Medieval Kingdoms Total War: Kievan Rus (REVAMP)

[keksimir]

Fantastic work! Looking forward to seeing more

[Visarion]

I would put some more color on some of the units

[AlexiosThe1st]

So no Novgorod because of Campaign map limits, right? How do you think other Rus factions , such as Chernigov, Galicia-Volhynia, or Ryazan-Murom will compare and differ from Kievan Rus? And did you get any Turkic-Mongol inspiration for the High/Late tier units, as Rus would have been a total Mongol vassal state thoughout the 1300's and early 1400's? Great work though!

I won't be working on the other Rus factions, so I cannot say. Were I to speculate, however, I'd suspect Galicia will take on a distinctly Eastern European flavor similar to Poland and Hungary. Chernigov will have greater Lithuanian and "northern" influence, and Ryazan will have greater Mongolian influence, favoring horse archers and such. Kiev somewhat sits in the middle, and so I sought a balance between a purely western and purely eastern build. I'm interested to see how the team balances the units.

As for Turkic influence, that comes in the later era with the plated mail and the high era as a number of helm models and lamellar models. There is, however, currently discussion on how to adjust this roster to better differentiate the tiers. Whether to take it in a Western or Eastern direction. We'll see how that pans out. For now I'll just be stamping out any crossover and trying to make the 1/2/3 distinction clearer.

So expect updates in the near future!

[AlexiosThe1st]

@ Vis

Which units in particular? I fear adding too much color and losing roster cohesion as a result so you'll have to be specific. I've already added new shields and more colored cloth armors to the Druzina, so I believe they're good if you're referring to them.

[General Grievous]

Well done! this is soo beautyfull!

One question: Why some units look like byzantines ones?

[Levan]

@Alexios could you please provide some frescoes or other depictions of those round discs on warriors' chests? I need 13-14th century ones, not those which are integrated in plated chain. I would be very grateful.

[Stevie G]

Great Work! Some amazing stuff there!

[Fresh_Milk]

Well done! this is soo beautyfull!

One question: Why some units look like byzantines ones?

Because the Kievan Rus' were converted to orthodox Christianity by the Byzantines and they also helped civilize the Kievan population by helping in politics and creating the cyrillic alphabet.
The Byzantine Varangian Guard were made of foreign mercenaries sworn to protect the Emperor, many of which were Rus' natives.
After the Christening of the Kievan Rus, the Byzantines had a lot of influence in military, even helping defend against some Pecheneg raids.

[TrepachaBG]

mhmm the byzantines didnt create the cyrilic alphabet

[Cometopuli]

amazing much better than the last one and more historiccaly accurate exellent job!

[Fresh_Milk]

mhmm the byzantines didnt create the cyrilic alphabet

Sorry, I meant introduced to the Kievans, I think it was created by two monks in Bulgaria.

[AlexiosThe1st]

Unit Update:

Rus Guard Axemen (early)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From

To

Reason for change: To better differ from the high period units, I've added more mail and taken away the lamellar models.

Dismounted Druzina

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From

To

Reason for change: Added more color as requested. Note the shields will be adjusted once I've a few textures I'm waiting on. This unit will also be getting precursor javelins

Druzina

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From

To

Reason for change: Added color, same as above. Shields will also be adjusted.

Unit Addition:

Early dedicated javelin unit (still working on name):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Like the changes? Let me know!

[AlexiosThe1st]

Unit Update

Pomostniki

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From
To

Reason for change: The previous iteration ran too similar a vein to the other tier 3 cav, so the pomostniki have been adjusted to be a light and fast melee cav unit.

[Gongo80]

terrific

[Cometopuli]

i have one question what was the role of the pomostniki in war? because on my check pomostniki means assistant?

[Knight2708]

Man you really did an amazing job with this revamp. The Rus units have always looked very good, but its great to finally see a fully fleshed out roster. I really love the new additions especially the new lower class units and the tier 3 armor. The changes you posted today look great too. My only complaint is that some shields look a bit too bright and oversaturated, almost as if they were painted using neon colors. For example, some of the wooden shields of the tier 1 Smerd infantry look more orange than brown to me and the blues and reds on the shields of some of the tier 1 Druzina, tier 2 general's bodyguard and tier 2 Ratniki seem a bit too shiny. Aside from that awesome work.

Also could we get some brief unit descriptions please?

[AlexiosThe1st]

Thank you guys for the support, it means a lot! But really I'm just the middleman. Ltd, Sly, Lucem, and any others that worked on the models and textures in this roster really deserve the credit. I just pieced their work into a Rus roster.

@Garjoka The idea is that this represents a lower class mounted soldier that would function in a similar way to Western sergeants. They would assist the noble cavalry in their actions.

@Knight2708 The tier 1 noble shields will be adjusted as soon as I've the textures to do so. The Smerd shields IMO are fine, the screenshot was pretty poor. As for the tier 2 shields I'll take a look; it might be poor screenshoting with a bright in game sun. Also, it's possible for me to do unit descriptions, but this would take up a huge section of my time. And time is something I've been lacking lately. So for now I'll be focusing on refining the faction and getting it into release condition.

[Levan]

I like how you changed the class of Pomostniki but the change of Guard Axemen is questionable for me. If you reduced the lamellar just to make them different from tier 2, then i strongly disagree. For 13th century eastern factions, like Byzantines or Georgia, chain mail was already non-noble armor, i mean lamellar was much more popular and common among nobles and i think there was the same situation in Rus states. Since this unit is called "Guard" they should have noble armor right? You could use different types of lamellar on tier 1 and 2, thus you will also have enough difference.

[AlexiosThe1st]

I like how you changed the class of Pomostniki but the change of Guard Axemen is questionable for me. If you reduced the lamellar just to make them different from tier 2, then i strongly disagree. For 13th century eastern factions, like Byzantines or Georgia, chain mail was already non-noble armor, i mean lamellar was much more popular and common among nobles and i think there was the same situation in Rus states. Since this unit is called "Guard" they should have noble armor right? You could use different types of lamellar on tier 1 and 2, thus you will also have enough difference.

The decision wasn't only to differ tier 1 axes from 2 as a design choice, it also served a historical purpose as well. You state that lamellar was the "noble armor" in place of mail for the 13th century and we can argue that for pages and pages. It remains that some noble or wealthy soldiers would have worn mail and some would have worn lamellar; the proportions of each being our point of contention. And I believe that this has been rendered in Tier 1. Lamellar is abundant in the general and senior druzina units, so it's not as if lamellar is absent from tier 1, it has only been toned down a bit. IMO to better reflect the distribution of the time period.

[McMoots]

Unit Update:

Rus Guard Axemen (early)

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From

To

Reason for change: To better differ from the high period units, I've added more mail and taken away the lamellar models.

Dismounted Druzina

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From

To

Reason for change: Added more color as requested. Note the shields will be adjusted once I've a few textures I'm waiting on. This unit will also be getting precursor javelins

Druzina

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

From

To

Reason for change: Added color, same as above. Shields will also be adjusted.

Unit Addition:

Early dedicated javelin unit (still working on name):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Like the changes? Let me know!

If you're looking for a name for the Javelin troops, I googled Russian Javelin troops and "Kop'ya" turned up, which google translates says translates into Spear Throwers, or roughly Spears-men.