It's possible to disable/alter the traits so the good factions killing orcs doesn't give bad traits etc.
Were there but a tree in this godforsaken place i would have hanged myself.
The Master mind behind the mod Akthross Total War, Eothese got permission from KK to use some of the TATW unit models for his mod. I was looking at his work and I must say i was impressed by his custom Orc village. Since we don't really know what orc village really looked liked well maybe some of them in descriptions from the books i was wondering if you think KK should ask Eothese if he can use his custom orc village for 3.2? what you think? it might better than just using generic settlements for them check them out.
The Master mind behind the mod Akthross Total War, Eothese got permission from KK to use some of the TATW unit models for his mod. I was looking at his work and I must say i was impressed by his custom Orc village. Since we don't really know what orc village really looked liked well maybe some of them in descriptions from the books i was wondering if you think KK should ask Eothese if he can use his custom orc village for 3.2? what you think? it might better than just using generic settlements for them check them out.
http://mjollnir.twcenter.net/forums/...d.php?t=409717
scroll down to:
Custom Settlements
Orc Village
There are already custom orc settlements
Speaking of Orks...
Can those awful and SILLY Ork swords from the movies with that ridiculous spike on their back be removed to something lore-like?
Reasons being:
Lore
-Orks use scimitars
-Uruk Hai of Isengard use swords that are, "short, broad-bladed", possibly very Gladius-like.
Practical use
-A sword has a point for a reason, to stab. Those thingies cannot.
-The added top weight will make the weapon really- REALLY impractical and cumbersome to use. If you want a top-heavy weapon, you use an axe (with AP), not a sword with an added and pointless back spike.
-a back spike like that will allow your enemy to take control of your weapon with his basically. I cannot really explain it, but if you wield a weapon like that, as soon as you have it below shoulder height in front of you; your enemy will use his sword in a circular motion to move yours out of the way or even disarming you, the spike aiding him and making your freeing it to hit him very difficult. He can then wound or kill you at his leasure.
Those spiked weapons are against lore and ridiculous, please remove them.
Seconded.
I am glad you guys agree, in fact the ONLY way anyone with such a sword could damage me even despite my two tennis elbows (from swordfighting) having semi-crippled me, would be that I was too busy laughing to notice them coming up with a dagger...
Those swords are actually quite useful. You can use the spike on the back to pull riders from horses or pierce through chain mail while slashing instead of stabbing. It is kinda like a sword/axe/mini-billhook. So Saruman should have used those to fight against Rohan. I am not disagreeing that they should be changed, I don't care, just saying it is a useful and versatile weapon. I plan to give them a slight cavalry bonus to them because of it.
Last edited by alreadyded; April 20, 2012 at 09:31 PM.
macilrille is right.
there is nothing really similar (at least not in mass use as far as i know) in "real history" and those isengard-swords are not likely to be designed for fighting cavalry.
fighting cav as a swordsman you have only the possibilities to attac the horse or the legs of the rider. your range is your arm + 80cm-1,40m. and that only at maximum. most times you don't hit at maximum, at least not if the battle is raging for a while. a sword may be light at weight, but handle it for some time. it will get heavy! this is why most times spears are used against cav or pikes or halberds.
actually I think those swords are a more or less crossing of blade and the spike of a warhammer. to penetrate armor.
to pull riders down, the spike should have been arcuated. a just sloped one doesn't entangle in the armor, but simply slips out again.
I never said the models used for the Isengard swords were good, too blocky/simplistic for my tastes, I was referring to the sword design itself which has been used a lot in history. You ever hear of a scythe sword? Pretty much the same thing though there different designs (some more fluent, some more rigid depending on who made it), a sword more suited for hacking and slashing than stabbing (just like a long sharp axe). I am pretty sure it originally came from the Middle-East (Sumerian's maybe). Whether they were used in mass or not doesn't really matter, as the spear was used more than all sword types combined. There are a lot of weird shaped swords/weapons throughout history, often because they designed to have multiple uses. Anyone that can't see the use in having a sword/axe all-in-one needs to go try one out.
Cavalry does not fight from a distance, they charge right in. Many a horseman has died from being ripped down from their mounts by bare hands. A sword would definitively reach. Now a axe... you probably just go for the legs of the rider, or the horse itself.
I am more of a knife/bare hand fighter, but I have quite bit of experience in mock sword fights. I spent four years of my life learning how to kill people.
One good thing about the Isengard swords is that they look mass produced, which to me is a good thing for that faction.
Last edited by alreadyded; April 21, 2012 at 03:45 PM.
There is a huge difference between a scythe sword or the North Indian axe-like swords (if you are a knife fighter you will know the Kukri) and those fantasy contraptions. The RL equivalents are all well-balanced and has a point (much like a scythe, an inversed sabre or indeed like a longer Kukri). They are well-suited for slashing blows- it is their purpose. Those back spikes are useless as you have no force with your bachhand and you cannot slash with them that way; which will allow the enemy to catch your badly balanced sword with his well-balanced one to disarm you or control your weapon while he cuts you. They are silly, ridicolous and have no RL counterparts, they come only out of some silly fantasy author with no RL fighting experience's delusional fantasy.
If you learned to kill in the armed forces of your country, as have I. Consider them a bit like... I dunno... a .50 assault rifle for urban combat with an automatic shotgun inbuilt, for it packs some punch. Or a minigun on a harness like in Terminator. If you see what I mean. Same principle, but even worse, much worse, for not only does it encumber you and is partly useless, it also allows your enemy to defeat you.
They are designed to be heavier at the end, just like an axe. This gives you more momentum for hacking and slashing (like an axe). I am not trying to convince you it is the best weapon ever, just that it is versatile on a battlefield where you will be fighting many types of enemies, with many types of weapons, maybe more than one at a time. In such a scenario weapons with multiple uses are very desirable (at least to me). All weapons have strengths and weakness, but they have there uses as well. Calling a scythe sword useless is almost like calling all the various sabers ever made useless, the two weapons are very similar in shape and use. Even a double-edged blade has its downsides, just like curved blades do.
Bottom line is you have to try it, not something that can really be discussed other than to the point that it has uses. How useful it is depends on the person wielding it, and the situation they are in. If you can't find a use for it, or you don't like getting in close for the kill, than use a different weapon. Which way the blade or point is facing isn't a big deal as you can just rotate your grip and use whichever sharp part you like.
Last edited by alreadyded; April 21, 2012 at 05:28 PM.
I was not calling scythe swords useless, they are fine weapons, just as are sabres and katanas. But those back-spiked things has nothing to do with scythe-swords or reality and they are useless. If you do not believe me, try and have one made and see whether it works against even a mediocre swordsman with a normal sword.
It is not just a sword, that is what you are not understanding here. It is a cross between a sword and an axe. You are a swordsman, you prefer swords, I get that. But not everyone fights the same way you prefer to. If you rotate your grip so the spike or curved part of the blade is facing forward than your problem is solved. Not that that is even necessary, my backslashes are just as powerful as my foreslashes. And with that extra weight on the end it makes it even easier (unlike with a sword). As I said, they both have strengths and weaknesses.
I myself like swords and axes, so I prefer a weapon that melds the two and plays off both of their strengths. I actually own a few blades like this. One is even a "survival tool" that has an actual axe blade with sharp points instead of a single spike or point, I love it. I bought it off Amazon.com for like $70
This is a design better suited for pulling a man off a horse. The one I have looks similar but has more sharp edges and a double pointed axe head on the back which is good for snagging and chopping peeps.
Last edited by alreadyded; April 21, 2012 at 05:57 PM.
And you can buy "Rambo" survival knives too. That does not make them historical, or even very good.
Now if you please, find some historical examples or even a smith who can hand-craft you a sword of that form using medieval or dark-age tech and try and use it.
Translation: "Do my research for me." You have never even tried one out, so why are you so sure of yourself?
I have better things to do, I am not arguing or trying to prove you wrong here. I am simply trying to open your mind to new things (though they have been around for thousands of years, Sumerians made and used similar weapons a lot as I have said, they probably were not the first). Even peasants in Medieval times made similar makeshift weapons out of their farming tools. One of the most lethal, versatile, and easy to use weapons in history, the billhook is based off of this design. Read about it, don't ask me to tell you everything. To each his own, thanks for the conversation, I enjoyed it.
Edit:
Here, I Googled it for you. http://www.google.com/search?q=billh...DvLXiAL71PHaDw
Last edited by alreadyded; April 21, 2012 at 06:27 PM.
I know about billhooks. I have an Ma in Viking-Roman-Medieval and military History. But billhooks are a very difficult thing, as are the Sumerian swords, the North-indian swords, the Getai Falx and Thracian Rhomphaia. I also fought with swords, axes and spears for 19 years.
So, I know what I am talking about when I claim that a) those Orkish contraptions are ahistorical. b) They are also very-very impractical and counterproductive to use. You on the other hand I am sorry to say do not. So in order to enlighten you, for you refuse to believe me and keep claiming that entirely unrelated weapons are very similar.
So, I ask you to have one made and use it to see what you think of it.
my problem was, you reffering to pull down a cavalryman with it.
[and I know, you can pull down a rider with mere hands yes, but it isn't an actual "tactic" or fightingstyle against cavalry, so giving the uruk-hai in your submod (?) an anti-cav-bonus is questionable (for me).]
but the examples you now posted are better designed for it - like the billhook and the (well, maybe) "dagger". they have a hook (to pull with), while the orksword has just a spike (to maybe penetrate armour - give them an armor-piercing advantage in your submod).
it is true, there's a huge amount of single-edged swords, sabres, axes etc. and the uruk-sword could work that way or be influenced by a mixture of it. and to use the spike, you could change the grip. (and surely it hurts )
well, but the fact is (and I think we all agree), it is a fantasyproduct
(and by the way there are much more worse - like twohanders, which even an elefant couldn't lift - there are some really scary "utensils" lurking around in games, films etc.)
at least I don't know about its balance or imbalance, because I never held one of these.
I only know handling a spatha and shield, so... maybe some lotr-freaks could try it out be re-enacting if someone who bought such a "sword"/"axe"/"bastard-thing"/what-ever feels addressed, make a video and post it here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=E7P6Qu6XJh0
It would be cool to have goblins with these animations. very fast and lots of it in every unit, like the zergs in starcraft.