[WIP] Anno Domini 600 : Continental Hegemony (2013/02/16 UPDATED World Map Preview)

[Max-Scribe]

I. World Map Samples(Newly Updated!)
As what we present in the following pictures, this world map is just the first edition, which means the regionalism, region name and map texture are to be modulated in the future edition. The regionalism will base on the historical territory of the 7th century. The region name will employ the ancient name which Tang Dynasty names this region. The map texture will be redesigned according to the actual terrain height.

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II. Model Samples
We are focusing on our models now, you will see more and more of them showed here.
Here are some models from this mod. Hope you like them.

A. Slavic Tribes
In this period, although the Samo's Kingdom of Slavic people has already occured, however, the written information about Slavic people still not very sufficient before 10th century. This has caused some troubles for information gathering, also some sense of mystery for our slavic faction.

But it does not mean we can under estimate its importance, slavic faction in this period has great influence on Balkan area or even the whole central Europe, they crushed the Byzantine Empire's stronghold on Danube and Balkan district, and settled down in these area. According to Byzantine people's record, their settlement can be seen everywhere outside cities. As result, these slavic tribes gradually become permanent resident of Balkan and Greek district.
It's said that there is no precise definition of slavic race, but people speaking slavic languages. Slavic people in this mod generally present slavic tribes described by byzantine authors.

Comparing with Viking people also come from north Europe, although most slavic people has golden hair, but their color has darker and variable color. During the process of modeling, we have analysed many photos of Russian, Poles and Ukrainians.

And then is the question of hairstyle, beard and dressing. Our reference information is below, including slavic cultral record and reconstruction pictures of this period.

Face Models

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Reference Pics

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B. Kingdom of Tibet.
Some people may think that we have abandoned our mod as we have been slient for more than 3 months, but actually we are still working and be active! In this 3 months, we have finished Tibetan units and have begun the work of Sassanian Soldiers and it probably will be finished at the end of February!



Today, I am here to show some textual research of my Tibetan Units, Wish you like them.


Once I delivered a view in another of my article: The ones who can reflect the culture and dress characteristics best are ordinary militias although they are lack in training and weaponry. The problem we have to face all the time is how do they look like,they wear the daily clothes of their nation which we can not draw without the related knowledge. In conclusion, any thoughts that we can make the low-fighting-capacity militia at our will would be jokes. This article is aimed at describing ordinary Tibetan people's clothing and adornments during 7th century and 9th century.


Most studies about Tibetan clothing and adornments are based on pictures from the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. Under the condition of lacking in excavations, those pictures are the best ones we can refer to. Many scholars have written articles about the study of Tibetan clothing and adornments, among which I personally recommend "The study of dress of minority in Mogao Grottoes","Study of Tibetan Collar robes " and " Study of Tibetan clothing and adornments in' Picture of Tsenpo's pray to Buddha'". written by Pro. Xie Jing, Skien Karman's "Study of Tibetan clothing during 7th and 11th century" and Pro. Liu Jun, Heather Karmay, Pro. Yang Qingfan's writings. However, those writings all focus on describing the clothing of Tsenpo (the emperor of Tibetan empire) and his retinues and they do not pay much attention on functions of Tibetan clothing.

As we know, most portraits of Tibetan Tsenpos were fund in the picture of Vimalakirti which were drew in 8th century. But he painting style of those portraits were affected by China and we haven't found any record to prove Tsenpos' traveling to Dunhuang. So the authenticity of Vimalakirti is still questionable and we have to refer to the paintings on wooden coffins which were unearthed in Tibetans tombs in Qinghai. Taking time and place into consideration, these paintings are definitely more suitable for consulting

So we can gain a conclusion that, the Tibetans who lived between 7th and 10th century often paint their face red, make their hair pigtails and use kerchiefs. In fact, we can still see the tradition of pigtails in some aged devout Tibetans, Painting face red, which originated from Bonpo ( The initial religion in Tibet) has lost in history and Kerchiefs were also replaced by hats.


Firstly, we shall focus on Tibetan headgears, kerchiefs and hair styles
We can see the details on wooden coffins unearthed in Qinghai Province, PRC.

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The follows are portraits of Tibetan Tsenpos and his retinues fund in the picture of Vimalakirti, Mogao Grottoes, Dunhuang.

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The pictures I post above are typical Tibetan hats and kerchiefs of that age, we can gain a conclusion that the major styles of Tibetan headgears are red head bands(红抹额), bight caps(绳圈冠),Sunglow hat(朝霞冠, funded in portraits of Tsenpo and his senior bodyguards ,No.158 and No.159 grotto, Dunhuang), and white towering kerchief on the cross-legged man 's head on the first wooden coffin.

We can see details in the follow picture.

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Towering kerchief ,see the man on the left.

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What's more, we can gain a conclusion from the pictures that rabbles usually wear red head bands and bight crowns while noble men's preference are Sunglow hat and towering kerchief.

[IMG]file:///C:/Users/ADMINI~1/AppData/Local/Temp/ksohtml/wps_clip_image-6477.png[/IMG][IMG]file:///C:/Users/ADMINI~1/AppData/Local/Temp/ksohtml/wps_clip_image-29031.png[/IMG]1. Sunglow hat
The new annals of Tang (新唐书） recorded that "Tibetans usually wear in brown and have sunglow hat on their heads,men or women all wear their hair pigtails." Collected works of Dunhuang Grottoes mentioned that Tsenpo wears a Sunglow hat and red head bands. We can also find some red top hats in NO. 159 grotto in Mo Gao which is considered to be one typical kind of Sunglow hat. The word "sunglow" ,whose Chinese pronunciation is "Zhao Xia", actually means the red tussah silk imported from Korea. Records of Tang(唐会要） recorded that Tibet, where is considered not suitable for cotton cultivation, also pays Sunglow silk as tribute to Tang.The new annals of Tang also recorded this kind of silk was imported through Protectorate of the Western Regions(安西都护府，An Xi Protectorate）.Sunglow hat is usually as red as morning glow, it's a straight hat that twine the wearer's head. We can see from top of the hat that the fabric texture of it is quite thick, both red and white top sunglow hat have been funded and the hat usually reveal a white edge on the bottom. I guess that Tibetan sunglow hat should be made of fur or linen stripes as Tibet is not suitable for cotton cultivation. Those fur or linen stripes usually have one or two 15cm-wide-white hemmings to form a white top and bottom hat.
Sunglow hats and red head bands can be worn together. Tibetan noble men usually wear Sunglow hats first and then use red head bands to fasten the hat, the portrait of Tsenpo in NO. 158 and 159 grotto shows this, the Tsenpo wears a red silk fabric,which is considered to be part of red head band.

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2. Red head band
Red head band can be used alone or together with Sunglow hat. Low ranking retinues and common usually use the red head band exclusively. An example is picture in NO. 231,a retinue standing in front of Tsenpo wears a red head band. Red head band is shorter and narrower than Sunglow hat, but its softer. Red head band is not always red, for example, the retinue in the picture of NO. 231 grotto wears a dark red head band with bluish green figures on it.

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3. Bight caps.
Pro. Xie Jing 's view is that the kerchiefs appeared in NO. 225 and NO. 220 grotto are bight caps, more over, she also considers the hat appears on wooden coffins unearthed in Qinghai to be bight caps. But according to my study, they are actually different. Obviously we can see the retinue in the picture of Dunhuang wears a red head band, which twines his neck and leave his hair exposed on the top. While the man on wooden coffins of Qinghai wears a bight cap, which is thicker and wraps the whole head, sagged to his waist. Bight cap has many color types, its much longer than the red head band and softer than Sunglow hat. Bight cap is considered to be one kind of early Tibetan clothes, while the period of Red head band is after 780 ad, when Tibet's occupation of Dunhuang.

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4.Towering kerchief
Pro.Xu Xinguo believes that the Tsenpo hunkers tent and the noble men who pull their bow in pictures on wooden coffins of Qinghai wear towering kerchiefs.The picture of Illustration of Raudraksa also depict a man wearing towering kerchief. Towering kerchief is similar to Sunglow hat but its longer and has a sharp, forerake top. Towering kerchiefs are usually red, but there are some other colors like white and brown. The compliance of towering kerchief is between bight cap and sunglow hat. We can gain a conclusion that towering kerchief is one kind of high ranking noble men's hat styles as the Tsenpos and some other nobles wear towering kerchiefs in pictures funded in Lhasa.

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5. Pigtails
The pigtails in pictures of Dunhuang grottoes and wooden coffins in Qinghai have the same style, the difference between them only lie in the place of its tip. According to the picture in NO. 231 grotto, Tibetans usually part their hair in forehead, then make these two beams of hair pigtails and tie a knot behind the head. According to the portrait of Tsenpo and his guards,Tibetans usually use jeweled rope to fix pigtails and reveal the tip of left pigtail on the right.

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6. Red face painting
It is recorded by historical document that Tibetans have a customer to paint their face red, which is believed to originate from the animal sacrifice of Bonpo. We can find some evidence of red face painting on wooden coffins in Qinghai as dozens of people inthe picture paint their face red, they use red pigment to draw different kinds of red punctations on their faces, This kind of makeup is a endemic style of Tibet and also affect the makeup styles of Tangut kingdom (1038-1227). A painting drew by Wu Yuanzhi (a famous painter lived during 10th century and 11th century) showed a goddess who has the same makeup with the Tibetans in the pictures of Qinghai wooden coffins (《星宿神》 The English name of this painting is Star gods, which is unearthed in Kharar-khoto and collected in State Hermitage)

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PS: More foresights of Tibetan soldiers is coming soon, and the making of Sassanian soldiers is in progress!.


(updated on 2012.7. 9)【Foresight Of Tibetan weapons】,Anno Domini 600 : Continental Hegemony.
Notation of background:
My plan of making Tibetan mods is divided into two parts: Tibetan weapons and Tibetan Units. This post is written to introduce the process and reference of Tibetan weapons.

Tibetan Army has a great variety of weapons,including axes, swords, sickles,spears, javelins, slings, bows,hammers, cleeks and clubs. It is recorded in Chinese history books that Tibetan army is widely equipped with swords and Chain mail armor, Tibetan war-horses are also usually heavily armored.

According to the documentation of Tibetan Kingdom excavated in Xingjiang,the standard weapons of a warrior is a sword,a shield,a bow,several arrows,a bag of stone and a sling.We will focus on Tibetan swords, spears, armors,javelins, bows and shields.

1. Spears
Tibetan spears are known as long and thin,but it doesn't mean they are weak. In fact they are very hard as the first part of it's stale is made of metal.

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Tibetans has the tradition of re-worship,we can see from the murals that the flags of tibetan army is usually red.

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3D-MAX palinspastic figures

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2. Shields
Tibetan shields are mainly made of wood,iron,tigerskin,wolfskin and cowhide,this is a sample of Tibetan shield.

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3D-MAX palinspastic figure

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3. Diggers and machetes
Tibetan Diggers are hand-made,they are sharp,magnificent and delicate.

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machete

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4. Swords
Tibetan swords are develop from sabers of China, we can still find some trails of Chinese saber from Tibetan swords

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attached figure :rgod_stong-sde_vphong(means Military officer of main force from the warrior caste)

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C. Japanese units(Asuka period —Heian period)

Background:

The start time of this mod is 618AD, during Asuka Period (600AD-710AD). In this period, Japanese had experienced events including the lost control over Korea(562 AD), the regency of Soga clan (2nd half of 6th century to 1st half of 7th century), the political reform of Prince Shotoku (604 AD), Taika Reform(646 AD)， Battle of Baekgang with Tang empire(662 AD), moving capital to Ou-mi(667 AD), the Jinshin War caused by Prince Oama (Emperor Temmu) (672 AD) and the political reform of Emperor Temmu.
After Jinshin War in 672 A.D, Emperor Temmu came into power,he imitated the military system of Tang Empire. In this system, Japanese army rotate periodically. Emperor Temmu also established Sakimori department,which send army to south east every year on guard of Tang empire's invasion

Reference date pictures (japanese armor in the 7th century is very much different from armnor of the Sengoku period we are familiar with)

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Armor of Kofun Period (4th to 7th century), mainly include simple leather armor and steel helmet

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Heavy armor of Heian Period(8th century to 12th century)

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Tribe men (serf of nobles)

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Kuni-no-miyatsuko soldiers (militias of vessal state)

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Kuni-no-miyatsuko bowmen

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Sakimori infantry (soldiers deployed in the southwest of japan in case of Tang invasion, armed with excellent armor provided by Kuge)

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Sakimori naginata infantry

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Sakimori archer

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Sakimori Cavalry

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Toneri spearmen (Toneri soldiers are royal troops recruited from east Japan, armed with Tang style armor)

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Toneri bowmen

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Toneri crossbowmen

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Toneri samurai (armed with steel plate armor, guard troops defending Yamato and nearby places)

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Toneri samurai Yabusame ( Yabusames armed with naginatas)

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Yoroi Samurai (Capital defending elite troops)

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The completion of Oyoroi samurai--as the last arms of Yamato, finally ends satisfactorily after forty days of production. As everyone knows, Japanese-style Oyoroi was born before Heian period(794-1192). For the mod which time span from 618 to 907 years, if not a Oyoroi works was born, it is really a pity. It's because of these samurai was born in 9th Century, this ultimate arms in the mod appear quite late.

The following are rendering effect pictures in 3dsMax. As the prelude of Yamato soldiers total preview about to release, I hope you will enjoy, and welcome to your opinion.

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D. India (Updated 2012/02/06!)

As Spring Festival of China has come, I come with some new contents as a gift to friends favours this mod. For now, all soldiers for Yamato have been finished. This time, I am honor to show soldiers of another country in our mod: India.
There are many mods include ancient India, such as EB2 mod. We admire historical rigor of it very much, and decided to make our mod as historical accurate as possible.
At the seventh century, India is a divided nation. It's callled the Gupta period. The most outstanding faction may be the Harsha Empire. During its period (606 AD - 647 AD), the empire expanded from Tha-nesar to the whole northern India including Rajasthan, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa. Evidence shows the upper class of empire enjoyed a high prosperity.
The first character we recognise when study Indian weapons is their variety. According to the record of Lord Egerton of Tatton, there are 32 kinds of weapon in ancient India, because there are 32 worshiped gods, and each god has its own weapon. For example, Krishna and Ram are armed with bow and war axe. Vishnu's weapon is a Chakra. Survey shows that people in India had broadly adopted steel weapons before the invasion of Alexander the Great. What's more, after Wars of Alexander, due to the impact of Hellenic culture, some new type of weapons occured, such as Kukri, descended from the classic Greek sword of Kopis.
According to the British historian Cunningham and Fergusson, standard equipments of warrior of india in the seventh century are armed with a broad short swords and a longbow. This kind of longbow was usually made of bamboo. Indian horsemen are armed with spears and heater shields. We make out these models according to old frescos and other indian art works to make them as realistic as possible.

So finally, we present our first batch of model pics about ancient indian weapons here. Any opinion is much valuable to us, thanks.

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Three-edged spear


Spear Heads
Reference picture

Model：


Kukri
Referebce pictuer:

Model:


Reference picture


Model:


Short swords
Reference picture:

Models



Pata (Sword)
Reference picture

Model:




Infantry shield
Reference picture:



]

E. Tang Empire

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1. Imperial Elite Guards
In 3DMAX



In Games



















2. Imperial Spear Guards
In 3DMAX




In Games













3. Imperial Sword Guards
Accroding to history, they were armed with a bow, thirty arrows and a Tang sword. Just like Byzantine Empire, Tang paid much attention to missile fire of her army to drive nomad archers away.
In games, you can find when they are using missile fires, their sword will be put in their scabbard, and they will put their shields on their backs. When they are in melee combat, their will put their bows back on their backs.












See the bows on their backs?
And, soldiers models of Yamato Kingdom at 600 AD will soon come to their stage.

MOD Description
Hello friends, it's my honor to post my topic here. I am a Total War player from China. Please allow me to introduce my mod in progress to friends in TWC. Any suggestions or opinions are very much welcomed.

The name of my mod is Anno Domini 600 : Continental Hegemony
The mod is base on M2TW: Kingdoms

The seventh century is a era full of changes and hopes. In Europe, the invasion to Rome was nearly reached its end. Those people used to be called 'barbarian' were settling down on the ruins of West Roman Empire. They started to build kingdoms of their own. In the middle-east, the 300 years war between Byzantine Empire and Sassanid Empire had severely weaken their super power, while the Prophet Muhammad had just received Holy Prophet from Archangel, and planned to unite all Bedouin people into a strong power. After years, under the banner of Jihad, these people would be the conquerers of the earth from Ganges to Pyrenees. Meanwhile, on the steppes of Central Asia, Turk, a nightmare of many nations, would make the earth of China, Khorasan and Valley of Volga shudder at their paces. Khitan, Tocharians, Khwarezm and Khazars would bow to its power. Meanwhile, the most glorious dynasty of ancient China -- Tang was coming on its stage.

Tang means much more than a common dynasty. It's the Victorian Age of ancient China. In less a century from her foundation, Tang had defeated four Turkic nations to eliminate the threat northern invasions, and secured the east front by beating Goguryeo and Yamato's armies. Many famous generals, such as Su Dingfang, Wang Weigao and Zhang Yichao, were nightmares of Tang's enemies. Besides, Tang is also a era of innovation and openness, Imperial Examinations had granted rights of political participation to people in China, regardess their race and social class. The economic and cultural contacts between Tang and foreign countries were becoming more and more frequent. Tang's culture, indluding Tang-style suit, tea ceremony, Tang poetry, Tang-style buildings and so on, has deeply influenced many east asian countries, such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam.

Anno Domini 600 : Continental Hegemony, this mod is not just a mod focused on east asia, the landscape of almost the whole Eurasia and part of Africa will be included in our work. Our wish, is to bring you back to the seventh century AD, to decide war and peace between these three continents.


III. Planned included factions:

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East Asia
Tang Empire
Yamato Kingdom
Gaogouli Kingdom (also called Goguryeo)
Silla Kingdom
Nanzhao Kingdom
Balhae Kingdom (unselectable)

Middle Asia
Western Turki Khanate
Easten Turki Khanate
Uighur Khanate
Gaochang Kingdom
Tubo kingdom

South Asia
Harsha Empire
Chalukya Kingdom


Middle East
Sassanian Persian empire
Rashidun Caliphate


East Europe
Khazar Khanate
Avar Khanate
Slavic tribes
Old Great Bulgaria
Byzantine Empire

West Europe
Frankish Merovingian Dynasty
Saxon Kingdom
Wessex Kingdom
Visigothic Kingdom
Viking tribes
Lombard Kingdom
Roman Catholic Church

East Africa
Axumite Kingdom

For now, the mod process is very much far from complete. Currently we are mainly focusing on east asian factions.

Here is current result of our works


IV. Model References
Here are some historical reference pics for our models. We try our best to make them closer to history reality.

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A. Tang Empire
These are pictures of Imperial Warriors in Tang Dynasty.
1. Imperial Elite Guard





2. Imperial Spear Guard





（Soldiers' armory in early period of Tang）

That's all... for now of course! You will see the mod become more and more sophisticated gradually, of course, your support, suggestions or criticism will surely make this progress faster.



Many thanks!

[MathiasOfAthens]

Looks great.

[Ixor_Drakar]

Great idea, the units look really good.

[_Tartaros_]

interesting start. conquering eurasia with me2tw is a good idea!
looking forward

[EgyptianWarLord]

VERY COOL....CAN'T WAIT

[Verrix Toutatis]

Really nice texture work!
If you need any assistance in regard to research for the Axumite Kingdom I'd be more then happy to help.

[lolIsuck]

Looks really nice, I have one remark.
The Roman Catholic Church wasn't a power untill around 1050 and they surely weren't a state. The bishop of Rome (=the Pope) was not a lot more powerful than the bishop of Tours in France and only owned some estates in and around Rome.

[Silesian_Noble]

I love the idea and definitely will check your progress

[zerohour]

Support lushen scribe........

[Max-Scribe]

Really nice texture work!
If you need any assistance in regard to research for the Axumite Kingdom I'd be more then happy to help.

Thanks sooooo much!!
We plan to research Axumite Kingdom after we have finished Asian parts

[Max-Scribe]

Looks really nice, I have one remark.
The Roman Catholic Church wasn't a power untill around 1050 and they surely weren't a state. The bishop of Rome (=the Pope) was not a lot more powerful than the bishop of Tours in France and only owned some estates in and around Rome.

Yes, you are right. Thanks for pointing it out.
But Roman church still acted as a counterweight to Lombard Kingdom. To some extent it stopped Lombard from conquering the whole Italy. And we plan to strengthen it by the event Donation of Pepin.

Besides, without Roman Church, the game will be less interesting, isn't it?

[NekoGenijalan]

Those models are really great!
Great work here!

[lolIsuck]

Yes, you are right. Thanks for pointing it out.
But Roman church still acted as a counterweight to Lombard Kingdom. To some extent it stopped Lombard from conquering the whole Italy. And we plan to strengthen it by the event Donation of Pepin.

Besides, without Roman Church, the game will be less interesting, isn't it?

yes, it will be less interesting, that's true
The Carolingians did give huge amounts of stuff to the church

[Max-Scribe]

Thanks for your support, friends!
Some historical reference pics for models have been uploaded. Hope you like them.

[Conqistador]

Nice, very well crafted units here!

[Königsberger Klops]

looks kinda awesome

[Basileus Antiochus]

Great mod, glad to see a fellow countryman in TWC

[Zames]

Great project here!
Good luck with all your work

[Grymloq]

Looks really great!

[last dynasty]

As a chinese, i'm very proud. Because we have a great history and we have many great people.
Scribe.. look forward to your great mod...

Edison from ShangHai...