Medieval Kingdoms Total War: Second Bulgarian Tsardom (Complete)

[You_Guess_Who]

Its more that the developers have somewhat of revamp fatigue, save for revamps that already in the works or already plotted and planned (for unfinished factions). finix as our 2D illustrator is spread thin for the many upcoming factions that haven't got their unitcards, and he have to work on campaign UI elements as well which is currently being worked on mainly by Zsi. Hessam might got drafted into the Iranian army sooner or later in the future (depends on the direction of the Iranian legislature might go), and he still haven't finish revamping the Ottoman T2 and reworked his older assets to higher standard. Repolishing the Bulgarians when it just has been revamped is shifted to low priority at the moment.

[FrozenmenSS]

Its more that the developers have somewhat of revamp fatigue, save for revamps that already in the works or already plotted and planned (for unfinished factions). finix as our 2D illustrator is spread thin for the many upcoming factions that haven't got their unitcards, and he have to work on campaign UI elements as well which is currently being worked on mainly by Zsi. Hessam might got drafted into the Iranian army sooner or later in the future (depends on the direction of the Iranian legislature might go), and he still haven't finish revamping the Ottoman T2 and reworked his older assets to higher standard. Repolishing the Bulgarians when it just has been revamped is shifted to low priority at the moment.

+1

[Slepeca]

As for Teutonic's comment, for new names of the bulgarian roster, well in the past thread i have already forwarded some names, that i've found off of the internet pages, like wikipedia and some other forums. Some of them do have historical backing, but some are just speculation on part of modern bulgarian scholars. But if you want to just diversefy the roster and not have some generic english names like (Heavy swordsmen, Light swordsmen, heavy spearmen and so on.) or you want to have native language names to set the atmosphere a little bit better, i will try to foward some names.

Mountain Scouts to Vojnuci, Akritai, Brigands - These army "Units" are known to have existed in our lands durning and after the fall of the Bulgarian states, the can mostly be sumerised as soldier/warrior class, that inhabited border areas and or mountain passes, in the case of the Vojnuci, they didn't get paid with money, but they were granted land for them and interm they would have to protect that land in return, just like thematic troops. A famous example about our Akritai/Vojnuci are those in the balkan mountain range. I don't know what equipment they possesed, or if it was good, but i know that they were a soldier/warrior caste, so they weren't some levy farmboy.
Bulgarian guards/Tsar and bodyguards to Tsar's guard, Bolyar's guards or the native Tsarska Strazha -There isn't any special given name, that we currently know of, as the varangian guard of Byzantium, the mounted Paladins of Charlemagne or the famous Landsknecht of the Swiss, what we do know is that as any other guard, these were no ordinary guys, not because they suffered through some spartan like training, but because these were the Tsar's guard, these guys would get the best equipment possible, provided by the coffers of the Tsar/Greater Bolyar/Despot, that and the training, i think you've done a wonderful job, especially with the tunics on their horses and the halberds on the guards.
Bulgarian handgunners to Genoese or Venetian handgunners in the high period - Currently there isn't enough solid evidence, to say that there were bulgarian handgunners at the time, so it might be best, for historical purpouses and for the feel of the atmosphere, to just change them to Venetian, Genoese or even Ragusan handgunners, as these are well known to have had such equipment at the time, and are well known to have had trading connections and trade colonies in Bulgaria.
Despot's spearmen to Bolyar spearmen in the late period - This really doesn't warrant that much of changing anything, they look cool, but there wasn't a special unit called Despot's spearmen or Bolyar Spearmen, they were just the Despot's or Bolyar's levies, i suggest "as an idea" the high period Despot Spearmen be renamed to Bolyar spearmen or Great Bolyar's spearmen, to signify the better unit.

P.S - These are the one that can be changed, without having add something new to the roster, but if i may add something as an "Idea", not as "Do it now mothetrucker!". Is that you re-add the vlach warriors/spearment (From the old roster) and maybe the Pronoia Cavalry.
P.S 2 - Sorry for being such a pain the ass, but some of us (me included), have dreamed of being represented correctly in these kinds of pop culture films, videogames and so on, it's just an old balkan (or Eastern Europe) insecurity, about our image in the world, most of us aren't like this in real life.

[Blak]

Are you sure this is the Bulgarian rooster, for it sure doesnt look like it, I cannot recognize my own faction, i first thought this was serbia or hungary, or even wallachia

[lion8000]

@Wallachian you made a very good point. I honestly never thought about that. All the manuscripts and chronicles from the medieval period, that I have seen are depicting people during the hot seasons. That's why I asked some people that are very interested in Bulgarian national clothes during the Bulgarian National Revival (XVIII-XIXth century) and they said that the Bulgarians during that time mostly wore jamurluks (a thick coat,intended to protect from cold and rein. It can have sleeves, or don't have sleeves. It's made out of hodden,weaved from wool and fur, and being fullinged(?) ). They also wore coats, in which the fur was from the inside and the smooth leather from the outside, this way it will keep worm and it won't get wet. The Bulgarians also wore fur-coats, but that was in most cases with more expensive furs. They also said that fur won't be very practical, because the clothes were for work and fur will also get much easier stuck in branches. They said that they haven't seen such furry clothes, maybe some people used furry clothes, but it wasn't common.
I also made some research and that's what I found:

From the Diary of Hans Dernschwam from 1555ad.:
"The Bulgarians don't have the right to wear nice clothes. They all walk with grey or white jamurluks, they don't have neither shoes, nor boots, but only sandals from unprocessed cowhide and socks till the knee.. Their hats are out of while felt, or white broadcloth and also from brown lower quality broadcloth. The men don't have wraps, they walk only with shirts during both the summer and the winter..."; he later mentions that they were very poor.

In the Sultan order from 1631ad. is said that the Christians were wearing for some time clothes that were made out of silk, sable coats and kalpaks and that those clothes must be forbidden once more.

Postscript: I'm not a historian and I don't really have access to much sources. I'm just interested in history and I'm researching in my free time. If I said something wrong please correct me, I don't mind being wrong.

[Cometopuli]

Very interesting the jamurluk seems to originate from the thracians.

[keksimir]

These units looks amazing. I cannot say whether they are true to the time period or not. I will leave that to the Bulgarians here to decide but the work in detail is incredible. I see a lot of things i wish i can see in the Serbian roster as well. The cross that some units wear on their chests, the high amount of mail armor combined with bright colors and even that chainmain balaclava (or whatever its called lol). I dont know if the gentlemen who made this is also working on the Serbian roster as well but based on what i can see here i truly hope so. I salute you sir on an amazing job. It must have taken a while to get it done. I am waiting with great anticipation for the campaign build to come out and of course... i hope you take your time. Get it done right, no matter how many are screaming for you to release it ASAP. Congratulations once again! URA!

[Cometopuli]

Love your name lol

[Cometopuli]

I think giving the voivods (tier3) some sabers wouldnt be bad since the byzantines started using more sabers before the end of the empire

[Cometopuli]

I also think you guys should make tier 2 and 3 mountain scouts

[Cometopuli]

also you should add some capes to thoose tier 3 bolyars

[Cometopuli]

Adding a Mongol Guard as an bodyguard unit and capped to 1 shock cavalry unit wouldnt be a bad idea since both Michael III Shishman and Ivan Alexander had a 3,000-strong Mongol cavalry detachment in their armies

[GeneralL]

absolutly stunning work. Great !

[Cometopuli]

i think you should add the capes of the chose uar warriors from attila to the tier 3 voivods they look very much like jamurluk

[Cometopuli]

Another idea of mine i think you should add dismounted bolyars unit capped only to one

[Martin2562]

These models are much better than the old ones! I noticed you made some mistakes with the names so i wish to help you. First Despot's Cavalry and Despot's Spearmen have to be Tsar's Cavalry and Tsar's Spearmen because Despot was a title for independent rulers like the Epirus's Despot Teodor Komnin or like the famous bulgarian Despot Momchil(Bulgaria's monarch was a tsar as you know). So these two units have to be renamed to Tsar's. They are going to sound more mighty too. Another mistake is the name of the swordsmen-voivods. The voivods were military leaders something like officers. In this mod they should be the ones leading the unit in front of the men(which can be found in every unit). I think they should be renamed to something like mechonosci(swordsmen in bulgarian). And the last one the bolyars. I saw that lots of people are compleining about the look of them. Bolyars were high aristocrats and they werent gathering up with other bolyars to fight as a separete unit. They were leading their men in combat sometimes even whole armies(They should be the generals in example: Bolyar Strez)! In my opinion the best thing you can do is to give up the name bolyars and to replace it with noble horse archers or as i said for the voivods-konni strelci. Hope you like my suggestions. Wish you all the best!

[Cometopuli]

Im sorry but i will have to disagree with one thing here the voivods were not captains or officers but were rather a warrior class people from all classes in medieval bulgaria could become voivods both peasants merchants and nobles(bolyar) officers and captains the second bulgarian empire were called stotniks(stotnik)стотник)sto(сто) meaning hundred

[Cometopuli]

Of course the way to become voivod was to proove yourself in battle as a good soldier

[Blak]

Will the bulgarian guards even get the halberdiers formation ?

[Cometopuli]

I know this rooster is done but i think you should rename the militia units to Provincial Oblast or Kefalian