Originally Posted by
Wallachian
Well don't worry about that. You will be exploring the campaign map in Tsardoms and find ethnic AOR units everywhere. From albanians, to vlachs, to cumans, to szekely, to cossacks, to tatars, to hussites, to croats, to saxons and so on. There will be a large amount of these types of units.
That is simply SWEET! Well done
Originally Posted by
Wallachian
That being said our priorty is to finish a first version of the mod which will be simply huge. There will be hundreds of new and modified units. We are constantly creating and adding new units too to try and balance rosters which is our main priority at the moment.
Remember, feel free to shoot me a PM if yall ever need help with anything.
Originally Posted by
Wallachian
Units which are second priorty but would love to have at one point are these alans and I am also interested in finding out more about the Crimean Goths which apparently were still around in the XIV-XVth centuries. Since we are working on adding the Golden Horde (not the name we will use probably as apparently this is an anachronistic term, we may use a name which includes Ulus or maybe Tatar Khanate) we are looking at this area in detail.
Crimea is a fascinating treasure trove regarding the various civilizations that lived there from antiquity through the Middle Ages. It has always been my favorite region to rule/colonize in Total War games as a result. I recently read a Russian study regarding the Greek dialect (Romeika) that is still spoken today in a few villages near the Sea of Azov and it is a psychedelic melange of Greek, Tatar, and Russian. There's also a Russian book that I would like to get my hands on regarding the Crimean Goths and the Principality of Theodoro in the near future. From what I understand, the Goths were still around during Tsardoms' timeframe, but they had become largely Romanized (Greek speaking) since Justinian's reign. However, I have read that they continued to speak Gothic as a vernacular for a long time afterwards.
However, as cool as it would be, I do not know enough to say whether or not the Crimean Goths were discernible enough (also concerning clothing/weapons/fighting style) to say they should have their own separate unit in game (recruitable only in Mangup, of course). They seem to have been well assimilated into the local Roman and Tatar populations. I invite anyone knowledgeable about this topic to join in the discussion. There is an inscription that was found at Mangup concerning the sack of Theodoro by the Tatars:
“ten teams of bullock and drover were killed and … heard, against the Barbarians raised young and old and followed after them to(the name of the area) protected by God Theodoro fortress and pursued and fought to Zazale … parts … 68th year”
I suppose that might be a reference to the Gothic population there.
Originally Posted by
Wallachian
...but also considering whether to include a Russian cavalry to represent the vassall princes from Kiev and othe Russian principalities.
The Ruthenian AoR units sound great, but I would recommend against the Russian cavalry unit as an AoR unit, only as a factional vassal unit for the Golden Horde. The Rus states definitely had awesome cavalry by this time period, especially due to Mongol influence. It would be a few more centuries before the Russians began to settle so far south as a people.
Update: I've found a reference to the clothing of Crimean Goths. It is from page 172 of "The Goths in the Crimea" by Alexander Alexandrovich Vasiliev.
It also backs up with Mr. LinusLinothorax said about the Alani.