[Preview] The reworked Getae and Dacians

**geala** · June 11, 2017, 01:25 AM

Originally Posted by Greek strategos

Pic or it never happened mate.

Unfortunately smartphones with cameras (and the annoying persons looking at them all the time) were invented just a few years after swords and such went out of fashion.

If you trust the British (who wouldn't?), for decapitations and related stuff you can take a look at the wonderful book "Swordsmen of the British Empire" by D.A. Kinsley, it's, albeit sometimes a bit chaotic, full of very interesting near contempory reports (mostly 19th century) and worth any cent.

**geala** · June 11, 2017, 03:02 AM

Originally Posted by Dresden

...

In terms of the Illyrians, KAM did plan to change some of their aesthetics and possibly a unit or two, we will see what we can do when we start checking them out. We are sort of burnt out after the hellenic overhaul and resulting bug fixes.

A burnout is understandable and in a just world you had any right to relax after your great work. But in the cruel reality of DeI, you have to give us more soon, of course.

You will die young from the stress, sadly, but with the knowledge that we are thankful. For a little while.

To be honest, the Illyrians could need an overhaul, in the way of Ritter-Flohs reworks which make the factions more straightforward and realistical. The current Illyrians have a lot of fancy and improbable units with redundancy. For the game it is necessary to have a lot of units for variety's sake although almost nothing is known about Illyrian warriors, however I would opt for a certain reduction.

For the looks, how will you do it? Orientation on the Gradiste plate and similar depictions? There is not much material else, I fear. Maybe the optimum would be to create a new form of tunic, short and straight and without sleeves, but that is too much a burden I presume. Fitting armor, greaves and helmets are in the game already but most units should use them sparsely, especially body armor and greaves. Oval shields for the northern tribes and round shields for the southern, more Greek-influenced, tribes are there. Illyrians are shown without beards usually, I don't get it why they have more beards in the game than Greeks, especially in the unit cards. To show a "barbarian" style? It is not clear from the images but the warriors going barefoot seems the best and most common interpretation.

Top tier units should be nobles: hoplites and javelin/sica sword armed guys with bronze breast armour, helmets and greaves.
The common warrior (hoplite, javelin/sica sword, javelin/axe) should have helmet and good shield, but mostly no body armor. The hoplites could have the typical small breast disc armor. After the reforms (if available) there should be some more body armor units after the Roman example.
Bottom troops should be slingers, unarmored peltasts and some kind of tribal levy with spears. Archers seem to be used only sparsely, if ever.
Cavalry should be of the lighter variant, medium lance and light javelin units, all with shields and helmets.
All units should have moral above similar units in neighboring factions. The Illyrians are most often described as very brave warriors. And of course they should have a good navy, given their well-known "pirate" background.

**leonardusius** · June 11, 2017, 04:48 AM

Originally Posted by Dresden

That won't happen, confederations don't work that way. But if we do end up keeping some older units you could use the AFP submod to play one of the other dacian factions.

Yea, keeping the older ones is what I'm waiting for. A lot more immersion and probably a plus on realism because of the dacian factions. Peoples seems to forgot there were dozens of dacian/getae factions well described by ancient sources. BTW, what mean AFP ?

**Dead*Man*Wilson** · June 11, 2017, 02:43 PM

All factions playable

**Userius** · June 12, 2017, 09:19 AM

The morale and organization of the Illyrians was actually heavily mocked by the Greeks. They wrote something along the lines of "for the Illyrians it is considered as honorable to run backward as forward". Whether the Greeks were exaggerating this and it was just strategic retreat is unknown, but it would make sense given their propensity for raiding and skirmishes.

By the time period in the game though, they had developed more of a solid front line, mainly through modeling after the hoplites.

**Userius** · June 12, 2017, 09:22 AM

Originally Posted by leonardusius

Yea, keeping the older ones is what I'm waiting for. A lot more immersion and probably a plus on realism because of the dacian factions. Peoples seems to forgot there were dozens of dacian/getae factions well described by ancient sources. BTW, what mean AFP ?

Those didn't really come into their own through sources until the early migration period though, unless I'm missing some cool sources.

**leonardusius** · June 12, 2017, 01:07 PM

Originally Posted by Userius

Those didn't really come into their own through sources until the early migration period though, unless I'm missing some cool sources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...race_and_Dacia with links.

**Userius** · June 13, 2017, 02:49 PM

Oh yes, I knew about those. I just mean that they were largely confederates of the Getae or like the Carpi and Costobocii, became prevalent later as the "Free Dacians".

**Userius** · June 13, 2017, 02:54 PM

Just wondering about the reworked Drapanai Epilektoi. Are they going to keep those shields for melee or is it just an aesthethic/temporary gameplay thing to hold their javelins and withstand enemy javelins? I'm just not that keen on them doing a one-handed rhomphaia in the actual engagement. If that *is* the intention, then...well I'm just some random guy on a forum. Don't mind me.

**corsair831** · June 13, 2017, 05:57 PM

You guys are awesome, these units look absolutely fantastic, great work, can't wait to try them!

**Eisenhans** · November 30, 2017, 05:32 PM

Congratulations, they look fantastic!!! Only thing I personally dont like are some beardless guys in the higher Tier Units. As far as I know you were not allowed to buy at the local sarmatian helmetshop if you had no beard. You can read about it in "Memories of the Dacian wars" written by a roman called "Thugius Livius" Quote: " They came out of the dense bushes at the shore of the danube river cutting some dudes in half and damn their helmets were looking sweeeet, perfectly fitting their beardy beards which were mandatory in combination with these phallic shaped pieces of art!"