The Second UUs!

[Head Serf]

I would like to open the discussion on second UUs. They can replace any unit, land or naval, although nations with one naval UU should get a land UU also.

A couple of ideas to start:

Saxons - Aetheling or Thegn - Swordsman with +50% Forest Defense and +25% vs Melee

Portugal - Infantaria de Choque - Foot Knight with +50% Hills Defense, can build Forts in one turn

Byzantines - Cataphract/Kataphraktoi (unsure of the spelling) - Knight which can recieve defensive bonuses, +25% vs archer type

 

[Ajidica]

cataphracts shouldnt be knights,mabye vassals, the time knights in the game sense came about, the byzantine cavalry was still heavily armoured but were nothing special. another uu for byzantium varangian guard, although there are no mellee units at this time in the game. and one the portugal unit, i dont belive you can build forts in the game, or else they dont show up on the pedia.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Moors- Corsair or Barbary Pirate (replaces Galleon, no ocean, but very fast Galley type, withdrawl promotion free) (Ketch I think is its usual name...I'd have to look it up)

Saxony- Saxon Thegn, replaces vassal or horse archer or ceorl or kerle, replaces swordsman

Scotland- I think that Highlander should be renamed Clansman, and Highlander should be a maceman replacement (this better fits its historical time of appearance).

Italy- Italian Militia (I have an Osprey booklet devoted to this unit... if you are familiar with those books, they're excellent sources for unit ideas). A militia unit with some offensive capability.

Dhow- Arab or Egyptian Dhow. Medieval Galley replacement but allows ocean travel.

Turk- Siege Cannon

Hersir- Viking unit, +1 str and amphibious

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Drtad mentions several mounted UUs in this thread...

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=227913

 

[Craig_Sutter]

One unit ability that I think some UUs and Warriors/Militia could use is no military support cost. Aajidica mentioned this could affect the Power graph because even weak units could be spammed massively to give a false representation of how powerful a civ is; however, the power setting for the unit in the unitinfo file could be adjusted.

This could make the poor Fyrdman much better, and as I mentioned, could apply to Warrior and Militia.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

France- Herald, replaces Envoy... can enter enemy territory. (there could be many other civs in which this one could be used).

Irish - Gallowglass... replaces maceman. +50% vrs knights and footknights.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Germany- Landsknechte... pikeman

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Persia - daylami... swordsman

 

[Drtad]

I have reconsidered the Armenian UU, it should replace the Heavy Cavalry and be called the Late Nakharar. (or, alternatively, the vassal replacement could change to Azat Cavalry and the Nakharar as a reskinned knight could be the replacement for Heavy cav, you can see a lot of this late nakharar type unit in this thread of the TW site:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=107796

I still believe it would be good if the Qapikulu, a cataphract type unit replaced the knight for the Turks. Also for the Italians perhaps it could be a Florentine Martinella unit? Or would that be too late?

 

[Ajidica]

For arabia could be some form of comp bowman. i have no clue about egypt and for turks, some form of the cavalry they used at manzikert.
(Offtopic)
Drtad, it sounds like you know about total war modding, i got Medieval II:Total war recently. is there any way to play as byzantium? that was one of the reasons i got the game.

 

[Drtad]

For arabia could be some form of comp bowman. i have no clue about egypt and for turks, some form of the cavalry they used at manzikert.

Remember that Manzikert was less of a battle and more of a debacle. The Byzies disbanded the Armenian army of 50,000 just before the battle and the Byzantines, disloyal to Emperor Romanus IV, retreated, and Romanus was captured since he really had noone to help him. I still think the Qapikulu would be best.

(Offtopic)
Drtad, it sounds like you know about total war modding, i got Medieval II:Total war recently. is there any way to play as byzantium? that was one of the reasons i got the game.

What you do is you either win a campaign as Venice (or something like that, you can unlock all the factions like that), or you can open your descr_strat text file (you can do a search for it to find it, I can't recall which folder it is in, probably world/imperial campaign or something of the sort) and you cut Byzatium out of the "unlockable" section and put it in the "playable" section. You can do this for any faction (besides papacy and aztecs) that isn't playable from the start. Or you could download a mod, all mods automatically allow you to play all factions and plus add more goodies. In your case I'd suggest:

Copy this link to go to the mod "Deus lo Vult" which adds Armenians, Flanders, and some other stuff.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=309

Or Stainless Steel mod which adds the Templars, Kievans (also has Novgorod), and Aragon.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=314

Or the SicilianVespers mod which has a Late Era campaign and adds Bulgaria, Armenia, Serbia, Aragon, and the Angevins (Anjou in Early, Naples in Late). Btw, I am a part of the Sicilian Vespers team, and the next version to be released in September is much better than the current release, so you could wait for that.
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=354

I hope this helps, Ajidica.

 

[Ajidica]

Thanks for the info on MTW:II. but on manzikert, the byzantines lost because the rear division under Antoinine (Sp?) Ducas retreated allowing the Emperor Romanus Digonius to be surrounded. And Drtad, how much do you know of Leo the Armenian? commander of a byzantine army against the bulgars in the eighth century.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Normans - Norman Infantry/Foot Soldier/Footsman replacing maceman or Invasion Barge (can we call it a Barque?), replacing Cog (more carrying capacity, but slower speed).

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Does anyone else have the Osprey Military Books? I'm going to give them a looksee and see what I can come up with. They're available on various download sites in PDF format. They are great resources.

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Crusader States - Turcopoles (light cavalry replacement)

 

[Craig_Sutter]

Turks - Akinji (light cavalry, a raider)

 

[Ajidica]

France could be vassals, possible name is millites. germany, imperial/teutonic knights. spain, Jinnets, and russia, boyars. If i dont contribute much for the next two weeks or so, its because i got BTS. the best scenario by far is final frontier. i always make my civ the peacekeepers. (if you know what the reference is, good for you). it is well worth the money to get it.

 

[Drtad]

Thanks for the info on MTW:II. but on manzikert, the byzantines lost because the rear division under Antoinine (Sp?) Ducas retreated allowing the Emperor Romanus Digonius to be surrounded. And Drtad, how much do you know of Leo the Armenian? commander of a byzantine army against the bulgars in the eighth century.

Sorry I took so long in responding, I had other things to do... Anyway, I don't know much about Leo the Armenian, other than he siezed power, nearly killed Krum, and after Krum died was able to destroy Khan Omurtag of Bulgaria's army and reasserted Byzantine power. He was then assassinated in teh Hagia Sophia while he was praying.