whats wrong with this picture?

[TB666]

I'm a bit more worried about thi picture: http://media.pc.ign.com/media/800/80...g_3334162.html

Are the cannons flying?? How can they shot if the rear of the cannon is flying??

The crew is lifting it up probably to move it.

[caio giulio]

The crew is lifting it up probably to move it.

I hope...... because the trebuchets are firing....

And .. it doesn't look like the crew is moving the cannons... I hope I'm wrong.

[TosaInu]

I'ld say the pikes are wrong in this picture.

The picture doesn't look like 16th/17th century. Pikes were this huge in that era. Mainly (?) because there were many efficient smoothbore guns (the boom was efficient and it could kill at times too). These musketeers were very static, slow and vulnerable for enemy cavalry charges while reloading. That's why an extreme solid and static pikewall was required. And that's why pikes got so tall. A very long polearm isn't great in normal melee.

Pikes in the 13th/14th century weren't this tall.

A similar development took place in Japanese warfare. Initially, yariashigaru had spears as tall as a samurais, 3-4 meters. When arquebusses became common, the ashigaru pike started to grow up to 5.6 meters (some 18 ft).

Correct me when I'm wrong, please. It won't be the first time .

[King Noob the Stupid]

Perhaps it's a picture of a battle with units you'll be able to build near the end of the game, I think the cannons look quite modern too. I have no idea of real late medieval warfare, but I think in fact it's the knights in the foreground what's a little anachronistic on the pic.

[TosaInu]

I do not see cannons in that first picture King Noob the Stupid? [edit]Ah, now I do: your eyes rock. I agree, those knights are out of place. I like the (small) variations in their outfit to avoid clones.[/edit]

The knights are chainmail, not full plate. If I had to guess: knights 12th century, pikes 16th.

The trebuchet [5] is indeed weird. The sling should open when the tip passed its heighest point and perhaps even a bit later than that.

[7] is interesting.
I like the not so static back of the infantrist on the right.
No stirrups indeed. I think RTW is used as starting point, no stirrups in that game, wasn't required either. Perhaps we'll see them in a later build.
Horses seem to look better.

[Mikeus Caesar]

No stirrups indeed. I think RTW is used as starting point, no stirrups in that game, wasn't required either. Perhaps we'll see them in a later build.
Horses seem to look better.

I think stirrups were invented by Red Indians in America, so there weren't any stirrups about in Medieval Europe. I think they gained popularity in the 18th-19th century.

Correct me if i'm wrong, i just remember reading a book about warfare when i was about 10, so the information has become a bit fragmented over the years.

EDIT: That information is definately fragmented. I googled it, and it would appear stirrups originated either from China or Steppe Nomads, and reached Europe in the 700's. My only problem was i put the origin of stirrups on the wrong side of the world, and said they reached Europe a thousand years late.

[Templar Knight]

The first stirups came around the 5th century