Amazon: Total War Screenshots

**parthian shot** · 03-24-2013, 00:04

Geothe Amazon Longbow Archer from 7.0C

The gears are similar to the Amazon mercenary longbow archers depicted above, except a great deal of equipment are using copper alloy instead of iron. The best armor grade copper alloy is about 90% hardness of the best of modern day armor grade steel, and it would not rust away as easily as the iron gears. So a unit deployed using copper alloy armor but using iron sword or iron encased, or iron tipped projectile, has lower maintenance cost than a fully iron geared unit, but just as effective.

The model shows the front loin cloth, as skirt was not in fashion, as a matter of fact, the skirt was only worn by very few men in certain part of the world, but not at all by women of the time. Fashion in 300BC is limited by the fact that fabrics are woven entirely by hand without advanced tools such as spinning wheels (with the exception of Far East Celt which is one of the Amazon Total War factions (depicted first in Amazons Total War), who has been using such tools, and so did the ancient Chinese). Even with the "industrial" societies (usually utilizing slave labor exploitation) in Greece, Italia, and many parts of Europe, most women prefer one piece fabrics (chiton for example) arranged in a variety of ways. And such fashion clearly has its utilitarian purposes. As a single piece of garment can be easily adjusted for changing body dimensions.
And the most favored clothing, where they are available, is componentized animal pelt. And in warm weather, or in a life-or-death combat, the less clothing is the preference.

In ancient time, the concept of being naked is not a degrading moral issue as it is today. The word, gymnasium, for example, means a place to get naked, and it means being naked for both men and women who are in the gym. Most sports are engaged without anyone wearing any clothing, as are the athletes in the ancient Olympic Games. A properly trained military unit will not allow non-regulatory clothing to interfere with the weapon drill or combat performance. So either they were issued with uniform designed for such activities (read, a very expensive unit), or they are using their own gears (peasants or some militia units and therefore very cheap), or they are issued with faction's gear but not wearing anything which can jeopardize their survival on the battlefield (read, a unit with reasonable cost, but being naked other than their issued gears).

The model is also wearing a pair of garter chain-mails, these are more for the heavy infantry or cavalry who need armor protection against missile strike or weapon blow against their lower limbs. The garter chain mail limits the movement of the wearer and must worn with suspender straps (not shown), but it is ideal for cavalry to protect themselves from close-quarter infantry attack. But it will not be effective against a stabbing thrust of a spear or a sword.

The aforementioned anthropology thesis/theses are entirely conceived by Parthian Shot. Written permission is needed to quote or use the above information, in part or as a whole.

Some 3d components and textures of these models may have been used with kind permissions from various parties, please view the readme folder in the mod file for detail listing.

**parthian shot** · 03-24-2013, 00:25

Amazon Elite Scout

Though the scouts are similar in appearance as the longbow archers, because the armor, the double-bows, and swords issued to both units are the same. The Elite Scout unit has military insignia(s) on their helmets, usually something easy to identify on the battlefield and frightful to the enemy.

In case of the Geothe Amazon, their scout has a pair of wings mounted on top of their helmets. Hence their nickname "winged maidens".

The scout does not use arrows, they carry a pair of arrow shafts as a rail component, and shoots iron encased lead cylindrical block about the diameter of a thumb with the iron casing ended with a sharp tempered tip. The other end section of the iron casing is fluted so as to cause fast spinning of the projectile during the flight. The fast spin stabilizes the projectile and the missile's external ballistics is not dissimilar to modern day armor-piercing bullets. So instead of carrying a back quiver, the scout carries hip ammo-container which allows her to have 60+ shots of such missiles. This affords the scout a very good stand-off capability.

In contrast, the regular Amazon longbow archers are very limited in the amount of arrows they can carry, because of their over sized double-bow requires arrows with extra long shafts and larger diameters to cope with the correct spine stiffness. Once their limited amount of arrows ran out, they will lose their stand-off capability, so they either have to withdraw from the battlefield or charge the enemy with their swords.

In comparison, the initial velocity of the iron encased lead cylinder is slower than the longbow archer's long arrow. But because of its superior ballistic coefficient, iron encased lead cylinder retains more velocity at much longer range. and that terminal velocity is the key for better anti-armor capability at distance. Whereas, at long range, the longbow arrow would lose so much velocity such that it will not be able to penetrate armor or shield but the iron encase lead shot will still go through enemy's armor or shield.

As for the cost comparison of shooting lead cylinder vs. shooting an arrow: the Amazon Total War weapon whitepaper stated, to function properly, an arrow's wooden shaft must be selected, and cured for 2-5 years, re-inspected insect and other storage damages, and then precision hewn or lathed to guarantee straightness. It was then attached to the arrow head which need tempering, and then carefully fletched with feather or with thin woven reeds. To guarantee the accuracy, the concentricity of the three components (arrowhead, shaft, and fletch+nock) must be re-checked. Then the evenness of the fletch inspected, because any uneven fletching will cause the arrows to spin into helical trajectory which reduces its terminal velocity and accuracy. So even with the faulty arrows rejected or relegated to training purposes, to be effective, the arrow-smith industry requires the availability of abundant quality wood supply, a great amount of controlled storage, a team of knowledgeable experts, a great number of skilled crafts people, and careful planning to be able to maintain a steady supply of arrows for combat deployment.

Whereas, the lead can be mined and easily purified by melting and then formed into lead cylinders with ingots, which make each cylinder almost guaranteed with equal weight. For war time deployment, however, the iron casing would be applied to allow this missile to be armor-piercing, which increase the complexity of the manufacturing process, nevertheless, the iron casing is still cheaper to produce than the cost of making an armor-piercing arrowhead.

The scout still retain the tradition of carrying the sword on her shoulder strap. Using back quiver and carrying sword in the back is actually preferred over carry quiver or sword on the hip. With the scout and other units shooting iron cased lead as exceptions, back quiver allows faster draw of arrow. And shoulder strapped sword gives the soldier easier access and allows the sword to strike once it is out of the scabbard.

The aforementioned anthropology thesis/theses are entirely conceived by Parthian Shot. Written permission is needed to quote or use the above information, in part or as a whole.

Some 3d components and textures of these models may have been used with kind permissions from various parties, please view the readme folder in the mod file for detail listing.