Information on the Steam Page about the Greek Culture Pack - lots of juicy info!

[vlad06]

Love it, some very nice additions.

[Durendalv2]

Heroes of Sparta and the Acropolis, epic!

[Doe3000]

I like the look of the Spartan Hoplites in that screenshot; although I'm still going to play as Athens first.

[rogergargantua]

Looks great! Cant wait to play around with these factions! I have a soft spot for Epirus!
The Spartan hoplites sure look awesome! Will be helluva fights getting these guys down!

[Tenerife_Boy]

Spartan shields looks very small.............

[weirdoascensor]

• New Features:
  
  • New Playable Factions – Athens, Epirus and Sparta each offer a unique new way to experience the campaign, with their own rosters of powerful military units, distinct traits and play styles.
  • The Athenian pursuit of enlightenment grants them technological and cultural bonuses; Sparta’s dominance over the Helots allows them to maintain a larger slave population; and Epirus enjoys bonuses to settlement exploitation stemming from their village-confederation origins.
  • New Cultural Traits – All Greek States benefit from a bonus in battle when defending their own or an allied territory, a bonus to wealth generated by their capitals and an increase to the rate of cultural conversion within their borders.
  • New Cultural Objectives – Greek States have their own new set of military, economic and cultural victory conditions, as well as sharing a unique set of bonus objectives drawn from Greek history. Additionally, each faction will have to contend with its unique events and dilemmas.
  • New Military Traditions – Each of the Greek States has a unique top-tier military tradition: Athenian fleets may be honoured as Children of the Aegaean, improving the ramming ability of their ships whilst allowing them to secure more income when raiding; Spartan armies may be remembered as Peers of Leonidas, improving their melee defense capabilities and reducing their upkeep; the armies of Epirus may be feared as Hounds of Molossus, granting them greater charge bonuses whilst allowing them to keep public order problems in check.

• New Units:
  
  • In addition to the intimidating unit rosters of each faction now playable for the first time, the Greek States Culture Pack introduces a variety of unique and especially elite and deadly forces.
  • Mercenary Veteran Hoplites – [available to all playable factions]
    From glistening spear points to earth-shaking tread, a phalanx is a sight and sound to inspire dread. With these veteran hoplites, that dread is sold to the highest bidder.
  • Thureos Hoplites – [Unique to Athens]
    While the linen breastplates worn by these men may look flimsy, they are cool, practical and surprisingly tough. As with all hoplites, the men inside are also practical and tough warriors.
  • Thorax Hoplites – [Unique to Athens]
    These heavy hoplites are marked by their bronze breastplate armour, a sign of wealth and status. They are armed with spears and hoplon shields, and use the phalanx formation to batter enemies into submission.
  • Agrianian Axemen – [Unique to Epirus and Macedon]
    The Paeonian tribe of Agrianes are fierce fighters. As well as terrible killing tools, their axes are also climbing hooks for rough terrain. No sensible general would not use them in an assault.
  • Aspis Companion Cavalry – [Unique to Epirus and Macedon]
    A king’s companions in battle are his nobles and esteemed friends. It is an honour to be a companion, to ride forth with javelin and kopis to fight for your lord and master.
  • Heroes of Sparta – [Unique to Sparta]
    Embodying the spirit of Thermopylae, the Heroes Of Sparta bear their spears and shields with fierce pride and unrivalled mastery.
  • Polybolos Repeating Scorpion – [Siege Deployable available to all Greek, Roman and Carthaginian factions]
    Able to make short work of even the most heavily-armoured opponents, this repeating bolt thrower sacrifices the ordinary Scorpion’s range in return for a rapid rate of fire.
  • Tortoise Armoured Battering Ram – [Siege Deployable available to all Greek, Roman and Carthaginian factions]
    Combining devastating ramming power while affording protection to its crew, used well the Tortoise more than makes up for its lack of speed and manoeuvrability in open ground.

• New Buildings:
  
  • The Monument of Lacedaemon – [Unique to Sparta]
    A symbol of Sparta’s overridingly martial culture, The Monument of Lacedaemon brings cost reductions to military recruitment, significantly increases the morale of land units in the province and a global morale boost to existing units.
  • Oracle of Dodona – [Unique to Epirus]
    This sacred grove is the domain of the priests and priestesses of Epirus. The Oracle of Dodona increases city growth, provincial happiness, wealth, and the global conversion of other factions to Hellenic culture.
  • Acropolis – [Unique to Athens]
    A symbol of Athenian high culture and engineering excellence, The Acropolis also provides extra garrison forces to Athens, improves the city’s abilities to withstand sieges, and increases Athenian agents’ Authority actions.

• Faction History:
  
  • Athens
    Athens has long been famed for its cultural achievements, from buildings such as the Parthenon, to the plays and works of Aristophanes, Plato, Socrates, and Sophocles. In many ways, Greek culture is defined by Athens. Its military focus has long been its navy; however, continuing the traditions of the classical era, its citizens are also expected to contribute both infantry and cavalry to its armies.
  • Epirus
    Epirus is a Greek kingdom formed of numerous small villages and towns, rather than the great cities of the south. An agriculture and fishing-based society, Epirus nevertheless maintains a balanced army on the Alexandrian model, consisting of cavalry, archers, peltasts, phalangites and war elephants. They also make extensive use of mercenaries from throughout the Greek-speaking world.
  • Sparta
    With every aspect of their lives and society geared towards warfare, Sparta dominated the Greek world and continues to produce arguably the finest soldiers of the Hellenic period. The slaves and non-citizens of Sparta enable their citizens to pursue warrior perfection as soldiers and champions. Trained and hardened in battle, their warriors and leaders are the embodiment of military discipline and virtue.

...And The Screenshots:

Theureophoroi

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Thorakites

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Hetairoi Hypaspides

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Heroes of Sparta

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

What Catches My Attention:

>Theuros and Thorax Hoplites unique to Athens?
Aren't Theureophoroi and Thorakitai pretty much in almost every Helennistic Army? Or, just The more Traditional-Greek Styled Theuros and Thorax Hoplites are unique to Athens?

And Oh, on the Screenshot you can see Someone that uses a more Traditional, but Silver, not Bronze, Aspis. Is this Man just an Officer for this Unit? Or is Him from entirely other kind of Unit?

>Maybe, The Thorax Hoplites special for Athens Are the Greek Traditional Hoplites, the Description said: "their bronze breastplate armour, a sign of wealth and status. They are armed with spears and hoplon shields, and use the phalanx formation"
Usually Thorakitai wear Chainmail Armor and Theuros Shields, also carries Javelins; They fight in more flexible loose formation than Phalanx.

>Agrianian Axemen can use Climbing Pickaxes?
There's already another thread for this.

>Epirote Cavalry fighting Imperial Legionnaires?

>Siege Engines are Deployables, rather than Recruitables!
I like this development, since Siege Engines were built on-site with Prefabricated Parts and Locally-Procured Materials during Sieges by Engineers rather than Brought as an Separate Unit.

[neoptolemos]

Maybe the 300's prequel will boost Greek factions even further:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/300:_Rise_of_an_Empire

[Engie]

I've got to say, I'm looking forward to forging my mighty Spartan Empire.

[Steel*Faith]

I hope Sparta will have bonuses when defending in sieges and I also hope they're better quality troops, but lower quantity. From every battle I've read about with Spartans, they're always outnumbered nearly 2-to-1, and they always have their backs up against the wall facing a larger powerful army, yet they manage to either win or put up a good struggle.

For example - Pyrrhus' siege of Sparta:

The Spartans were ill-prepared for the siege. King Areus had recently left for a campaign in Crete, and no walls surrounded the city, making it extremely vulnerable to an invasion. Pyrrhus took advantage of this and laid siege to the city with over 26,000 troops and 24 elephants. The Spartans numbered only around 2,000, but reinforcements came, and Pyrrhus eventually had to give up the siege to attack Argos. It was at Argos that Pyrrhus was killed, ending his campaigns.

Mind you, Pyrrhus was a commander who managed to defeat the Romans on many occasions with this army, and was never defeated by them, but came to a stalemate with them where he withdrew and then later fought and defeated the Macedonians. This was after all of this, and the Spartans put up this struggle and beat him. So for critics on this forum to try and portray Sparta is totally irrelevant, and impotent in this time period is incorrect. I think with the right combination of military victories, acquisition of wealth and land, and making the right alliances Sparta could very well become a dominant force in this game.

It seems like unique military traditions, such as "Peers of Leonidas", will make their infantry tough and resilient as they should be. I also love how the Spartans will lack Cavalry, besides light cav, and will primarily rely on heavy and light infantry. I hope they get a sarissa phalanx type of unit, but i'm willing to bet they will have a strong hoplite phalanx only. I'm also curious what kind of missile troops they will employ? I'm guess a mix of peltasts, light archers, and slingers. Perfect kind of army for my playstyle though.

[neoptolemos]

Good points there.
Also even Romans weren't able to take over Sparta with an assault.
Spartans even when Romans were proceeding into the city managed to repel them with sucrificial behaviour....

[Petroniu]

Awesome new stuff! Finally, something else about the game than fancy graphics!