new unit?? New unit!!

[cutepuppy]

looking at the recently released screenshot I stumbled upon this one:

http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=setandget&tp=453123&poll_id=0&category_id=20&warned=y

In the lower right corner you can read Tabardariyya (heavy infantry). Looking at the banners, I guess it is an egyptian unit, maybe also for other muslim factions.
As far as i know, it is the first time this unit is mentioned. It wasn't present in MTW1 either.

I know the Tabarzin was a large, islamic war axe and if you look closely at the screenshot, you can see the egyptian soldiers holding an axe. I hope islamic factions can train some easy to get heavy infantry (like CMAA), because historically they did (certainly the fatimids).

btw, there may be some complaints about the elephant mounted cannon, but with the zweihander, strelzcy, venetian heavy infantry and now the tabardariyya, the CA researchers certainly did add some flair and variety to the game.
Let's hope the programmers of the AI can make similar improvements to their field of work.

your thoughts?

[Randarkmaan]

Yeah, the Fatimid army relied mostly on it's infantry not it's cavalry to win battles, though most of their infantry were spearmen with long spears who used them as pikes, a fact that is often overseen, supported by infantry archers, light and heavy cavalry.

[Leet Eriksson]

Tabar in Arabic means axe, but i don't know what is a tabardariyya or how CA came up with that name.

As far as i'm concerned the accuracy is about right, the weapons are typical tabars (the tabar is longer than a fa's, and much longer than a balta, most of the time though the tabar is used for cutting wood while the latter are exclusively for military use).

[Martok]

Thanks for the screenshot, cutepuppy. :2thumbsup:

I'm curious as to what niche they're intended to fill. Are the Tabardariyya Medieval 2's equivalent of MTW's Abyssinian Guardsmen? They both wield heavy axes, so it seems a distinct possibility.

[Furious Mental]

If you look at some of the screenshots posted on that SWR forum you can see the unit selection panel for the Egyptians, and it looks like the Abyssians are returning.

[Orb]

w00t! Egyptian units!

The Fatimids are by far the coolest nation there.

[anti_strunt]

The Tabardariyya guard indeed had large axes as their name implies, but they existed well after the fall of the Fatimids during the Mamluk era, and in battle they fought as ordinary mounted Royal Mamluks anyways - making them about as historical (as a unit) as Beefeater Halberdiers.

Nice try anyways, certainly a whole lot better than some Abyssianian hunks. I don't really have any complaints against them even if they are inaccurate. The muslims could use some sort of heavy infantry support.

[Tiberius maximus]

awesome i am a great lover of axe units so these are deffinately goin to be used by me alot, though you can only see they're back they look like a light infantry to me