Any units you'd prefer were renamed/re-described?

[Maklodes]

I'm curious: are there are units that you wish had different names/background stories? I'm not really talking about their appearance or mechanical abilities -- mostly just names and descriptions.


Saracen militia -- I don't like this name. I think Saracen would actually be a good word for the archers Sicily gets -- Saracen archers rather than Muslim archers -- but Saracen militia seems too much like a Christian term. My tentative replacement idea: Enforcer militia. The background is that they're part of the Iqta system of Turkey and Egypt, and are basically professional soldiers/thugs hired by local Iqta-holders to keep order and make sure that local merchants and farmers and such pay their taxes (which is why they're free upkeep -- they "pay for themselves" (and thus have free upkeep) in terms of the state's finances by increasing tax compliance). They're not popular around town, but the townsfolk suddenly appreciate them a lot more if a Mongol horde or Crusader army is at the gates.


Famiglia Ducale -- "Famiglia Ducale are quite literally the family, and retinue of the Duke" -- no, the family and retinue of the Duke are quite literally my Duke, his family members, their retinues, and their generals' bodyguards (at least in the case of adult male FMs). Family and retinue are well-defined things in M2TW. Famiglia ducale doesn't meet the bill. I'd rather they were called Elmeti or something and were just advanced renaissance-y heavy cavalry drawn from the most talented warriors of the nobility and common people alike and equipped in superb Milanese plate. Or something like that.


Ottoman Infantry -- I don't really like the "Ottoman" part. You might never have a Sultan named Osman in your whole game, but have Ottoman infantry by the mid-12th century. I don't know what to call them... "Anatolian Infantry?" Maybe imply that they combine the best of the Turkish archery tradition with the settled heavy infantry traditions of the Byzantines? Not sure about that.

Any for you?

[Aeratus]

The Khan's Guard (which should be renamed "Keshig") almost runs into the same problem as the Famiglia Ducale, although it's more justifiable since the Khan's Guard was a large unit that was 1k-10k men strong.

[Maklodes]

Yeah. There are several units which seem to be described as being personal bodyguards or household troops of the royalty, when they're not general's bodyguards. (Christian guard, Famiglia Ducale, Khan's guard, Qapukulu, Royal Banderium, Royal Mamluks, and Tsar's Guard are the ones I found. Did I miss any?) Famiglia ducale just seemed the most insistent about literally being the duke's family and such.

[Kataphractos]

Rename Polish Knights to 'Rycerz', which in Polish is...'knight' (lol). I mean, their mounted crossbowmen are called Strzelcy, so why not?

Or give the name to the Polish Guard unit, since 'Polish Guard' is...too generic for what is supposed to be one of the best heavy cavalry units in the game.

[PrestigeX]

I'd get rid of Ethnic sounding names - I prefer when units are described based on quality / traits more so than some kind of culture-specific name. Units like ... Egypt's Tabariydaa -- "Palace Guards" .. Danish OBudashaer - "Armored Halberdier" .. etc.

Its not so bad in Vanilla, but I find it really annoying when some of the mods have all these units added to new factions with few if any "standard english names" in place. It just makes it difficult to understand which units are for what, etc etc.

[Maklodes]

Rename Polish Knights to 'Rycerz', which in Polish is...'knight' (lol). I mean, their mounted crossbowmen are called Strzelcy, so why not?

Or give the name to the Polish Guard unit, since 'Polish Guard' is...too generic for what is supposed to be one of the best heavy cavalry units in the game.

I don't mind the "Polish X" units that much, but I think the Byzantines are the worst as far as bland names of the form "Byzantine X" go: Byzantine cavalry, Byzantine guard archers, Byzantine infantry, Byzantine lancers, dismounted Byzantine lancers, Byzantine spearmen. (Oddly enough, it doesn't bother me so much that the Poles and Russians get a unit simply called "spearmen." Same for "lancers" (the French unit) vs. "Byzantine lancers." I'm not sure why, but somehow "Byzantine X" feels somehow more generic than just "X.") I don't think that every Byzantine unit needs a Greek name or something, and wouldn't mind if there were two or three "Byzantine X" units rather than six, but "Byzantine infantry" and "Byzantine cavalry" are such generic terms that they actually encompass every unit except siege equipment like catapults and naval vessels. (Think about it: aren't Trebizond archers also a type of Byzantine infantry? Aren't kataphractoi also a type of Byzantine cavalry?) Once again, I don't really care about Greek names like "doryphoroi" or "hippotoxotai" or whatever (although that would be fine too), but something which identifies their role, like "Greek Bow Cavalry," would work (this would also set them apart from the other horse archers the Byzantines get -- Skythikon and Vardariotai -- which are politically loyal to the Byzantine state but not ethnically Greek.) Same applies, mutatis mutandis, to Byzantine Infantry.

Also, IMHO Scotland also has a bit too many "highland x" (archers, highlanders, rabble, pikemen) and "noble y," (pikemen, swordsmen), not to mention highland nobles and noble highland archers. I also don't really like how "noble" basically always makes a unit superior across the board (e.g., not just superior armor, but superior defensive skill too). It makes sense if you're comparing well-practiced noble soldiers to people levied from peaceful occupations without prior practice at arms, like bakers, farmers, tailors, and the like in a town militia (just as if you suddenly drafted a martial nobleman to help bake pastries, he would not do well compared to the practiced bakers used to working in the bakery), but I thought that the idea of highland units is that the highlands are a violent place full of clan-based warfare, so non-noble highlanders seem like they shouldn't be like "civilians" with markedly inferior combat abilities to their noble counterparts (inferior equipment like less armor, sure. Maybe lower attack, less armor, and higher defensive skill, to represent a more defensive, less aggressive fighting style dictated by lack of armor?).

It also seems a bit funny how yeoman archers are intermediate between longbowmen and retinue longbowmen. It makes sense, I suppose, that yeoman archers who have mandatory Sunday archery practice are better than typical "practice archery when they feel like it/go hunting" peasant archers, but what exactly are regular longbowmen, if they're less trained and less professional than yeoman archers, but their description still talks about how they're trained from a young age, and they're more extensively trained and such than peasant archers? (I don't know, but peasant archers/yeoman archers/longbowmen/retinue longbowmen sorta seems like the logical power progression, with yeoman still being part time, semi-professional archers whose full time job is farming, with longbowmen being real full-time soldiers, albeit without the unit cohesion and discipline of retinue longbowmen.)

[Aeratus]

Personally, I think ethnic/non-English names are better. If you call everything generically, the units lose differentiation. "Armored Halberdier" does not distinguish the Obudashaer from normal Halberdiers which are also armored when upgraded. With ethnic names, you have a designation that better defines what that unit is.

Another example is the Macedonian Hypaspist. There is no English equivalent for this type of unit. You can call them "shield bearers" (which is the literal translation of Hypaspist) but there are lots of "shield bearers" (pretty much half the infantry units), so here only the term "Hypaspist" would distinguish them from generic infantry. Similarly, calling them "elite infantry with shield and short spear and sword" would be too long and still generic.

[KingofPoland]

I'd like it if the mailed knights and town militia were given more local names, so that ter would be more imersion in the faction and it would be less generic, like garde villageoise for the french (village guard) or la guardia milano for Milan (milan guard)

[Vissewalde rex de Gerzika]

I'd like it if the mailed knights and town militia were given more local names, so that ter would be more imersion in the faction and it would be less generic, like garde villageoise for the french (village guard) or la guardia milano for Milan (milan guard)

That would mean that each of those units would take up a unit slot, which would be quite inefficient if you ask me.

[Pyromaster496]

Varangian Guard
They could at least be re-described. The current description feels like it doesn't have enough info and/or that they left out some parts. It would be better if they were described as
""Varyag" or "Varangian" was the name given to the men of Rus' by the Byzantines. These hardy men serve as a great regiment of guards to the Byzantine Emperor. They strike fear into the hearts of their enemies with their massive two-handed axes, hacking and cleaving anyone that stands in their way." The description should be something like that.

[Dr. Conquest]

It turns out that the 'poleaxes' referred to in several descriptions should be spelt 'pollaxes'. Weird, but true.

[Aeratus]

hmm I think poleaxe is an acceptable modern term. If we were to be totally formally correct, we would be saying chain maille instead of chain mail.

[Infidel144]

The 'chain' portion is incorrect as well. It is a (relatively) recent (early 1800s) term.

[pacifism]

I don't own Medieval II: Total War, but if they don't call English knights "Knights", French knights "Chevaliers", etc. they should.

[Maklodes]

Venetian archers? -- What do you think about renaming "Venetian archers" to "Cretan archers?" Venice does start off with Crete (even though it's slightly early for that), and I think there are records of the Venetian authorities recruiting archers from Crete. The Venetians retain their mastery of the crossbow (well, almost-mastery, compared to Milan), and outsource their archery to Crete. I guess there's nothing really wrong with Venetian archers as they are, but having Cretan archers would be a kinda cool shout-out.

On the other hand, I doubt Cretan archers generally wore as much armor as the Venetian unit in question. Also, considering that Venetian archers are good but not really contenders for being the best archers in the game (not up to Byzantine guard archers, dismonted Dvor, Janissary archers, Ottoman infantry, retinue longbowmen, or Scots guard), it might come as a let down to realize that there are Cretan archers in the game, and they're kinda meh when people might expect Cretan archers to be at least a contender for "best foot archers in the game."

[Maklodes]

Mongol Horse Archers -- mostly, this is fine, but their unit description claims they are "Equipped with a compound bow." I think they meant composite bows, not compound bows, unless Mongolian bowyers were more forward-thinking than generally believed.

[❋ Flavius Belisarius ❋]

It is a faction which should be renamed according to me. We should have Roman Empire rather than Byzantine Empire.
The term Byzantine Empire appeared well after 1453. Population and the emperors considered themself Romans, they were also called in this way.

[Aymer de Valence]

English town militia should be changed to 'fyrdmen' for the early campaign

[Maklodes]

Fyrd shows up as "peasant spearmen" in on the Saxon side of the Norman Conquest tutorial campaign, according to the unit description, but I think the Fyrd continued to be called into service after the Norman conquest too, so that would have been a nice touch. (I think some people think the Fyrd was composed of fairly well-trained theigns who were actually better than most militia-grade soldiers, albeit not up to huscarl standards -- maybe more like sergeant spearmen or something -- but that's an issue for the historians, I guess.)

[Maklodes]

Come to think of it, re: Ottoman Infantry: I think they should probably be called "Azaps/Azabs," and the current Azab unit should be Seymen or something. Azabs weren't as crappy as the game claims... I think?