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Summary: The Nabhani Dynasty was a native Omani Dynasty that ruled Oman between 1154 and 1470 AD.
Status in the Mod:The Nabhani are not there only to fill up Arabia but also to fill up Baluchistan, the empty territory in the south of Afghanistan (Modern Day Baluchistan, Pakistan). They give character to a region that is still somewhat threadbare, providing a force that could interact with the Abbasids, the Seljuks, the Ghaznavids, or the Rajputs, and with the addition of Sindh, would help fill up a region still lacking in factions.
Miscellaneous
We could feature for exotic purposes some mercenaries or very low recruitment pool, low refresh rate units in Oman which come from the further stretches of the Omani Trade Routes. Something from South India, Southeast Asia, the southern parts of Africa, ect.
Because I've taken to liking those indomitable Gauls...I mean, Sindhis, :tongue:, I'm lumping them together in this argument. Both Sindh and the Nabhani represent dynasties or kingdoms that compared to many others, lasted far longer and with far more stability. Muhammad of Ghazni's Empire fell apart rather quickly, so too did Saladin's Ayyubid, the Great Seljuks technically held their empire for 100-200 years, and the Ghorids too fell. Yet these two factions, perhaps due to their size and position, held out for around 300 years each. This is no feat to sneeze at, as many greater empires didn't last that long, and when they fell, were totally obliterated as a kingdom or political force. Even when under the sovereignty of others, at least the Soomro retained some level of independence.
Sindh and Nabhani would be like our mod's Bohemia, Scotland, Portugal, Milan/Genoa, Denmark, or Sicily. Small factions who never hit it big but in most cases held out despite bigger and meaner foes facing them, and who, it's possible, could have been led to greatness had they the right generals, the right leaders. After all, a puny little successor State to the Great Seljuks ended up being the mighty Ottomans. And also, people can enjoy playing as underdogs. We have a good share of those already, but even the Abbasids still carry a feeling of Imperialism despite their lowly status. Soomro and Nabhani offer the chance for someone not to rest their laurels on the achievements of history but to strike out and make their own.
Now for proof behind at least Oman's inclusion:
During the Middle Ages, Oman was in regular contact with Persia, India and even southeast Asia. With maritime trade flourishing. Arab dhows built by Omani shipwrights at Sur (See page 30), were riding the monsoon winds eastward as far as Ceylon and in the eighth century an Omani trader Abu Ubaida' Abd Allah ibn al-Qasim, made the first sea voyage from Arabia to China. In the late 10th century, Omani merchants founded the trading city of Kilwa, on an island off the coast of Tanzania and by the 12th century, an amir from the Nabhani clan of Oman was permanently resident on the East African coast, trading in gold, iron, and slaves. It is probably at this time that Omani merchants first began to reside in Zanzibar. - http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issu...-a.history.htm
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showp...&postcount=104 Contains not really information detailing their importance but rather information on Baluchistan.
It is in general a leap of faith for us to assume the Omanis truly held Baluchistan. But in the early days of Islam, during the Umayyads, there were frequent pirate attacks on Arab shipping from Pirates of Baluchistan and Sindh. Combined with the fact that the Arabs relatively quickly conquered these regions, it's not implausible that a maritime Omani Dynasty would not establish sovereignty over Baluchistan. At the very least, it would be plausible they held a coastal city or fortress in the region.
Although the modern day Emblem, it does seem steeped in History enough to use it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Oman
Omani Swordsmen:
Beauchamp's Images located here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showp...4&postcount=23
African Units:
Beauchamp's images and concepts once again:
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showp...6&postcount=38
A Rough Concept on the Faction Roster: Parallels to Carthage will be brought up because they fit very well. The Nabhani have a diverse and exotic faction roster, emphasized on AOR troops and mercenaries (Bolstered by the fact that they should be inclined to mercenary traits and ancillaries that lower the price). It's a double edged sword in making them flexible, but also unreliable, in that they cannot rely on the same army for every different field. Their native (AOR troops specific to them and general to everyone) include Fierce Baluchi Tribesmen, Tribal Arabs of Arabia, and Black African Slave-warriors, with a small core of Omani troops, namely Marines and Swordsmen. Here's a rough list of what they could possess:
This is quite a bloated list. My view is that most of their units are used by, or will be used by other factions (Only the Omani Units are really exclusive), and along with them being more hindered by AOR than most other factions, it might be cool for them to have a different army makeup per region. However, that may still be too much and a solution would be to have at the lower tiers a native unit, and at the higher tiers for Baluchistan, Arabia, Sindh, and East Africa, the Omani Arab units.
Another solution is to omit the Baluchis and Tribal Africans from their list and make them AOR. To offset the loss, Omanis can recruit a few native units at Tier 4/5 of the City Barracks. For instance, in Baluchistan, Sindh, or East Africa, they could recruit Omani Swordsmen and Omani Light Marines from a Tier 4 or 5 City Barracks.
Confusing, yes? All I mean to say is that the Omani recruitment should be unique to other factions. As Alpha said,
I think these guys could perhaps recruit their Arab, African and Bedouin troops (the ones we already have made) in the Arab peninsula.
Over the water though I would like to see their barracks to change considerably. The idea of African units running around in southern Afghanistan is a little too weird for my tastes.
Whether we want to divvy up their recruitment into an African, Arabian, and Asian/Baluchi, or just an Arabian-African and Baluchi-Asian recruitment area is up to us.
If I say new mesh, it just means we might have to edit a mesh. Like change the turban on an afghan. It may mean a major or minor edit, but it just means we don't have any pre-existing units to use.
Unit Concepts
Arabia: All Around unit selection. Some of the Omani's better cavalry choices.
- Arabian Lancers - Tribal Arabs on horseback with light lance and sword. Also found in the Mercenary Pool & Zengid Roster. [Uses Tribal Arab Mesh with Spear]
- Arabian Faris - An upper class version of the Arabian Lancers, these guys would be spear and sword wielding Professional horsemen. [Could use Faris Archer mesh with spear and sword]
- Omani Marines - Possibly a Light and medium variation. Light wears quilted cloth, Medium wears loose and light mail. Both should probably be Hybrid units. The Light could wield a bow and a sword, the Medium a crossbow and another weapon. Both with shields. [New Mesh]
- Bedouin Spearmen - Same Mesh, same or altered texture of Abbasid Bedouin. Also found in the Abbasid Roster. [Current Bedouin Mesh]
- Omani Ahdath Militia - Representing the native Arabs who settle in on the territories or coastal ports which Oman trades in or dominates politically. They'd possibly be well armed and armored compared to other City Militia, yet have the same sort of moral and discipline. Very similar to Merchant-militia cavalry in Vanilla. In fact, for the Omanis these could be limited to having that merchant guild hall. Or a certain tier of Trade building. [Uncertain mesh. Could use pre-existing]
- Omani Swordsmen - That unit idea which someone here came up with. High attack, low armor but good shield and defense. They should fight in a dispersed formation, and do well when they can get their enemies to fight them 1v1 and not formation vs formation. Kinda like the Celtic swordsmen of RTW. [New Mesh]
Africa: Possibly a split between cheap and inefficent tribal levies, and their most disciplined and high moraled professional slave-warriors.
- Perhaps a mesh can be made for 'Tribal African' units, which could be then used in the future with an Ethiopian/Sudan faction. It'd be a single mesh and might offer 2-3 variations. One with Spear, one with Bow, one with some sort of melee weapon? Would also be found as mercenaries in Egypt and West Arabia. They'd be lower tier tribal rabble. These wouldn't be too necessary though, especially since if they were made into AOR they'd have only a few provinces to be useful in. [New meshes, though this is not totally necessary. We'd reuse the meshes for when we include a Sundanese Kingdom]
- Nubian Spearmen
Nubian Archers [Both Nubians would be Slave-warriors] Also found in Abbasid and possibly Ayyubid Roster. [Nubian Unit mesh]
- Some sort of Camel riding Bedouin, possibly. [Re-texturing of a current Bedouin Mesh/texture.]
Baluchistan: Much like the Afghans, the Baluchis offer Oman fierce, aggressive tribesmen. It might be that Baluchis are less aggressive, and more hearty, possibly also faster and sneakier than the Afghans.
- Nothing really fancy here. They probably would not be as ******* aggressive in arms or stats as the Afghans. You'd see some spearmen, more of a 'hearty harasser light infantry' than a 'throw them at the enemy' light infantry. Camel-riding bedouin would probably return, and I'd need to see if Baluchis were particular to any fighting style. They had Iranians, Turks, and Arabs in their population, which means bows, lances, and I suppose maces may have found use. [A mixture of Bedouin Meshes and Afghan meshes with some edits, I think]
- It is possible that in Baluchistan, either as mercenaries or as AOR (Exclusive to Oman or Not) there would be some Iranian, or some Turkish, units. If we include Sindh as I hope we do in the future, I would think the Omanis having some Horse archers and the Sindhi having some elephants would be a good contrast between the two. Both aren't as cavalry heavy as their neighbors, but both augment their light/medium melee cavalry with either HA or Elephants. [Turkish/Iranian Units]
FACTION: The Imamate of Oman
JEAY SINDH !
Originally Posted by Sinan
