means of firing projectile weapons compared to the typical catapult. Powered by a pair of torsion springs, the ballista was otherwise analogous to the crossbow, although larger than most crossbows used for infantry warfare.

Ballistae continued to evolve through Hellenistic times, with Philip of Macedon and Alexander the Great developing the technology further. They had the great advantage compared to catapults of being direct-fire weapons (essentially a larger version of the bow and arrow, though they could also launch solid rocks or other heavy munitions). This made them much more suitable for operations against mobile targets. The Greeks used them heavily in siege warfare and on warships.

After the Romans succeeded in conquering the technically sophisticated but politically divided Greek city-states in the 2nd century BC, they inherited the Greeks' ballista technology and continued to develop it further. Julius Caesar used them during the Gallic Wars, and among other things employed them in the first case in recorded history of the use of heavy weapons to provide covering fire for an amphibious landing.

The Roman Empire made extensive use of them in all the same roles modern forces use heavy weapons for, including anti-personnel work during sieges. Ballistae were made lighter and more portable at the low end, and more powerful at the high end, until they could launch projectiles at ranges in excess of a kilometer. They were used in sieges both for attack and defense, and also as mobile field artillery.

Ballistae were too maintenance-intensive for extensive use in the early Middle Ages and siege engine technology moved on from that point, but they were a critical part of the Roman arsenal in their day and represented a formidable advance in weapons technology.






CHEVALIER

'Chevalier' is from an Old French term that is in turn derived from the Latin for 'horseman' or 'knight.'

The French aristocracy of the Middle Ages were among the most direct examples of traditional European feudalism. France was a relatively rich land, secure from external invasion after the end of the Viking raids, and the prosperity of the kingdom supported a large, well-equipped aristocracy.

As a result, French knights often outfitted particularly well, with fine warhorses, heavy plate armor, and the best training opportunities money could buy. This made them formidable on the battlefield, though they still shared the typical weaknesses of the armored knight in full measure, as demonstrated by the English longbowmen in the Hundred Years' War and by Fleming and Swiss polearm units in the same era.





DHOW

A dhow is a traditional type of sailing vessel native to the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. The dhow is characterized by a long, slender hull and a rig of one or more lateen sails. Dhows are relatively fast, nimble, and are well suited for light coastal commerce, although they lack the voluminous cargo holds of most Western ships.

Dhows and ships of similar design dominated the sailing trade of the Swahili Coast, as they did the trade through points further north along the Horn of Africa, the Red and Arabian Seas, and east to India.




MINUTEMAN

The 'minutemen' were militia units which arose in the American colonies starting in the mid-17th century.

The English colonists on the shore of North America rapidly antagonized many of the native societies near their homes, and this resulted in ongoing patterns of raid and counter-raid, some of which escalated into the destruction of entire towns, or into full-scale wars between native and colonist.

To quickly and efficiently counter native raids, the colonists had cause to desire that they have armed men available to repel attacks immediately, without any wasted time. But maintaining a standing army for this purpose was deemed impractical for a variety of reasons.

As a result, the Massachusetts Bay colony (which already had mandatory militia participation for all able-bodied men) selected groups of 'minutemen.' The minutemen were selected for youth (no recruits over thirty), political and personal reliability, and physical fitness. These militiamen were expected to keep weapons at hand and stay at a high pitch of training and readiness, so that they would be ready to fight "at a minute's notice," in organized platoons or companies. By contrast, most of the rest of the militia stored their weapons in central locations, often skimped on maintenance, and usually required additional refresher courses of training in order to fight effectively.

The rapidly-deploying minutemen were frequently the first militia to arrive on the scene of a battle or crisis. As a result they were also the most heavily involved militia in the early events of the American Revolution. When British troops from the Boston garrison marched out into the countryside to confiscate weapons from militia armories, the minutemen were, as usual, the first military responders.

The British redcoats had more than enough firepower to blast aside the first companies of minutemen they encountered. But these fast-mobilizing and fast-deploying elite companies delayed the British enough that the bulk of the colonial militia could rally and organize. The militia force then began fighting a prolonged battle of sniping and harassment that eventually wore down the British column and forced it to retreat.
 
A not-so-unique unit!



BIPLANE

A biplane is a type of fixed-wing aircraft that mounts two wings, one above the other.

This allows the plane to have a large total wing area, while keeping the individual wings short and reducing the structural load on each wing. For early aircraft this was helpful, because it reduced the stress on their wooden construction, while allowing them to fly at very low speeds because of the large wing area.

Thus, the Wright Brothers' first aircraft was a biplane, as were many of the other prototype flying machines of that era. Many of the aircraft of the first two decades of aviation were biplanes (or triplanes), including the military aircraft of World War I, with only a limited number of exceptions.

The main drawbacks of biplane construction are poor aerodynamics and excess weight, especially because of the mass of struts and stays required to hold the wings together. As more powerful engines made greater speeds possible, and as the advent of metal aircraft hulls in the 1930s made it easier to rely on the strength of a single pair of wings, the biplane became comparatively obsolete.

...




Also, the entry for guided missiles STINKS, so I wrote a new one.


GUIDED MISSILE

Industrial-age warfare of the early 20th century was often characterized by tremendous masses of firepower being largely wasted in inaccurate bombardment of distant targets. It could take thousands of artillery shells to blast a path through enemy fortifications, or hundreds of planes carrying several tons of bombs each to neutralize a single enemy factory.

This mass wastefulness required great expenditure of resources, put a serious burden on the logistical system just to carry all the required weapons, and often required attackers to put a great number of men at risk. For instance, those hundreds of heavy bombers would need a total crew in the thousands just to make it to the target and back, and it was likely that at least a few hundred of those would not survive the mission.

With the rise of electronic technology in the 1940s, it became at least conceivable to design weapons that would steer themselves to a distant target, either automatically or by remote control from a human operator. The first successful uses of this were short-range weapons designed by the Germans during the Second World War- gliding bombs that would be steered by control wires to strike enemy warships, and homing torpedoes that would chase after the sound of an enemy warship's engines. Meanwhile, the US experimented with remote-controlled airplanes packed with high explosives, an experiment which failed with considerable loss of life.

The US, Soviets, and other nations continued pursuing this technology after the war ended, resulting in a tremendous proliferation of guided weapon types, especially rocket and jet-powered missiles. Guided missiles revolutionized virtually all types of warfare and became the weapons of choice for attacking tanks, ships, and aircraft. But the area where they caused the most change was arguably strategic bombing. A guided missile could steer itself far behind enemy lines and hit a specified location, using preloaded radar maps of the enemy's territory to know where to go. With the right reconnaissance and support, a ship or plane could use guided missiles to blast apart enemy defenses and paralyze their infrastructure while remaining far out of range of easy counterattack.

This has tended to increase the advantage technically advanced nations have over lower-tech ones in formal warfare. It has also served to reduce the temptation for large nations to resort to nuclear weapons, because a carefully targeted conventional bomb can now cause destruction to a specific target that would once have required a (relatively poorly aimed) nuclear bomb.
 
Simon_Jester said:
[found that the ancient Nubians did not in point of fact use blast furnaces, they used the usual sort of ancient bloomeries, proceeded to write article on that instead. Now, the Haya people in Tanzania apparently had blast furnaces, but they're quite a ways to the south and it would be more appropriate to give them to the Ethiopians than to the Nubians...]
Click to expand...

It's thought that they might have had blast furnaces, but the evidence is scarce and inconclusive. If they did, they'd be the oldest blast furnaces in the world, which is probably why I chose it as the UB way back when I added Nubia (the very first new civ I added to HR, way back in 2010). The nature of UBs have evolved a bit since then so I agree that it's probably best to change it to a bloomery.

[I am unable to find any specific reference to the 'candi' that would

explain why it replaces the clinic...]
Click to expand...

Sometimes I choose a replacement building for its stats, its potential bonuses, its era, or because there's already several UBs replacing what might be the more historical choice.
 
Re: the Blast Furnace/Bloomery

You're right, I mainly wanted to note the detail. You can certainly get away with just changing the unit name.

Hm. As I recall, this building duplicates the Forge's 25% hammer bonus, but also grants additional bonuses for Iron and Copper. Personally I'd have it grant the bonuses for Prime Timber or Peat, because bloomery forging (and for that matter classical/medieval blast furnace forging) is all about the charcoal.

You could mix it around a bit- say, have it grant +10 for Iron, +5 for Peat, and +5 for Prime Timber. Alternatively you could go whole hog and give bonuses only for Prime Timber and Peat. If it were possible to have the Bloomery grant some kind of bonus to hammers per forest tile in the city radius that might be cool too, but I think we established that this is impossible.
 
Resources!


POTATO

The potato is a type of edible root crop native to Peru.

The natives of Peru grow a tremendous diversity of potato plants suited to a dizzying array of different soil, climate, altitude, and water conditions. Many of these cultivars are still unique to Peru, but with growing intercontinental trade the potato nevertheless made its breakout onto the international scene.

Potatoes have the distinction of being one of the least labor-intensive crops to raise, and returning more calories per acre than almost any other food crop, in the absence of factors such as genetic modification. This made them well suited to supporting population booms in much of Europe, which was one driver of the Industrial Revolution.

From the point of view of a medieval peasant they also have the advantage of being difficult to steal- since the edible root of the potato is buried in the ground, an invading army cannot march up to your home and steal all your potatoes in a short amount of time, unless they are willing to wield shovels! By contrast, grain crops such as wheat and rice are vulnerable to this sort of plundering, which can result in mass famines among the general public when a large army has passed by.

In certain areas the reliance on potatoes grew so strong that it became a disastrous vulnerability. For example, the Irish of the 19th century, were heavily oppressed by the English. They were forced to grow potatoes due to being unable to use much of the available farmland, as it was owned by English landlords. This fueled a population boom in Ireland, but the potato crop soon became virtually the only major crop raised by the Irish for sustenance rather than for export. When a blight struck potatoes in 1846 the Irish suffered a massive "Potato Famine" that caused half the population of the island to starve or emigrate in search of food.


FRUIT

Fruits are created by various plants (mostly trees and shrubs) as a vehicle for reproduction. The fruit contains plant seeds which are evolved to survive passing through an animal's digestive tract- thus, the animal will eat the fruit, carry the seed inside its body for a time, and then deposit it elsewhere, surrounded by a small deposit of fertilizer.

While humans generally do not care one way or the other about spreading the plant's seeds, they certainly value the fruit. Fruits are rich in sugar, generally nontoxic (by contrast to other plant parts), and can contain valuable trace nutrients such as vitamins and minerals.

Fresh fruit is one of the best ways of combatting diseases caused by nutrient deficiency, and preserved fruit can provide a flash of flavor in an otherwise bland diet such as traditional farming peoples would usually face over the winter months. Many fruits can also be fermented into alcoholic beverages, especially grapes which are commonly made into wine.

Trade in fruit was a major one in pre-industrial times, and in modern times it has become very common to raise fruit in massive farms or orchards.

In the 20th century it is also a common practice for scientists to develop chemicals that artificially resemble fruit flavor compounds, precisely because we instinctively crave and value those flavors. As a result, many food products which have never seen the outside of a factory... now taste like fruit.

One may view this as something of a tribute to fruit, one of no more than two or three things in the natural world that is 'designed' to be eaten.






SALT

Salt, sodium chloride, is extremely common in Earth's biosphere. Earth's oceans are a moderately strong salt solution, and as a result, early life on Earth evolved to thrive in the presence of that salt. While land-based lifeforms and freshwater aquatic life often do not thrive on salt in such high concentrations, they still make some use of it.

To maintain a comfortable homeostasis, all animals (including humans) require salt, and one of the great challenges for land animals far from the sea is to maintain one's salt levels. Humans in particular lose a great deal of salt via sweating, and must regularly replenish themselves in hot climates.

Even if it were not for salt's value as a tasty food additive, as a method of preserving fish and meat from decay, and in various chemical applications, this would make salt a precious trade good across much of the world. Naturally occurring salt deposits have thus been prized since ancient times.

Salt is typically found most easily near the sea, where evaporating seawater leaves behind a salt residue. Further inland it is harder to find. This may seem counterintuitive since most land in the world was once a coastal area or underwater due to tectonic action. But salt, unlike other minerals, is water soluble. It does not last long when directly exposed to rain.

Thus, surface salt deposits are normally only found in areas of very low rainfall, such as basins in the desert that are the last remnants of ancient inland seas. Salt can also be found on the shores of those inland seas which survive, such as the Dead Sea in Jordan and the Great Salt Lake in the United States.





GAS

Natural gas is a type of fossil fuel typically formed from the remains of ancient...

Gas is often found mixed in with oil deposits, but is not always associated with them.

While storing natural gas safely presents more challenges than liquid oil and far more than coal, gas has several advantages as a fuel. It requires much less in the way of special pumping apparatus to incorporate into an engine, especially when stored under pressure. It generally burns very hot and very smoothly, with less risk of impurities causing disruption in the workings of an engine or burner.

Moreover, gas can be used in a 'gas turbine,' a type of engine in which gas is mixed directly with air and the combustion reaction powers a turbine directly (see jet engines for an example in aviation). By contrast, other fossil fuels have to be burned in a boiler, which generates steam to power the turbine. Thus, natural gas can be a highly efficient source of mechanical or electrical power, since a gas turbine is much less complex (though harder to manufacture than a steam turbine.

Many modern electric generators, warships, and power plants run on gas turbines rather than on the more traditional coal or oil-fired systems.
 
Another unit!


BOMBARD

A 'bombard' is an early type of cannon, characterized by a wide barrel, low muzzle velocity, and often by spectacularly dangerous and explosion-prone construction.

The first application of gunpowder in warfare was as a fire-starting incendiary and tool to frighten animals. It was soon realized that a canister of gunpowder could, with only slight modification, be used as a rocket, and that large quantities of the substance could be used as a bomb. However, early rockets and demolition charges left much to be desired.

Siege engineers finally developed a practical way to use the shattering power of gunpowder against the stone fortifications then common throughout the medieval world. Instead of being projected directly against the walls, the gunpowder would be placed in a metal tube directly behind a large, round ball of stone or metal. The rapid combustion of the gunpowder would create a burst of hot gases that could propel the ball out the muzzle of the tube, at speeds far in excess of what mechanical siege artillery could achieve.

The main limit on this was metallurgy. At this time, no one had experience making metal constructions on this scale, designed to withstand the pressure of great amounts of exploding powder. As a result, early bombard cannon typically used a wide, squat barrel formed by welding together a collection of parallel iron bars, then welding hoops onto the outside to hold the construction together. The resulting "hooped bombard" was reasonably durable at best, but was very vulnerable to barrel explosions caused by gradual wear and tear on the welds.

The reason for the aforementioned short, wide barrel was so that the muzzle velocity of the exploding powder would be low, and the pressures on the inside of the barrel likewise low. To compensate, bombards often fired extremely massive projectiles to cancel out the disadvantage of low muzzle velocity.

With a few exceptions such as the Battle of Castillion (against English longbows), bombards were used only in siege warfare.
 
Simon_Jester said:
Hm. As I recall, this building duplicates the Forge's 25% hammer bonus, but also grants additional bonuses for Iron and Copper. Personally I'd have it grant the bonuses for Prime Timber or Peat, because bloomery forging (and for that matter classical/medieval blast furnace forging) is all about the charcoal.

You could mix it around a bit- say, have it grant +10 for Iron, +5 for Peat, and +5 for Prime Timber. Alternatively you could go whole hog and give bonuses only for Prime Timber and Peat. If it were possible to have the Bloomery grant some kind of bonus to hammers per forest tile in the city radius that might be cool too, but I think we established that this is impossible.
Click to expand...

5% bonuses would get lost to rounding too often. The main reason I went for Coal over another fuel is that it's not revealed until the late Renaissance. This staggers the bonus over the course of the game, rather than giving the Nubians a hefty 20% production advantage too soon. Furthermore, Nubia and it's surrounding territories were not renown for either Prime Timber or Peat - something to consider if playing Nubia on a real-world map.

If the Bloomery were a building available to all civs I'd agree with your suggestion, but as a unique building I think it's best as it is for balance.
 
More resources!






OLIVES

Olives are the fruit of the olive tree, a group of small species of evergreen trees that are native to much of Africa, southern Asia, and the Mediterranean basin. While olives are naturally very bitter, they can be made palatable with simple processing techniques. Olives are prized both as a foodstuff and as a source of oil; olive oil is a staple of traditional cooking in many of the regions where the tree is cultivated. There are hundreds of different cultivars, or types, of domesticated olive tree grown by farmers. Commercial olive farming dates back to the early Bronze Age, circa the 3rd millenium BC.

The olive tree also produces desirable wood, but because the trees are small and commercially valuable for their fruit, olive wood has historically been a luxury commodity.

In addition to being edible, olives, olive oil, and olive-tree wood are often used symbolically in religious offerings, as referenced in Greco-Roman religion, in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and in the Koran.

While an olive grove is very productive, olive trees are long-lived and slow-growing. Warlike invaders are highly likely to destroy the trees, so olive production generally comes from regions that have known peace for an extended period of time. This is how the olive branch came to be known as a symbol of international peace, representing the literal 'fruits' of a prolonged peace.



COCOA

The cocoa bean grows from the cocoa tree, which appears to be native to northwestern South America. By 1000 BC, the natives of Mesoamerica and South America had found that the cocoa bean produces a sweet pulp suitable for alcoholic beverages; some time after that, it became known that various sweet, rich-tasting flavoring substances could be extracted from the seeds and pods of the cocoa tree.

Cocoa was enthusiastically cultivated by the native American civilizations close enough to the equator to permit the tree to grow. Its delicious flavor, particularly the types of cocoa preparation known to us today as 'chocolate,' was extensively remarked upon by the Spanish conquistadors who came to that region circa 1520 AD and on. The Spanish introduced cocoa to the Philippines and the west Indies, and it later spread to western Africa as well; cocoa trees grow well only in hot, moist, tropical climates.

An immense variety of sweet-tasting confections, flavorings, and other edible preparations come from the cocoa bean, to the extent that chocolate is routinely used today throughout most of the world. Other substances may be coated in, or mixed with, chocolate to improve the flavor.



COFFEE

Coffee is a species of bean-bearing shrub native to the Red Sea region.

Of all known domesticated plants, the coffee bean is among the easiest to produce a caffeine-rich beverage from. The beans are ground up and exposed to hot water, which absorbs their characteristic flavor, a powerful aroma, and of course the caffeine.

Coffee is thus extremely prized as a powerful stimulating drink. It is one of the most common vehicles by which caffeine users take their dose of the stimulant, and many is the caffeine addict who is not functional "without their morning coffee."

Coffee cultivation began in Ethiopia and spread through the Muslim world, becoming popular in Europe as international trade picked up after the Renaissance. It has proven practical to cultivate coffee in many tropical countries, and worldwide production has grown very high as coffee-drinking became a globalized practice.





PRIME TIMBER

While nearly all regions of the Earth capable of supporting civilized ways of life also support trees, there are certain specific species of trees which produce the best wood for human purposes.

Such trees generally share features such as tall trunks that produce long, straight beams and planks, resistance to parasites and rot, high density and hardness, and (in some cases) an aesthetically appealing color and grain.

Cultivation of forests that produce the highest-quality timber has been a persistent challenge throughout human history, and deforestation has been a menace to many societies, especially in ecologically marginal areas.





PEAT

Peat is a fossil fuel resulting from the partial decay of vegetation in swampy conditions, and represents a unique form of soil that is also a precursor for other fossil fuels (mainly coal).

Peat bogs are a major sink for atmospheric carbon and absorb it very efficiently; consequently they also contain much stored carbon. Peat is therefore suitable for use as a (relatively low-energy) fuel, once it has been dried out. The ecological impact of doing this on an industrial scale can be extreme, since peat bog habitats tend to be relatively small and vulnerable to draining and harvesting of the peat they contain.
 
And units!





SIEGE TOWER

A siege tower is a large mobile structure designed to allow access to the top of a fortified wall or structure.

Walls were one of the most common features of all ancient and classical fortifications. Soldiers seeking to penetrate a fortified line would have to deal with the walls. Passing under a wall was possible but required laborious digging. Breaking through the wall by brute force was generally impossible until gunpowder provided a tool with sufficient force. Passing through a door or gate built into the wall by the defenders was intensely dangerous, since the gate would predictably be surrounded on all sides by enemies armed with every sort of weapon imaginable, while the attackers had to stop and perform heavy manual labor to breach the gates, rendering themselves defenseless.

The most favorable option for assaulting a fortress before gunpowder was therefore to go over the wall itself. However, doing so could require climbing a distance of five or more meters on a ladder while the defenders dropped stones, darts, sheets of heated materials such as boiling water, and whatever other implements of death their ingenuity could devise.

Cunning siege engineers devised a number of solutions, one of them the 'siege tower.' The siege tower could be assembled outside of effective range of the defenders and rolled close to the walls, usually by the immense exertion of men or draft animals. Its sturdy wooden structure would provide cover from enemy arrows and other weapons, and the wood could itself be protected by a thin layer of metal or wet hides to stop the defenders from setting the tower on fire.

Once the tower reached the wall, a bridge or gangplank could be lowered to allow the attackers easy access to the top of the wall, with the structure of the tower itself providing protection for them during the vulnerable act of climbing to the top.








SLINGER

A sling is a device for throwing stones or other solid, blunt projectiles at high speed by whirling them around vertically in a pouch held by strings. By releasing the string at the correct moment, the sling projectile is thrown up in an arc to strike the enemy. Slings were ubiquitous in ancient times, being much simpler mechanically than a bow and longer ranged than almost any other thrown weapon.

The oldest known archaeological finds of slings are on the Peruvian coast dating back to 2500 BC (although there is ample evidence of sling ammunition and slingers exiting throughout the world at that time). The use of the sling by Peruvian peoples was plainly encouraged and cultivated in the millenia afterwards, as illustrated by the accounts of the Spanish conquistadores when that foreign army invaded their lands.

The Inca naturally excelled at mountain warfare and were particularly skilled at hit-and-run tactics against heavily encumbered Spanish soldiers. Unfortunately, the steel weapons and horses of the Spanish allowed them to overpower Inca armies by raw force- though not before the Inca made an account of themselves good enough to leave an impression on their enemies.

The conquistadores were startled by several aspects of Inca warfare, among them the remarkable striking power of the Inca slingers. One conquistador's account reported that Inca slingers "could break a sword in two" and "could kill a horse."





TAMOYO

The Tamoyo confederation, led by Cunhambebe in the mid-1500s, was perhaps the most formidable alliance of native tribes in Brazilian history. This alliance, named for the Tupi word for 'elder,' elected Cunhambebe as its chief and declared war on the Portuguese. The war was fought in reaction to the depredations of Portuguese colonists and their attempts to enslave the Tupi people.

The coalition fought on for over a decade in the face of epidemic disease and more powerful European technology. The Tupi, like many Native American societies, proved particuarly adept at ambush and skirmish warfare.

Thus, the Tamoyo archer unit is suited for highly effective "hit and fade" attacks against enemy infantry, including those with steel weaponry well in advance of its own technological level.





TRIREME

A "trireme" is a galley with three banks of oars, placing the rowers in staggered seating arrangements.

Ancient authors disagree about whether the trireme configuration was invented by the Phoenicians or by the Greeks, but it was the Greeks who made the most extensive use of them after their rise to naval prominence after 500 BC and on into the Hellenistic era. The Greek city-state of Athens and the Delian League it dominated were supported in large part by the Athenian fleet of 200 triremes.

The trireme was uniquely suited to fast sea travel by the standards of an oar-powered ship. Three banks of oars was generally the most efficient use of vertical space. Stacking up more rows of oars would make a ship unstable and unseaworthy due to its excessive height, while fewer rows of oars meant the ship had less motive power per ton of weight. In particular, the trireme could have a high ratio of 'outboard' oar (beyond the hull of the ship) to 'inboard' oar, thus allowing it to move quickly.

It is estimated (with supporting evidence from period sources) that a typical trireme could manage sustained speeds of about six knots, fully competitive with sailing ships of the era even when the wind was favorable. This pace would still allow the crew to take rest breaks in shifts.

Triremes were constructed from the lightest practical wood to allow them to be moved efficiently by human muscle-power, and so that they could be carried ashore by their crews. Like all oared ships, triremes had a short operational range and had to stop for resupply regularly, so being easily "beached" was a major advantage. At the same time, the light construction made them vulnerable to ramming attacks (thus the dominance of the ram in Mediterranean naval warfare), and the short range made the fleet as a whole vulnerable to being ambushed by a cunning enemy while the ships were beached.

The Athenians in particular excelled at this style of warfare (though they never overcame the supply problem, as the disastrous Syracuse expedition proved). Athenian galleys were formidable in ramming. Since the trireme's agile, surprisingly small hull did not permit it to carry a great number of troops, this was critical to their naval success. However, the oarsmen could certainly pitch when battle conditions permitted- resulting in a striking increase in the Athenian Navy's "reserve" combat potential!

In the later Hellenistic era, the trireme evolved into a more heavily armored fighting vessel, with sturdier construction as trireme designers entered an arms race. A heavier hull was harder to penetrate with a ram, which required a heavier ship to do the ramming, which in turn gave the enemy incentive to build their ships even heavier. This resulted in escalation to the 'quinquereme...' which still had three banks of oars, but which now used five men for each trio of oars, rather than three. Doubling up men on the upper oars gave the quinquereme more motive power and allowed it to carry a larger marine contingent for boarding and shore operations.
 
FARARI

The "farari" were an elite echelon of the Mali Empire's military. 'Farari' translates as 'brave,' and each member of this elite was himself a leader of cavalry with subordinate retainers, analogous to European knighthood.

Also like European knights, the title of 'farari' had political as well as military significance; a farari might govern a territory, act as a personal bodyguard to the monarch, or command troops in the field.

The farari demonstrated his right to command through lavish gifts to his aristocratic subordinates, skilled administration, and leadership of peasant or slave-soldiers.





JUNK

The junk is a type of Chinese ship design characterized by several design features distinct from Western shipbuilding tradition. One is the use of "battened" sails; the battens being horizontal ribs which stiffen the sail and allow it to be controled with great flexibility. The battens also serve to limit the danger of a sail tearing under heavy winds.

Junks tend to have multiple masts and a compartmentalized interior, with the hull usually being built of softwoods. They are also characterized by the early adoption of progressive features such as the rudder and centerpost.

The junk design scaled up to extremely large sizes, as illustrated by the exploratory voyages of Zheng He. However, smaller junks were more common, and supported the immense riverine and (sometimes) coastal trade of the Chinese economy.




KHOPESH

The khopesh is a characteristic type of ancient Egyptian sword, known for its oddly curved blade, which evolved from pre-existing Egyptian battleaxes.

The khopesh could be used to hook, to bludgeon, and to slash- using the sharpened portion on the outside of the curved blade.

Khopeshes became a common iconic weapon in Egyptian art, were often used as grave goods, and were frequently made with decorative features or for ceremonial purposes.






LOVASIJASZ

"Lovas Ijasz" is the Hungarian phrase for "mounted archery."

The Hungarian people are culturally descended from Magyar tribes which migrated into the Carpathian basin off the plains of Asia as a unified confederation circa 890-950 AD. The Magyars were accomplished horse archers.

The Magyars' roving way of life and archery-heavy way of war made them difficult opponents for the early medieval Europeans of the Carpathian basin. They excelled at raiding and highly mobile warfare. Like many nomadic horse-archer people, they were adept at moving quickly, striking first with a volley of arrows, and swirling away before infantry forces could deploy archers on foot to counter them.
 
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TEA

Tea is an beverage created by steeping various leaves and herbs in hot water. While there are as many varieties of tea as there are herbs, "tea" most commonly refers to the tea made from Camellia sinensis, an Asian shrub.

Tea was consumed widely in China and other East Asian countries as early as the Tang dynasty, and spread through growing European trade networks in the 1500s. Tea drinking became a more common habit after it became a fad in Britain, resulting in the British East India Company beginning large scale cultivation of tea in India for sale in Britain.

Tea production expanded in scope in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and played a major economic role in the British exploitation of India.

Tea is a tropical plant which is cultivated from cuttings and seeds. Tea plants require heavy rain and acidic soil, and can grow at a variety of moderate altitudes.


TOBACCO

Tobacco is an herb native to North America, a member of the nightshade family.

The Native Americans cultivated tobacco and used it for ceremonial purposes as a sacramental drug. When Europeans discovered it, it soon became an extremely popular recreational drug in Western culture.

Tobacco contains nicotine, which serves as a defense against insects since it is poisonous to them. Coincidentally, nicotine is a highly addictive stimulant to humans. Moreover, since nicotine is commonly absorbed by burning the tobacco and inhaling the smoke, nicotine consumption is associated with the uptake of a wide variety of cancer-causing chemical byproducts into the body.

The combination of stimulant effects and addiction create a massive, ongoing demand for tobacco, which has historically been cultivated on a large scale on plantations ever since the 1600s. It also results in widespread death; in the world today, the World Health Organization estimates approximately five million surplus deaths per year caused by effects of tobacco.


COTTON

Cotton is a fibrous substance extracted from bolls that protect the seeds of cotton plants. The cotton shrub is native to tropical regions around the world, and was domesticated independently in the Old and New Worlds. Cotton can be spun into thread easily and makes a highly desirable type of textile, which has been used in Mexico and India since at least 5000 BC.

Cotton cultivation became more widespread with the invention of the 'cotton gin,' a machine which could be used to remove the seeds from the cotton boll for easier processing.

The Industrial Revolution led to massive, centralized processing of cotton, particularly in Britain (and not coincidentally the collapse of cotton textile manufacture in British-ruled India, one of the traditional centers of the art). Cotton cloth grown under harsh conditions around the globe was made into cheap, highly comfortable fabric, leading to drastic increases in the availability of clothing and helping to facilitate the move from expensive and precious clothes to the modern clothing economy.

Cotton grows best in sunny, warm climates with moderate rainfall and heavy soils. Major cotton-growing regions (where production of the crop had substantial consequences for regional history) include India, Egypt, the southern parts of North America, and parts of central Asia.
 
GUSTAV II ADOLF

King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, commonly known in his day by the Latinized name Gustavus Adolphus, was the fiery and warlike king who led the relatively small nation of Sweden to its height of power in Europe during the Thirty Years' War.

Gustav Adolf was born in 1594, shortly before his Protestant father deposed the Catholic king (Gustav's cousin Sigismund) who ruled Sweden at the time. Gustav inherited in 1611 and promptly entered a struggle with Poland- which was also ruled by Sigismund, who still had ambitions to regain the Swedish throne.

Gustav proved quite capable of holding his own, and established himself as a bold and inspired military commander- indeed, some identify him as a military genius. He inherited military rivalries against Denmark, Russia, and Poland, and pursued all three to fairly successful conclusions.

Gustav's great contribution to the art of war was his master of combined arms gunpowder tactics. The dominant paradigm of the era was that of "pike and shot:" formations of pikemen and musketeers, with the pikes screening the gun-armed soldiers from melee attack.

Gustav developed tactics for increasing the proportion of musketry in his infantry force, coordinating with cavalry, and incorporating relatively lightweight, portable field artillery to break up ponderous enemy pike units from extreme range. He also made sure his army was very well supplied and drilled, which was made possible by the relative prosperity and efficiency of the Swedish government. This enabled him to fight aggressively and to make good use of mobility and superior logistics against his enemies.

The Swedish king gained the title "the Lion of the North" by using this powerful, flexible army to intervene on behalf of the Lutheran Protestants of Germany against their Catholic enemies in the Thirty Years' War. Gustav won several major battles and drove back the Holy Roman Empire and its allies- but was killed at the Battle of Lutzen in 1632 after rashly leading a cavalry charge into the midst of the enemy ranks.

Despite his early death, Gustav II was able to establish Sweden as a major military power in Northern Europe, a status it retained throughout the rest of the 1600s.
 
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RUBBER

Rubber trees, chiefly native to South America and Mesoamerica, are of interest to humans mainly because of their sap. Rubber tree sap, when properly treated and boiled down, is one of the most resilient, stretchiest, and most impervious naturally occuring materials known.

Rubber was known to the native Americans, but was not commercially exploited by Europeans until the 1800s. The discovery of vulcanization, a process of chemically treating rubber to make it more stable, caused a boom in demand for rubber. After rubber seeds were illegally smuggled out of Brazil in the 1870s, cultivation around the world became a commonplace, and many tropical countries with moist environments now support rubber plantations.

Conditions on early 20th century rubber cultivation were often extremely poor, involving unusually brutal treatment of native peoples, especially in the Belgian Congo where an alternate source of natural rubber provided the motive for the Belgians' savage treatment and massacres of local populations.

Today, rubber is produced on an industrial scale in several countries, mostly in Southeast Asia. Large amounts of rubber are also created synthetically from oil.




AMBER

Amber is the petrified remnant of ancient tree resins, mostly dating back to the Cretaceous period or later; before that time, evergreen trees did not exist.

Amber is rare and prized for its distinctive translucent, typically yellow color, and also for the relative ease with which it can be carved and worked compared to other gem and gem-like materials. It is in effect a semi-precious stone.

Amber is found in a variety of sources, although large deposits of this semi-precious stone are rare. Trade in amber flourished in the Baltic sea, chiefly in what is currently the Kaliningrad Oblast of Russia (which still contains 90% of known amber reserves). Certain other deposits exist elsewhere in the world, such as the exotic blue amber of the Dominican Republic.

One interesting scientific feature of amber is that, being the fossilized remnant of a sticky organic resin, it can entrap things. There were many cases in the prehistoric past of insects and plant material becoming stuck and "included" inside the resin as it petrified into amber. This has resulted in very well-preserved specimens of flies, mosquitos, and other biological remnants, trapped inside the translucent amber.




JADE

Jade is a term for certain types of ornamental semi-precious stone, unusual for their (usually) lustrous green coloring.

Jade refers to two types of metamorphic rock- jadeite and nephrite. Both are suitable for carving, and approximately as hard as quartz. Jade was used for stone tools in prehistoric times, but became a more decorative material after the invention of bronze and iron tools.

The Chinese and Mesoamerican cultures in particular, worked heavily in jade minerals and created great quantities of jade artwork. However, significant jade deposits and carvings made from the mineral also became part of cultural tradition in Maori New Zealand, in India and in southeast Asia.
 
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