Unit proposals

[chris1974]

I am in 157 B.C.E. as the Greek City States and Gaul is still kickin'. But Carthage is only a short time away of destroying them

[Zarax]

What do you think about having Syracuse getting gastraphetes as AOR?
After all they created them so it's likely that they would keep using them as well...

[chris1974]

I think the more unique you could make Syracuse the better. After all they were very innovative with warfare. My history is a little rusty but wasn't Archimedes from there abouts?

[Scutarii]

Yeah, Archimedes was from Syracuse. He designed all the siege machines that defend Syracuse from the Romans, which prevented the Romans from taking the sity through military might, they had to wait the siege out and starve the city. Anything short of making them a faction (which some mods have done) and the makes them a unique city would be great.

[Hippias]

What do you think about having Syracuse getting gastraphetes as AOR?
After all they created them so it's likely that they would keep using them as well...

Great idea - syracuse would also be a good place for a stronger ICS garrison or army - it should be something of a challenge for rome or carthage to capture.

[Balikedes]

I also think this is a great idea!!!

[Zarax]

I'm also thinking of a way to have special walls, similar to large stone walls but with defenses like the epic one...

[Dom9127]

Sweet ideas, Syracuse needs to be unique

[Zarax]

EB came out with a sabean roster, check this: http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=92915

[Scutarii]

It would be good to expand the Sabean roster, they feel a bit lacking right now...

[Hippias]

It would be good to expand the Sabean roster, they feel a bit lacking right now...

New units are always fun, but I don't believe in filling gaps in a factions lineup just to make them more powerful. I know that Saba could do with some better cavalry and heavy infantry units, in just the way that Scythia wouldn't mind having legionaries or Gaul cataphracts, but I like the idea of trying to do well with a smaller faction that historically would not have had uber units.

Every mod must be making huge leaps of imagination in trying to draw up a 280BC for factions like Saba, where information is so scarce. To keep XGM different from the bigger mods like EB and RS why not look for a heavy chariot and heavy camel unit for Saba if something else is needed?

[Zarax]

Because they would be ahistorical?

[Poulp]

New units are always fun, but I don't believe in filling gaps in a factions lineup just to make them more powerful. I know that Saba could do with some better cavalry and heavy infantry units, in just the way that Scythia wouldn't mind having legionaries or Gaul cataphracts, but I like the idea of trying to do well with a smaller faction that historically would not have had uber units.

Every mod must be making huge leaps of imagination in trying to draw up a 280BC for factions like Saba, where information is so scarce. To keep XGM different from the bigger mods like EB and RS why not look for a heavy chariot and heavy camel unit for Saba if something else is needed?

not necessarily uber units; Saba lacks a light cav choice, even if that role is filled with AOR units (Arab Cav, Nubian Cav...)

[Hippias]

Because they would be ahistorical?

Like Thermopalayae era Spartan Guard and Segmentata wearing Roman's in 280 BC?

[Ferrus]

There is no units in the Roman list that is wearing segmenta in 280 BC dude...

[Zarax]

Like Thermopalayae era Spartan Guard and Segmentata wearing Roman's in 280 BC?

The royal guard isn't that ahistorical, look at EB spartans, they are not that different...
Segmentata is where you have more of a point, I debated against it some time ago but DBH likes the looks of it.
Regarding Saba, EB's roster looks good to me and so I think it would be better than a fantasy one...

[Hippias]

There is no units in the Roman list that is wearing segmenta in 280 BC dude...

Fair point, but any time before about 50AD would be ahistorical.

Zarax - I love looking at the EB and RS skin threads and they look as though they have had a great deal of thought andwork put in to them, but I can't regard them as being definitive historical fact. Once you get outside those factions with a lot of monuments, sculptures remaining and/or many historical written sources that agree with each other everything becomes, literally, educated guesswork. For factions without any written history this becomes even more pronounced.

I would personally prefer the beautiful EB/RS units for every faction in XGM to what you currently have - but love the XGM campaign and battle performance more than EB. If we cant have that then IMHO I prefer 'EB lite' as you once called it - a hugely playable mod without the gross ahistorical elements of vanilla.

[Zarax]

Hippias, we don't follow EB 100% but an heavy chariot roster would be quite out of reach for our era and screw AI balance due to autocalc...
About units, for most factions I would love to have EB/RS units even though we have a few exceptions to that.
Carthage for example shouldn't go over reskins as I feel we got the perfect balance between historical units and gameplay (and I worked my ass off to reach that) while GCS would need only minor touches imho...

[Hippias]

Yeah, well on reflection heavy chariots was a bum suggestion - I regard EB et al as the way it (probably) was whereas XGM is the way it should have been...

XGM delivers what "feels right" for the factions (to an old history nut like me anyway)

[Zarax]

Well, coincidentally XGM roster looks a lot like the new EB one in terms of units (except for chariot archers) so I think our guesswork was good on it...
What I envision is a quite light roster, based on speed as if it was made to fight against bandits rather than armies...