"Sami axemen"?

[Kongeslask]

This is one of the silliest fantasy units I have yet seen. The archetype of a Sami fighter of the pre-modern era would be a highly skilled archer. But what is one more fantasy unit in a sea of them?

[Guru]

Is there such an unit in Kingdoms? That certainly sounds odd. Does the map even cover the northernmost area of Europe, like Lapland? I think it's strange to include a Sami unit in the game. No offence,but I've never heard of an armed Sami, if not counting knife as a weapon. For the Sami and us Laplanders it's more of a tool anyway. I think the archtype of a Sami fighter of the pre-modern world would be a peaceful nomad who herds reindeers, fishes and hunts animals with traps. But axemen and archers? Reindeer-riding, heavily armoured lancers would be great!

- Guru


(edit: spelling mistake)

[Mr Frost]

...Reindeer-riding, heavily armoured lancers would be great!
...
Well , with the new Empire Total War game features they announced , we could get the Finnish/Eskimo Walrus Riders to raid shipping with , which I'm sure you'd agree would rock resoundingly . :clown:

[Kongeslask]

A screenshot:
https://img473.imageshack.us/img473/386/samqd9.jpg (https://imageshack.us)
It is even more strange that they can be recruited at the Isle of Man.

[econ21]

Well , with the new Empire Total War game features they announced , we could get the Finnish/Eskimo Walrus Riders to raid shipping with ...

Apologies for being off topic, but what are the ahistorical features of ETW that concern you? I think I've missed the announcement.

[icek]

dont worry, they are ,i presume, in teutonic campaign so they will be easily beaten by cavalry or by order brothers since they dont have morale bonus.

Teutonic have also one such ahistorical unit, shielded halabardiers, that use halberd like one-handed war hammers.

[Guru]

Isle of Man? Probably in Britannia campaign then. Heavily armoured nomads from northern Scandinavia recruited on Isle of Man... "Whose survival has long depended on their ferocious strenght in combat." Oh god. Their survival has long depended on the ability to survive in harsh, cold conditions. Who would they have fought? As far as I know everyone pretty much left them alone. I respect the Sami, I'm not sniffing at them, they just are not known as warriors. CA's imagination.
And one handed halbediers... I bet wielding such a thing would be quite clumsy business. Most of the weight at the head of the pole and you'll be grateful for having another hand and a shield.
Any more funny units in kingdoms people? ~D

- Guru

[HoreTore]

Should be easy enough to change their name to "Trønder Axemen", and the description should fit perfectly. Perhaps model on a mustache too, for complete realism.

Oh, and a can of coffee and booze... And fill their lips with black tobacco... And make their voice so that noone can understand it...

[Per Ole]

hehe I'm part Sami and I can tell you that no samis have ever been known as a warrior :P people left us alone cous we were so far north nobody really cared about us. We traded furs with the vikings, but we didn't really do anything else. We left the world alone, the world left us alone

[Kongeslask]

It is true that Sami must be regarded as basically peaceful people as long as they have existed, for the reasons already mentioned. The thing is that I have read a couple of places that as far back as the Iron Age the Sami were renowned among the north germanics as excellent bowmen (for hunting) and skiers (no wonder given the climate in the area they lived in). For this reason it is just about conceivable that a Scandinavian strongman could have Sami archers serving him in combat, though I know of no concrete instances of this happening. And even if it did happen, it is unlikely that they would form a separate unit. To have them as heavy infantry is completely absurd.

[imnothere]

maybe one of the programmer was a sami? :gathering: it could be an insider joke in CA. personally, i don't mind, the unit looks good and it wont unbalance game in anyway. try thinking of them as another northern axemen specialist unit that will crush heads and take names :sneaky:

[Bulawayo]

Being Sami myself too I remember an old story happening outside Arvidsjaur. Some Swedish bandits pretending to be tax collectors trapped a whole bunch of Samis inside an old church and set it on fire, killing everybody but a few. The Sami archers did make an ambush on those murderers afterwards, shooting them all to death. A very peaceful people yes, but revenge for such a bad act is always good..

But armored men with big axes, no :no:

[Zarky]

Well, now i got unit named after me ^^
I don´t really care what units are called so long right faction gets them, no Camels for Russians!!! :furious3:
And when have games been totally accurate about anything?

[Cadwalader]

Should be easy enough to change their name to "Trønder Axemen", and the description should fit perfectly. Perhaps model on a mustache too, for complete realism.

Oh, and a can of coffee and booze... And fill their lips with black tobacco... And make their voice so that noone can understand it...

"Men så dau da din hælvetes fettoter!"

Would be alot more realistic than the sami axemen. But you can't understand the dialect, you say? :wink:

[HoreTore]

"Men så dau da din hælvetes fettoter!"

Would be alot more realistic than the sami axemen. But you can't understand the dialect, you say? :wink:

It gets a bit more difficult when it's goes like this:

"Æ kaijnn itj schjøjnn ka deijm meijne med å schei såijnn her tingajn."

Add in some mumbling, and it's completely impossible.

[imnothere]

be glad that there arent any camel-chariots in the game, with long range :rifle: archers on board! :)

[NightStar]

I knew a guy from Senja, never could understand what he was saying, didn't stop him from talking though :inquisitive:

[Cadwalader]

Would be easier to understand us if you tried to, instead of laughing at us and calling us rednecks.

But back on subject. The Sami did actually defend themselves if they needed to, like when the Karelian Finns and other enemies tried to steal from and murder them. Here's a story:

Some Tsjuds (that's the Karelians) was pillaging the Sami's lands, and came to a guy's tent one day. They told him to give them all his stuff and leave them so they could have his wife. But the two had a plan: As soon as the Tsjuds had taken their clothes off, the man put them on a sled, and whipped the reindeer so they an off with it. The Tsjuds tried to run after it, but they all perished in the snow.

And there's a long story, called Ofelas, Pathfinder. It has been made to a movie, and the recent terrible "Pathfinder" movie was a remake of that. It was a candidate for best foreign movie, but I don't think it won. It's great though, if you can find it.

They were also good bowmen. The Norwegian hero Sigurd had a Finnish (meaning Sami) bow in saga. They sometimes fended off the Karelians with them.

But sami axemen is very, very far off. Especially in the service of the Norwegians, recruitable on the Isle of Man!

[Mr Frost]

Apologies for being off topic, but what are the ahistorical features of ETW that concern you? I think I've missed the announcement.
No , you missed the smiley .:yes:

That , and C.A. always has some ahistorical units in there game somewhere . It must be in their contract or somesuch :book: .

Mostly it was just a little humour {hence the :clown:} .
Though Walrus riding commerce raiders would be fun and they did announce they now have tactical naval combat if that is what you missed .

[econ21]

That , and C.A. always has some ahistorical units in there game somewhere . It must be in their contract or somesuch

I know. I rolled my eyes watching the opening video for the Kingdoms crusades campaign (seeing the Wehrmacht sturmpioneres bailing out the Byzantines).

[MannDraper]

I chuckled a little myself when I found out about the Sami axemen. I am sure a realism mod will take care of this unaccuracy. Samis probably fought under Norwegian rulers as they were integrated in society, but not in heavy infantry units.