By hook or by crook, A medieval polearms mod

[Serious Spamurai]

I've recently started work on a mod that will make one of the most common groups of medieval weapons, polearms, into what they should have been. This mod will feature many new polearm units, and redo old ones, it will aim to give each faction their own unique, historically correct polearm unit. It will also add halberd troops for most European factions in the late era and a peasants will be re-armed with a fearsome array of simple but effective pole weapons.
I will steadily update you on my progress releasing each unit one at a time or in groups. Expect the first units, billmen, by the end of today, until then here's some WIP screens of what to expect, the lines down the middle of the soldiers' faces will be removed.








(Note, the skins are not mine, but burreks and do not come with this mod)


+BETA now available, see here http://files.filefront.com/SeriousSP.../fileinfo.html+


Screens that were posted later in the thread are now here too.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Axe-Battler]

Are those weapons on them new? The billmen in the pic did you already mod that?

(sorry I play this game alot but never really pay attention to anything I'm doing in it lol)

It's a great idea, I know you already made a halberdier unit that was actually a HALBERDIER and not a militia halberd, are you going to make a new one?

I'd love to see some more halberdier units, cause CA's militia halberds didn't cut it.

[Serious Spamurai]

Yeah, the weapons on them are new, the poles are about twice as long, The head is also modded to have a more pronounced hook and spike. I will be adding REAL Halberdiers too, a late medieval one and a renaissance one to most factions. Other units will be Morgenstern infantry for the HRE, a Chinese-Halberd unit for the Mongols and possibly Hussite Flailmen for Hungary.

[gunnigolfer]

Yeah, the weapons on them are new, the poles are about twice as long, The head is also modded to have a more pronounced hook and spike. I will be adding REAL Halberdiers too, a late medieval one and a renaissance one to most factions. Other units will be Morgenstern infantry for the HRE, a Chinese-Halberd unit for the Mongols and possibly Hussite Flailmen for Hungary.

Is it possible to make a flail? Isn't that the weapon where a spike ball is hanging on a stick by a chain? I thought it wasn't possible to make weapon models bend, for example , make the ball of the flail swing in the chain.

Is it possible?

[Serious Spamurai]

Is it possible to make a flail? Isn't that the weapon where a spike ball is hanging on a stick by a chain? I thought it wasn't possible to make weapon models bend, for example , make the ball of the flail swing in the chain.

Is it possible?

This will be a simple flail, a long pole with a heavy club-type weight on the end of a very short length of chain. Me and prof have been talking about how we could get it to work, I was going to try setting the bone association on the end of the flail to something like the legs, so that it moves as the leg does, it might not work and if it does it will only be a simple solution, until we can edit anims that is.

Yeah a Korean guardsman or something like that, these guys will be just as cool as those in XL if not more so.

[nightwar]

Yeah, the weapons on them are new, the poles are about twice as long, The head is also modded to have a more pronounced hook and spike. I will be adding REAL Halberdiers too, a late medieval one and a renaissance one to most factions. Other units will be Morgenstern infantry for the HRE, a Chinese-Halberd unit for the Mongols and possibly Hussite Flailmen for Hungary.

look forward to ur work! You ever play MTW1? those bill hooks were awesome. Personaly i think Polearms are way cooler than swords.




Nice bills

Honestly just use "GOOGLE" youll see tons of Polearms.

[Axe-Battler]

Halberd unit for the Mongols

Are you refering to the korean guardsmen?

lol sorry if there's no such thing, I just remember playing XL mod for mtw1, they had a mongol unit called korean guardsmen which used a polearm...they were so cool.

[Axe-Battler]

Yeah a Korean guardsman or something like that, these guys will be just as cool as those in XL if not more so.

They will be the coolest unit ever.

Oriental samarai faces with polearms killing westerners... a great site to see!

Are you going to do something about the spearwall as well? Or just leave it the way it is?

[Serious Spamurai]

They will be the coolest unit ever.

Oriental samarai faces with polearms killing westerners... a great site to see!

Are you going to do something about the spearwall as well? Or just leave it the way it is?

What about it? I'll probably leave it off most units because most peasants in the middle ages weren't well trained enough to use such a formation, only later, 1330+, were troops using halberds and polearms to repel cavalry. Swiss Halberdier Mercs will have it. I'll give other units high collision mass to compensate though. Also, to be honest, the anims for spearwall are only really suitable for pikemen.

Yay! 900th post!

[onefistedboxer]

Good luck for the modding, its good to see more units publicly available.

P.S. Your Avatar made me think i had serious eye problems.

[Serious Spamurai]

P.S. Your Avatar made me think i had serious eye problems.

Why, it's just a standard pic of an immortal.

[Prof]

no, it's not...

[Serious Spamurai]

no, it's not...

Shhh... Don't let him know it's not, I want to make him think he has eye problems .
Anyway, some more screens:







I'll upload pics and a DL with the finished billmen later. Then I'll start work on the heavy billmen. I'm removing Bill/Heavy Bill militia form the game because england didn't have militia, it had levy troops, I'll make billmen, longbows and yeoman archers recruitable in cities instead. I don't know what to do after, probably Korean guardsmen. Oh, and could people post some pics and such of medieval polearms.

[onefistedboxer]

I'd compliment you on your screens but these new glasses i bought are making everything fuzzy.

until we can edit anims that is

Didn't caliban release some animations recently?

[Serious Spamurai]

I think so, don't know if we can edit them or not, maybe, I'll look into it. Heavy billmen:






As said before, I need to smooth out the lines on the front of the models.

[Imperator_Maximus]

Are you doing a polearm unit for Byzantium?

[Serious Spamurai]

Are you doing a polearm unit for Byzantium?

Did they use them? If you can get me a pic I'll see what I can do.

[Imperator_Maximus]

Here is some stuff I found, curtosy of Shadow_Imperator and the internet.

Menaulatoi - Strong infantrymen armed with the fearsome 'Menaulion', anti-mounted unit armed with this heavy pike/spear hybrid.

Romphaiophoroi - Especially strong and effective professional infantry in the later Byzantine army. Well armoured and equipped with the fearsome and heavy 'Rhomphaia' double-edged two handed pole-arm with a likeness to a Falx like - poleaxe hybrid. Although very uncommon within the later Byzantine Empire, but a wise and capable Emperor could very well raise them in effective numbers.

I don't have a picture of the Menaulion, but I did find one for the Rhomphaia.

http://asher7.fc2web.com/images/Weapon/Rhomphaia.jpg

What I'm really looking for is a Byzantine halberd unit, like the Janissary Heavy Inf or Swiss Gaurd for upcoming version of my mod.

[Serious Spamurai]

Here is some stuff I found, curtosy of Shadow_Imperator and the internet.

Menaulatoi - Strong infantrymen armed with the fearsome 'Menaulion', anti-mounted unit armed with this heavy pike/spear hybrid.

Romphaiophoroi - Especially strong and effective professional infantry in the later Byzantine army. Well armoured and equipped with the fearsome and heavy 'Rhomphaia' double-edged two handed pole-arm with a likeness to a Falx like - poleaxe hybrid. Although very uncommon within the later Byzantine Empire, but a wise and capable Emperor could very well raise them in effective numbers.

I don't have a picture of the Menaulion, but I did find one for the Rhomphaia.

http://asher7.fc2web.com/images/Weapon/Rhomphaia.jpg

What I'm really looking for is a Byzantine halberd unit, like the Janissary Heavy Inf or Swiss Gaurd for upcoming version of my mod.

I'll see what I can do, I'll need to finish off the first release, then I'll look into iy.

[MightyBoo]

Excellent! This is something i look forward to.