MTW-VI...units left out...

[Seven.the.Hun]

blast it, i posted that in the wrong section, i need to pay attention...
anyway...
i started this thread because i was curious about various troop types used in the dark ages that are not included in the game...also strategies and weapons and armour not included...i'd love to hear of what all of you know...

[Seven.the.Hun]

anyway i'll add here too some of the info i wrote in...

one thing i could offer is not units, but with the weapons, like say the welsh longbow had a draw strength of about 115lbs to 120lbs...making it a superior weapon there...yet only good at armour piercing within 100 yards, 50 is best...
i know that mongols who invaded the west at the time had their own longbows...the mongol longbow having a draw strength of 150-160lbs, making it most useful as a bow weapon until the widespread use of accurate firearms came to be...this was left out of the repetoire of the invading mongols in the game
also i know northmen (vikings) showed up here and there in different countries as they traveled much...did they have much influence amoung other civilizations left outta MTW? just wondering as they had declined mostly in this time...

[Auxilia]

There are a few that spring to mind:

I'd have faction-specific spearmen and archers for the vikings/scandanavians - 'bondi' archers were particularly respected in this period owing to having honed their skills in naval battles.

Get rid of the Jomsvikings - most of the time super-units are good fun but these guys are TOO strong. Either that or I'd tone them down somewhat and call them Varangians - a lot of warriors who had served in Byzantium returned home and went back to their old ways - Harald Hardrada being a prime example.

Royal champions for the Irish - single combat was still an important part of Irish warfare in this period (if I'm not much mistaken). I'd also throw in a few chariots which it's believed were still in use when the Vikings first made contact.

Faction specific spearmen for the Welsh - in North Wales the spear was favoured above the longbow (but by no means dominated warfare).

Finally I'd have two or more viking factions - cos they spent a lot of time fighting each other http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/gc-gossip.gif

[Plantagenet]

There were 2 troop types I missed for the Germans: Brabantine "pikemen" and Swabian Swordsmen. CA added the Swabians with VI, which was cool. The Brabantines were mercs from Lower Lotharingia (Brabant, Hainaut, Liegois, etc.), the most densely-populated region in Germany. Overpopulation in the 11th-12th c. produced bands of soldiers-for-hire.

As non-feudal, paid troops, they were more loyal and reliable than feudal levies, and didn't go home as soon as their term of service ended. Being urban in origin, they were trained to fight in formation with spears, were well-armored and disciplined, and excellent against cavalry. At Bouvines (1214), they stood fast after the rest of the army was routed, and formed a protective circle around their commander and his knights, allowing them to launch charges and then fall back into the formation and regroup. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

Emperor Frederick I took them to Italy several times as the core of his army, and at Tusculum (1167), the Archbishops of Cologne & Mainz smashed a huge Roman host with only 1000 German knights, some sergeants, and a few thousand Brabantines.

[solypsist]

hmmm...slingers for the Muslim factions? They did some pretty good damage against crusading armies

[Leet Eriksson]

Inaccuracies:

The arab infantry in the game carry swords only,historically they also carried javelins with them.

The Mamelukes also have some inaccuracies,they should have barded armoured horses,carried a lance,sword and bow.

Another thing is the Almohads murabitin infantry,The murabitins originally preffered riding a horse in battle rather than walking.in this game they are a foot unit.

The Faris did not carry bows,they mainly fought with a sword and sheild and charged with a lance or skirmished with a javelin.

Bedioun camel riders=I dunno if muslims relied on camels in battle but i know one thingbediouns always fought on a horse,either with a light axe and sheild or a lance,generally lightly armoured and not organised.

Units i wanted to see scrapped:

Haishishin:historically they were heretics,and worked for either muslim or crusader,for personal interests.

Nizaris:much like the hashishin that defended them the nizaris are also heretics,although the unit is not bad,a pretty powerful skirmisher,it should have been changed to another name.

As for units i wanted to see.....

Kinana Faris:jacked up version of Faris,these arabs had a strict code of chivalry.

Ghazi Cavalry:roughly translates into Raider Cavalry,unorganised,lightly armoured but they pack a punch,should be like the raider cavalry in VI.

Bedioun gun camel warrior:i remember in an article CA planned to add this unit,but it seems they scrapped either for balance or becuase it does'nt fit the time-frame,although i do not know if its historically accurate even if though first record of camel guns were used in Oman during protugese occupation,apparently camels were higher and much slower,gave gunner much chance at accurately aiming and firing.

Kurdish Mountain Spearmen:I do not know much,but my kurdish friend says saladin used them as his main foot force during his campaigns with Shirkuh,mediumely armoured and well organised aswell as disciplined they gave crusaders much trouble in Mosul(Edessa)and the nearby outlying lands the crusaders usually raided.

thats probably it in units i want to see.

[cutepuppy]

Units I miss:

some "lowland infantry": buildable in Flanders, Friesland, Lorraine and Champagne, should be very good against horse.

"fatimid infantry": according to some sources, the Fatimid foot soldiers used long-hafted maces, comparable with Flemish 'goedendags' in late 13th-early 15th century.

muslim horsemen often fought with a mace (the kind used by gothic knights in MTW).

As Faisal said, using camels in battle was very rare


Quote[/b] ]Haishishin:historically they were heretics,and worked for either muslim or crusader,for personal interests.

Nizaris:much like the hashishin that defended them the nizaris are also heretics,although the unit is not bad,a pretty powerful skirmisher,it should have been changed to another name.


I once read a book about the crusades, written by a muslim (a Tunisian or Algerian, IIRC), where the author says that hashishin were sunnite in a mainly shiite region (or vice versa, I'm no specialist). But I agree the unit should be deleted (the +2 valour bonus for assassins in Syria in MTW-VI reflects their existence better)

"Turkish" and "Egyptian" royal bodyguards often fought with bow, lance, shield and sword (but not all of them together, of course), they can be called Al-Halqa (for Egypt) or Askari (Turk)

Restricting janissaries to late only