Unit card and unit info pics - preview

[Myrddraal]

You guys have been waiting paitently, rest assured, the team are slaving away

Here are some pics, I don't want to post any actual pics of units (I want those to be a surprise) so I'm posting these slightly stylized pics which may be used for units cards/info: One from Altara, one from Illian, and one from the Children of the Light:

-----Ebou Dari Levy----Illianer Armoured Pikemen Whitecloak Heavy Infantry
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Ebou Dari Levy

The Ebou Dari pride themselves on ferocity and courage in a duel. Very few men or women reach adulthood without having fought in at least one duel, and these few are ostracised for being cowardly. Across the nation duelling is common, yet the Ebou Dari have taken this tradition to the extreme. Most Altarans are polite and formal, lest they give cause for a challenge. Everything said is subject to challenge unless it is formally said that they may ‘lean back on his dagger’, but in Ebou Dar, most noticeably in the Rahad, men often go in search of a duel, and their provocative nature ensures they are hardened fighters.

Ebou Dari Levy are armed with two long and narrow duelling knives.
Can only be recruited in Ebou Dar
Pikemen

Armoured pikemen are a step up from regular pikemen. They are a fully professional unit which forms part of the standing army. Their good training and regular drill allows them to stand firm against most enemies, and their heavy armour allows them to withstand arrow fire and gives them durability in prolonged fighting. Although many nobles still shun them on the basis that they fight on foot, a wise commander knows the value of their solid discipline and good defensive abilities. They are often used to provide anchorage on the flanks to protect a battle line from cavalry or are deployed in a central block to push forward attacks. These soldiers play less of a support role than regular pikemen and are quite capable of forming the disciplined core of an army.

In Illian, the eternal quarrels with Tear have stimulated the development of the pike to counter the strength and power of Tairen cavalry. Illianer pikemen tend to be well-schooled in dealing with mounted enemies and have learnt not to rout or scatter in the face of a cavalry charge.

Illianer Pikemen and Armoured Pikemen have an extra defence bonus against cavalry



Now I'd like to bring a debate which has been going on between the devs to you guys the fans. Tell me your oppinions on whitecloaks and shields:

[Narayanese]

Oh nice, and those pikemen are lovely!


I'd think the whitecloak would use some shield more suited to riding, since that's how they seem to transport themselves between places, e. g. a heater shield. Has he thrown off his cloak, is the cloak only for everyday use (or because it would be sharing texture space with the shield)?

[Myrddraal]

The cloak is there, it just got hidden by his shield and body...

Hm maybe I cut out a bit when transferring the pic, the cloak is there though and its quite long and white rest assured

[SMZ]

woo hoo!

and agree with Narayanese about the shield, the Whitecloaks arms and armors are designed for mounted combat primarily... I like the shape of his shield, but a trifle smaller... not too much - the Whitecloaks have a big shield type of vibe

I love that Ebou Dari unit. :)

[Renly]

Those are great. I think you could leave the Whitecloak shield how it is.

[RedPanther1]

I always thought of the whitecloaks as having that long shirt-like thing on over their armor, but I guess they never said anything about that. I believe they have conical helmets with ring mail covering the rest of their head though. I'll try to find a pic, but otherwise the otehr two look cool.

[soibean]

you mean a tunic over the armor? I think they look great, but I know you said the cloak was there but its gotta be more visible. keep up the good work

[Black_Draen]

lol, I surrender about the shields Myrddraal - they can keep them :-P

[Myrddraal]

I always thought of the whitecloaks as having that long shirt-like thing on over their armor, but I guess they never said anything about that. I believe they have conical helmets with ring mail covering the rest of their head though.

I must stress that those are heavy Whitecloaks, the standard Whitecloaks will be wearing a tunic over their armour yes, and they won't have such all inclusive helmets. If you find a pic that would be great.

[Medic]

I found the following pictures of whitecloaks. One is a Questioner, but still...for reference.

Questioner

Whitecloak

[Andreas]

Don't say much, you know... fan art anyway. Wait and see if there will be any in NS comic, and I will accpet them but not the fan art....

[Medic]

The second one is fan art, but the questioner is from the Offical WOT RPG sourcebook.

[SMZ]

Well in all fairness they also use an old Icewind Dale pic for a gleeman... still it's a nice rendering - but remember, the Inquisitors aren't fighting men, so their appearance isn't that important I think.

You can tell they used several different artists for the RPG book, some of those pics are very good and some are crap, for instance whoever drew the various animals like the Corlm, the Darkhounds, the Grolm, etc did a very nice job. Whoever did the Draghkar and the Myrddraal should have Asmodean pay them a visit. The drawings of Rand and Mat are in a crappy style too, then you flip a couple pages and Thom and Padan look perfect...

EDIT: pg 226 of the Guide has a nice rendering of a Whitecloak

[Andreas]

The second one is fan art, but the questioner is from the Offical WOT RPG sourcebook.

The RPG art isn't official.... it isn't jordan approved, at least.

[SMZ]

Yeah, quick note:

the Books are gospel... with the exception of the very rare typo or error... considering the enormous amount of material in this series, it's amazing that Jordan has only made a handful of conflicting notes...

the Guide should be given about 80% weight, Jordan reviewed most of it and wrote some of it, but noted that a few things slipped by him and of course a good bit of it was written by somebody merely taking their best guess...

the RPG book should be given about 50% weight, Jordan checked off on some of it, but his own statement regarding it was that most of his communication was along the lines of, "No, you can't have ninjas in my world." As such it's useful for some background information but anything in it that is not substantiated by other sources should be taken with a grain of salt, and anything that conflicts should be viewed as flawed...

online resources are generally useful for compiling various facts together quickly and for easy reference, none of this work has even Jordan's name attached to it and varies wildly in accuracy depending on the individual...

[Andreas]

Agree with this... and as for art, we should shape the models from Jordans desriptions as much as possible, not from fan art or RPG art. I do not trust any art not NS... I don't like most of the BWB art:)

[4th Dimension]

Here is a quote from the guide concerning WC (whitecloacks)

The Children of the Light, or Whitecloaks, always wear a pure white cloak or tabard over their clothes and armor. The left breast of each has a golden sunburst worked into it, a symbol of the Light they are sworn to follow. All officers' cloaks and tabards are further adorned with silver lightning bolts for under-officers, and golden stars or knots in increasing quantity to indicate rank for higher officers. Each Child is armored with a conical metal helm and plain breastplate. It is a matter of great pride to each member of the order to keep his white cloak spotless and his armor bright. Swords are worn by all Children, though never in the audience chambers of the Lord Captain Commander or beneath the Dome of Truth.

Members of the Hand of the Light order wear the same white cloak or tabard, but these "Questioners" have a blood-red shepherd's crook emblazoned behind the sunburst. The High Inquisitor wears only the red crook, devoid of the flaring sun, as if to suggest his position allows him to stand outside the Children.

and if you need this

Organizational Structure

The Children of the Light are always deployed as mounted cavalry, usually in groups of about one hundred; they can move very quickly when necessary. The highest rank among the soldiery is Lord Captain. A Lord Captain usually commands a legion, which is officially two thousand men, though any given legion in the Children may actually be larger, and is often smaller. Below Lord Captain, the officers' ranks progress through Senior Lieutenant, Lieutenant, and Under-lieutenant. Below Under-lieutenant is the Hundredman, one who theoretically commands a hundred soldiers. In practice, the actual number varies widely.

All from guide. Including this pic. Whitecloack

[SMZ]

yep, all very true - but we know the Whitecloaks dismount sometimes - their city patrols are all on foot after all, so they can function as infantry too, some of them have bows as we see in the books - just primarily they act as mounted units... being deployed as cavalry does not neccessarily mean they always fight as cavalry... if the terrain, circumstances, etc favor infantry - they are capable of adapting

good research tho 4th Dimension, always good to have more people interested :)

[Myrddraal]

Thanks for that Dimension, we knew most of that, but we didn't have those exact quotes to back it up.

We will be using some artistic licence with the WCs. Having only one unit would be incredibly boring. So we are planning to make variations in the units. The model you see above is actually intended as WC heavy cavalry, though because I didn't have a barded horse model yet, I have posted him as heavy infantry.

I understand that the book says they are always mounted. Currently we were planning to make them predominantly mounted, but with some foot troops. Although not 100% accurate, we would do it for gameplay purposes.

[4th Dimension]

One more look note. Even if he's hevy shouldnt he look more white. If questioners saw him they would dlclare him as DF, but I'm certanly asking for too much.
And everywhere wee see them on foot they never carry shields. Maby more armour, but never shields. In fact RJ seems to hate shelds. He rarely implements them, but for purpose of diversity it can be overlooked, perhaps.

[Myrddraal]

I'm sure the standard WC unit will satisfy you 4th Dimension, but we have to add others. Simply because it would otherwise become incredibly boring very quickly.

[4th Dimension]

Their armour should shine a bit more. After all they are obsesed with cleanes.

[Andreas]

Remeber that you are looking at a picture with a very scaled down unit, that is also, if my eyes do not fool me a bit tampered with...

And about the guide, you cannot even trust all in it, Jordan has stated that he agrees with a large part of it, not all of it. She used her "artistic license", and so will we. We have seen whitecloaks on foot, and we will add them:)

[4th Dimension]

I have no problem with that, as long as they look like Whitecloacks. White obsesd maniaics

[Steppe Merc]

The shield perhaps might be too big. It is Norman shaped, and I got the impression that the Whitecloaks were a bit more advanced than Normans when it came to armor and shields.

The Illianers look far to ornate to me. Aren't pikemen despised by the Southerners?

[4th Dimension]

Well Ilianers were made by RJ to look like Greeks so pikemans would fit nicely.
Toughed I always imagined I and T like two same countries just having different ruling systems.

[Myrddraal]

Illianers are staple troops across the entire world apart from in the borderlands and the Aiel waste. Basically every army has a core of pikemen.

Armoured pikemen will be expensive and take time to train. Having two armoured pikemen in a full stack would be the usual.

[aleh]

What does 'staple troops across the entire..." mean?

And I disagree somewhat with the I&T being alike, I.E. it isn't all -that- rare to see dark-skinned Illianers, and unions among the Seafolks and Illies aren't -that- uncommon.

Also, what will be the fighting colours of each nation?

Btw, will there be valour/armor/whatever bonuses for nations? For example give Illianer Pikemen bonuses over the Armored Pikemen. The regular cav(available to everyone) gets bonuses in the native-tairen provinces. And so on?

[aleh]

Argh, I forgot about the original question. Well if I remember correctly, there are different type of shields suited to different situations.

Small rounded shields for their light cavalry/horse archers.
Larger shields that don't deflect the blade/weapons downwards into a rider's legs or that of his mount.
Different shields for the infantry...Even if it says that they always fight as mounted, it'd be stupid for someone like Niall to not know that infantry is better for certain situations than cavalry.

[Lord Adherbal]

very nice looking models and skins. The whitecloak pictures look a bit distorted, is that on purpose ? I don't really like it, looks like a bad render.