Medieval Kingdoms Total War: Kingdom of Sweden

[Slytacular]

Awesome! Thank you!

[Lucem Mundum]

by the way, about the Khwarazmid army I promised you, I came across a great Farsi doctoral dissertation about the structure of the court and the army in the Khwarazmid Empire. I've emailed the author and asked for a copy. I'll let you know about that too.

Can you please share your findings in http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...vassals-states, I would really love to know more about the Khwarizmian military, and I am sure others would too.

[hessam]

Can you please share your findings in http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showt...vassals-states, I would really love to know more about the Khwarizmian military, and I am sure others would too.

Sure thing.

[Konrad S]

Hey good work with Sweden!

Its a bit sad that Finland isn´t on the map and that there is just gonna be one town in Sweden on the campaign.
Anyway i would like to know what the nobel houses on the sheilds of the knights and bondir are, I identified the House of Bjälbo but i'm not sure what the else is are they like the houses of Night and Day (Natt och Dag), Oxenstierna etc? Also are you gonna make a "King" unit on the early period cuz at the time of 1212 ad the king was Erik Eriksson of the "Erik house?" (Not sure how to translate it). This is not a problem on the unites, i belive Birger Jarls house Bjälbo was a big "Noble" family at that time. Points is that if you make a "King" unit The Erik house banner would be good.

You Probally realise im not that good at speaking English so sorry for that.

[Slytacular]

Yeah, King Erik and Birger Jarl will be added eventually.

[Linke]

"i belive Birger Jarls house Bjälbo was a big "Noble" family at that time."
Well yes, although there are a few problems with this:
1 there wasn't really nobility as in the rest of Europe, instead of there being a hierarchy of ranks with different amount of lands (aproximately) your power was based on your amount of land no matter if you were a bishop; odal farmer, warrior or anything else. Anyone would've had a retinue who could. And many regions didn't have any real elites at all but were "farmer republics", with militias of farmers. Such as the upplands, and many of the harads in the "small lands" (småland) wich were incredibly small polities partly independent. (ask for more info if you want)
That's why the noble houses amongst the knights is a bit anachronistic (probably) before 1250-1300 when the social system came to resemble the rest of Europe and a powerful dynasty (yes the one from bjälbo) came to power; before the king changed from the houses of Erik and Sverker almost by every king (usually the civil wars went like this; the Eriks got support from Norwegian nobles neighbouring Sweden, and the sverkers from the king of Denmark who supplied knights, anyone might try to enlist support of more common people who feelt threatened by the expanding royal power, like the uppland farmers supported the folkunga in 1250s, eventually when the new king died the same happened all over again, for the first half of the 13th century).

That's also why a kings unit would be quite difficouly to tie to characters, rather king of sweden and jarl of sweden units could be used (maybe), the jarl being the second most important person to the king, a kind of prime minister who led armies amongst other things. Jarl Birger Magnusson wasn't king though his son was elected such, but should logically have his own unit because of his importance compared to the numerous petty kings in the period. The kings retinue could be called riddare, knights litteraly. Even though there were more knights who were summoned by the "rusttjänst" (equipment duty roughly) they would've been titled svenner; storsvenner or småsvenner and the like. Only the king could actually knight people and there were generally just a few hundred knights at most in the realm. Logically most of them would've been kings men.

Bascily this is highlighting the problems with the various knights unit working in the same way as in the rest of europe, equipment wise nothing is wrong or I don't know about it anyways. Basicly before 1250 a lot of people, including the king have their own retinues of people who might have their own retinues, to create an army use your retinue plus allied nobles and kingdoms and conscripted farmers if you are the king.

Ask for sources, written from memory but based on Prof. Dick Harrisons book

[Kjertesvein]

My only request with the Swedish roster is to include a unit called Men of Dale, or Dalesmen (Dalarna), in honor of Lord of the Rings. That would be absolutely glorious. Also, a unit in the Norwegian roster called Orcadians (Orkney). My god, what have I done. xD

Medieval artwork from Norway. Mostly tier 2 and 3.

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Some images below are later iterations. I.e. Some of the images are from late 15th century, 4 of them are from 1520 (which is late medieval here in Norway), but could work as paintings on pavises and two that has an eastern style.

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1000-1280

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First half of the 14th century

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Round shields with the images below would be quite nice for Sergeants/men-at-arms. https://www.flickr.com/photos/980156...57634570914570

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1325

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1300-50

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Christians on the right side, ~1300

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1300

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1300

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church artwork, not sure when

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1450, Trondheim

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king St. Olaf, holding his ax, named Hel, 15th century

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15th century

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15th century Norwegian 'St Olav' sallet and spurs

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One
Two
Tree

Owned by the Stormann Jon Marteinsson (meaning 'Great Man', basically a magnate). According to the wills at the time, "I would like to be transported with my warhorse to the place I'm going to be buried. I want to bring my full harness and all the gear that belong to it. My shield and helmet should be placed at in the church where St Olav now rest." He died at some part during the later part of the 15th century.

In 1564, Swedes consisting of 800 knekts looted the church, believing the sallet and spurs belonged to St Olav... A saint who died more than half a millennium earlier.

source:
Frans-Arne Hedlund Stylegar, archeologist.
http://arkeologi.blogspot.no/2011/10...avs-hjelm.html

Orkney, ~1103-1319

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1520, recreation of the alterpiece. St olaf in armour

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Here is the original

1500

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Probably late 15th century judging by the armour. St Olav on the left. female saint on the right, madonna. (for the record, there are no gender specific armour)

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It's hard to see exactly which period this plate armour comes form. In my opinion, the style painting doesn't look too much like 16th century. It looks darkened armour, but that could be due to degradation of the painting. No sabatons and golden polyens. He appear to have some sort of mace or scepter in his right hand.

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The first link contain almost all 1300 to mid 14th century. http://imgur.com/a/lfcuB

The other two galleries contains images from late 15th to early 16th century.
Imgur galleri, part 2. http://imgur.com/a/AtONk

Part 3. http://imgur.com/a/Pfqj3

13th and 14th century Norwegian maces.
http://imgur.com/a/c2ZLr
Source

PS: I'd like to be careful when looking at Part 2 and 3, specially if there is no date. The archaeology database provides no dates, so we have to take care.

For the record, the knee-long lames that continue down the thigh area, the "alamai rivets", is a sign that you're entering the 16th century. From what I've seen of 15th century versions, it only appears from the personal armourer of the Arch duke or Tyrol and the Emperor Maximilian in 1490, as you can see from the one example of the Royal Armouries of Leeds. Smaller proto versions of these types is sometimes I've seen, like the Heir to the Holy Roman Empire, Philip I of Castile, but one should be careful due to the fact that we often see Victorians "repairing" armour to the point they're non-functioning, specially this area of the armour as Ian Laspina has pointed out. To summarize, be careful and ask questions if you're unsure about a particular date.

https://collections.royalarmouries.o...ject-1225.html
A similar back piece of that armour can be found on the drawing of a Swabian knight: http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Co...age.75855.html
https://no.pinterest.com/pin/182325484890286609/
http://myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=21487

Kingly person in plate armour, 1490.

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Dated 1490. St Olaf. Golden crown, red textile 'thing' ontop. Plate armour, partially covered by the red cape he helds with his left hand infront of himself. Also an axe. articulated legharness, but no sabatons.






http://imgur.com/a/7wjFJ

Extent survivals of two Norwegian kite shields.

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Late 11th century

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Late 12th century, possibly older.

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Kontext: http://imgur.com/a/3rMmx
Harald Nissen also state that it had a leather cover. Additionally, that they might've been reinforced with ironstrips or bands, but he doesn't elaborate on why this might've been the case.

"På det har det igjen vært lagt et lag med lær. Det varpå denne måten riddertidens skjold ble fremstilt,treskjold hvorpå det kunne være lagt læreller pergament. De kunne også være forsterketmed jernspiler eller jernbånd."
p.44. Norwegian.

~Wille

[darnokthemage]

Some Daleskarls would be nice.

[Faman]

I have been told that you are the one they call sly and i am here becous if Sweden is worse then Denmark in the campaign release of this mod i will be VERY dissapointed in you, FuzFuzFuz and my cat. And add sapmi cavalry to Sweden and Norway.

[Faman]

Sly i am very glad you are considering adding the samis so im gonna try and convince you now. As you said in a reply earlier this is an empire building game and if sweden became bigger they would almost certainly be forced to press the samis into action for the manpower and just imagine how badass it would look, and moose cavalry, we need moose cavalry (i am a ridicolus man)

[Slytacular]

Again, I'm talking not the Samis living on the very North of Scandinavia, I'm talking about the guys living in what is considered modern day Finland as potential units. As interesting as Swedish Elk Cavalry will present, I don't think Samis played a significant role in military; otherwise, they wouldn't be the very beautiful and isolated culture they are known for today.

[Visarion]

Add Santa as well!!!!!

[darnokthemage]

Just add Gustav II Adolf while you are at it.

[Imperator Karl franz IV SIGMA]

add the Vasa also pls

[Visarion]

The Vasa submarine! )

[Imperator Karl franz IV SIGMA]

haha yes with Gustav and his Salmon Bro

[Faman]

As a Swede i would really appriciate seeing a full Swedish roster in the game. Norway which will not have any of territory of its won right now have a bigger roster then Sweden which will have its own territory. If you are looking for insperation or something along the lines of that you can look at the Swedish movie and tv series Arn. And as Swedens and Norways rosters have not been so different in the past you could recoulor units like vepnere and table men and rename them and bring them to the Swedish roster.

[Faman]

[Faman]

deleted Osprey pic due to copyright

[Faman]

deleted Osprey pic due to copyright