The Egyptian Cleruch - Unit Profile

[Kongamato]

http://www.totalwar.com/community/images/egcl.jpg

Egyptian Cleruch
The Cleruch are disciplined and well armoured heavy cavalry who have high morale and are fiercely loyal to the Egyptian crown. They are a true elite, and Egyptian Kings usually take a close interest in their welfare and training. The Cleruch are recruited from among the 'new' elite of Egyptian society: Macedonian and Greek settlers. Among the ranks are also some prisoners of war who can be trusted not to defect.The Cleruch are given land for their service, the amount depending on rank and length of service in the force.

They are always equipped with the finest armour and horses - their principle weapon is a long thrusting spear. This superb equipment means that these men are always a decisive force. A Cleruch charge is often the moment at which Fate takes a hand in battle - and hopefully brings victory

This is strange, they must have posted the wrong picture if this is supposed to be a heavy cavalry unit.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

Sounds good.

[Kraxis]

Well, he could be dismounted, and the equipment certainly does look like what is discribed.

[Hakonarson]

Nice - even accurate....although theoreticaly the Cleruch system applied to infantry colonists and their descendants as much as cavalry......but certainly better than the average so far. It's also the basis of the Seleucid regular army.

Wonder why they're releasing so many Egyptian units? http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

[Basileus]

looks good i like it..

[Shahed]

Yeah sounds good but then so did Mamluks till they met MTW. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

[shingenmitch2]

"... is the moment when FATE takes a hand in battle..."

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/eek.gif Oh boy I hope they mean that metaphorically If they added a "feature" where a random "FATE" can take hold of a battle and then give one side some sort of bonus I'm gonna get pissed....


Fate does not win or lose a battle, it is attributed afterwards to explain away massive blunders by either oneself or one's enemies when stupidy snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

[Nowake]

Same question as Hakonarson: uhm, why so many egyptians?

[hellenes]

Cleruch actually means the one that was given land by lottery this means that the names of the available lands were pulled out of a vase by the candidates to get it (cleros=piece of land).But cleruchs werent egyptian they were basically poor population of greece that was migrating to egypt and the egyptian greek authorities were providing them land. Their appearance in the game is vastly unrealistic http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/frown.gif they probably looked more like hoplites than fighters from the bronze age (or maby i made a mistake and the bronze age started in 215 bc http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif egyptian chariots,pharao looking inf etc...etc...etc...)
The equation that explains everything:
MARKETING-BEATS-GAMEPLAY-BEATS HISTORICAL ACCURACY

[Hakonarson]

There was no lottery involved in this Kleroi were pieces of land given in return for military service.

Cleruchs were often Greek, but not always - apparently there are surviving Ptolemaic rolls showing all sorts of names - Greek, Persian, Jewish, even Roman (see Duncan Head "Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars").

Cleruch infantry were probably only pikemen and thureophoroi. Cavalry were pretty much as described in this unit but were vastly outnumbered by the infantry supported by the system