New unit at the .com: Woodsmen

[ivoignob]

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

[drone]

Somebody call the police, looks like we found the guy that stole the huscarle's axe...

[Rodion Romanovich]

A unit full of Beiruts, that's scary


Unit attributes:
Bonus vs spammers
Scares flamers

[Mithrandir]

Also check this out:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=63922

(shameles forum promotion to get my revenues up).

[Trajen the 1st]

Shoulda figured these guys would make it back into the game. And yes, it looks like he has the Huskarls axe, while the Huskarl has his. Maybe someone will swap the units weapons in 3dsmax after the release?

[cutepuppy]

mèh, another not very exciting unit. Thus far I have only seen one very good unit (zweihander), one very..."odd" unit (english swordsmen), the rest are average at best.
When M2:TW was announced, I hoped that each faction would have at least 4-5 (new) unique units. I'm afraid that we won't see much new units at all.

[Kraxis]

Sort of happy he is back... I kind of liked these guys in MTW.

But this fellow seems pretty stupid... I mean stealing from a Huscarl. Yeah, real bright!

Seriously though, why does he have such a large axe? And why does it have inlaid decorations? Doesn't seem very woodaxe'ic to me. He carries an expensive and overly big weapon of war.
That axe would be really bad at cutting down trees. Too big, too heavy and too long.

[Bastarnae]

Good looking unit
I bet that axe can do alot of damage

[Martok]

I have to agree with drone, Trajen, and Kraxis. It's a good-looking unit, but I think the woodsmen and the Huscarle must've accidentally switched axes in a bar somewhere. (They were probably too drunk to realize it that the time. )

[Servius]

Also agree that the axes got swapped. The Woodsman's axe also seems to have intricate carvings and such on it. It looks very nice, but no lowly woodsman is going to have a master-crafted 2H poleaxe. They should have hatchets and/or axes with handles of the 3'-4' long variety.

[KiberMax]

I think the Woodsman will not want to vary axes. he cannot cut trees with a small axe

[Herkus]

I think that there have never been such military troops like "woodsmen".
They all were peasants not bunch of guys who lived in woods, and I would like to see unit named Russian peasant levy with variety of weapons like javelins, spears, daggers, axes( not that huge one).

In if this unit comes from Russia north, than his hair and beard should be fair not black like the Mediterranean type.

[Watchman]

Well, the engines forces a certain degree of generalization of arms. Anyway, I'm under the impression the axes used for chopping wood *could* get pretty large - think them merry lumberjacks of old - and peasant levies/militias/guerillas/marauders/arrow fodder typically went to the field with whatever they already had at home. That's one reason why spears (useful for hunting and generally dealing with wild animals) and various axes (basic tools everyone had, and not all that rarely employed as a valid and traditional means of settling personal disputes) were so common.

That said, the fellow does seem to have nicked the Huscarle's "danish" axe. Maybe he got the guy drunk on vodka and swindled it off him...?

[Furious Mental]

Looks like a four foot long axe to me. Besides the decorations I don't see the problem.

[Myrddraal]

cutepuppy I find it incredible that you can deduce the number of units per faction from the preview of 5 or so units.....

[edyzmedieval]

With that silly thing on their head, they look like Turks to me...

[lancelot]

Nice lookin unit...not a terribly exciting unit but hey...

Where are the Varangians?!?!?

[Orda Khan]

Woodsmen would need a pretty big axe to cut down trees and chop wood. They could lose the decoration and I agree that he should probably look more caucasian, apart from that I think he looks OK

......Orda

[t1master]

i wonder what his finishing move will look like....

think he'll twirl the axe above his head or something?

[Kraxis]

Woodsmen would need a pretty big axe to cut down trees and chop wood.

Yes, the axe should be pretty big, but this axe is almost as big as the man himself. Such an axe is simply too big to cut wood with.
A lumberjack's axe is not this big, the large variety would still be fairly short yet have a larger head. It can be used both onehanded and twohanded.

One type of lumberjack axes.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ance&n=3375251

Even if this is too small for a medieval jumberjack axe, it would indicate that the given axe here is far too big.

[KiberMax]

In any case, hi does not look as Russian woodsmen. and his cap is awful

[L'Impresario]

hmm..am I the only one who fails to see any axe decoration? I'd say that it looks extremely worn out and somewhat rusty heh

[Zenicetus]

I think that there have never been such military troops like "woodsmen".
They all were peasants not bunch of guys who lived in woods, and I would like to see unit named Russian peasant levy with variety of weapons like javelins, spears, daggers, axes( not that huge one).

I had the same reaction.... the individual model doesn't look bad (except for the length of the axe handle), but a full unit of these guys, all running around with that same axe and all dressed basically the same? Uniform weapons make sense for organized units, but not peasant irregulars like this. It would be so much better if they had a mix of agricultral weapon/tools like axes, scythes, pitchforks, etc. But I know the engine isn't really set up to handle this.

Oh well. Maybe we'll eventually get a game engine and powerful enough computers to handle mixed weapon types (and stats), within a unit.

[Mithrandir]

To cut trees you need a big axe, the one the woodsman has may be just 20cm (2/3 foot) too big. If you've got a small axe, it's hard to make enough of an impact on the tree. Try cutting a tree with a hatchet of a foot and a half...

[Duke John]

It would be so much better if they had a mix of agricultral weapon/tools like axes, scythes, pitchforks, etc. But I know the engine isn't really set up to handle this.

The engine is up to it. Just like it an unit can have multiple helmets it can also have multiple weapons. I don't know wether the weapon system is able to handle it, but if you attach the weapon to the helmet, then if you 4 types of helmets you can have 4 types of weapons.

[spmetla]

Too bad they can't make other uses for woodsmen. Like a construction time reduction for siege weapons. I guess they'd have to make timber requirements then and that would make taking desert cities really difficult.

[Taurus]

I think it looks amazing. Nice axe!

[screwtype]

That axe would be way too big and heavy to use on a tree. You'd exhaust yourself after a few strokes. And the handle is much too long, you couldn't control the aim of the blow properly.

Unless you were using it in an overhead swing of course, but you don't cut trees down like that. Hmm, yes, seems this guy has stolen the huscarl's axe.

Other than that, he looks okay. Oddly enough though, I *still* can't load the janissary.

[Rodion Romanovich]

Neither can I, even when waiting for minutes...

Btw woodsmen were one of my favorite units in MTW1, when I could use them properly I felt like a good tactician. I used to train a few woodsmen instead of peasants for garrisons in Poland and Russia, and in early battles they were quite good to send around the flanks charging into the rear of an enemy pinning to halberdiers or militia sergeants hidden in forests.

[econ21]

I'd be happier if someone could give me a historical reference to a medieval battle in which a unit of "woodsmen" armed with axes played a significant shock role. As a concept, the unit does not seem very plausible.