Tech trees

[Rodion Romanovich]

Of mercenaries in Britain, could also be Curuarci; they were Gaelic assassins, mostly, but they also fought as shock troops. They'd be Curuarcibuanna (Red Dog mercenaries); they were also used as shock troops. They wore clothing dyed red (hence the name) in battle, to stand out (they were pretty brash). Likely be armed with swords (they were pretty wealthy), heavy shields, and throwing spears, like other Gaelic infantry; maybe adept at hiding in tall grass and the like. More or less would just be high quality shock troops. Wouldn't need a new model, could use the same model as Claiomhnaghta.

Added now, thanks

@skeletor: Because you wanted to skin khazar units soon, I've started more thorough research to present a more final version of the khazar tech tree. I'll post the progress soon.

[skeletor]

Superbe!

I'm so looking forward to skin these fellas:




-Skel-

[Rodion Romanovich]

SOME INFO ABOUT KHAZARS (SUMMARY OF WHAT I'VE READ):
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- The Khagan was formal leader, but the Bek, who was commander-in-cheif over the army, was the actual leader in all foreign affairs. Diplomacy, foreign politics and leading of the military was his task. The Bek was chosen after proven success on battlefield
- The army consisted of Jews, Christians, Muslims and Pagans at the same time - even at the time when religious warfare was the order of the day around the Mediterranean and in Western Europe
- The khazars had better organization than other Turkish and steppe peoples, and also had a more settled, urban than nomadic culture than many of the other steppe peoples. Pechenegs and Bulgars were considered "hordes" in comparison.
- First military significant appearance recorded in history occurred in 627 A.D. 40,000 Khazar horsemen allied to Byzantine Emperor Heraclius took part in campaign against Sassanian Persia.
- They could withstand the arab expansion well, but they lost much land and men and it took some time before they gained strength again. Then they went on the offensive against the arabs among others.
- They used good artillery already in the 7th century - ballistae and catapults (in-game the latter would be mangonels)
- They were however stopped from further expansion south after a while, and their further expansion was instead directed to the west. Territory was now extended from Caspian sea and lower Volga to north shore of Black sea as far as to the Dnepr to the west. It is possible that it was the Khazars that actually founded Kiev, sometime before the 9th century, but at least they for sure had control over the area just east of Kiev at this time. Tributes were recieved after actions against Alans, Magyars, Goths, Greeks of the Crimea and the Volga-Bulgars, which improved Khazar economy and allowed them to use mainly mercenaries for military service, just like the Byzantines. However, just like the Byzantines, loss of territories, tributes and other necessities for a good economy made the system crash when the Pechenegs rose in power and the Kievan Rus established a strong empire around Kiev. Tributes were lost, and some recruiting zones were beyond their control (in-game simulated by ZOR for certain units in only those provinces). A campaign of the Rus Prince Svyatoslav destroyed most of Khazar in the middle of the 10th century. Rus and viking influence here also competed for the trading that the khazars were carrying out. Last remnants of khazar were wiped out in early to middle 11th century, but small tribes emigrated westwards and survived some centuries more.

SOME KHAZAR TROOPS AND MILITARY-RELATED INFO:
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- The Arsiyah cavalry formed the bulk of the Khazar standing army. Mostly non-arab muslims from Khwarazm and various central Asian city states along the silk road. They were mostly recruited as mercenaries.
- Khazar nobles and the Bek should have a good bodyguard in shape of a heavy cavalry force.
- Khazarian War Wagon - used to transport and protect the Khagan in battle. Defensive device, not a mobile missile-firing platform. Not a chariot either. Can't be represented in-game unless it's possible to have a one-man unit with high defense but 0 or 1 in attack, but I'm not sure that's possible. Anyone who knows if it's possible to have a one-man unit based on a chariot?
- Torkils and Burtas were small Turkish tribes from which other mounted troops above levy quality were recruited. Torkils lived at khazar west borders as a buffer between Khazars and the Pechenegs (so this means Khazar won't recruit any pecheneg troops), near Kiev area (possibly ZOR Kiev?) and Burtas just north of Caspian sea.
- Levy cavalry and infantry was recruited from alan, volga-bulgarian and some maygar tributaries - but this recruiting possibility was lost when khazar lost tributaries and influence during Kievan Rus expansion time.
- Bactrian camels were used to transport troops, equipment and supplies. Perhaps this means the khazars could also have an option of fighting with camel troops occasionally (but the camels should be limited in many ways to prevent them from appearing much at all on battlefields, or if necessary - removed).
- Perhaps add a unit with drums and other musical instruments that has an unnerving effect on opponents. Turkish armies were often using musicians to unnerve opponents, although if we aren't keeping any other unnerving troops these musicians could perhaps be worth excluding too. However, I think there's more motivation to keep turkish musicians than any other singing/chanting/screeching troops.
- A small core of better khazar guard, a type of infantry, would assist levy footmen of different types. Slavic and perhaps even Rus levy footmen could fight as infantry for the khazars.
- Khazar, slav and alan archers of levy quality would support the khazars. The sources don't specifically speak of very good khazar archers, so archery shouldn't be extremely good, although not extremely bad either.
- As there are so many types of different auxilia I'm creating units called "auxilia x" in some cases. The Arsiyah troops will however be own units considering their importance. Arsiyah could also be called Khwarazmians, but Arsiyah seems to be the most frequently used name in the sources.

THE KHAZAR TECH TREE
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The tech tree in the first post has also been updated.

I believe the cavalrymen on the upper picture could become alan auxilia cavalry. On the second picture, the knight at the front could become arsiyah cavalry or khazar royal cavalry. The guy at the back could probably become khazar horse archers or perhaps khazar auxilia horse archers.