About The Not Persians(Pontus)

[DwailerY]

I like Pontus in this game they're soo....colorful with all their units...I really do...but(INEVITABLE) I think they are lacking in Persian influences. Especially military they have a whooping one unit that is Persianized. Culturally they're like any other Hellenic faction....even though they embraced both the Iranian and Hellenic cultures(and all the other) eh anyway I'm not gonna go a huuuge rant despite not being Persian enough, they are still a damn fun faction to play as.....maybe I'll make a sub mod(if I knew how )

[xsithspawnx]

I felt the same way for a while, but upon further thought it kind of made sense. While Pontus was definitely heavily influenced culturally by Persia, in terms of the military it only makes sense for them to be largely hellenized. First of all, Persia didn't really rely on a standardized military. For the most part, Acheamenid armies consisted of levies of local troops from the different satrapies, fighting in their traditional methods, from all over the empire. With Pontus in particular, the Greek influence in the area would have been quite strong long before this time period. This fact, coupled with the clear superiority of Greek/Macedonian arms in the region over the last century would have undoubtedly discouraged small, but still independent countries in the region such as Pontus from relying too much on clearly outdated methods of fighting.

This isn't to say that they didn't still make use of older style fighting styles, as many of the inner areas would have been far less influenced by Greek culture and maintained their traditional fighting methods. These men are represented in the skirmish infantry and cavalry (i.e. scythian skirmishers and paphlagonian cavalry) as well as the eastern spearmen available as Pontus. Keep in mind that not every Persian soldier would have been your stereotypical Sparabara or unarmored archer. This well known fighting style was largely due to the arid conditions these soldiers fought in (high temperatures make heavy armor less practical, thus making archers far more useful), and would have been of far less value in the mountains of inner Pontus or against the heavier infantry of the Greek coastal communities. Pontus would have been far better known for its great cavalry and light infantry (as far as the non-hellenized portions of its military go), an aspect that is quite well represented in game in my opinion.

All this being said, I'd also love to see a bit more Persian influence to Pontus, but I can see why the military influence is seemingly minimal.