One of the gripes I have with civ6 right now is the lack of distinct cultural and regional themes in generic units. Some of the biggest offenders are the man at arms and line infantry models which in my opinion, look a little bit too ‘Western European’ for a lot of the civs in the game.
Chinese medieval (and classical) units could wear scale/laminate armor, instead of the gambeson and plate that’s worn by generic men at arms and pikemen for example. Greco-Roman cultures could wear armor that is reminiscent of their classical panoply, or even adopt elements of military units from similar/derivative cultures/civilizations that are appropriate for the time. For example, the oval shields of the tagma could be incorporated in Roman/Greek/Macedonian units, with men at arms wielding shield and scimitar rather than the poleaxe. Meso-American units could keep their traditional headdresses and share a similar regional body model, keeping the obsidian edged swords of the eagle warriors.
As units advance, cultural garb should also evolve, I’ve attached a depiction of what appears to be a Chinese musketman/line infantry equivalent which suits the culture more than the western military uniforms and flared garb. I was actually recently inspired to bring up this topic by the cover art for a Risk map pack, which shows a column of Roman-esque line infantry wearing their capes and classical helmets, lorica segmentata giving way to epaulettes. Much of the elements seem like they are already in the game, for many civs, it would be a matter of reusing some combination of helmet and body of existing assets.
There is actually a (discontinued) mod which implements these to an extent, as can be seen with the Greco-Roman pikemen wearing Legion helmets and chainmail armor rather than plate and gambeson. I just hope to see it expanded across all the available Civs and units. Stuff like spiked helmets for Germanic infantry, turbans for arabic units, trenchcoats and beaverskin hats, etc, would be sick as well.
Chinese medieval (and classical) units could wear scale/laminate armor, instead of the gambeson and plate that’s worn by generic men at arms and pikemen for example. Greco-Roman cultures could wear armor that is reminiscent of their classical panoply, or even adopt elements of military units from similar/derivative cultures/civilizations that are appropriate for the time. For example, the oval shields of the tagma could be incorporated in Roman/Greek/Macedonian units, with men at arms wielding shield and scimitar rather than the poleaxe. Meso-American units could keep their traditional headdresses and share a similar regional body model, keeping the obsidian edged swords of the eagle warriors.
As units advance, cultural garb should also evolve, I’ve attached a depiction of what appears to be a Chinese musketman/line infantry equivalent which suits the culture more than the western military uniforms and flared garb. I was actually recently inspired to bring up this topic by the cover art for a Risk map pack, which shows a column of Roman-esque line infantry wearing their capes and classical helmets, lorica segmentata giving way to epaulettes. Much of the elements seem like they are already in the game, for many civs, it would be a matter of reusing some combination of helmet and body of existing assets.
There is actually a (discontinued) mod which implements these to an extent, as can be seen with the Greco-Roman pikemen wearing Legion helmets and chainmail armor rather than plate and gambeson. I just hope to see it expanded across all the available Civs and units. Stuff like spiked helmets for Germanic infantry, turbans for arabic units, trenchcoats and beaverskin hats, etc, would be sick as well.
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