Unit Mini Preview: Ildütei Saicud

**sumskilz** · July 26, 2009, 02:51 PM

Unit Mini Preview: Ildütei Saicud

Ildütei Saicud:
Swordbearing freemen. After the great incursions west, the Mongolian hordes and their successor states held vast populations of myriad tribes and ethnic groups as subjects. Made up mainly of craftsmen and merchants, eastern militias would be raised by Mongolian local governors or Darughachi to defend settlements as levies or garrisons. Due to their social status they were allowed the right to bear a sidearm, but also had wealth enough to equip themselves with adequate gear and armour.

-Sumskilz
Building upon the excellent work by the guys from the Rusichi mod, we’ve been able to create unique and historically accurate units for a number of factions. We thought you guys might want to see one such unit to hold you over until the next big Dev Blog. I based the appearance of the Ildütei Saicud on what we know about the look of the pre-Mongol Central Asian soldiers and combined it with some eastern Asian equipment introduced by the Mongols themselves.

This particular hairstyle, with the braids in the front and the rest of the head shaved, is typical of the Khitai who after having been expelled from China formed the Kara Khitai Khanate later to be incorporated into the Mongol empire. Many Khitai joined the Mongols peacefully. The Mongols found them useful because of their experience in dealing in the matters of settled people. In addition, their steppe pedigree lent them a degree of creditability. Many of the Ildütei Saicud would have been Turkic people who had been incorporated into settled life.

Traditional Altaic leather work.

Credits:

Model and Textures: Sumskilz incorporating the work of Ronin and Lance of the Rusichi mod.

Unit Concept and Description: Hross

Turkic Faces Bonus Image

**Sanskrit_Bandit** · July 26, 2009, 02:59 PM

amazing.

**Achilla** · July 26, 2009, 03:49 PM

Great, actually a unit with very detailed and not glitched face! I must say I'm very impressed, since small details like these tell a very good modeller from bad one. Equipment looks quite raw and realistic, there is no ''Hollywood" there and yet it's distinct enough to actually tell if it's a particular unit on the battlefield or not. Again, I'm very impressed, +rep!

Though, I noticed you've typed in their description 'Swordbearing freemen'. Does that mean they wield spear as main weapon but can switch to sword weapon when needed, or is it simply a mistake?

**sumskilz** · July 26, 2009, 03:53 PM

Does that mean they wield spear as main weapon but can switch to sword weapon when needed, or is it simply a mistake?

Yeah, you can alt attack and they draw their sabres. We don't have an animation for the actual weapon switch, but when fighting with their sabres, their scabbards will be empty.

A sword is a status symbol and a side arm, but wouldn't really work to stop a cavalry charge on the steppe.

**Starlightman** · July 26, 2009, 05:41 PM

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to sumskilz again

**Barry Lyndon** · July 26, 2009, 08:36 PM

Beautiful unit + rep.

**Nikephorus16** · July 26, 2009, 11:14 PM

Really fantastic, I love the armor I think its really beautiful. Finally no more plate armor and here we get some excellent lemellar and leather armor. Great job

**Walkman810i** · July 27, 2009, 02:16 AM

Nice hope to see more mini previews like this

And +rep of course

**Nakharar** · July 27, 2009, 05:14 AM

amazing

**Horsa** · July 27, 2009, 05:43 AM

Awesome work

**IVIarkI2I** · July 27, 2009, 06:06 AM

nice

**Giorgios** · July 27, 2009, 06:09 AM

Beautiful unit

**Yelü Dashi** · July 27, 2009, 06:57 AM

Come on, let's be honest - very minor alterations to the original model/texture. Rep should go to the Rusichi boys, imho. A number of mods are now using their artwork (with permission), just tweaking it a bit and then previewing "new units".

**Achilla** · July 27, 2009, 07:00 AM

Originally Posted by Yelü Dashi

Come on, let's be honest - very minor alterations to the original model/texture. Rep should go to the Rusichi boys, imho. A number of mods are now using their artwork (with permission), just tweaking it a bit and then previewing "new units".

Weren't Rusichi credited in first post anyway? In that case tell me who originally made the model and textures before tweaking and I will rep the exact person. I'm not going to rep entire Rusichi team since I didn't play that mod and not intending to.

**Babur** · July 27, 2009, 07:16 AM

nice work, The Great Khan approves

**Sephynos** · July 27, 2009, 07:17 AM

Amazing work! Really nice

**Yelü Dashi** · July 27, 2009, 07:25 AM

Model and Textures: Sumskilz incorporating the work of Roland and Lance of the Rusichi mod

I think you meant Ronin and Lance, they post rarely on TWC but they are registered. Tchouk does most of the liaison stuff on their forum. I just think 'incorporating' is a bit rich. Suggests you are 'incorporating' their work into something else ?