[PREVIEWS] WIP Preview Thread

[Willhelm123]

The Garamantes look great but I'm not sure there should be that many blacks in ratio to the berbers.

[ShadowMassa]

Great stuff once again.

Herodotus mentions the Garamantes hunted "Ethiopian Troglodytes" in the Fezzan and Tibesti. Which shows there was a distinction. However, it is believed that the Tuaregs are the modern day descendants of the Garamantes, and the Tuaregs of today have variety between north African olive skinned types and Sahelian black types.

[Willhelm123]

Yeah, they most likely went down to the Tibesti mountains to raid for slaves. It's the only place in the sea of desert to the South of Garama that people could actually live. However that was mentioned in the 5th century BC. By the period of Attila, 395, it's about 800 years later. They were probably more mixed with more black looking people, especially because the introduction of the camel made desert travel a lot easier. However i would still say that darker types are over represented in the preview, the berbers are still to this day predominantly light skinned.

[Ahiga]

All the berber units except for two "Saharan" units (a spearmen and camelry) are lighter skinned. I went with the darker skin because of the usual contemporary depictions of Garamantines as very dark skinned, a little bit of the whole "Western Berbers (Maures) being called West Ethiopians" (Although these units represent Saharan folks and not Moroccans), and just my assumption that those oasis/nomadic fellows would be very darkly tanned. But it's no problem to mix in some lighter skinned guys to those two Saharan units. You can see all the berber units here:


From left to right, top row then bottom row: Moorish Nobles (bodyguard), Moorish Spearmen, Saharan Berber Spearmen, Romano-Berber Spearmen (mix of unarmored and armored), Moorish Swordsmen, Romano-Berber Swordsmen (mix of unarmored and armored), Moorish Archers, Moorish Slingers, Berber Javelinmen (sedentary berbers and disaffected berber peasantry rejecting Roman authority), Berber Tribal Javelinmen, Berber Jav-Cav (Sedentary/highland horsemen, or just lower class nomadic berber cavalry), Saharan Berber Camelry, Romano-Berber Cavalry (I think mix of unarmored and armored), Melee Berber Light Cavalry, Nomadic/Pastoral Berber Jav-Cav, Berber Noble Jav-Cav (Non bodyguard).

One unit missing is a non Saharan Berber Camelry, which is just lower quality (and may be jav-skirmishers, the Saharans being melee camelry). Based off some accounts of the Berbers using slings I might have the Berber Spearmen (not the saharans) with sling & spear, the Saharan Berbers with spear and javelin. The general difference between the Saharan spearmen and Moorish Spearmen being the Saharans have better shields and higher moral (The whole asabiyah of people from a rugged and rough existence having tribal solidarity) and the Moorish Spearmen are more average - they aren't levy (they don't get any levy spears), just typical tribal spears.

EB2 had some of the Saharan berber's looks (the veils) with their Moors, but I couldn't get an answer (their original historian left, Sylon generously checked their records for me but he couldn't find the references) and am a bit uneasy about casting these Saharans as Maures (from Morocco). Both because of the lack of material referencing it and because it'd limit it to a single berber faction, while having them be "Saharan Berbers" (Simply meaning berbers dwelling on the borderlands of the Sahara, not the deep sahara) lets all three berbers use it.

[Willhelm123]

Looks good. I also tried Berber spearmen with slings, but it makes the spear invisible until they get into melee, when it suddenly appears. It's really odd, it's not like slingers with daggers where you can imagine they pull it out of a pocket or something, they just suddenly whip out an 8 foot spear. If you can get to appear all the time then thats great.

[alex33]

Wow all of this looks quite amazing! Do you by any chance allready have some stuff to show for the sassanids?

[Maximus183]

Work on the sassanids has not yet begun, so currently there's nothing to show.

[Megasalexandros]

Are there any plans to expand on the Roman roster? I mean make more historical units for the east and west, adding scabbards maybe , which would have been fine, etc?
thanks in advance

[Ahiga]

Maybe in the further future. My game plan was to do the sand kingdoms, then Sassanids, then Celts/Norse, then AOR stuff like Berbers recruitable by anyone in North Africa, Isaurians, ect.



Picture is of the revamped Tanukhid & Desert Pikes (Tanukhid pikes being these guys, professional soldiers of the Jund, Desert Pikes becoming regular Syrian Arab Bedouin and tribesmen). Rather than woefully +500 years too late sarissa pikemen I am opting for +200 years too early Syrian "Pikemen". A tactic highly associated with the Syrian Army/Syrian Arabs of the Umayyads, but also other Arabs like the Kharijites. It involved kneeling and bracing the spear like a pike to receive the enemy.

What I've done is taken the hoplite formation (Nobody uses it, or at least nobody will when I am done), made it stationary/unable to move, assigned a new animation that uses kneeling and crouching for pike animations. It's not perfect but it looks pretty satisfactory to me. I am not certain the AI will use it but since this is a gimmick for just the Tanukhids it's not a big deal if they do not. It'll naturally confer a major bracing bonus and bonus vs cavalry.

I understand it could somewhat resemble the fulcrum of the Romans (which the defensive testudo also somewhat depicts). If the AI handles this well we could consider giving it to Romans.

[Delicate Strawberry]

Looking good

[Willhelm123]

I like it, unique.

[Fedual]

Looks like you are using alot of historically accurate red color for the sassanids instead of the default yellow, i like

[alejandromachine]

when can i download it?

[Breadboxer]

Looking forward to 4.0
But i have to ask,is it possible to release a version with adapted stats for the desert kingdoms units as a stop-gap measure?
It's rather painful to avoid the east where im really keen to play.

[Ahiga]

I don't think it'd be possible, we don't really have the manpower to do that. But we're closing in on getting the sand kingdoms (at least minus Lakhmids) done. Graphics are almost done which leaves the statting.

[riv4808]

Ahiga,Is "Scholae Catafractarii" or "Schola Cilibanariorum" (East Roma) available in Campaign...Couldn't find it in praetorium palatium or any technology, did i miss someting?
Sorry post the question here,

[Ahiga]

Riv4808, I guess I forgot to make them recruitable. I'll try to remember to fix it.

Hadn't done an update in awhile, so here you guys go. Visuals are just about done, so it's onto the statting.



Khamis (what was the standing army and so I'd assume 'royal' for Sabaean and I think Himyarite) swordsmen in this case.

The more superfulous units (camel cataphracts) I am omitting in the main release but we will release with 4.0 a mini mod to re-enable them. Retroactively as time goes on that will be my policy towards units I hitherto removed (Heitairea Guard, Langobardi heavy berserkers, ect.) - I'll eventually add them back in with full skins, stats, recruitment, you'll just need to download the ahistorical roster mod to get them.

[Majorien]

What i do like most in your beautiful work Ahiga, it is your constant concern for the variety of equipment and looks. Makes all more "real" !

[Ahiga]

What i do like most in your beautiful work Ahiga, it is your constant concern for the variety of equipment and looks. Makes all more "real" !

Thanks. I always try to make that a priority even though sometimes it can be a bit troublesome if the variety ends up diminishing the 'iconic' stuff. For instance I think of Berbers as either sleeveless tunic or mantle and dreadlocked/curly haired (Think Trajan's column or the 2nd century BC Terracotta from Italy) but since there are remarks about them shaving their head or having beard or no beard or just a beltless tunic on I went with that.

Maloskero: My priority will probably be to finish up the main campaign but, as much as I love the Sassanids there is some credence to the idea of once I am done with sand-kingdoms make a shift to Charlemagne. The reason being a lot of assets are already done for the continental Germans and Umayyads, so the main assets I'd have to do from 'scratch' would be viking, anglo-saxon and celtic stuff. All of which are needed in the main release too (with the necessary time adjustments) so prioritizing them would kill two birds with one stone.

Also if CA went with a proper Rome 2 "All your units are available save for highly specific upgrading (marian legio to post marian legio)" vs the Attila "You only get a small selection of units who constantly upgrade over time" (thus the problem of losing access to Auxilia Palatina or Legiones ect) then that means I don't have to touch up rosters. And judging from the leak I think/hope I won't have to (so for instance as Cordoboa I'd be able to recruit berber spears, Andalusian spears, and the Umayyad guard spears. Not just Berber spears that become Umayyad spears). Which means all I have to do are visuals and maybe one or two unit changes and it's good to go.

ShadowMassa: Unfortunately I am fairly sure we can't move cities on the campaign map.

[maloskero]

Those guys sure look amazing, I'm really eager to playing with them! Amazing work Ahiga, and godspeed in the "statting". Also, I know it's early, but you are you guys thinking about doing some overhaul (in the future) for the Charlamagne DLC?