The Kingdom of Hyperborea

**Eufarius** · 06-17-2007, 22:57

will the mammoths be larger than original elephants?

**Taranaich** · 06-18-2007, 00:00

At the moment I haven't done much modelling work, but the mammoths will certainly be larger than the elephants, which will themselves be bigger than the relatively puny Indian elephants.

The mammoths in the mod will be based on the mighty Steppe Mammoth of Eurasia, Mammuthus trogontherii. The average height of this monster at the shoulder was 15 feet, a good bit bigger than the largest known African Bush elephant (13 feet) and almost a third taller than the largest recorded Indian elephant (11 feet), which were the largest types of elephant used in regular warfare.

That's not to say the elephants in the mod will be a pushover: the straight-tusked elephant Elephas Palaeoloxodon antiquus were 12 feet tall, and boasted gargantuan tusks that could be up to 17 feet long!

**Murfios** · 06-20-2007, 22:13

Looks pretty good. But why not add an estra pair of longer tusks and a horn on their head? Besides, it is a fantasy mod, we could kindly take all kinds of original ideas.

**Taranaich** · 06-22-2007, 18:55

Rest assured, one of the first things I'll put under the modeling knife once I get Milkshape up and running will be the mammoths.

Very nice manip, I like the horn in the forehead. Now, for the non-sorcerous animals like mammoths and elephants I'm not wanting to deviate too far from realism: I think there's a certain resonance from seeing an actual mammoth on the battlefield, as opposed to an original creation. Having said that, I'd quite like to give the heavy mammoths' armour some nice pointy horns in addition to their tusks, to make em more savage.

**christof139** · 07-01-2007, 17:22

Hi everyone here,

Looks like a great mod for METW2, which game I don't have, yet anyway.

I have a good amount of Conan info., including the very rare 'The Conan Reader', by DeCamp, only 1,500 copies made, and 'A Gazeteer of the Hyborian World of Conan and Ethnographical Dictionary of Principle Peoples of the Era, by Lee N. Falconer (some mistakes etc. but very useful, and expensive, both of them).

If anyone needs some ideas or data I will look in these books for you, however, these books are not bibles, and obviously you have much info. and ideas already!!! There is a ton of good info. on the inet, including certain role playing sites with good descriptions all the nations and territories and peoples etc.

One thing I always wonder about is why doesn't anyone use Mastodons instaed of Mammoths?? Mastodons were smaller but still large and formidable and they had straight backs that would make it easier to place howdahs on, in comparison to the steep and slanted or angled backs of the Mammoth.

Doesn't matter, but I have always wondered about this.

Another decent book is 'Royal Armies of the Hyborian Age' by Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU), published in 1975 for wargaming on the tabletop. Lin Carter and Scott Bizar wrote these rather informative and decent game rules. I am sure some people here may have a copy. It can still be found on Ebay and FGU I think is still in existe(a)nce in Arizona, at least FGU was still operating only a few years ago.

Good luck with your very interesting mod!!! Great screenies you all posted!!! Thanx!!!

Chris

**Taranaich** · 07-01-2007, 20:36

Cheers Chris!

Originally Posted by christof139

One thing I always wonder about is why doesn't anyone use Mastodons instaed of Mammoths?? Mastodons were smaller but still large and formidable and they had straight backs that would make it easier to place howdahs on, in comparison to the steep and slanted or angled backs of the Mammoth.

I plan on giving the Picts some Mastodons: since both Picts and Mastodons originally came from the Sunset Isles (which nowadays would be the peaks of the Rockies), as well as the presumably American sabretooth from Beyond the Black River, it seems reasonable that a couple of American creatures will make an appearance. To top it all off, Conan even mentions a Mastodon in Red Nails, so it would only be reasonable for Mastodons to make some sort of appearance.

**christof139** · 07-02-2007, 02:43

Originally Posted by Taranaich

Cheers Chris!
I plan on giving the Picts some Mastodons: since both Picts and Mastodons originally came from the Sunset Isles (which nowadays would be the peaks of the Rockies), as well as the presumably American sabretooth from Beyond the Black River, it seems reasonable that a couple of American creatures will make an appearance. To top it all off, Conan even mentions a Mastodon in Red Nails, so it would only be reasonable for Mastodons to make some sort of appearance.

Thanx for the answer. I didn't know that a Mastodon was mentioned in Red Nails. Shows that I haven't read or reread anything in a long time.

At the time of Conan, there could be a land bridge existing between the Alaskan area of the New World and the Eurasian/Hyborian land mass, as the seas could have been a bit lower at that time as the last glacial age was starting or more probably had started and was in its early stage, but maybe not, Howard is a little vague and so are glacial ages.

You do know Hyboria and Conan!!! There are enough gaps in Howard's descriptions of the lands and people to have some fun with the imagination.

One thing I don't believe is that there would be any full plate armor with very many High to Late Medieval style helms with movable visors. I believe the equipment would have more Dark Ages to Early and perhaps some Middle Medieval influences. Argos perhaps would be even anything from a mixture of Ancient Rome/Greece and Byzantium type armors, but that is just my envisionment. Some types of various plate I can definitely see.

Seems the Black Dragons and Black Legion (and some other units) are at least partially described by Howard concerning their armor and arms etc.

I am an Ancient/Dark Ages/Early Medieval/Tolkien type myself.

You have taken on a huge amount of work!!!

Chris

**christof139** · 07-02-2007, 03:52

Say Taranaich,

What about magic?? I think but am not sure the 4th Age Tolkien mod is going to try or has implemented it.

An occasional fireball or lighting bolt and some subtle morale and terror and weather effects would be nice. I don't know if the game engine could handle somethings but I am sure it could handle other things.

Chris