The Hyborian Age: Total War

[Majestic7]

The combat model will be a mix depending on the combatants.

Barbarian battles will be quick and bloody, as they tend to just charge right to it without thinking of pacing themselves, and usually end with massive casualties. Hyborian, Hyrkanian and Shemite battles are comparatively restrained, where battles are much longer and suffer few casualties, with routing being a more common result.

(stuff cut from between)

Overall, the speed of battle depends on which factions are fighting, the longest between two civilized nations, the shortest between two barbaric ones. A barbaric versus a civilized one will depend on the balance: a stronger barbarian force indicates a short battle, for example.

So in game terms - barbarian units will have high attack and morale values, but poor defense and armor, while civilized units will have average attack and morale, but good defense and armor? It should be noted that casualties talked about in Conan stories don't necessary imply massive scale of deaths on the battlefield in itself - but as well pretty much every wounded man expiring of his wounds. I believe this can be represented in the game as well by giving the barbarian factions much worse chances of healing casualties after the battle.

[Taranaich]

So in game terms - barbarian units will have high attack and morale values, but poor defense and armor, while civilized units will have average attack and morale, but good defense and armor?

Pretty much.

It should be noted that casualties talked about in Conan stories don't necessary imply massive scale of deaths on the battlefield in itself - but as well pretty much every wounded man expiring of his wounds. I believe this can be represented in the game as well by giving the barbarian factions much worse chances of healing casualties after the battle.

Yup. Overall the impressions I got from the battles is that barbarians and similarly savage peoples like the Desert Shemites had bloody and deadly battles, but the Hyborians and Hyrkanians had battles more like medieval ones. Conan said that 50,000 people had died at the battle of Shamla Pass in Black Colossus: though it's just a rough estimate on Conan's part, it's still a pretty heft number of casualties.