Sarmatian with Babylonian atmosphere and other interesting things of BI. (article)
Sarmatian with Babylonian atmosphere and other interesting things of BI.
Hello as you know, i am A.Krokhmal, now working in the russian newspaper "Argumenti" and spreading the historical materials. I wanted to share here my thoughts and exploration of the Barbarian Invasion game. What i noticed, what i opened there and what i explored with details. Lets go.
Barbarian Invasion - is a very interesting addon for old good Rome1, and its making a number of new gameplay elements, like the horde style or new campaign about the period before the Dark Age. Its very good to play it, when you don`t know the details of history and don`t have have an idea about the real situation of this historical period. But when are you trying to explore more, deeper and reading the books of it, you are finding the strange inconsistences. These inconsistences are going to say you, this game is cool in gameplay style, but about history - there is a big-big mistake, which showing the image from the bad side.
Lets see it deeper and with more details.
Main mistakes of the BI campaign:
1. 363 AD. Byzantium Empire. Its impossible to see it in 363 year, because Byzantium was created in 395. Valens wasn`t the emperor of Constantinople. He was just one of usurpers, who wanted to rule. Better would be to make a script of the Byzantium creation in 395, or even make a start date from 395. Why 363 - simply don`t know. It wasn`t the date of the big event. Also better would be make not ERE faction, but Usurpers, like in future mods for BI.
2. Sarmatians and Alani factions names. Sarmatians and Alani have a lot of historical names. Better would be to see it in the internet. There are over some thousand names of these bravest and mightiest nations. Maybe its would be not very strange, if name-creators made them greek names. But in BI i explored the sumerian, babylonian and akkadian names. For example, who was Kudurmabug or Rimsin or Belnirarri or Waradsin? They are babylonian or even akkadian kings and warlords. Sarmatians in the V century haven`t got these names absolutely. Babylon was not connected with these tribes. Akkadian, Babylonian and Sumerian nations weren`t hindoeuropean nations. Sarmatians and Alani were - strictly hindoeuropean, indo-iranian groups.
3. Factions positions and factions spirit. Many of factions positions weren`t historical. The same i can say about some factions. For example, for Slavs. Slavs were introduced as the copy of Vandals. They had abilities to build churches and call orthodox priests. But in real history, Slavs accepted the christianity only in 988 AD, and to be honest, it wasn`t the easy process. Many slavs remained with paganism culture till the XII century or later. They simply didn`t have any connections with christianity in the V-VI centuries. Also Celts had more chance to accept christianity in this period.
4. Graal Knights and other non-historical units. Graal Knights is a real fantasy, because there is no proofs about this order or community in the Dark Ages. Maybe, its more good for Masons in future or for Illuminati orders. And also these Knights in the game are not knights. They are Sassanid or even Hunnic Cataphracts. They even have sabres instead the long swords. Also Sarmatian auxilia of Roman factions are not Sarmatians. They are knights of XIV or maybe XV century. Better would be to change name of Sarmatian auxilia to Graal Knights. And Graal Knights must be sarmatian auxilia. What about the other units - i think, some units of barbarian factions have a lot of medieval style (maybe X or even XI century).
5. Mithra`s cult temples. Cult of Mithra was almost popular in Roman empire, but only in borders. These temples didn`t appear in the biggest cities of Italy or in Gallic lands. It was the eastern (hinduist and parthian) cult, so better would be to add them to eastern provinces.
6. Huns religion. There is a very low number of information about the Qin-Lu, god of xiong-nu. Better would be to make Tengrian religion in Hunnic culture and also make some temples of Umai, goddess of family and wealth, or maybe the temple of Ulgen, turkut god of creation and master of the Lighting.
I think, there are a lot of other things, and they are too much. So i am not going to make a full list, because this list can be very long. I explored these interesting mistakes and decided to tell about that. Also my great thanks for many modmakers, who are fixing these errors and making a decent realization of the Fall of Rome period.
Thanks for attention. Maybe you have more exploration about it, so feel free to discuss it.
Regards A.K.Krokhmal
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