EB July New Units Preview

[ElectricEel]

Great work. I like the roman units, in particular.

Aren't the arabian slingers a reskin, even though they are not marked as such on the preview?

[blitzkrieg80]

(ah- Paullus beat me to it...)

Well, first of all, the Germanic peoples were no less "civilized" than any other culture during EB's timeframe, unless living in a city and having a non-barter trading system is your definition of "civilized."

The idea behind this Sweboz FM or King/ đruxtīnaz (literally "lord of the warband") is accruate representation of the true elite of the Germanic warband system, which we know surely existed at EB's timeline through the support of ample evidence in linguistics and persistence of warband terminology. Booty, status, and favor are driving forces behind the warband structure, so there would be quite a deal of wealth concentrated at the top. With evidence of rich Celtic neighbors and linguistic evidence of borrowing vocabulary and thus use of Celtic advanced metallurgy, it can easily be asserted that the small aristocracy was not very different from their Celtic neighbors, concerning metalcraft: weapon and jewelry.

The FM has clothes made from animals, so do you mean he should be naked like an animal, or he should be licking himself? Sorry for the sarcasm, but your phrase was rather vague, but I'm guessing you are probably referring to rough animal-skin/fur, but animal-skin is something a rich peasant could easily have had and is that really very worthy of the highest ranking member of a huge population of creative/resourceful people? There is no reason to think that the Germanics had to borrow textile technology from any source or that there was a huge improvement in textile technology between EB's time and the Dark Ages, so it is by great effort an attempt has been made to correctly portray a peoples who show themselves to be quite rich in textiles, art and culture, despite being potrayed as animalistic savages by propoganda of Roman and Classical sources. Just to add, we did NOT use anything from the Dark Ages, despite it being a great example of how seemingly primitive people had quite sophisticated culture and textiles, besides actually being very similar to EB's timeline and Germanic.

We are not trying to portray that every Germanic man looked as this individual but there is no reason to think that aristocrats would have looked similar to peasants or even close to the slightly higher than peasant middle-class craftsman and such... The whole point of being an aristocrat is thinking you're better than everyone else and looking the part. There is absolutely no evidence of egalitarianism amongst the Germanic peoples, despite being unique in their freedom and curbing of autocratic powers. Agricultural comminuties by their very nature are not egalitarian and the only reason there isn't a multitude of archaeological graves of noblemen is the sheer lack of finds in general, especially considering the huge population those few that have been found are suppose to represent. It is unfortunate coincidence that all of the best archaeology is of the lower classes concerning Germanic peoples and it may very well have been that they were a large class, but similarly, the Romans had a huge lower class and it would be inappropriate to portray Roman family members as Velites.

[Tanit]

In response to the earlier question the Garamantines are a regional and thus available to anyone who conquers Garama. Also look out because more African locals are coming to an EB near you.

[geala]

In response to the earlier question the Garamantines are a regional and thus available to anyone who conquers Garama. Also look out because more African locals are coming to an EB near you.

Thank you, that is very good news. Could you already say something about the locals: from the Sahara or black Africa? Nubian archers or javelinmen for instance would be great, such light troops are of good use even in the late game.

[Anastasios Helios]

Yeah...I was estatic when I began playing EB, my first campaign was Sabean. I was little disappointed when I saw the lack of "Black African" troops. The Nubian and Ethiopian spearmen look exactly alike except for their names. In fact, the look almost like the Nubian spearmen from RTW except for the lack of a phalanx. The Aethiopikon Agema is amazing, but the region needs something along the lines of Nubian archers/skirmishers.

Also...I am lost to why you can recruit the "Galatikoi" soldiers in Aegyptos...did they really settle so far south?

[abou]

Yes, and in relatively large quantities.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

I thought they only settled the Delta.