PyrrhusofEpirus|the real one
04-29-2006, 21:57
Early Faction Previews.
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire will start out with anywhere from 40,000 denari to 50,000 denari. They will own all provinces in the game in 27 B.C.E. as they did in the actual year of 27 B.C.E. The Romans are the super power in the game though it would seem that they are unstoppable at first they are not. A few tips will be to keep hold of border provinces that are near hostile forces and watch the populations feeling towards your rule. Just as in vanilla BI religion will play a role here but it won't be so insane. Also watch your money cause if your not careful it will go away fast!
HISTORY OF THE EMPIRE
The Romanum Imperium did not come around until Augustus Caesar in 27 B.C.E. though it had a small noticable start under the conquerings of Gaius Julius Caesar and his very brief rule as Dictator. The Empire was rich and the most civilized in all the known world, they were highly advanced and with a large military force comprised of Legions (LEGIO). The Romans expanded their territory rapidly between 27 B.C.E. up until its height around 114 C.E. after that date their expansion slowed to a stop and then began the loss of provinces.
Many viewed the Roman Empire as unstoppable well this was not true though they were very hard to defeat. But there were many forces that had victories over the legions of the Romans and it wasn't always by military that the Romans had problems. Provincial Revolts, and more notably the rise of the Christians and their religion.
Reforms of Roman ways of life also affected the such as the reforms of Trajan, and Diocleatian.
[this may not be the best history description in the world i'll work on it later, but its not so easy to condense 6 pages of information into a few little paragraphs.]
There will be succesion wars as previously stated back towards the beginning of the mod. Also the petty empires that sprung up will pop up those will NOT be playable such a faction is Galliarum Imperium.
Though there are no finished units here are pics of units that will be in the game (this is the same for the other previewed factions)
Praetorian Infantry
http://www.livinghistory.com.au/images/praetorian.gif
Imperial Cavalry
http://www.caerleon.net/empire/img16.jpg
Latin Auxilia
http://www.graham.day.dsl.pipex.com/roman10.jpg
Optio
http://www.geocities.com/sionmc/legion/optio2w.jpg
Cavalry Auxilia
http://www.geocities.com/sionmc/legion/cavalryw.jpg
Horse Archer
http://www.trajan20.freeserve.co.uk/img21.jpg
Different types of Cavalry
http://www.trajan20.freeserve.co.uk/img5.gif
Roman Archer
http://www.cavazzi.com/roman-empire/diverse/pics/corbridge-legionaries/archer-01.jpg
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Iazyges
The Iazyges (Jazyges is an orthographic variant) were a nomadic tribe. Speaking an Iranian language, they were a branch of the Sarmatian people who, c. 200 BC, swept westward from central Asia onto the steppes of what is now Ukraine.
Antiquity
The Iazyges first make their appearance along the Sea of Azov, known to the Ancient Greeks and Romans as the Maeotis. For this reason they are referred to by the geographer Ptolemy as the Iazyges Metanastae. From there, the Jazyges moved west along the shores of the Black Sea to what is now Moldova and the southwestern Ukraine.
They served as allies of Mithradates VI Eupator, king of Pontus (in what is now western Turkey), in his wars against the Romans (c. 88-84 BC). In 78-76 BC, the Romans sent a punitive expedition over the Danube in an attempt to overawe the Jazyges.
The prime enemy of Rome along the lower Danube at this time were the Dacians, in what is now Romania. In 7 BC the Dacian kingdom built up by Burebista began to collapse into one of the bouts of anarchy that plagued many nomadic kingdoms. The Romans took advantage of this to encourage the Jazyges to settle in the Pannonian plain, between the Danube and the Tisza (Theiss) Rivers.
Roman times
They were divided into freemen and serfs (Sarmatae Limigantes). These serfs had a different manner of life and were probably an older settled population, enslaved by nomadic masters. They rose against them in 34 AD, but were repressed by foreign aid.
The Romans wanted to finish off Dacia, but the Jazyges would not cooperate. The Iazyges remained nomads, herding their cattle across what is now southern Romania every summer to water them along the Black Sea. A Roman conquest of Dacia would cut that route. The Roman emperor Domitian became so concerned with the Jazyges that he interrupted a campaign against Dacia to harass them and the Suebi, a Germanic tribe also dwelling along the Danube.
In early 92, the Jazyges, in alliance with the Sarmatians proper and the Germanic Quadi, crossed the Danube into the Roman province of Pannonia (mod. Croatia, northern Serbia, and western Hungary). In May, the Iazyges shattered the Roman legio 21 Rapax, soon afterwards disbanded in disgrace. The fighting continued until Domitian’s death in 96.
In the years 101-105, the warlike Roman Emperor Trajan finally conquered the Dacians, reducing it to a Roman province. In 107, Trajan sent his general, Hadrian, to force the Jazyges to submit.
In 117, Trajan died, and was succeeded as emperor by Hadrian, who moved to consolidate and protect the gains Trajan had made. While the Romans kept Dacia, the Iazyges stayed independent, accepting a client relationship with Rome.
As long as Rome remained powerful, the situation could be maintained, but in the late second century, the Roman Empire found itself increasingly overstretched. In the summer of 167, while the Romans were tied down in a war with Parthia, the nomadic peoples north of the Danube, the Marcomanni, the Varistae, the Vandals, the Hermanduri, the Suebi and the Quadi all swept south over the Danube to invade and plunder the exposed Roman provinces. The Iazyges joined in this general onslaught. The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius spent the rest of his life trying to restore the situation. In 170, the Iazyges defeated and killed Claudius Fronto, Roman governor of Dacia and Lower Moesia. Operating from Sirmium (today Sremska Mitrovica in Vojvodina, in today's Serbia and Montenegro) on the Sava river, Marcus Aurelius moved against the Iazyges personally. After hard fighting, the Iazyges were pressed to their limits.
But in 175, Avidus Cassius led a revolt in the East, interrupting the campaign. At this point, the leading king among the Iazyges, Zanticus, made peace with Marcus Aurelius, yielding up, it is said, 100,000 Roman captives. The Iazyges were also forced to provide the Romans with 8,000 cavalry to serve in the Roman army as auxiliaries. Some 5,500 of these were shipped off to Britain, where, it is theorized, they played a part in the development of the Arthurian legend.
Marcus' victory was decisive in that the Iazyges did not again appear as a major threat to Rome. Around 230, the Asding Vandals pushed in to the north of the Iazyges. The Vandals, and new Germanic tribal coalitions like the Alamanni and the Franks now became the Roman’s primary security concerns. But as late as 371, the Romans saw fit to build a fortified trading center, Commercium, to control the trade with the Iazyges.
Late Antiquity
In Late Antiquity, records become much spottier, and the Iazyges generally cease to be mentioned as a tribe.
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As the Iazyges you can expect a major problem from the Roman Empire right from the start. Make many alliances and build up your forces early or face and early defeat! Use your alliance with the Dacians wisely and consider the germanic tribes as well. The Iazyges have the potential to become a powerful faction if used wisely their diffuculty in the game will be set as Hard.
Planned Faction Symbol
http://gk.ro/sarmizegetusa/invaziile/iranienii/st_sigla.jpg
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Allemanni
The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were an alliance of warbands formed from Germanic tribes, first mentioned by Dio Cassius when they fought Caracalla in 213. They apparently dwelt in the basin of the Main, to the south of the Chatti.
Tribal connections
The Alamanni emerged from the Irminones. According to Asinius Quadratus their name —"all men"—indicates that they were a conglomeration of various tribes formed into warbands, similar to the contemporary Huns. Another source [citation needed] claims the root of Alamann is al- from which are also derived Greek allos "other, alien" and Old High German Elisâzzo ", Elsaz or Alsace): "the land on the other side of the Rhine". There can be little doubt, however, that the ancient Hermunduri formed the bulk of the composite nation. Other groups included the Brisgavi, Juthungi, Bucinobantes, Lentienses, and perhaps the Armalausi. Close allies of the Alamanni were the East Germanic Suebi, or Suabi (hence Swabia). The Hermunduri had apparently belonged to the Suebi, but it is likely enough that reinforcements from new Suebic tribes had now moved westward. In later times the names Alamanni and Suebi seem to become synonymous, although some of the Suebi later migrated to Hispania and established an independent kingdom there that endured well into the 6th century.
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As the Allemanni your main priorities will be to defend against the Roman Empire who you will be at war with in the beginning of the campaign. As the Allemanni you can expect to a have better chance at beating the Legions of Rome than other barbaric factions. But remember to move fast against the Romans least they overwhelm you as the Romans are moving against all the remaing "barbarians" in Europe to ensure their domination in the continent!
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Parthian Empire (1st Campaign)
The origins of the Parthian dynasty lie with a tribe of nomads, the Parni, in the steppes near the Caspian. After gradually infiltrating to the south, they overthrow Seleucid control and take power as a royal house in Parthia in about 247 BC. The founder of their line is Arsaces I, and the dynasty is sometimes known as Arsacid.
The Parthians never lose touch with their origins as horsemen of the steppes, and their brilliance in fighting from the saddle is a large part of their fame. It brings them a great victory over the Romans at Carrhae in 53 BC. The 'Parthian shot', in which a horseman fires an arrow over the rump of the horse as he gallops away, becomes a favourite image of the ancient world.
An agreed boundary with the Parthians is one of the achievements of the peaceful foreign policy of the emperor Augustus. He even recovers for Rome the imperial standards captured by the Parthians at Carrhae, the loss of which has been a cause of deep shame. Negotiations result in the Parthians recognizing Roman sovereignty over Armenia, while Rome agrees not to challenge Parthian rule in Mesopotamia east of the Euphrates.
These friendly arrangements do not prevent Rome from meddling in the affairs of the Parthian royal dynasty by underhand means, in the extraordinary affair of an Italian slave girl, Musa.
Pressure from the east: 1st century BC - 1st century AD
While engaged in the evenly matched tussle with Rome in the west, the Parthians are subject to much more relentless pressure from the east. Just as the Parthians themselves moved down from the steppes into Persia, nomadic tribes from north of the Himalayas are now pressing on the eastern part of the empire. By the 1st century BC the Yueqi are settled in Bactria.
This pressure from the east, combined with the lush appeal of Mesopotamia, has the effect of transferring the centre of Parthian rule westwards. By the 1st century BC they are developing Ctesiphon as their capital, on the opposite bank of the Tigris from the Greek city of Seleucia.
Decline of Parthia: 2nd - 3rd century AD
On several occasions during the 2nd century the Romans invade Parthia, sometimes even reaching Ctesiphon and beyond. They are never able to hold for long any territory which they gain beyond the Euphrates, but their incursions weaken the Parthian royal dynasty.
In keeping with their nomadic origins, the Parthians rule in a feudal fashion - as leaders of a loose hierarchy of powerful local dynasties. One such dynasty, that of the Sassanians, brings the Parthian empire to an end. Repeating a pattern eight centuries old (when Cyrus overthrew the Medes), the rebellious feudal vassal comes from the most ancient land of Persia, the kingdom of Fars, known at this time by the Greek name of Persis.
Some of the parthian units will be the same as the ones used in the Sassanid Faction as the Sassanid used many of the units that were used by the parthians.
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As the parthian empire there will be only minor problems with neighboring factions. You'll have plenty of starting denarii, consider destroying the Numidians in the beginning of your campaign, they'll only become a nuissance later on.
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The Sassanids established an empire roughly within the frontiers achieved by the Achaemenids, with the capital at Ctesiphon. The Sassanids consciously sought to resuscitate Iranian traditions and to obliterate Greek cultural influence. Their rule was characterized by considerable centralization, ambitious urban planning, agricultural development, and technological improvements. Sassanid rulers adopted the title of shahanshah (king of kings), as sovereigns over numerous petty rulers, known as shahrdars. Historians believe that society was divided into four classes: the priests, warriors, secretaries, and commoners. The royal princes, petty rulers, great landlords, and priests together constituted a privileged stratum, and the social system appears to have been fairly rigid.
Sassanid rule and the system of social stratification were reinforced by Zoroastrianism, which became the state religion. The Zoroastrian priesthood became immensely powerful. The head of the priestly class, the mobadan mobad, along with the military commander, the eran spahbod, and the head of the bureaucracy, were among the great men of the state. Rome, with its capital at Constantinople, had replaced Greece as Iran's principal Western enemy, and hostilities between the two empires were frequent. Shahpur I (240-272 CE), son and successor of Ardeshir, waged successful campaigns against the Romans and in 260 CE even took the emperor Valerian prisoner. Between 260 and 263 CE he had lost his conquest to Odenathus, and ally of Rome. Shapur II (ruled 309-379 CE) regained the lost territories, however, in three successive wars with the Romans.
A rock relief at Naqsh-e Rostam, depicting the triumph of
Shapur I over the Roman Emperor Valerian, and Philip the Arabian
Khosro I (531-579 CE), also known as Anushirvan the Just, is the most celebrated of the Sassanid rulers. He reformed the tax system and reorganized the army and the bureaucracy, tying the army more closely to the central government than to local lords. His reign witnessed the rise of the dihqans (literally, village lords), the petty landholding nobility who were the backbone of later Sassanid provincial administration and the tax collection system. Khosro was a great builder, embellishing his capital, founding new towns, and constructing new buildings. He rebuilt the canals and restocked the farms, which had been destroyed in the wars. He built strong fortifications at the passes and placed subject tribes in carefully chosen towns on the frontiers, so that they could act as guardians of the state against invaders. Justinian paid him 440,000 pieces of gold, as a bribe to keep the peace, but he seems to have been a man who genuinely enjoyed the fruits of peace and saw no reason to continue a senseless war. He was tolerant of all religions, though he decreed that Zoroastrianism should be the official state religion, but he was not unduly disturbed when one of his sons became a Christian. Under his auspices, too, many books were brought from India and translated into Pahlavi. Some of these later found their way into the literature of the Islamic world.
The reign of Khosro II (591-628 CE) was characterized by the wasteful splendor and lavishness of the court. Toward the end of his reign Khosro II's power declined. In renewed fighting with the Byzantines, he enjoyed initial successes, captured Damascus, and seized the Holy Cross in Jerusalem. But counterattacks by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius brought enemy forces deep into Sassanid territory.
In the spring of 633 CE a grandson of Khosro called Yezdegerd ascended the throne, and in that same year the first Arab squadrons made their first raids into Persian territory.
Years of warfare exhausted both the Byzantines and the Iranians. The later Sassanids were further weakened by economic decline, heavy taxation, religious unrest, rigid social stratification, the increasing power of the provincial landholders, and a rapid turnover of rulers. These factors facilitated the Arab invasion in the seventh century.
It was the beginning of the end. Yezdegerd was a boy, at the mercy of his advisers, incapable of uniting a vast country which was crumbling into a number of small feudal kingdoms. Rome no longer threatened. The threat came from the small disciplined armies of Khalid ibn Walid, once one of Mohammad's chosen companion-in-arms and now, after the Prophet's death, the leader of the Arab army.
Source: Iranian Chamber Society
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/sassanids/sassanids.php
Sassanid Rulers you'll see in the game:
Ardashir I 224 - 241 CE
Shapur I 241 - 272 CE
Hormoz I 272 - 273 CE
Bahram I 273 - 276 CE
Bahram II 276 - 293 CE
Bahram III 293 - 293 CE
Narseh 293 - 302 CE
Hormoz II 302 - 309 CE
Shapur II 309 - 379 CE
Ardashir II 379 - 383 CE
Shapur III 383 - 388 CE
Bahram IV 388 - 399 CE
Sassanian Army
By: Professor A. Sh. Shahbazi
Derafsh Kavian
The Iranian society under the Sasanians was divided-allegedly by Ardašir I, into four groups: priests, warriors (arteštdar), state officials, and artisans and peasants. The second category embraced princes, lords, and landed aristocracy, and one of the three great fires of the empire, Adur Gušnasp at Šiz (Takt-e Solayman in Azerbaijan) belonged to them. With a clear military plan aimed at the revival of the Iranian Empire, Ardašir I, formed a standing army which was under his personal command and its officers were separate from satraps and local princes and nobility. Ardešir had started as the military commander of Darabgerd, and was knowledgeable in older and contemporary military history, from which he benefited, as history shows, substantially. For he restored Achaemenid military organizations, retained Parthian cavalry, and employed new-style armour and siege-engines, thereby creating a standing army (Mid. Pers. spah) which served his successors for over four centuries, and defended Iran against Central Asiatic nomads and Roman armies.
The backbone of the spah was its heavy cavalry "in which all the nobles and men of rank" underwent "hard service" and became professional soldiers "through military training and discipline, through constant exercise in warfare and military manoeuvres". From the third century the Romans also formed units of heavy cavalry of the Oriental type; they called such horsemen clibanarii "mailclad [riders]", a term thought to have derived from an Iranian *griwbanar < *griwbanwar < *griva-pana-bara "neck-guard wearer". The heavy cavalry of Shapur II is described by an eye-witness historian as follows:
"all the companies were clad in iron, and all parts of their bodies were covered with thick plates, so fitted that the stiff-joints conformed with those of their limbs; and the forms of human faces were so skilfully fitted to their heads, that since their entire body was covered with metal, arrows that fell upon them could lodge only where they could see a little through tiny openings opposite the pupil of the eye, or where through the tip of their nose they were able to get a little breath. Of these some who were armed with pikes, stood so motionless that you would have thought them held fast by clamps of bronze".
The described horsemen are represented by the seventh-century knight depicting Emperor Khosrow Parvez on his steed Šabdiz on a rock relief at Taq-e Bostan in Kermanšah. Since the Sassanian horseman lacked the stirrup, he used a war saddle which, like the medieval type, had a cantle at the back and two guard clamps curving across the top of the rider's thighs enabling him thereby to stay in the saddle especially during violent contact in battle. The inventory of weapons ascribed to Sassanian horsemen at the time of Khosrow Anoširavan, resembles the twelve items of war mentioned in Vendidad 14.9, thus showing that this part of the text had been revised in the later Sassanian period.
Heavy Armoured Sassanian Cavalry
More interestingly, the most important Byzantine treatise on the art of war, the Strategicon, also written at this period, requires the same equipments from a heavily-armed horseman. This was due to the gradual orientalisation of the Roman army to the extent that in the sixth century "the military usages of the Romans and the Persians become more and more assimilated, so that the armies of Justinian and Khosrow are already very much like each other;" and, indeed, the military literatures of the two sides show strong affinities and interrelations. According to the Iranian sources mentioned above, the martial equipments of a heavily-armed Sassanian horseman were as follows: helmet, hauberk (Pahlavi griwban), breastplate, mail, gauntlet (Pahlavi abdast), girdle, thigh-guards (Pahlavi ran-ban), lance, sword, battle-axe, mace, bowcase with two bows and two bowstrings, quiver with 30 arrows, two extra bowstrings, spear, and horse armour (zen-abzar); to these some have added a lasso (kamand), or a sling with slingstones. The elite corps of the cavalry was called "the Immortals," evidently numbering-like their Achaemenid namesakes 10,000 men. On one occasion (under emperor Bahram V) the force attacked a Roman army but outnumbered, it stood firm and was cut down to a man. Another elite cavalry group was the Armenian one, whom the Persians accorded particular honour. In due course the importance of the heavy cavalry increased and the distinguished horseman assumed the meaning of "knight" as in European chivalry; if not of royal blood, he ranked next to the members of the ruling families and was among the king's boon companions.
The Sassanians did not form light-armed cavalry but extensively employed-as allies or mercenaries-troops from warlike tribes who fought under their own chiefs. "The Sagestani were the bravest of all"; the Gelani, Albani and the Hephthalites, the Kushans and the Khazars were the main suppliers of light-armed cavalry. The skill of the Dailamites in the use of sword and dagger made them valuable troopers in close combat, while Arabs were efficient in desert warfare.
The infantry (paygan) consisted of the archers and ordinary footmen. The former were protected "by an oblong curved shield, covered with wickerwork and rawhide". Advancing in close order, they showered the enemy with storms of arrows. The ordinary footmen were recruited from peasants and received no pay, serving mainly as pages to the mounted warriors; they also attacked walls, excavated mines and looked after the baggage train, their weapons being a spear and a shield. The cavalry was better supported by war elephants "looking like walking towers", which could cause disorder and damage in enemy ranks in open and level fields. War chariots were not used by the Sassanians. Unlike the Parthians, however, the Iranians organised an efficient siege machine for reducing enemy forts and walled towns. They learned this system of defence from the Romans but soon came to match them not only in the use of offensive siege engines-such as scorpions, balistae, battering rams, and moving towers-but also in the methods of defending their own fortifications against such devices by catapults, by throwing stones or pouring boiling liquid on the attackers or hurling fire brands and blazing missiles.
Heavy Armoured Sassanian Cavalry
The organisation of the Sassanian army is not quite clear, and it is not even certain that a decimal scale prevailed, although such titles as hazarmard might indicate such a system. Yet the proverbial strength of an army was 12,000 men. The total strength of the registered warriors in 578 was 70,000. The army was divided, as in the Parthian times, into several gunds, each consisting of a number of drafšs (units with particular banners), each made up of some Wašts. The imperial banner was the Drafš-a Kavian, a talismanic emblem accompanying the King of Kings or the commander-in-chief of the army who was stationed in the centre of his forces and managed the affairs of the combat from the elevation of a throne. At least from the time of Khosrow Anoširavan a seven-grade hierarchical system seems to have been favoured in the organisation of the army. The highest military title was arghed which was a prerogative of the Sassanian family. Until Khosrow Andoširavan's military reforms, the whole of the Iranian army was under a supreme commander, Eran-spahbed, who acted as the minister of defence, empowered to conduct peace negotiations; he usually came from one of the great noble families and was counted as a counselor of the Great King.
Along with the revival of "heroic" names in the middle of the Sassanian period, an anachronistic title, arteštaran salar was coined to designate a generalissimo with extraordinary authority, but this was soon abandoned when Anoširavan abolished the office of Eran-spahbed and replaced it with those of the four marshals (spahhed) of the empire, each of whom was the military authority in one quarter of the realm. Other senior officials connected with the army were: Eran-ambaragbed "minister of the magazines of empire," responsible for the arms and armaments of warriors; the marzbans "margraves"-rulers of important border provinces; kanarang-evidently a hereditary title of the ruler of Tus; gund-salar "general"; paygan-salar "commander of the infantry"; and pushtigban-salar "commander of the royal guard".
A good deal of what is known of the Sassanian army dates from the sixth and seventh centuries when, as the results of Anoširavan's reforms, four main corps were established; soldiers were enrolled as state officials receiving pay and subsidies as well as arms and horses; and many vulnerable border areas were garrisoned by resettled warlike tribes. The sources are particularly rich in accounts of the Sassanian art of warfare because there existed a substantial military literature, traces of which are found in the Šah-nama, Denkard 8.26-an abstract of a chapter of the Sassanian Avesta entitled Arteštarestan "warrior code"-and in the extracts from the A'in-nama which Ebn Qotayba has preserved in his Oyun al-akhbar and Inostrantsev has explained in detail. The Arteštarestan was a complete manual for the military: it described in detail the regulations on recruitments, arms and armour, horses and their equipments, trainings, ranks, and pay of the soldiers and provisions for them, gathering military intelligence and taking precaution against surprise attack, qualifications of commanders and their duties in arraying the lines, preserving the lives of their men, safeguarding Iran, rewarding the brave and treating the vanquished. The A'in-nama furnished valuable instructions on tactics, strategy and logistics. It enjoined, for instance, that the cavalry should be placed in front, left-handed archers capable of shooting to both sides be positioned on the left wing, which was to remain defensive and be used as support in case of enemy advance, the centre be stationed in an elevated place so that its two main parts (i. e., the chief line of cavalry, and the lesser line of infantry behind them) could resist enemy charges more efficiently, and that the men should be so lined up as to have the sun and wind to their back.
A Sassanian helmet from the siege mines beneath Tower 19, Dura-Europos, in today Syria. It is a rare find of Sasanian military archaeology, and also clearly a prototype for Roman helmets of the 4th century CE.
Battles were usually decided by the shock cavalry of the front line charging the opposite ranks with heavy lances while archers gave support by discharging storms of arrows. The centre, where the commander-in-chief took his position on a throne under the Drafš-a Kavian, was defended by the strongest units. Since the carrying of the shield on the left made a soldier inefficient in using his weapons leftwards, the right was considered the line of attack, each side trying to outflank the enemy from that direction, i.e., at the respective opponent's left; hence, the left wing was made stronger but assigned a defensive role. The chief weakness of the Iranian army was its lack of endurance in close combat. Another fault was the Iranian's too great a reliance on the presence of their leader: the moment the commander fell or fled his men gave way regardless of the course of action.
During the Sassanian period the ancient tradition of single combat (maid-o-maid) developed to a firm code. In 421 CE Emperor Bahram V opposed a Roman army but accepted the war as lost when his champion in a single contest was slain by a Goth from the Roman side. Such duels are represented on several Sassanian rock-reliefs at Naqsh-a Rostam, and on a famous cameo in Paris depicting Emperor Shapur I capturing Valerian.
Sassanian Emperors were conscious of their role as military leaders: many took part in battle, and some were killed; the Picture Book of Sassanian Kings showed them as warriors with lance or sword. Some are credited with writing manuals on archery, and they are known to have kept accounts of their campaigns ("When Kosrow Parvez concluded his wars with Bahram-e Choubina and consolidated his rule over the empire, he ordered his secretary to write down an account of those wars and related events in full, from the beginning to the end").
While heavy cavalry proved efficient against Roman armies, it was too slow and regimentalised to act with full force against agile and unpredictable light-armed cavalry and rapid foot archers; the Persians who in the early seventh century conquered Egypt and Asia Minor lost decisive battles a generation later when nimble, lightly armed Arabs accustomed to skirmishes and desert warfare attacked them. Hired light-armed Arab or East Iranian mercenaries could have served them much better
Source: Iranian Chamber Society
http://www.iranchamber.com/history/sassani...sanian_army.php
Sassanid Units you'll see in the game:
Sassanid Archer
http://www.legionsix.org/sassanian1.jpg
Savar Hakhamaneshi
http://www.farhangiran.com/images/savar-hakhamaneshi1.jpg
Kamandar-ashkani
http://www.farhangiran.com/images/Kamandar-ashkani.jpg
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As the Sassanids you practically have nothing to worry about! Your the Roman Empire of the East :) Your starting denari will be 30,000 and your enemies in the east are basically no match at all for you. Though you should watch out for the occasional expoditionary Roman Forces as they seek to conquer the east. Until the Romans have expaned to your border which takes time you have nothing to worry about unless you take no notice of the neighboring factions who can destroy you fairly easily. also watch out for rebellions to your rule cause christianity is spreading fast in the east.
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The first mentions of names that historians link with "Alani" appear almost at the same time in Greco-Roman geography and somewhat later Chinese dynastic chronicles of the 1st century BC. The Geography (book 23, ch.XI.v) of Strabo, who was born in Pontus on the Black Sea, but was also working with Persian sources, to judge from the forms he gives to tribal names, mentions Aorsi that he links with Siraces and claims that a Spadines, king of the Aorsi, could assemble two hundred thousand mounted archers in the mid-1st century BC. But the "upper Aorsi" from whom they had split as fugitives, could send many more, for they dominated the coastal region of the Caspian Sea
"and consequently they could import on camels the Indian and Babylonian merchandise, receiving it in their turn from the Armenians and the Medes, and also, owing to their wealth, could wear golden ornaments. Now the Aorsi live along the Tanaïs, but the Siraces live along the Achardeüs, which flows from the Caucasus and empties into Lake Maeotis."
Secure identifications of names and places in the ancient Chinese chronicles are even more speculative, but some centuries later, the Later Han Dynasty Chinese chronicle, the Hou Hanshu, 88 (covering the period from AD 25-220) from the 5th-century, mentioned a report that the steppe land Yancai was now known as Alanliao. (阿蘭聊):
"The Kingdom of Yancai (literally, "Vast Steppe") has changed its name to the kingdom of Alanliao. Its capital is the town of Di. It is a dependency of Kangju (centered on Turkestan at Bei’tian moved later to Tashkent at Zhe’she). The climate is mild. Wax trees, pines, and ‘white grass’ (aconite) are plentiful. Their way of life and dress are the same as those of Kangju."
In another section of Shiji, 123 (2nd-century BC) reported :
“It is said : “Some 2000 li (832 km) to the north-west from Kangju is the state of Yen-ts’ai. The trained bowmen number 100,000. It has the same way of life as Kangju. It is situated on the Great Marsh, which has no [further] shore [and which is presumably the Northern Sea].”
The Chinese li of the Han period differs from the modern li SI base unit of length; it was equivalent to 415.8 metres. The "Great Marsh" may be considered as ness of Aral Sea, which was situated not far away from K’ang-chü, or the wetlands at the delta of the Danube, which were a formidable obstacle that slowed the westward drift of many nomads or even more impressive marshes of present day Belarus and north Ukraine. Thus at the beginning of the 1st century, the Alans had occupied lands in the northeast Azov Sea area, along the Don. The written sources suggest that from the second half of the 1st to 4th century the Alans had supremacy over the tribal union and created a powerful confederation of Sarmatian tribes. The Alans made trouble for the Roman Empire, with incursions into both the Danubian and the Caucasian provinces in the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
Herodotus describes Alans as tall, blond with men cutting their hair short unlike the Scythians. [1]. Ammianus Marcellinus stated that: Almost all of the Alans are tall and good looking, their hair is generally blond[2]
Ammianus Marcellinus considered the Alans to be the former Massagetae: cf. "iuxtaque Massagetae Halani et Sargetae", "per Albanos et Massagetas, quos Alanos nunc appellamus", "Halanos pervenit, veteres Massagetas".
Archaeological finds support the written sources. Late Sarmatian sites were first identified with the historical Alans by P.D. Rau. Based on the archaeological material, they were one of the Iranian-speaking nomadic tribes that began to enter the Sarmatian area between the middle of the 1st and the 2nd century.
The Alani were first mentioned in Roman literature in the 1st century and were described later as a warlike people that specialized in horse breeding. They frequently raided the Parthian empire and the Caucasian provinces of the Roman Empire. In the Vologeses inscription [3] one can read that Vologeses, the Parthian king, in the 11th year of his reign, battled Kuluk, king of the Alani.
This inscription is supplemented by the contemporary Jewish historian, Josephus (37–100), who reports in the Jewish Wars (book 7, ch. 8.4) how Alans (whom he calls a "Scythian" tribe) living near the Sea of Azov, crossed the Iron Gates for plunder and defeated the armies of Pacorus, king of Media, and Tiridates, King of Armenia, two brothers of Vologeses I (for whom the above-mentioned inscription was made):
"4.Now there was a nation of the Alans, which we have formerly mentioned somewhere as being Scythians, and inhabiting at the Lake Meotis. This nation about this time laid a design of falling upon Media, and the parts beyond it, in order to plunder them; with which intention they treated with the king of Hyrcania; for he was master of that passage which king Alexander shut up with iron gates. This king gave them leave to come through them; so they came in great multitudes, and fell upon the Medes unexpectedly, and plundered their country, which they found full of people, and replenished with abundance of cattle, while nobody durst make any resistance against them; for Pacorus, the king of the country, had fled away for fear into places where they could not easily come at him, and had yielded up everything he had to them, and had only saved his wife and his concubines from them, and that with difficulty also, after they had been made captives, by giving them a hundred talents for their ransom. These Alans therefore plundered the country without opposition, and with great ease, and proceeded as far as Armenia, laying all waste before them. Now Tiridates was king of that country, who met them, and fought them, but had like to have been taken alive in the battle; for a certain man threw a net over him from a great distance, and had soon drawn him to him, unless he had immediately cut the cord with his sword, and ran away, and prevented it. So the Alans, being still more provoked by this sight, laid waste the country, and drove a great multitude of the men, and a great quantity of the other prey they had gotten out of both kingdoms, along with them, and then retreated back to their own country."
Flavius Arrianus marched against the Alani in the 1st century and left a detailed report (Ektaxis kata Alanoon or 'War Against the Alans') that is a major source for studying Roman military tactics, but doesn't reveal much about his enemy.
The 'western' Alans and Vandals
Alan migrations 4th–5th cent. Red: migrations; Orange: military expeditions; Yellow: settlement areas
Alan migrations 4th–5th cent. Red: migrations; Orange: military expeditions; Yellow: settlement areas
About 370 the Alans were overwhelmed by the Huns. They were divided into several groups, some of whom fled westward. A portion of these 'western' Alani joined the Germanic nations of Vandals and Sueves in their invasion of Roman Gaul. Gregory of Tours mentions in his Liber historiae Francorum ("The book of the history of the Franks") that the Alan king Respendial saved the day for the Vandals in an armed encounter with the Franks at the crossing of the Rhine on December 31, 406). According to Gregory, another group of Alans, led by Goar, crossed the Rhine at the same time, but immediately joined the Romans and settled in Gaul.
Following the fortunes of the Vandals into the Iberian peninsula (Hispania) in 409, the separate ethnic identity of Respendial's Alans dissolved. In 418, the Alan king, Attaces, was killed in battle against the Visigoths, and this branch of the Alans subsequently appealed to the Vandal king Gunderic to accept the Alan crown. Although some of these Alans settled in Iberia, most went to North Africa with the Vandals in 429. Later Vandal kings in North Africa styled themselves Rex Wandalorum et Alanorum (King of the Vandals and Alans).
In Gaul, the Alans originally led by Goar settled in several areas, notably around Orléans and Valentia. Under Goar, they allied with the Burgundians led by Gundaharius, with whom they installed the usurping Emperor Jovinus. Under Goar's successor Sangiban, the Alans of Orléans played a critical role in repelling the invasion of Attila the Hun at the Battle of Chalons. After the fifth century, however, the Alans of Gaul were subsumed in the territorial struggles between the Franks and the Visigoths, and ceased to have an independent existence. Flavius Aëtius settled large numbers of Alans in and around Armorica in order to quell unrest. The Breton name Alan (rather than the French Alain) and several towns with names related to 'Alan', such as Alanville are popularly taken as evidence that a contingent settled in Brittany.
In the Iberian peninsula the Alans settled in Lusitania and the Cartaginense provinces: "Alani Lusitaniam et Carthaginiensem provincias". They became known in retrospect for their massive hunting and fighting dogs, which they apparently introduced to Europe. A giant breed of dog still called Alano survives in the Basque Country. The dogs, which are traditionally used in boar hunting and cattle herding, are associated with the massive dogs that Alans and Vandals brought into Iberia.
Alans and Slavs
Alan tribes living north of the Black Sea may have moved northwest into what is now Poland, merging with Slavic peoples there to become the precursors of historic Slav nations (notably Serbs and Croats). Third-century inscriptions from Tanais, a town on the Don River in modern Russia, mention a nearby Alan tribe called the Choroatos or Chorouatos. The historian Ptolemy identifies the 'Serboi' as a Sarmatian tribe who lived north of the Caucasus, and other sources identify the Serboi as an Alan tribe in the Volga-Don steppe in the third century.
Accounts of these names reappear in the fifth century, with the Serboi, or Serbs, established east of the river Elbe in what is now western Poland, and the Croats in what is now Polish Galicia. The Alan tribes likely moved northeast and settled among the Slavs, dominating and mobilizing the Slavic tribes they encountered and later assimilating into the Slav population. In 620 the Croats and Serbs were invited into the Balkans by Eastern Roman Emperor Heraclius to drive away the Turkic Avars, and settled there among earlier Slavic migrants to become ancestors of the modern Serbs and Croats. Some Serbs remained on the Elbe, and their descendants are the modern Sorbs. Tenth-century Byzantine and Arab accounts describe a people called the Belochrobati (White Croats) living on the upper Vistula, an area later called Chrobatia.
The 'eastern' Alans and Huns
Some of the other Alans remained under the rule of the Huns. These 'eastern' Alans are said to be ancestors of the modern Ossetians of the Caucasus.
Those of the eastern division, though dispersed about the steppes until late medieval times, were forced by the Mongols into the Caucasus, where they remain as the Ossetians. Their most famous leader was Aspar, the magister militum of the Byzantine Empire during the 460s. They formed a network of tribal alliances between the ninth and twelfth centuries.
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As the Alani you won't expect much trouble at all. They are far enough away from the Roman Empire that you won't have to worry about them. Infact an Alliance to the Empire is recommended. Your worries and objects should be to get a modest army trade alliances especially with the Roman Empire and a good source of income and deal with the other local surrounding factions.
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