Twitter discussion

[Moros]

Thank you very much! They look great! Nasty professional archer-spearmen, akin to the persian immortals of old! I´m quite curious about how saba will turn out in EB2, I had some nice fun with them in EB1 due to their unique playing style but it seems that EB2 its going even further, no native cavalry and lots of crazy archer spearmen! Seems deliciously insane I wonder how balanced they will be compared to other factions (though I gess it would make sense if they are very dependent on mercs and regionals if the player decides to go expantionist out of arabia).

Btw, when did arabs became so proeficient with swords as they will be in islamic times (I´m thinking about Broken Crescent´s Immanate of Oman for example)? I suppose that later than the EB timeframe?

There are some depictions of swords from ancient Yemen, but they appear to have been rare, though appear of high quality. However it is indeed Oman were most finds of swords have been made. These include medium and shorter swords, especially in older times, but also seem to have been influenced much by the persians and later especially the parthians/sassanids. By the later stage of our time period longswords weren't uncommon at sites such as Ed-dur and Mleiha. Phillip the Arab, the Roman emperor, has been depicted wearing a typical Arabian longsword, in which the hilt is angled. The latter thing seemed to have possibly also spread towards the West South Arabian cultures. The latter, especially the Hadramawt seemed to have been under great Indian influence as well.

The Sabaean Bodyguards will feature longswords. But as the spear seems to have been the most common weapon we chose it for both Khamis, of which dipictions mainly feature the spear and bow, and for the nobles unit. The Sabaeans did use mercenaries. Records show both recruitment from more northern and bedouin tribes and ethiopian tribes from across the sea. There is even evidence for a small standing and professional army of trained bedouins that was garrisoned at Maryab. Obviously we'll try to feature all these elements in future versions of EB. They will lack factional cavalry or camelry. But obviously they will be able to recruit those from their nomadic neighbours. We also have planned a special cavalry unit in the future to be recruited at Mleiha. One that shows hellenistic and Persian influence.