Redone 1st preview: Byzantine Empire

[dragases1453]

UNITS

INFANTRY

Peltastoi:



Skoutatoi:



Kontaratoi:



Varangian Guard:





CAVALRY

Hippo toxotai:



Prokursatores:



Pronoiaroi:



Kataprhaktoi:



Arkontounpoli:




SKIRMISH

Trapezounta toxotai:



Syphonists:



Emperor



Hope you like the new Byzantines

[Zenith Darksea]

Hmm. On the whole, very good. Couple of spelling errors, but they're easily ironed-out. Are you sure about the name 'Syphonist'? I can't say I've heard of it before. For crossbowmen, I would opt for 'Tzangratai', or some such. Though I don't really think that the Byzantines ever really got into crossbows. And would it not be better just to have 'Toxotai'? Presumably not every Toxotes would come from Trapezounta.

EDIT - Oh yes, and weren't the Prokoursatores a bit more lightly armoured than that? Oh, and this may have sounded quite negative. Rest assured that I think it's a really great preview!

[Nikephoros]

About the bowmen, we have prepared another bowmen unit ("psiloi"), we haven't published yet.

and well, those are not crossbows, but greek fire throwers.
we accept name suggestions for them: we called them "siphonist" because of the italian word "sifone", used to name pipes.
actually, im not so sure we used the right english word.

[Zenith Darksea]

Oh right, ok. I mistook them for crossbows. Interesting unit.

[MithradatesVI]

Man, I can't wait to invade the Levant and Egypt with these guys!!!

[Luciano B]

...again, great work indeed.

Only a question: who's the old men depicted on the shield of the "Arkontounpoli"?

[Zenith Darksea]

It's St Andrew, my own national saint and that of modern day Greece.

[Luciano B]

It's St Andrew, my own national saint and that of modern day Greece.

...ooops ...I apologize for my impious ignorance

[Goscinio]

Great units, but did they actually have a painted St Andrew on their shields? It seems a bit too detailled to me...

[dragases1453]

Yes they had, especially the anatolian byzantine troops; the european byzantine troops had St. Demetrius

[purple elf]

wow those are just awesome! flamethrowing byzantines wheeeeeee! and i shall say they are awesome to the max!

[dragases1453]

Thanks man!

[Imperator of Rome]

FOR BYZANTINE!!!Awesome preview

[Lethurion]

Hi guys!

Great work you're doing here!!

Two minor things I noticed:

1) Arkontopouli must be spelled Archontopouloi (or Archontopouli), since the word derives from "Archon" which in greek means leader or ruler. I guess you've read all about them in the "Alexiad".
2) Syphonists. Well, maybe it would be more appropriate to rename them to Pyrovolites. The word actually means "The one that is throwing fire" (the greek words Pyr:fire and Valo:I throw).

Sorry for the "greek lesson"...

If you need any help with these greek names or descriptions I'd be glad to give a hand.

[dragases1453]

thanks a lot! are you greek right? my i'm half greek and half italian anyway we'll change the first one but for the syphonists i dunno cuz the Syphon was theweapon which throwed fire, and pyrovolites seems to me too modern, i mean i think to a soldier with a gun anyway we have time to chose the best one

[Lethurion]

There are certain problems with this unit (Syphonists or whatever you wanna name them). First and major problem is that the actual weapon they're using could only function with one guy holding the tube and aiming and another two guys behind him pumping!!! Liquid Fire (Greek Fire for the non Greeks) was used only in boats and castles because of that. You needed a large pump to throw that burning material to the enemy.

Maybe (just a thought...) we could go back to good ol' MTW and raise from the dead those Naptha throwers!!!

Kai nai... eimai Ellinas!!

[dragases1453]

eh eh to katalava anyway there are some text referring to some soldiers using a small syphon to throw greek fire; the Aytokratoras Alexius I used these men against the Patzinak invasion and also his son Ioannis II used it on the Danube river against another barabrian invasion...

[Lethurion]

I found nothing of what you wrote (certainly not in the Alexiad). Where did you read these references?

Anyway, the name the Byzantines used for the liquid fire force they had in their navy was Siphonarioi.

What I have found are these:

This is a picture taken from a 10th century Byzantine manuscript showing a soldier, on top of a siege tower, throwing fire to the city walls (right bottom corner). This soldier dressed in plain clothes is using the cheirosiphon (Gr: χειροσίφων). The meaning of the word is handtube.

I've found two pictures of this thing which may help in the slight visual altering of the unit you've made:


This is a 16th century cheirosifon found in the middle East. The Arabs where the ones who actualy saved much of the information about Byzantium and addopted much of the Byzantine technology (Navy Liquid Fire, Cheirosiphons, Naptha Grenades).


This is a modern reconstruction of the weapon by the Greek House of Scientific Research.

You can see that the use is simple: a basic pump on the upper part helps pushing the flamable material from the tank below it.
The weapon has a naptha tank which holds up to 3lt of the liquid and has a range of 8-12 metres (26-40 feet).

The use of the weapon is easy, fast, shorttermed (the ammo was limited and the refil could only happen behind the lines and it would take time) and absolutely devastating!!!

What a man can learn out of nothing! I hope these help. If you need any help on the description and have other sources just say so.

Cheers!

[Lethurion]

For some reason I can't see my previous post on the Last Post List.... :-(

[dragases1453]

now i saw it yesterday there were some problems with the database from what i know, anyway thanks for the informations, we'll try to perfect our units we'll put less ammo and less range of fire, and i think we'll change a bit the weapon also...