EB April Preview

[Angadil]

on topic: this creature is a stylized reindeer and the faction could be sakae/skythians or the turkomans, but i don't understand why the yuezhi are going to get replaced at all. their influence on east asia was decisive, meanwhile the skythian peoples played a relatively unimportant role compared to the sarmatian/alanian tribes.

The reason for the replacement of the Yuezhi is actually quite simple: there is very susbtantial doubt that they were actually present in EB's map in 272 BCE. There is some controversy on that, but the general view is that they did not occupy areas of EB's map until about a century after game start. Hence, having them there in 272 BCE would likely be historically incorrect. For some additional elaboration see this thread.

also if the skythians/sakae are introduced, the yuezhi should actually be in the game too, since they had a major influence on the former (caused migration).

You seem to use "skythians/sakae" as if designating a single people. That is not very useful in the context of the discussion of potential EB factions. Even if "Scythians" is used relatively often to designate a large conglomerate of iranian-speaking nomads sharing a certain number of cultural traits, such an heterogeneus group would not be really eligible for a faction slot in EB. We don't have a "Celts", or even "Gauls" faction, but Casse, Aedui, Arverni... The same thread to which I referred above also has some additional comment on the terminology around the iranian steppe nomads and how EB uses it.

edit: is the eb-team supporting the thesis that the denominations 'massagetae' and the 'yuezhi' are eponymous?

You mean both names sharing references to the moon? Not really. Our Chinese expert is quite conclusive about Yuezhi = Moon People not being really adequate, being nothing more than a direct translation of the characters, not being the earliest name under which this people is referred in the Chinese sources and not taking into accoun the differences in pronounciation between old and present Chinese. The opinion about the etymology of Massagetae is not unanimous and Massagetae = Mah Sakata = Moon Sakas is just one several suggestions. I personally find an alternative one, Massagetae = Maz Sakata = Great Sakas, somewhat more appealing.

Oh, and welcome to this forum.