New Unit: Cataphract

Another wonderful unit!
 
Wonderful looking unit, Kinboat. I've been waiting for this one ever since I saw your preview. Now I'll have to wait a little longer because I won't be home for a few days.:(

Keep us posted on what your working on, it keeps the forums exciting.:thumbsup:
 
Couldn´t agree more - absolutely phantastic. I wish I could do such great mounted units

Keep up the great work!!! :)
 
any history on this unit I know nothing about the real one.

Great work by the way:goodjob:

Edit: Hey could you make a Canadian Mountie. I know one has already been made but I just would be interested in what you could do. If not its no big deal. :)
 
What? I missed the release of this unit? I'm glad someone revivied the thread. Kinboat, this is awesome.
 
Like everyone else here, I think this unit looks great:goodjob:
 
Kinboat, do you have any information on this unit? I can only find a little bit of info on the Byzantine Cataphracts.

By the way, what would be the civs in the game that are most related to the Byzantines? I was thinking the Ottomans, but are there any others?
 
Not really much... I based the design on a picture provided by Yoda Power... He should be able to give you more info. I believe it could be used for the Persians, Ottomans, and maybe even the Greeks (or Romans maybe since the Byzantine Empire was an eastern province at one time)... Not sure what other civs would fit as I don't remember the whole list :)
 
Although most closely associated with the Byzantines, "Cataphract" (which IIRC simply means "armored" -- e.g., there were so-called "cataphracted" galleys) is somewhat generic, refering to partially armored cavalry equipped with both bows and shock arms (swords and/or spears). The earliest application of the term is used re: the Sassanid Persians in the 3rd century CE, although, again, it most often refers to the Byzantines. Byzantine cataphracts were the best cavalry in the world at the time -- professionals, capable of dealing with both Western European shock cavalry and Eastern horse archers. I'm still playing around with stats, but I believe they should be slightly better in both attack and defense than the knight, and have some missile fire capacity, as well as an additional hit-point due to the rarity of other, contemporary, professional armies.

-Oz

PS closest relative Civ would have to be the Romans, although this is in some ways a stretch, as the Byzantine Empire was based around a Hellenized, far more urban culture than the Western Roman Empire. Language and religion soon separated them from their western brethren; their cultural contacts to the east made them a cultural hybrid; and their military was influenced by both the eastern horse-archers and the Vikings (the ones who turned east were known as Varangians, and travelled down the riverways of Russia, and became the palace guard at Constantinople).

-Oz
 
Thats some good information Oz, so are there any other Civs other then the Romans that you think could use this unit?
 
Originally posted by SK138
Thats some good information Oz, so are there any other Civs other then the Romans that you think could use this unit?

As I mentioned, Sassanid (post-Parthian Empire) Persians; I'm unaware of any other military deploying similar units.
 
The Ottomans were but one clan of Turks who didn't strut onto the historical scene until about 1360 CE -- although they, of course, were the ones who eventually finished off the Byzantines, with Constantinople falling in 1453.

The first Turks to bump into the European sphere -- or nearly so --was a 6th century Khanate in Transoxiana (east of the Aral Sea -- the area including Samarkhand and Bukhara).

Byzantium was devasted by the Turkish Seljuk Sultanate overrunning the larger part of Anatolia -- modern Turkey -- after the Byzantine military disaster at Manzikert in 1071 CE.

-- And, really, the comings and goings and fusings and splittings of the various Turkish states and tribes is quite intricate!

Hoping that's enough for the moment :) ,

Oz
 
"The name "Byzantine" is a modern term, first used
long after the Empire had succumbed to the Turks.
The "Byzantines" never considered themselves
anything but Romans, even though they only spoke
Greek and had lost control of Rome early in their history.
It was probably this change in the "official" language
from Latin to Greek that made the eastern empire appear
as a new entity and not what it was: a continuation
of the Roman empire." The Forgotten Empire.
Stephen B Patrick

Making the Cataphract an Ottoman unit would to me be
absurd: such as making Tiger a Russian unit or T-34
a German unit.

Regarding the unit:

5*****.


Rocoteh
 
I think it's my favourite custom unit, the civlopedia pic is great.

I'm going to use it regardless if it is anti-Ottoman for the sipahi in the Middle-Ages conquest, the guns on the Firaxis unit annoy me. It'll look good going up against utahjazz7's Byzantine Heavy Cataphract
 
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