Medieval Kingdoms Total War: Second Bulgarian Tsardom

[FrozenmenSS]

Coat of arms of Bulgaria and it's noble families:


House of Shishman/Shishman dynasty.

This Emblem is being used for the newly created ''Bulgarian Rebels'''faction in the mod.

[Slepeca]

[/B]This Emblem is being used for the newly created ''Bulgarian Rebels'''faction in the mod.

Seeing how this is one of the last three royal houses before the ottoman invasions , i don't see them being rebels.

[jan_boruta]

Seeing how this is one of the last three royal houses before the ottoman invasions , i don't see them being rebels.

The main symbol for Bulgaria in the mod is a single crowned lion rampant, similar to the modern coat of arms of Bulgaria. I chose it because a coat of arms with three lions passant is already used by England and Denmark and I wanted something distinct. Granted, there are other factions that use a crowned lion rampant but they tend to have a different shape. Giving the coat of arms of the house of Shishman (three lions passant) to Bulgarian rebels at least acknowledges the existence of that house and that coat of arms. That, and the resident Bulgarians here didn't object to the current symbol, so I saw no need to replace it.

[FrozenmenSS]

House of Shishman started in the 1270s first as separretists In Vidin/Bdin and from 1323 became the Ruling dynasty.The Shishman dynasty consecutively ruled the Second Bulgarian Empire for approximately one century, from 1323 to 1422, when it was conquered by the Ottomans.So its perfect emblem being used for the newly created ''Bulgarian Rebels'''faction in the mod.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishman_of_Vidin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Shishman

[Slepeca]

House of Shishman started in the 1270s first as separretists In Vidin/Bdin and from 1323 became the Ruling dynasty.The Shishman dynasty consecutively ruled the Second Bulgarian Empire for approximately one century, from 1323 to 1422, when it was conquered by the Ottomans.So its perfect emblem being used for the newly created ''Bulgarian Rebels'''faction in the mod.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shishman_of_Vidin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Shishman

Objection withdrawn.

[sleepera]

A question:Why arent there any Bolyar themed units?

[Slepeca]

Btw can you remove "Slavic" from the name of the unitsSlavic javilenmen and slavic auxiliary spearmen ? Because as far as i know ,after the First Bulgarian Empire fell to the Eastern Roman Empire ,and it's subsequent renewal under Asen and Petar ,people in our region weren't called slavs anymore (Correct me if i am wrong).

[ESmod]

Btw can you remove "Slavic" from the name of the unitsSlavic javilenmen and slavic auxiliary spearmen ? Because as far as i know ,after the First Bulgarian Empire fell to the Eastern Roman Empire ,and it's subsequent renewal under Asen and Petar ,people in our region weren't called slavs anymore (Correct me if i am wrong).

You are completely right, and i think i've seen those models in a book about First Bulgarian Tsardom

[Slepeca]

Any new pics ,vids or something of that kind ?

[Slepeca]

I've been watching a few youtubers's gameplay of the mod ,and i've seen that different kingdoms/empires/tsardoms have their own houses's banners on the battlefield ,for now i haven't seen this in some of the few vids that feature Bulgaria ,can you add this "System". Or is it already added ,and i am just blind to that ?

[2Shy]

You have done great job guys! Amazing work.
I have to admit that some of the units are historically incorrect. I was researcher for Tsardoms Total War (and bulgarian), so if you want I can help you guys with info about units, settlements, coat of arms and whatever you need.

[FrozenmenSS]

good preview on the faction by Alex The Rambler

[2Shy]

I don't want to be the "annoying" guy who wants attention, but for the sake of the faction, I'm going to write some of the things that I found that are wrong with the units.
Before I begin I want to say that the timeframe I specialise in is 14-15th century Bulgaria. My knowledge before that is also good but there may be some things that I don't know. So feel free to correct me but be so kind to put some references or something else to prove it.
I know that almost nobody cares about Bulgaria and even less about our orgins so I wont comment that (and it's not important). Long story short- even though the FBE had strong nomadic influence, we can't see that in the SBE. 150 years under byzantine rule made the new states really similar to the roman empire- the administrative and military structure was identical and even most of the titles were borrowed from the romans. This fact reflect directly in the army of the new state.
The army was composed mainly of heavy infantry and heavy cavalry. The weapons and armors used were with strong byzantine influence, but a bit westernised thanks to the trade with Ragusa, Genua, Venice (exactly during Boril's reign one chronicler describes "green colored pikes from Bohemia).
Slavic spearmen and javellinmen are obsolute. It's 7-10th century unit as Nike suggested.
Next important issue is the horse archers. The army of SBE didn't have horse archers of its own. The bulgarian tsars still used them in every campaign, but as mercenaries. First cumans then tatars. Units like light horse archers and noble horse archers are historically inaccurate. You can change it to light cavalry unit

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The current "bulgarian horsearcher" can be renamed "cuman horsearcher" and can be used as mercenary, or may be as faction unit in the early era since there were large cuman communities in Bulgaria and they were used in every campaign. The cuman elite eventually mixed with the bulgarian, and even produced the royal house of Terter. In the high era the unit can be converted to "tatar horse archer".


The other units are fine, but I would suggest to change the russian helmets and the nomadic cap with kettle helmet or byzantine helmet. Here is typical bulgarian soldier (13th or 14th century):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I would also suggest to make "bulgarian brigands" AoR unit.

And one last thing- according to a fellow researcher from tsardoms the bulgarians used firearms. He found evidence if bullets found in the 14th century bulgarian fortresses. In the late 14th century Ivan Shishman ordered 200 handguns from Ragusa. Tsardoms made a handgun unit that's not in the preview, but can be seen in youtube.
Iean Heath suggests that they also used artillery:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

The bulgarian cavalry can be renamed to proniari since there were actually the medium cavalry in the army. Here is some reference material:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

(without the neck protection)

Here is my suggestion about bulgarian heavy infantry (late unit-14th century). My friend gogo_t made it for Tsardoms, but infortunatly the model was lost :

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Also late period unit- bulgarian halberdier (frescue from 14th century):

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

And finally here are some beautiful medieval bulgarian warrior saints from 14th century:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Wappenwiki is amazing site about CoA. From there you can take accurate CoA for Bulgaria and bulgarian noble families (I helped them after all ). Tell me if you need more authentic images.

[FrozenmenSS]

For the horse archer unit a year Ago ,if I correctly remember reading older post for the mod it was named similar to ''Cuman horse archers'' And later the team changed it to Bulgarian to represent the Cumans in the bulgarian army and I thing the ''Cuman horse archers'' went for the Cumans as a faction. Im not part of the team,just a regular fan of the mod.

Also the emblem of Asen Dynasty is in theme the same as the one in the mod.Lion with a crown ,but the Lion on the mod is like todays modern Bulgarian Lion as emblem. And for the Bulgarian rebels faction its the emblem of the Shishman dynasty.

As for the firearms Im curious to learn more about it relating to its use in Bulgaria at that time.

And for the early history of the Bulgarians go for ''The Barbarian Invasions'' that is for Attila that is coming really soon. click on my signature pic.

[Slepeca]

Are the walls of bulgarian cities gonna be unique ,like the tsardom ones for Turnovo and their real life counterparts ,or not ? They were pretty close in resemblance to the Eastern roman ones.

[lion8000]

I think that it is great that you have add Bulgaria in this mod
I have many ideas for bulgarian units. Bulgaria was an empire and Tcar means emperor.
The Tcar should have golden armor, red boots and red sheld.
I have many ideas for Bulgarian units.
First the generals: Bagatur (current Tcar model), Boila and Comitopula.

[lion8000]

It is great that you have add Bulgaria.Bulgaria was an empire and Tcar means emperor.The Bulgarian empire hat a very powerful cavalry.

[lion8000]

You should add more cavalry unites like komitopuls: For them you could use the heavy spearman with the covert faces but on hors. Add a medium sword cavalry unit and more cavalry unites.
You could add the stitonoszi: They where an elite very heavy armored unit with very large shields.

[Slytacular]

@2Shy, do you have any pictorial references that aren't modern illustrations or reenactor? I like to look for frescoes, artifacts, or something from the era that depicts Bulgarian fighters. I like to have something from the past to compare to the modern recreations today. That way I know whether the recreations are something worth drawing sources from or if it's just ignorant fluff.

[lion8000]

About the Tcar the ara many pictures in google for the stitonoszi I have only read somelare long ago. But there are many sources that sey that the Bulgarian empire had a powerful cavalry.
The Bulgarian Patriarh has lead the defence of Tarnovo. He should be an hero. The titles that I previously said are well known Bulgarian aristocratic titles.