Amazon Total War Reignited

**parthian shot** · July 10, 2011, 10:01 PM

Hi,

This is to announce a new Amazon Total War mod in progress. I have on another forum obtained permission through a third party to use Ares and Subrosa's mod as a base to create a new Amazon Total War mod.

It is called Amazon TW Reignited. Most models with new skins are already completed. Text and maps are being re-aligned as I type this message.

I want to thank Edorix at rtw.heavengames to suggest the logic to come up with a name for this mod. And I used the logic to come up with the name Amazon Total War – Reignited

This is from a message I sent to other parties...

I have a new mod of ATW, Re-ignited, and reluctantly stating that, yes, it does have both male and female upper torso nudity for a more historically accurate depiction of fighting around from 400-250bc.

Here are some major changes from previous Subrosa and Ares ATW mods.

The premises of the mod are as follows:

1. At around 270BC, unles your faction is a large empire with commerce and technological development, clothing and armors are expensive and time consuming to produce, so neat attires are things a warrior simply can not afford unless the unit is aristocratic or patrician. I saw in the previous Amazon TW releases where a small town of 700 population with a blacksmith shop can create a 100+ soldier combat unit complete with chain mails, shields, helmets, and weapons, and I asked myself, perhaps I can do a more structured and more realistic unit recruiting than that.

2. chain mail is very expensive to produce and as such it should not be too widely available to units.

3. After Subrosa and others started the outstanding Amazon TW mods, many archeological finds have since proved that perhaps Amazons are not just in the Greek storyteller's imagination. So it makes sense to have an updated version to reflect a less fantasy based Total War mod and such mod should be dedicated to ancient matriarchal society.

4. Many armor designs for the line fighting units at the time are frontal armors and not all-around armor suits, which really should be reserved for aristocratic units only. Historically speaking, the old thinking was that a fighting line unit with their back less protected would be less reluctant to turn their back towards the enemy and run away. Also such measure would save the governing entity a lot of expense on armor procurement. For units wearing frontal armors, their protecttion value are re-evaluated to reflect such changes.

5. All the units' hit points, protection value and so on, should be based on sound calculation of the unit's recruited personnel, equipment, fighting style, missile weapon. A unit should not possess an arrow hit power twice as much as the next unit on the roster, simply because the unit is an elite unit. Any unit's parameter should be based on good systematic technical evaluation. For example, if an amazon unit has a double bow, then it makes sense to have such a bow with twice the hit power. Or if an archer's unit shoot iron tipped or iron encased lead bolt, then it makes sense that the range can be much farther than a wooden shaft arrow.

6. Horses in ancient times are really glorified ponies, usually no more than 12 hands tall (or 48 inches approximately 120cm). This gives women great advantages as cavalry soldiers due to their more petite frame and lighter body weight. So this mod should have more women cavalry units in more factions. Also their armor and number of projectile store should be more than the men's cavalry unit.

7. Bronze armors are more proliferated than iron. And tougher than most would give them credit for. Even in modern days, the Beryllium Bronze alloy and other similar copper alloys can achieve 90% hardness of the best steel. So in region short of iron resources, most units should only have arrow tips, swords, or axes made out of iron, and the rest of equipment should be copper based instead. The iron can easily rust away, so the units equipped with iron armors will have higher up-keep costs.

Base one the aforementioned premises here are the major changes in the ATA Re-Ignited mod...

. Use of chain mails has been sharply curtailed. My calculation shows that in 250BC, it would cost 10,000 man hours by a skillful metal smith to create a complete suit of chain mail armor. Chain mailed are used mostly for limb armor as well as linking the pieces between major armors plate or coats.

. Armors are shown not to be perfect fit like the previous Amazon Mods. (See the Amazon Elite Archer Attachement picture)

. The four Amazon factions are Geothe (Jyazii), Thyssa, Libyan, and Amazonia.

Unlike the Subrosa mods, there are no Amazons based in British Isles, or Valkyrja in the Central Russia. Instead I have the Jiazii and the Thyssa who are ancient Amazon tribes originally guarding the Caucasus Gates but they have since been scattered. The Libyan Amazons are the Gorgons in the previous mods, but their skins are now less of the Africana persuasion, unless the units are local Nubian levies. The Libyan skins are more sun-tanned versions of other Amazon factions.

The Amazonia remain where there are and a mostly left unchanged except the infantry units are less fantastical with more cavalry units added.

. In general, many more Amazon cavalry units are created and foot units reduced. As a matter of fact the primary advantage of the Amazons in this mod would be their use of small mobile forces with great fire power.

. bronze armored units has less upkeep cost because the bronze alloys are less prone to rust away.

. like the Sarmatians and the Scythians in previous Amazon mods, Carthage and Iberia now have female units from their temple vestal virgins as recruits. Since Carthage is founded by Queen Diddo from legend, I think there ought to be more female warrior representation than the original RTW afforded this faction. However, unlike the Amazon units, these are more militia type units.

. Macedon now has regular supply of amazon cavalry as well as foot archer units, Thrace and Seleucid now have frontier Amazon horse archers.

. Nudity: many of the light units are naked from waist up, female and male warriors alike. To reflect the cost factor of equipping such units. Either that or the light units are garbed in animal pelts.

. Elephant units are now available to all Amazon factions, not just the Africana (Libya) faction.

. Big surprise with the use of fire.

. Also some missile units have long range capabilities due to the use of mano-ballista, double loaded bow, and shooting of iron casing lead bolt which is far more ballistically efficient than wooden shaft.

. Only Armenia, Libyan Amazon, Carthage, Iberia, Rome, Gaul, German, and Celts are deemed iron rich, the rest of the factions are more reliant on bronze armors for protection. Their swords, spear tip, or arrow tip, still remain to be iron.

. Cost and upkeep of iron armored units are increased exponentially higher.

. Only aristocratic units have full armor, their cost also reflects the expense to make such armor.

. The peasant rebel is the least properly attired. The regular units are somewhat better. The mercenary units are the best equipped and attired of all units.

. All the Amazon units are now less Hellenized. Their armor and helmets are more Central Asian style than Greek. So Corinthian helmets are mostly replaced by conical shaped helmet. Lamellar (scale) armors are more common than plate mail or chain mail. Many are coat mail (or brigandine) armors.

. Cavalry units are re-calibrated to show weight constraints. For example, it is not likely to have a mounted lighthorse unit with heavy shield, instead they would use Pelta or wicker shields riding a horse which is slightly larger than a pony. Only heavy cavalry troopers can carry heavy shields. Women cavalry can carry slightly heavier armor or equipment due to female's more petite frame and less body weight. In each new unit description I would try to describe their equipment to justify the protection values of such units.

TO BE WORKED ON:

. Some archery missile units shooting wooden shafts are more restricted on number of arrows available unless they are from a region where wood is plentiful and their technological advance can have lath technology to allow straight arrow shafts to be mass produced.

. Some old RTW units need to be less dressed.

On a personal note, I believe this mod is well worth the play time because in my experience, the RTW sometimes has more visual clarity than even the latest Shogun II if you have the 512x512 skin instead of 256x256.

I am pretty sure the Shogun II and many CA's fine TW games after RTW are much more advanced in many ways and I have tried them all.
But I feel that RTW still has plenty to offer, and this is why I decided to create an Amazon Mod for RTW.

Thanks to Spartan198's information, I just set up an online album and put up some pictures for everyone to see.

Attached below are some snapshots to give some idea of the mod:

The album itself contain some nudity but I try to filter the links in this post to be clear of it. But I can not guarantee that.

SO IF YOU MIGHT BE OFFENDED BY NUDITY OF FEMALE UPPER TORSO IN COMBAT, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM CONTINUING!

Amazon Brigandine Cavalry Ready For Battle