Balanced Unit Modeling (B.U.M.) aka Parthian Shot's Laws

[parthian shot]

In developing the Amazon Total War mod, I have set a few principles for the project.

At the time was just for myself and my partner, but later on it was quipped as the "Parthian Shot's Laws" by other team members, so the name "Parthian Shot's Laws" stuck.

These requirements are listed below:

1. A unit model's appearance, its equipment, and its ability, must bear direct relationship with the infrastructure of the region where the unit is trained and raised, as well as with the cost of the unit.

Case in point, a town with a population of 700 and a lone blacksmith can not recruit a unit of 100 fully chain-mailed men-at-arms in a single turn. As stated below, chain mail was extremely expensive and time consuming to produce, so the texture must correspond with the cost as well as the location where the unit is recruited.

2. iron equipment and weapons are easy to rust, requires constant cleaning and maintenance, and must be assigned higher recruitment and up-keep cost.

Any one in the combat tour out in the field will vouch for the fact that iron and even steel equipment is constantly a pain for maintenance, requires polishing, oiling/greasing, rust removal, paint. A not so well-known fact is that some copper alloy can be 90% as hard as the best of modern day steel and won't rust away as easy.

So most factions in Amazon Total War are using bronze, or other type of copper alloy armors. Except the Celt, the Gauls (Arvernii), the Carthaginians, the Romans, and few others.

3. chain mail is not a lower quality armor to plate mail, it is quite effective and it is also quite expensive to produce.

A full suit of chain mail armor cost 10,000 man-hour to make in 400AD, with a very skillful armorer being able to make about two links in the chain mail a day.

So chain mail in Amazons Total War is more for linkage between major pieces of armors. Only Celts, Gauls, Romans and Carthaginians can field mostly chain mail armored units and the cost is adjusted to reflect the expenses.

4. arrow is not cheap or easy to manufacture, it require a highly developed manufacturing complex.

The shaft of the arrow requires curing and drying for 5 years, it is then lathed into the arrow shaft. Otherwise, the arrow shaft will not be straight, or was straight when it is made, but will be warped when deployed. It then needs to be varnished to protect the wood against insect (termites comes to mind), and other damages.

In Amazons Total War, only factions with rich timber resources and high industrial development can fully supply its army with large store of arrows per archer. Other factions only can get so many reloads per archers.

5. Sword is not for every militia and his/her cousin, sword is very time consuming to make, and even then, it is easy to bend and to break.

Sword making is an art, not an exact science in the ancient days, and forging a sword is time consuming and tedious work even by a highly skilled labor force.

So the use of sword in Amazons Total War is sharply curtailed, unless the unit is an aristocratic or patrician unit.