Saba units for next release

[The Errant]

And when is that new unit going to show up in the build? I agree with Dumbass that the Sabaeans really could use some new units. Right now they only reach their full potential trough the Ethiopian reagionals. Which are damn good btw.
Playing them is lot like playing Pontos. You can make a great stack by combining some factionals and a lot of reagionals.
Still they need more good factionals. Mid tier ones mostly. And maybe a couple elites.
Btw. Does anybody know when the arabs started using HA?

[LusitanianWolf]

Even with very few units Saba are doing better than Pontus.
I have played an little with pontus and I got myself pawned by AS,they attacked me few turns after starting with one full stack with two wild naked men units and lots of falanx while I was trying hard to have an little positive income and an little levy army...
And the Pontus AI in my campains always die faster than Saba.

But about Saba, yes, they need more units... What about camel riders, they are arabs, right? I never have seen an camel rider in EB, are they not historical?

[abou]

Camels are really... meh. They show up every once in a while, but don't seem to be particularly effective for combat. They mostly would be used as transport to and from the battlefield, but not for riding during battle.

If it makes you feel better, some of those Saba light units are really awesome.

Another problem though is that heavy units are out of place in their location due to climate. Although, it would be nice to see what they could get as they expand into Hellenistic territories. I think we have a nice Indian unit with a skin just for them, but I can't remember off the top of my head.

[I Am Herenow]

But historically, did the Sabaeans simply have a small selection of troops, or do we just not know much about them?

[abou]

Possibly the former; definitely the latter. What is worse is that what has been published is even less. There are some academic publications published in French that one of the guys on the team is going to be looking in to getting (hopefully that should help) and we've contacted a professor whole specializes in the region.

Basically, everyone on the team has their fingers crossed.

[pockettank]

u say camels where probly only used for transport but same w/ the British Generals they only used chairiots for trransportation then fought on foot

[abou]

Well, there is no truly effective way to have men come off of chariots in RTW. There have been thoughts on how to do it - using siege weapons such as ballistas for a base and then heavily modifying it, but it hasn't really worked. If we could we would.

At least, I think that is the point you're trying to make. You're lack of punctuation makes it hard to follow your thought processes.

[Watchman]

AFAIK camels work well enough as archery platforms. I've read Bedouin raiders operating as camel-mounted bowmen gave the Israelites major trouble at one point and presumably also pestered the Assyrians and Babylonians, and Arab camel-archers are mentioned as a part of the Seleucid line-up at Magnesia. Seems to have been a northern Arab thing though, the southerners apparently just used th beasts for transport and used their few horses to form the mounted arm.

Btw. Does anybody know when the arabs started using HA?

The northern ones presumably picked up a thing or two from their Parthian, Sassanid and Roman neighbours, but AFAIK the phenomenom is in general a post-Islamic one - a direct result of taking over a lot of Byzantine and Sassanid territory, absorbing a lot of their military techniques (and often manpower - AFAIK much of the Sassanid warrior aristocracy flatly defected to the invaders en masse at some point, and there was also the ghulam slave-soldier practice) and then having to deal with HA-using enemies themselves.

[Geoffrey S]

Well, there is no truly effective way to have men come off of chariots in RTW. There have been thoughts on how to do it - using siege weapons such as ballistas for a base and then heavily modifying it, but it hasn't really worked. If we could we would.

At least, I think that is the point you're trying to make. You're lack of punctuation makes it hard to follow your thought processes.

I think the point he's trying to make is that in EB Celtic chariots are an abstraction, since they were used for transport and not for combat, and hence thinks that the same should apply to camel riders being represented as actual units.

[kambiz]

I think the Saba are interesting but useless. They are doomed to being crushed by Ptolemy or Selucia.

Disagree. In my two campaigns with two other factions ,They remained alive unitil I stopped (Better to say been sopped) from continuing and they were still in the world (Although I played in M/M). I also played a little but nearly successful Campaign with them which once again ended up with a CTD :P Sabean problem is economical ,Not militarily.