As promised, not another faction preview, but a culture preview ;)
NORTHERN EUROPE
The Holy Roman Empire, and the Kingdoms of France, England, Denmark and Sicily
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INTRODUCTION
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Charlemagne's Frankish Empire extended from southern France to eastern Germany. At the Treaty of Verdun in 843, the Frankish Empire was divided in three parts, and eventually only two: Francia Occidentalis and Francia Orientalis. The rulers of Francia Orientalis, who soon claimed the imperial title and wanted to reunify the Frankish Empire, dropped the name Francia Orientalis and called their realm the Holy Roman Empire. The kings of Francia Occidentalis successfully opposed this claim, and managed to preserve Francia Occidentalis as an independent kingdom, distinct from the Holy Roman Empire. The Battle of Bouvines in 1214 definitely marked the end of the efforts by the Holy Roman Empire to reunify the old Frankish Empire by conquering France. Two mighty empires were born.
During the collapse of the roman empire, several germanic tribes invaded and conquered the british island. As they became more civilised, recognisable states formed and began to merge with one another. From time to time throughout this period, one Anglo-Saxon king, recognised as the "Bretwalda" by other rulers, had effective control of all or most of the English; so it is impossible to identify the precise moment when the country of England was unified. In some sense, real unity came as a response to the Danish Viking incursions which occupied the eastern half of "England" in the 8th century. The title "King of England" was first adopted by Alfred the Great (ruled 871–899). In 1066, William the Conqueror claimed the rights to the throne, and defeated the last Saxon king at the battle of Hastings.
Up into the 11th century the Danes were known as Vikings, together with Norwegians and Swedes, colonising, raiding and trading in all parts of Europe. At various times the King of Denmark has ruled parts of England and Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Iceland, France especially Normandy and parts of the Virgin Islands, Tranquebar in India, parts of the Baltic coast and what is now northern Germany. Many archaeologists and historians believe that the Vikings even made it as far as America. They travelled from Scandinavia to Iceland, then further to Greenland and then finally America.
Opportunistic bands of Normans successfully established a foothold far to the south of Normandy. Groups settled at Aversa and Capua, others conquered Apulia and Calabria. From these bases, more organised principalities were eventually able to capture Sicily and Malta from the Saracens. The Normans were to become very influential in the affairs of Italy, especially the south. In 1130 Norman Sicily is declared a kingdom.
GENERIC UNITS
Feudal Sergeants
The sergeants are the servants and followers of a knight. When their master goes to war, they accompany him, both off the field and on the field. They are wealthy enough to efford some cheap equipment for themselves, and often receive additional equipment from their master, even though it is often old and outdated. And having watched or participated in their master's training they are fairly capable fighters, who will not run from the field as easily as peasants do. They have a knight to serve and protect after all.
They fight seperate from their master, who joined up with the other knights. They will form dense spearmen units together with the other sergeants, forming a reliable defensive formation. Against proffessional and better equiped infantry they do not stand a chance, but they can atleast buy their masters time to do their thing. However being equiped with spears they might be able to repell the enemy knights, provided that the formation doesn't break open in panic after the knights' charge - which is usualy the case for unexperienced sergeants.
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Feudal Men at Arms
The Men at Arms are the proffesional infantry, serving under king or landlord. These man make war for a living, and have easy access to good armour and weaponary. Either they receive it from their lords, or they buy it from their salary, or they steal it from their slain opponents. As such they are well equiped and well trained.
In battle they form the traditional infantry shieldwall formations, solid lines of armour with spiky spears sticking out. This formation is an effective defense against enemy infantry, but also very effective against cavalry. Most horses will hesitate to charge into a solid mass of flesh and metal, thereby making a knight charge uneffective. And once the charge is broken the Men at Arms make a quick deal killing horse and rider with their spears. For personal defence most Men at Arms also carry a sword as sidearm, but this is never used in formation, only for personal defence, should they become isolated.
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Mounted Sergeants
Some of the sergeants eventualy manage to buy a horse of their own, other are given a horse for the duration of the battle. These men form units of medium cavalry. They are inferior to their masters - the knights - in every way, but are still usefull to a wise general. Capable of hunting down archers and peasants, or a surprise attack in the enemy's back, these units should not be underestimated.
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Feudal & Royal Knights
In order to be a knight one must be of noble heritage. Most of them are rich and can efford the best equipment available. They consider themselves as superior beings, with few or no respect for lesser classes. This often makes them impetious in battle, but all the more brave and deadly. A lot of knights Dedicate their lives to warfare, and train daily in the practices of war. They pledge loyalty to their landlord or king, and will ride to war whenever called upon.
The mounted cavalry charge has only recently become popular among knights, but although it is not as irresistable as the charge performed by knights in the later eras, it can still decide the outcome of a battle in mere seconds. They use long lances (the counched lance has not yet been invented) for the charge, and switch to longswords right after.
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UNIQUE UNITS
Viking Huscarls & Warriors
Although the viking tradition in Denmark and the rest of Scandinavia is coming to an end, a lot of noblemen and warriors still fight and equip in viking fasion. Denmark has access to viking warriors, lightly armoured with shield and axe. They are effective shock troops, and should be used aggresively against the enemy's light to medium infantry. The viking nobles have their own units of huscarls, warriors who swore to die for their lord. They are equiped with good armour and lethal battle axes. They are capable of facing the heaviest of infantry, but should avoid heavy cavalry.
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Hirdmen
The Danish king has his own unit of huscarls, the hirdmen. Equiped with longsword, shield and high quality armour, they are among the deadliest footsoldiers in the world. Just like the other huscarls they swore to protect their master - the king himself - to the death and most of them actualy mean to keep that promise!
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Swabian Swordsmen
The Swabians of south-western Germany are a tough people, regarded almost as a race apart by their fellow Germans. Armoured in mail and armed with great two-handed swords, Swabian swordsmen are a powerful heavy infantry unit, with the emphasis on attack!
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Hobilars
These mercenaries from Ireland offer their services as medium cavalry to both the English and the French. Equiped with lances and padded armour, their swift ponies can outrun most of the heavier cavalry. Like most mercenaries they are experienced and have access to good equipement.
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Norman Cavalry
Norman cavalry fight in what was the traditional way of mounted warfare before the invention of the mounted charge: They close in on their opponents, throw their javelins at close range, then turn around and retreat. This method is repeated until the enemy is significantly disrupted and weakened, after which these medium cavalry units can enter the melee and cut their opponents down with spears and swords.
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Unit Cards
All current units. These are not necassary final unit lists, and only include Early Era units.
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STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Campaignmap
England has one of the best protections in the game, the sea. The isle protects them from alot of the petty land battles that the other Europeans face. They are also protected from large scale wars, being cut off from some of the other larger powers in Europe.
However, they face risks of large rebellions and although Ireland, Scotland and Wales may seem like easy conquests they are far from it. Rouen is also a fresh target for France, which may set of many years of wars if the English can't establish themselves. In comparison to some other factions, they aren't very rich and may face debt early on in the game unless they can get a good sea trade going.
France is one of the larger factions of Northern Europe, only to be rivalled by the mighty Holy Roman Empire. It can get the same sea trade the English get, without being isolated from conquests. And conquests they have aplenty. They are virtually surrounded by minor kingdoms and cities, easy for picking by the French armies. France can double her size with these conquests, leaving only the larger factions to stand in her way.
Although it seems like France has alot of strengths, they also face alot of challenges. In the northern provinces France faces the English, to the south the Spanish factions and to the east the Holy Roman Empire. All are potentially devastating to France, and if these threats aren't eliminated quickly and quietly france may see herself surrounded by powerful enemies rather than weak independents.
The Sicilians are in a safe position. Whilst being in the centre of the map and connected to the mainland, in Chivalry:Total War they are one of the most, if not most, isolated faction. True, they are only a few provinces away from the Papal States but this is a passive faction and has no need to attack other provinces. Being so isolated and, most importantly, threat free from attack, the Sicilians have free pickings at all of southern Italy and Sicily. Once they've built themselves up they can begin a trading empire, bringing in the riches of the Mediteranean. From here they can carefully pick there targets whilst being under no immediate attack from any of the surrounding factions.
This setup, like any other, is not without its disadvantages. By the time the Sicilian player has established themselves there is a risk of running out of land to conquer. To the north of Italy the Holy Roman Empire may decide to bring their power closer to Rome, and attack the powerful Italian city-states. This in-turn cuts off any conquests above what the Holy Roman Empire have made. It may then seem logical to conquer the North African provinces, but this is not necessarily the case. Many desert Empires run through North Africa and, although independent from any of the 20 factions in the game, still prove a large problem to any unprepared army and will not likely give up their lands easily.
The Holy Roman Empire is one of the biggest factions in the game, so it's certainly not without its advantages. It controls a lot of the rich northern European farming land and land trade from both West to East. Being one of the largest factions makes it get some large advantages, one being of course the military advantage. It will be able to muster large armies to repel invaders from all sides. Although the Holy Roman Empire has potential rivals to the East and West, unlike the other factions it is not shadowed by them.
There are also some large disadvantages though. Whilst alot of the Northern European factions control lots of sea trade routes, the Holy Roman Empire has only one. So, although it controls the potential of alot of land trade routes, sea trade is no doubt the major trade in the game. Also without many ports the Holy Roman Empire is without a large navy. So, if she did want to go to war with some of her neighbours, the Holy Roman Empire is at a definete disadvantage to port blockades and sea invasions.
Denmark is another well protected faction. It's a sea based faction by nature, and it starts out with the possibility of controlling all of the Scandinavian sea trade. It first should set out to conquer the rest of scandinavia, but this will be a hard task at first as it will be hard to pay upkeep for an army. Although there are sufficient defenders to these cities they are not ready for invasions of this scale so defences aren't as strong as you would find elsewhere. From here they have a planned strategy on anything from raids to full scale conquests. You can stay the vikings that were of the dark ages or accept feudalism and take advantage of it's new systems of warfare.
Denmark is a small faction overshadowed by a big one : the Holy Roman Empire. If a war was started with them it would be a difficult one, and would most likely result in defeats. As with Sicily, they face a risk of running out of cities to conquer. The factions on the mainland are more than capable of quickly swallowing up these cities, which will inevitably force the Danish into uneeded and unwanted wars for expansion.
Battlemap
All the northern european nations can rely on some of the most powerfull units in the game. Feudal Men at Arms provide a solid armoured shieldwall that can stop and repell most attacks. Levy crossbowmen have a low range but their bolts have a better chance to penetrate armour then normal bows do. And then of course there are the Knights. A well timed charge of a group of Feudal Knights can secure victory in a matter of seconds, obliterating everything in their way. They are however expensive, and if they do not manage to break the enemy infantry seconds after impact, they might get bogged down, and overrun by the larger number of opponents. So the trick is to send them at the correct time against a weak point or flank in the enemy formation, making sure they can crack it open after the first charge.
The Sicilian Normans have access to a good offensive infantry unit with their Saracen Infantry. These are capable of doing severe damage against the speararmed defensive units of the other european nations. However their light equipment and swords make them very vulnerable to cavalry attacks. And then there are the Saracen Archers, who provide the Sicilians with an excellent archer unit, which the other european nations do not have. Combining these archers with the armour piercing crossbowmen can do serious damage on a hesitant opponent.
Denmark has access to viking units, as mensioned above. These give them a dangerous offensive unit, equiped with armour percing axes. They have trouble beating well organised Men at Arms and fail miserably against a charge of knights, but they can be extremely effective when catching a unit off guard, or when attacking an exposed flank. The Danish nobility has a long tradition of fighting on foot as huscarls, but are now evolving to mouned knights, like the other european nations. However they are still fewer in numbers then the euopean knights, resulting in a higher cost to field an equally strong cavalry force. Therefor the Danish armies will usually have to rely more on infantry then the other european nations.
The Holy Roman Empire is probably the most flexible, it has a wide selection of infantry like Denmark, but doesn't suffer from worse or more expensive cavalry. They have a number of armour piercing units, ranging from light to heavy: Woodsmen, Axemen and Swabian Swordsmen. These can be very lethal, especialy when used to flank an expensive heavily armoured unit. Swabian Swordsmen are also an excellent unit to break open the enemy line, but avoid enemy cavalry and keep them out of archer fire.
France and England are very simular in the early era. The english still have a number of Saxon units on the campaignmap, but new ones cannot be trained. Both will really heavily on men at arms for a strong shieldwall, and mounted or dismounted knights for offensive actions.
ANIMATION
Because we have no more campaignmap or battlemap models to show (yet), we'll show one of our new animations this time: the couched lance. Currently only used by the Early Knights Templar and Early Knight Hospitallers, but it will be used by (almost) all of the heavier cavalry from the High and Late eras.
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SIGNATURE BANNERS
And to conclude a banner for each faction.
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Older Previews
The Byzantine Empire
