To CA: Dont forget Aksum

[Robin de Bodemloze]

Please discuss the merits of Aksum as a playable faction and leave out the personal references. Offenders will be infracted.

[Abdülmecid I]

Well Axum is confirmed as an in-game faction (look at the diplomacy pannel, just above the bastardians) :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Maybe it'll become playable after a culture DLC.

[Ahiga]

It's possible to extrapolate some sense of what the Aksumite military may have looked like. One generally has to look to periods before and after the narrow confines of the 5th century, but it's usually fair to make some rational assumptions:

-There's a Ptolemaic era terracotta of a Nubian cavalryman with scale armor and what looks like a phrygian cap or helmet. Coupled with a later 6th century Egyptian woodcarving of bare headed black african cavalrymen with mail and scale hauberks (whether looted or home produced) we can safely assume for the presence of scale armor.

-A more difficult but not impossible assertion is the presence of quilted armor. A Ptolemaic king in the 2nd century BC is cited as equipping 100 or 1000 Greek cavalry mercenaries in "Kushite style quilted armor". Now that's a ways back, but we see quilted armor in use later by the Sudanese/Nubians/Ethiopians. Which is more reasonable:

• They had quilted armor (such that there was a style synonymous with the Kushites) down to the 2nd century BC with a heritage of its use as early as the Egyptians (and thus probably the Kushite dynasty of Egypt), then quilted armor completely disappeared until being resurrected in the medieval period out of the blue - either by foreign introduction or someone 're-inventing the wheel'.
• They had quilted armor (such that there was a style synonymous with the Kushites) down to the 2nd century BC with a heritage of its use as early as the Egyptians (and thus probably the Kushite dynasty of Egypt), and given the continued access to flax/cotton, the lack of a replacement choice of armor, the simplicity of this armor (as compared to something more ornamental and culturally specific, like a muscled cuirass or pectoral), and the later use of the same quilted armor probably continued to use it until armor ceased to be worn.

-Kush (Sudan region) had a longstanding reputation for horsemanship as early as the Assyrians. I think that our bias of expecting "fuzzy wuzzies with throwing spears" makes us a bit reluctant to recognize the presence of a highly equestrian minded culture in parts of Sub-saharan Africa. I don't mean this in a racist sense, but rather an assumption and expectation. The fact is you would continue to have such cavalry-minded peoples in the East Africa region in the centuries to come, from either the Oromo or Amhara of Ethiopia (Forget which rode to power with cavalry), the Janjaweed of today, there were some enemies of Mansa Musa's kingdom that were described like black mongols for their horse archery. Like with the quilted armor it makes more sense to allow for a continuation of horsemanship than to expect they were once noted for it, somehow lost it or forgot it and only when someone else (the arabs/berbers) came did they re-learn it.

-There's wargaming research suggesting the Blemmyes and Nobades had horse armor by the 6th century under Byzantine influence. I have yet to find the period accounts verifying that. Wargaming stuff then suggests they had javelins/short spears and bow, rather than bow and lance.

-Blemmyes and Nobades were very cavalry centric as semi-nomadic pastoral people. Also used the camel.
-Blemmyes Archers as well as Nubian archers in general were well regarded. There's a common topos of the Nubians being called "Pupil smiters" - I've heard it invoked for the Achaemenid invasion, the Sassanian invasion, and the Arab invasion. Could thus be apocryphal in some cases but has to have had at least one case of being truthful.

-Abyssinians in the Islamic Hadiths are highly associated with the javelin. The Abyssinian slave that eventually converts to Islam serves as a representation of Abyssinian martial skills I think at least three times. One is an account of him killing an uncle of the Prophet with a javelin, the other two are references that go like "so and so fights with the javelin in the Abyssinian fashion", "So and so is as skilled at the javelin as the Abyssinians".

-Famous "year of the elephant" with the Aksumite attempt on Mecca. How many elephants they had is not clear, but they used them in war for sure.

-Late antiquity coptic or Sassanian textile has the Persians fighting Arabs and Ethiopians. The Arab clearly depicted is a long haired warrior with round shield and sword. The Ethiopian, I forget if he has a shield but he has a very large and broad sword. It honestly looks like a heavy machete - maybe even two handed, since he has no shield but the Arab does?: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._I_Textile.jpg

-From the Osprey "Desert Frontiers of Rome" book I recall some Meroitic/Nubian carvings that have ovalish shields.

The general impression I've gotten thus far is that the Nobades and Blemmyes would be very cavalry centric. With Aksum it's not clear - I think the osprey book suggested they were cavalry poor but I am not sure about such an assumption. Perhaps they did put more reliance on infantry. And you could probably draw a distinction between the better trained quasi-regulars of the Aksumite army and the tribal irregulars hired from the Nobades, Blemmyes or other less civilized tribes.

[Påsan]

Well Axum is confirmed as an in-game faction (look at the diplomacy pannel, just above the bastardians) :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Maybe it'll become playable after a culture DLC.

Well Axum is the 9th most powerful faction in game, which is not bad considering their obscurity.

[RedGuard]

Well Axum is confirmed as an in-game faction (look at the diplomacy pannel, just above the bastardians) :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Maybe it'll become playable after a culture DLC.

looks like its got a wopping three regions and 9 power rating whatever that means. looks like they forgot.

[Abdülmecid I]

Well Axum is the 9th most powerful faction in game, which is not bad considering their obscurity.

That's not a very good place actually. The inexistent kingdom of Atropatene is in the seventh place.

[LinusLinothorax]

-There's a Ptolemaic era terracotta of a Nubian cavalryman with scale armor and what looks like a phrygian cap or helmet. Coupled with a later 6th century Egyptian woodcarving of bare headed black african cavalrymen with mail and scale hauberks (whether looted or home produced) we can safely assume for the presence of scale armor.

Can you provide a link for these two things, espicially for the Ptolemiac cavalrymen? Never heared of it before. Scalearmor for Cushites however is pretty certain, as severel Cushite reliefs depicting them.

Edit: Found the rider on my own:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If i see it right, he even wears pants. This combining the phrygian hut makes me afraid that his equipment might be given to him by his Ptolemaic overlord or that this sculpture is a stylization. I dont know even one native Meroitic relief depicting a Phrygian hut or pants.

-A more difficult but not impossible assertion is the presence of quilted armor. A Ptolemaic king in the 2nd century BC is cited as equipping 100 or 1000 Greek cavalry mercenaries in "Kushite style quilted armor". Now that's a ways back, but we see quilted armor in use later by the Sudanese/Nubians/Ethiopians.

Interesting. Until now i alwayas asumed that these quilted armors evolved with the coming of the Islam, just as they did in Western Africa. Do you maybe have the full text?

-Kush (Sudan region) had a longstanding reputation for horsemanship as early as the Assyrians. I think that our bias of expecting "fuzzy wuzzies with throwing spears" makes us a bit reluctant to recognize the presence of a highly equestrian minded culture in parts of Sub-saharan Africa. I don't mean this in a racist sense, but rather an assumption and expectation. The fact is you would continue to have such cavalry-minded peoples in the East Africa region in the centuries to come, from either the Oromo or Amhara of Ethiopia (Forget which rode to power with cavalry), the Janjaweed of today, there were some enemies of Mansa Musa's kingdom that were described like black mongols for their horse archery. Like with the quilted armor it makes more sense to allow for a continuation of horsemanship than to expect they were once noted for it, somehow lost it or forgot it and only when someone else (the arabs/berbers) came did they re-learn it.

We know that Piye, the founder of the Cushitic 25. dynasty, was a horse LOVER. He buried himself with the royal chariot and several horses. The same does count for his 25. dynasty succesors. Its unlikely that Napatan and Meroitic Cushites broke this tradition. It seems indeed likely that Cushites combined their two loves: Archer and horsemenship, to combining one of the best horsearchers one could imagine.

-There's wargaming research suggesting the Blemmyes and Nobades had horse armor by the 6th century under Byzantine influence. I have yet to find the period accounts verifying that. Wargaming stuff then suggests they had javelins/short spears and bow, rather than bow and lance.

Do you mean horse harnesses or real horsearmor? Seems like wild speculation for me.

-Abyssinians in the Islamic Hadiths are highly associated with the javelin. The Abyssinian slave that eventually converts to Islam serves as a representation of Abyssinian martial skills I think at least three times. One is an account of him killing an uncle of the Prophet with a javelin, the other two are references that go like "so and so fights with the javelin in the Abyssinian fashion", "So and so is as skilled at the javelin as the Abyssinians".

Ethiopian cavalry probably always fought as light cavalry armed with javelins, using the "one-toe-per-stirrup" method. How it was going in Hellenistic timeframe we can only speculate on the fact that Aksumites were "influenced by Nubians".

With Aksum it's not clear - I think the osprey book suggested they were cavalry poor but I am not sure about such an assumption.

This seems indeed like a unbacked assumption, not more. Why they should have not made extensive use of cavalry?

[Kinjo]

Right they are probably as relevant as the viking forefathers DLC.

[Ahiga]

Can you provide a link for these two things, espicially for the Ptolemiac cavalrymen? Never heared of it before. Scalearmor for Cushites however is pretty certain, as severel Cushite reliefs depicting them.

Edit: Found the rider on my own:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

If i see it right, he even wears pants. This combining the phrygian hut makes me afraid that his equipment might be given to him by his Ptolemaic overlord or that this sculpture is a stylization. I dont know even one native Meroitic relief depicting a Phrygian hut or pants.

I wouldn't put too much stock into the idea of who equipped him. Perhaps the first Germans wearing heavy armor were foederati or Romanized Auxiliaries, but eventually the Germans are able to make such armor on their own. I would caution absolute fidelity to a Meroitic relief because of the inherent stylistic qualities in such art - namely with greek heroic nudity in the past (which we know to not be at all prevalent or common) or the Roman use of a single panoply to discern an auxilia from a legionary or a praetorian from a legionary even though we've found Segmenta in Auxilia finds, mail in legionary finds, scale in Auxilia finds, ect.

That cuts both ways since as you note it could be stylistic, representing the quintessential Easterner with the phrygian cap. I would simply have the trousers replaced by none and the Phrygian cap replaced by a Phrygian helmet or other suitable headwear.

Interesting. Until now i alwayas asumed that these quilted armors evolved with the coming of the Islam, just as they did in Western Africa. Do you maybe have the full text?

I do not, I tried finding the original text but I can find secondary references to it.

http://books.google.com/books?id=dLr...0armor&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=z0s...0armor&f=false

The original author is Agatharcides.



The account of Aksum using less cavalry is based from the Osprey book and their understanding of the Arabic accounts of the Aksumite invasions into Yemen and the Hijaz. I haven't read them myself.

[LinusLinothorax]

Right they are probably as relevant as the viking forefathers DLC.

Lol, one could count this as an insult for Aksumite culture and history.

I do not, I tried finding the original text but I can find secondary references to it.

Got it:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

"For the war against the Ethiopians Ptolemaeus recruited 500 cavalrymen from Greece. To those who were to fight in the front ranks and to be in the vanguard - they were a hundred in number - he assigned the following form of equipment. For he distributed to them and their horses quilted robes, which the natives of that county call kasai, that conceal the whole body except for the eyes."

However, his statement does not mean that Cushites necessarily fought as padded, badass looking heavy cavalry, as this post here tries to explain:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

http://tabulaenovaeexercituum.pbwork...6762/Ptolemaic

Anyway, thank you very much for these hints, they will definetly help me with my researches, but lets move back to topic, to Aksum

The account of Aksum using less cavalry is based from the Osprey book and their understanding of the Arabic accounts of the Aksumite invasions into Yemen and the Hijaz. I haven't read them myself.

I see. If the author refers to primary sources he can't be that wrong. As i said a page ago, i did only a very limited research on Aksumite military yet. Shame on me.

[Ahiga]

Thanks for the full quote, I wasn't sure if it referred to the cavalry or not and it's great to hear it did. Though I'm confused why that author from Tabula suggests they didn't fight as padded cataphracts? He seems to be arguing on behalf of the terms used by the Greek author meaning actual armor rather than flowing robes. He says "hat the kases was defensive equipment, rather than flowing robes intended as suitable desert clothing, is suggested by the fact that the fragment before this concerns Nubian archery and poisoned arrows; the felt caparisons were probably a response to the poisoned arrows. Secondly, while loose robes are a common response to desert sun, I've not come across another case of such covering being extended to horses! Thirdly, and perhaps most decisively, the most likely reason for limiting the kasai to the front ranks rather than issuing them to the whole unit was if they were defensive. The proportion, 100 out of 500, adopting this armour might suggest that one front rank out of five, or two out of ten, received the additional protection."

[Lord Baratheon]

CA are of course Euro-centric and carry with them all the bias from a country which used to rule the world and roflstomped across africa. Perhaps if total war was made by an American or polish developer we wouldn't have this problem but one can only speculate.

Last time I checked Poland is in Europe not Africa. I fail to see why a polish developer would be more favourable to african factions. Odd

The fact that a British faction has appeared in every game (even shogun 2) should make it obvious that CA are nationalists with a nationalist agenda.

Please tell me you're trolling. Posts like this are why TWC has a reputation.

[NostalgiaFan]

Last time I checked Poland is in Europe not Africa. I fail to see why a polish developer would be more favourable to african factions. Odd



Please tell me you're trolling. Posts like this are why TWC has a reputation.

Don't the British appear in fall of the samurai? The only game I think they have not had a presence is the very first shogun.

[General Maximus]

Axum is important enough in my opinion to be playable. They were rich, and stayed as both a loyal ally to the Roman Empire and a potential threat that could engulf Egypt if provoked, and the rest of Africa and the Levant regions (Diocesis Oriens to the late Romans). They survived for a long time, and proved to be a big hurdle to the giant Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates who never actually managed to conquer them.

Maybe they can add trade nodes leading to Gupta Empire of India, which was at it's peak and as powerful as Romans or Persians in 400 AD, and extremely rich after the reign of series of three successful emperors. Spice, silk, dye and metal trade formed a big part of that wealth. That sea route from Gulf of Aden remained the largest trade route between Asia, Africa and Europe after breakdown of Silk Road with the collapse of Han Dynasty. This route was dominated by Axum, and provides a decent income if it features in game. A player can seriously cripple the Romans by blocking their sole node for trade with India, cutting off a big part of their trade and then invading them.