[Preview]The Lombard Duchies

[Armatus]

I downloaded Rusichi Total War last night and the horses are just fabulous! Not just the skins but also their motions seem more realistic. They are probably the best Total War horses full stop.

This mod sounds like Rusichi Total War for Italy but with the Normans in place of the Mongols. It is an excellent idea for a mod, especially as it will have three factions with very different character and units. It will be a microcosm of a clash of cultures. A simple plan like that will help to get as soon as possible your beautiful Nikephorean Reform Roman/Byzantine units and the Longobard units all into a mod with just a small set of factions under a more direct control of those who made the historical units and researched them. On the other hand it has the potential of becoming a more complex mod with time, maybe in the future, with additional factions such as Venice or the Papal States, etc. I am personally all in favour of a mod with fewer factions and better play, as in Kingdoms Crusaders, FKoC or maybe Rusichi Total War (I only just played a first battle, but the Battle AI seems reasonably good and there is an interesting campaign concept). I hope you can give it a human dimension with real historical characters with historical personal traits and chances that Italy might fragment in a somewhat similar way as in actual history.

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Times full of Distemper - A For King Or Country AAR of the English Civil War
Reviewed at the Critc's Quill Issue 31

^ this

[hekk]

Like with the other factions, you guys have done some seriously outstanding work here. Very well done.

It's gonna be hard to pick factions, when all of them look so great.

[Torvus]

I have a question... The East of Rome people had mentioned that the Lombards were known for using cataphract-style soldiers. I know that their mod is set in a totally different period, but is there anything to back up that idea?

[absinthia]

i hardly think so, though i suppose FliegerAD would know best.
the question at point is where would the Germanic Longobards, on their "journey" to Italy, come across such influences or even the need for super heavy cavalry. even the Byzantines Between Maurice and Nikephorus Phokas did not deploy cataphracts, if i am not mistaken, at least their usage is not mentioned in Maurice`s Strategikon.
certainly there would/could have been heavily armoured horsemen. but true cataphracts as an unique Lombard feature, i hardly believe so.

[Wareg]

I've found that picture http://media.photobucket.com/image/b...onis/e014a.jpg
in this forum http://forums.taleworlds.com/index.php?topic=22302.90.
Also 'Here is a Lombard Cataphract, the Lombards were known for their cataphracts and these are unique in the West, they are the key Lombard Unit.' from http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=295507
Maybe Avarian influence?

[Matthæus]

no cataphracts for lombards (at least not in this time period), we could not confirm it with reliable sources

[Torvus]

Ok, that was my thought as well. I wonder where the East of Rome guys got that idea.

[AnthoniusII]

Ok, that was my thought as well. I wonder where the East of Rome guys got that idea.

EoR team is not quite wrong.
Lombards in the centuries before TGC timeframe were known as the heaviest
cavalry in the west.
They copied with great success the Roma clibanarii and cataphracti kind of warriors plus they developed the lance attack when Romans still used the uper arm use of their lances.
Its true that we do not have evidences -not about the warriors- but about their horses.
Frankish military reforms seam that eliminated the heavily armored horses in the wide area of the Great Frankish Empire.
Lombards could not be the exeption.
The reasons-by logic-seam obius.
In the west there were no real long infantry spears.
Aso the use of powerfull bows was limited.
There for there was no reason to continue the use of armored horses when the rider's armor seamed enough.
Lombards though were still very close to Romans and Saracens in central and south Italy.
They could easily copy or buy long scale/lammelar cuirasses.
We covered that option in the Lombard heavy cavalry units:


These guys are cataphracts in real . See their long scale/lammelar cuirasses over their long chain haubergs with or without padded suits.
The only thing that is diferend with Roman cataphract units (aristocrats,hikanati,scholarii,athanati) is the fact that they use unarmored horses.

[Carcaros]

Did you considered about adding a one norman unit into Lombard roster?Because Normans arrived, in the first place, as a Lombard mercenaries .

Excellent job on the faction, ofc .

[achilles-91]

can someone be kind to reupload pictures

[AnthoniusII]

can someone be kind to reupload pictures

As soon as we will find some time to make new ones!!!
But we will never the less!

[achilles-91]

no problem, thank you for giving proper info

[Nelduin]

Any chance to have the pictures back?

[AnthoniusII]

Soon.

[Nelduin]

I forget to add this to my request: do it only if it takes a short time, I prefere you working on finishing the mod. Otherwise forget it, we will see the Lombard Units when the mod will be released anyway.

[achilles-91]

As images are broken, here are pictures of lombard units for those who want to see them again http://www.totalwars.ru/mods/statji/...total-war.html

[Big_guy_4_you]

Gave me a 404 error, any other way to access these pictures?

[AnthoniusII]

Yea pictures were deleted because they were uploaded in Imageshack years ago.

[Julio85]

I hope you can share this screens again

[AnthoniusII]

Images of the Lombard units (remade) that will be included in the next patch restored in the 1st post of the preview.