New 3D Unit at .COM

[Zatoichi]

It's a rather handsome Scottish Feudal knight and horsie.

http://www.totalwar.com/community/medieval2.htm

Hit refresh and/or clear out your cache if you're still only seeing the 2 handed sword fella after clicking on the 'Click here for the 3D units' clicky.

[Dutch_guy]

Looks nice

[Shawn_MacDonald]

Awesome. I just hope they make scotlands armies not all made up of kilt clad clansmen ugh. Bout time they give scotland some knights. I hope they give them shiltrom spearmen as well as highlanders but the highlanders should not have kilts like everyone thinks they do. The kilt didnt even exist in the middle ages.

[Lord Adherbal]

what date did MTW2 start at ? MTW's feudal knights were much more "primitive" then these (norman style helmet and shield).

[lar]

what date did MTW2 start at ? MTW's feudal knights were much more "primitive" then these (norman style helmet and shield).

starts at 1080ad

[econ21]

what date did MTW2 start at ? MTW's feudal knights were much more "primitive" then these (norman style helmet and shield).

In MTW, you had to wait a fair while to get Feudal knights, so I would not necessarily worry on that point.

Actually, the accompanying text says these are the best thing before the appearance of plate. Given this wording and looking at the graphics (it looks rather high period to me, esp. the lance and the full helm), I wonder if M2TW is going to combine feudal and chivalric knights into a single unit?

[Incongruous]

Oh for gods sake why?
why would they do that?
Oh well...

[econ21]

Oh for gods sake why?
why would they do that?
Oh well...

I feared someone would have that reaction. I don't know if you live in the UK, but I want to do an impersonation of the UK TV ad where Michael Winner (pompous director of 3rd rate movies) says "Calm down dear, it's just a commercial".

I was just speculating - generally, CA like lots and lots of units, so I am probably wrong.

In a way the transitional phase between full mail and full plate would be reasonably well modelled by armour "upgrades" (otherwise, it's not really clear what the upgrades represent). In fact, it would be a rather a neat system if you just had generic units like "knights" and could "dress" them in different kinds of armour (& weapons), RPG style, depending on your technology, buildings and bank balance. But that's for another engine, if anything[1].

[1]Edit: But then again, I did read something about M2TW saying that armour upgrades would be visible on the unit...

[Mooks]

What a pretty horsey!! Who could ever kill a horse like that?

[Kraxis]

I hope that you are right SA... That this is just a late Feudal Knight (Chivalric in MTW), but two things speaks against it from my POW.

Firstly, we have seen this guy and the plated knight, but not the Norman Knight yet. This guy has been fighting with or against similar infantry or more primitive infantry, indicating that he comes fairly early.
Secondly, with the new 'Speedo' progress of tech I doubt they would stuff in three types of knights in one line. Quite simply they would get outdated a little too fast, unless we get access to knights VERY early, something like 10 turns into the game (or even from the get-go with castles).

He does look good though. I just prefer the Norman styled knight a whole lot more.

[spmetla]

Erasing the past...

[Orda Khan]

And to any Scotsmen out there, was St Andrew's cross always a diaganol cross (historically) or was it primarily the colors that made it?

Good question. I am no Scot but I was led to believe it represented the way in which he was crucified. I could be wrong, it was many, many years ago

.......Orda

[O'ETAIPOS]

It is nice XII century equipment, full plate one (from screenshots) look like XV century one. There is still place for something in the middle So old chivalric knights are still possible

[Templar Knight]

Good question. I am no Scot but I was led to believe it represented the way in which he was crucified. I could be wrong, it was many, many years ago

.......Orda

Yea, apparently it was the way they crucified him

St. Andrew was put to death by the Romans in Patras, Southern Greece by being pinned to a cross (crucified). The diagonal shape of this cross is said to be the basis for the Cross of St. Andrew which appears on the Scottish Flag.

[Kraxis]

I like the unit for the most part. The only thing it seems to be missing (I'm not trying to nitpick either) is his sword. Once that lance broke or was lost the combat got real close no knight would go stabbing at enemies with an unwieldy lance (check the thread in monastery).

Well, we couldn't see the swords and similar secondary weapons in RTW either. And it would be kind of counterproductive to see him wearing a sword then see him wield a sword a few seconds later, but still have his sword sheathed.... Two swords?

[A.Saturnus]

I don't know much about Scottish knights in particular, but I think maces were more common as secundary weapon than swords.

[spmetla]

Erasing the past...

[Duke John]

The Zweihander unit was an improvement in quality, but I find this of the same standard as of R:TW. At least it will give the realism mods something to do. And why the many belts and leather strips?

[Watchman]

The knight looks otherwise okay, but seems to have a fair few odd straps and such about his person. AFAIK those went under the armour and surcoats, not on top of them. Exceptions existed, but to my knowledge mid-era knight weren't among them.

The design of the lance is also a bit odd - it seems to be from the era of solid body armour, as the purpose of that flaring bit was to transfer the shock of impact to the body armour (often with the help of the so-called "lance rest"), thereby spreading it over a wider area and lessening the strain on the wielder's arm. However, the knight doesn't seem to be wearing even a coat-of-plates, which would be the barest minimum for that trick; I can't vouch for it, but I suspect if you try it even with the doubled mail he seems to sport you're going to break some of your ribs in the impact...

Plus he really needs a sword scabbard on his belt.

Swords were the catch-all backup weapons of every warrior who could afford them. They were simply so tactically flexible, and to boot easy to carry around (at least compared to the competition), that this was simply good sense. Maces and axes were however also quite popular, partly as they were both rather cheap and sturdy and because they were rather better armour-busters than swords. Whoever used them carried them in addition to, not instead of swords though.

Well, at least at the upper reaches of the military pyramid where armoured cavalry resided, anyway. The poorer sods had to make do with what they could afford, and swords weren't all *that* cheap.

[lars573]

The Zweihander unit was an improvement in quality, but I find this of the same standard as of R:TW. At least it will give the realism mods something to do. And why the many belts and leather strips?

You seem to be forgetting that this is only one possible configuration of a Scottish feudal knight. Remeber helms, shields, horse barding, and torso armour are interchangable.

[Duke John]

Why am I forgetting that? Quantity does not improve the quality.

Edit: and why no stirrups? It's easy to do. Make it a seperate object like "secondary weapon" and attach it to the soldier and add a skin modifier to have it animated together with the legs so that the foot never gets out of the stirrup. The only problem is when the horseman dies and seeing the stirrup still attached to the falling soldier. The solution is to have it dissappear in the same way as soldiers can switch from primary to secondary weapons. Shouldn't be a problem for the programmers to code that stirrup objects are invisible during death animations. Voila, more eye-candy that will be liked by even the realism fanatics!

[Barbarossa82]

New unit preview is out. I wonder how the game handles the heraldry? My guess is they have a few set patters, and then the faction colours are applied to it together with a facing colour or two.

Edit: Oops, didn't realise there was already a thread on this. Thanks Kraxis!

[Kraxis]

[Moderator edit]: Merging above post with existing thread. Tx, Kraxis.

[Trajanus]

Well its definately eye-candy. Hope this level of skinning continues.

[edyzmedieval]

Really nice. Way the go CA!