Caius Britannicus Presents: "THE CRUSADES"

[caius britannicus]

"Can a man love a mod ? Probably not. But we, at The Crusades, believe in unnatural love stories!"

- Herodotus.. err.. Don_Achilles!

Well, I spent so many months making skins for RTR that I decided to branch off and do my own mini mod. Really it all started when I saw Kingdom of Heaven for the first time. The battles looked so amazing I just had to recreate them in RTW. I know Chivalry and Byzantium are covering that period, but I am going to be offering something different. The map will focus in on the holy land only. There will only be two factions, the Crusaders and the Saracens, and both will be playable. Since I'm on my own for this one it will take some time.

Below are all the updates to date with the most recent listed at the bottom as well as the Crusader Faction unit list with christian rebel unit list and regional troops. A saracen unit lists will be published in the near future.

The projected completion date for the project is the end of march. However unforeseen circumstances can always change that. Cheers and enjoy the previews! Also remember to look thru the thread more information may be posted in the thread and not updated in this first post.

A Battle of Crusaders

Teutonic Knights teach some Templars a lesson

Saracen Infantry Engage the Crusaders

Teutonic Cavalry

Saracen Warriors Battle Crusaders

Battle of the Axes

Saracen Heavy Cavalry

Heavy Cavalry

Hospitaller Spears

GRANDMASTER of the Hospitaller Knights

Welsh Bowmen

Hospitaller Cavalry Knights

Teutonics and German Crusaders

Templar Spearmen

Cilician Armenians

knights and maronites

Turcopoles

Heavy Cavalry of the Kingdom

Foot Knights of the Kingdom

Royal Knights of the Kingdom

Black Guards

French Men at Arms

Norman Knights

French Knights

English Men at Arms

English Knights

German Heavy Infantry

Saxon Warriors

Genoese Sailors

Italian Militia

Knights of Italy

Latest Updated Screen Shot:

Teutonic Foot Knights

Mounted Templar Knights

Crossbows of the Latin Kingdom

Knights of the Order of St. Lazarus

Templar Order Crossbowmen

Hospitaller Order Crossbowmen

Teutonic Order Crossbowmen

Men at Arms from the County of Tripoli

Byzantine Rebel Cavalry

Byzantine Rebel Archers

Byzantine Rebel Infantry

"THE CRUSADES" Map Preview

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WORKING UNIT LIST for the Crusaders. THIS IS OFCOURSE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.


Core Recruitable Units:

These units are the units that will be buildable in any crusader held city (once the proper barracks and other prerequisites are met)

Knights of Latium
Foot Knights of Latium
Heavy Cavalry/Sergeants
Heavy Spearmen
Men-at-Arms
Crossbowmen
Militia
Turocoples
Maronites


The Knightly Orders:

The orders will be able to recruit in there "strongholds", but also will recieve reinforcements from Europe via scripts

Templar Order

Knights of the Inner Circle (Grandmaster Bodyguard)
Mounted Templar Knights
Templar Foot Knights
Templar Sergeants
Templar Crossbowmen

Hospitaller Order

Knights of the Inner Circle (Grandmaster Bodyguard)
Mounted Hospitaller Knights
Hospitaller Foot Knights
Hospitaller Sergeants
Hospitaller Crossbowmen

Teutonic Order

Knights of the Inner Circle (Grandmaster Bodyguard)
Mounted Teutonic Knights
Teutonic Foot Knights
Teutonic Sergeants
Teutonic Crossbowmen

All three orders will also recruit a squire unit and a mounted squire unit. These two units will not be order specific but generic for all three orders.

Crusader Nations

There are four crusader nations planned for The Crusades. These are England, France, Germany, and Italy. Each nation has 3-4 unique units. These units only arrive in the holy land via scripting army arrivals from Europe. You just may see Richard the Lionheart arrive in the Holy Land at the head of an English army.

England

English Knights
English Men-at-Arms
Welsh Bowmen
Pilgrims

France

French Knights
French Men-at-Arms
Norman Knights
Pilgrims

Germany

German Knights
German Men-at-arms
Saxon Infantry
Pilgrims

Italy

Italian Knights
Italian Men-at-arms
Genoese sailors
pilgrims

There is also a possibilty of adding a crossbowmen to the armies.

Rebel, AoR and Misc Units

Armenian Men-at-Arms
Armenian Cavalry
Byzantine Infantry
Byzantine Cavalry
Byzantine Archers
2 yet to be decided units from the Principality of antioch
2 yet to be decided units from the Principality of Edessa
2 yet to be decided units from Tripoli

The antioch, edessa and tripoli units will most likely be knights and men-at-arms.

WORKING UNIT LIST for the SARACENS. THIS IS OFCOURSE SUBJECT TO CHANGE.

The Ayyubid Dynasty

Ayybubid Cavalry:
Sibyan al Rikab
Ayyubid Royal Cavalry
Mamluk Abtal Askars
Mamluk Junior Askars
Tawashi cavalry
Ghulam Cavalry
Sudanese Cavalry
Jaridah cavalry / Ayyubid light cavalry


Ayyubid Infantry:
Naffatin fire throwers
Mamluk foot Askars
Black Guard of the Fatimid Caliphate
Daylamite Infantry
Ayyubid Infantry
Thaqlah Infantry
Nubian Infantry
Sudan Tribesmen
Sudanese Javlinmen
Ayyubid Crossbowmen
Ahdath Militia
Jarwajaraya light infantry
Saqalibah (slaves)
Peasant Levies


Arabian Units:
Kinanah Noble Cavalry
Arabian Lancers
Desert Cavalry
Horse Archers
Arab Tribesmen
Bedouin Infantry
Arab Archers

Syrians:

Kurdish Ghulams
Kurdish Tribesmen
Kumah Cavalry
Nizaris
Hashishin
Syrian Heavy Infantry
Ghazi Infantry
Jund Militia
Mutatawi'ah
Syrian Archers


Turks:
Turkish Ghulams
Oghuz Horsemen
Turcoman Horse Archers
Turcoman Infantry
Anatolian Infantry
Ghuzz Tribesmen

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I created two sig pics. Anyone is free to us them to promote the mod. Cheers!

PLEASE DL THEM AND RE-UPLOAD them to your own image hosting. THanks!!

[al'Callaendor]

nice, very nice

[EvilNed]

Skins look amazing. But can't you add more than just two factions? Were there really just one muslim kingdom around?

[caius britannicus]

No there wasn't. But my hopes are that with only two factions the AI will focus entirely on you. Making things more difficult. It also allows me to have tons and tons of units for each faction where by I can have incredibly diverse armies. My goal isn't to create a realistic historical mod depicting the crusades. But let the player enter into epic battles set in the time period and have fun with it.

[shifty157]

its a cool little mod. i look forward to seeing it progress.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

wasn't there lots of different crusader factions? like some from france, england... all over?

btw good skins they look great!

[menander]

Caius Lives! Yes!

This is awesome, awesome, awesomeness!

[EvilNed]

Yes, there were four crusader kingdoms. But after the Battle of Hattin and Siege of Jerusalem only three remained.

[General_Sun]

Caius, I applaud you on your not only beautiful work but also realistic ambititions. :P Something that a lot of modders lack these days. Whoot!

[Dutch_guy]

Well the skins are amazing...

And I like the 2 faction approach, I really like that, especially the idea of all those troops for each faction.

I'm going to follow this ''mini'' mod

[Freak General]

Hey i love the skins Caius, can't wait to see more of this mod.

All the best,

Freak General

[Geoffrey S]

Caius, I applaud you on your not only beautiful work but also realistic ambititions. :P Something that a lot of modders lack these days. Whoot!

Seconded. This is the kind of mod I'd love to see more of, containing more focus on a particular part of history. Those skins look great too.

[The Stranger]

Well the skins are amazing...

And I like the 2 faction approach, I really like that, especially the idea of all those troops for each faction.

I'm going to follow this ''mini'' mod

i can only nod and agree

[Lord Adherbal]

Nice units. You might want to consider joining Chivalry because we are planning a Crusader Campaign ourselves (focusing on holy land + parts of egypt & byzantium, using a lot of scripted events such as reinforcements from the west). It'll feature 4 factions: Crusader States, Byzantium, Turkish and Egypt.

However you won't have as much freedom as you have now in creating whatever you want (and units have to be as historically accurate as possible), so if you are just doing this for fun then you better make your own mod. Just know that you'll be considered as competition ;)

[edyzmedieval]

Wow... I'm impressed.

Would you like to join Byzantium TW?!

[caius britannicus]

Thanks for the offer Adherbal, but as you said, I am just doing this for fun. But I hope to be adding scripting (I hope to us some of the neater scripts that we'll be in RTR 7.0).

Also edyzmedieval, I'm honored that you asked, but I'd like to keep my artistic freedom instead of getting bogged down in realism. Doing units for RTR for nearly 6 months, realism sorta gets boring.

[King of Atlantis]

How many units do you plan on doing?

[caius britannicus]

well, that I haven't figured out. I know for the crusaders I'm going try to get as many different types of knights as possible (mounted versions and foot). As well as a wide variety of men-at-arms. The saracens are a different story. I'm stil waiting on my sources on that. I have about 5 osprey type books for the saracens which I will be pouring over.

[caius britannicus]

like I promised, a saracen unit. Now I can do previews with were my crusaders fight someone other then themselves. :D

Saracen Infantry Engage the Crusaders

[shifty157]

Those are really nice skins.

[Myrddraal]

Wow, these models r really top notch!

Good stuff.

[caius britannicus]

Some more work. This one is a Teutonic Knight. The horns on the horse may not be 100% realistic. But the fact that they DID use horns on their helmets and that the horse looks so damn cool with the horns... well. I just had to add them. I think the flag on the spear is really the final touch that really makes the unit. Beware, the screen is hi res.

Teutonic Cavalry

[caius britannicus]

Well I wanted to have a unit done for today. But other things called for my attention. I do have something to show tho. A crusader shield that I threw together for a unit.

[caius britannicus]

Quickie Preview of saracen spearmen.

Saracen Warriors Battle Crusaders

[Geoffrey S]

I'm really looking forward to this. The excellent quality of the skins combined with a tightly focused and (presumably) fast paced campaign map should lead to an enjoyable campaign. A question, are you going to be making the campaign map and new settlements yourself, or are you going to aim for assistance in such deparments?

Looking great!

[caius britannicus]

I'm still contemplating what I will do. I've asked BDH, the mapper from RTR if he'd like to help with the map. I'd say he was somewhat interested. I have had interest from others, mainly coding and scripting. I'm going to keep it small. Me and one or two other guys.

[shifty157]

Have you thought of your map boundaries yet? Perhaps as far north as Constantinople as far west as Cyprus and as far south as perhaps the upper half of the Nile.

Itd also be great if you could not only recruit units from your cities but you also get a random amount of units that are given to you each turn to represent crusaders coming from Europe and Muslim warriors coming from further east. This i think would really help to make the mod mroe interesting and flavorful.

[al'Callaendor]

good job

[caius britannicus]

I do have scripted army re-enforcements planned. None of the European knights will be buildable in the campaign and will only appear in the major port cities of the holy land. I don't think i want to go as for north as Constantinople. I will include MUCH of egypt I may end the map just north of antioch or tarsus. Eastward, I havne't decided.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

Dude that's awsome. A RTR modder should make an excellent mod!