Let us speculate on the subject of fantasy units...

[Mikeus Caesar]

One for France - cheese-eating surrender monkeys. This special unit will prolong a surrender so as to give France time to change all the banners on its units to those of an invading nation.

[Lord Winter]

Tea Ship Attackers - something like the Hounds of Culann, they go berserk when they see tea ships

[Boyar Son]

King George III

insists on following his directions when dealing with rebels

Nepoleon- able to lose big battles and still come back as leader of faction

[skuzzy]

Time traveling dragon mounted viking air raids for the Lair faction

[Matt_Lane]

The 3rd Foot & Mouth, feared through out the Kyber Pass for what lurks beneath their kilts.

[Freedom Onanist]

One for France - cheese-eating surrender monkeys. This special unit will prolong a surrender so as to give France time to change all the banners on its units to those of an invading nation.

Ah, yes, I remember that one. That's the one that makes all those British victories meaningless and those who won them muppets. Makes you wonder why they bothered calling a train station "Waterloo" doesn't it?

[Abokasee]

Zerglings

Need I say more

[Flavius Clemens]

One for France - cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

Which does of course mean that Britain has to have Monkey Hangers, only recruitable in north east England, render French naval units inoperative with incredulous laughter...

[Freedom Onanist]

Which does of course mean that Britain has to have Monkey Hangers, only recruitable in north east England, render French naval units inoperative with incredulous laughter...

Why, he was a spy man!

[Tiberius of the Drake]

grenadiers, which did exist, but they actually will use the grenades and have ridiculously long range attack and will be taken seriously in their silly hats.

[General_Someone]

grenadiers, which did exist, but they actually will use the grenades and have ridiculously long range attack and will be taken seriously in their silly hats.

Or they'll be given grenade launchers and bullet proof vest!, and silly hats.

[Sheogorath]

grenadiers, which did exist, but they actually will use the grenades and have ridiculously long range attack and will be taken seriously in their silly hats.

Early grenadiers DID use grenades...and some did up until the Napoleonic Wars. They looked like stereotypical cartoon bombs and tended to explode while you were holding them.
The reason Grenadier units selected tall and strong men was 'cause they needed the extra height and strength to chuck those grenades, which were quite heavy. I think some weighed eight or nine pounds, if I remember.

I imagine fantasy units will be on the lines of things like the Tsar Cannon, which is this lovely three-foot bore diameter cannon in Russia that was never actually used.
I imagine we'll see 'native mercenaries' in America, as if the Spanish would recruit feather-wearing Aztecs into their armies in the 1700's.
Stuff like that, really.

[Kobal2fr]

I'm still surprised that over the course of many total war games and expansions, the scottish faction has yet to field that most dreaded of missile units - the caber tosser. The sight of hundreds of kilt wearing scotsmen, faces painted blue, carrying this traditional weapon is enough to crush the morale of even the stoutest of foes.

Admittedly the missile attack has a very short range, but any hit is a guaranteed kill. Also horses tend to trip over the used cabers, which is nice.

The scots often used this fearsome weapon with great success during their many conflicts with the english. At the Battle of Bannockburn, King Edward II was heard to mutter "I hate those scottish tossers".

Thank you, that made my night

Also, and obviously : the French Imperial Guard, a musketeer unit which can't shoot unless shot at first. "Messieurs les anglais, tirez les premiers !".

Or maybe Battle Guillotines, anyone ? :)

[Intrepid Sidekick]

Wow, cool, amazing!!
We've been trawling through all those big dull history books and that internet thingy
But this has just saved us loooooooads of time.
Think we'll use all of these

[Sheogorath]

oh u

Do us a favor and include these guys:


Russia just isnt complete without BEAR CAVALRY

[Intrepid Sidekick]

Hmmm, okay, if you say they're from the period. I didnt know they had AK47's back then.

[Thamis]

Sasquatch Beserkers.

They're definitely in!

[Rhyfelwyr]

Armoured Air Balloons - I remember seing a hot-air balloon in Cossacks once, so I expect to see armoured bomb-dropping hot-air balloons. They will feature much like Kirovs in Red Alert 2.

Sami Riflemen - because they were such a warlike people ever since they fought with their great axes in medieval times. Perhaps also a Berserker unit to complement these?

Turtle Ships - don't know much about them, but if you include the Far East maybe these should really be included.

Flamethrowers - the natural evolvement of greek fire units, used to force infantry out of garrisoned buildings.

War Elephants - come in several forms, including cannons, riflemen, flamethrowers, and saboteur (barrels of gunpowder strapped to them). Obviously Mughal commanders will ride elephants, and will be able to call an Armoured Air Balloon strike from atop them.

[Sheogorath]

Hmmm, okay, if you say they're from the period. I didnt know they had AK47's back then.

Ak-47's AND PPsH 41's. See, the 47/41 was refering to FOURTEEN fourtyseven/fourtyone.
BEAR CAVALRY! Also, penguin infantry to the first person to discover the south pole.

[Privateerkev]

We've been trawling through all those big dull history books

Funny because I can't tell from playing your games...

But in all seriousness, as a history grad student, I would love to get a look at the reading list that is used to research these games.

And to keep the thread on topic, any large piece of artillery mounted on any animal would be more than enough to keep me amused for hours.

Exploding sheep would be cool too. Why should people who play the "Worms" games have all the fun?

[Andejar]

Where did u get the picture of the bear cav?

[Sheogorath]

Where did u get the picture of the bear cav?

The internet.

[Frederick the Great]

I think you lot have been spending to much time reading Whitedwarf mags or in Gamesworkshops.CA and their TW games are about historical acccuracy.
Ninja's did exist in Japanese history,Assassin's did exist worldwide and in the far east there were cult's or assassin organisations.So please CA keep it historical as it was in the past and no or ni to fantasy units......no killer white rabbit's with ferocious teeth......no knight's who say Ni,Ni,Ni......and no black knight itching for a fight "it's only a flesh wound.....come back ya coward".
Oh and by the way there were battalion guns....3pdrs or small howitzers which were manhandled by small crews.
No silly billy's Please!!!

[Frederick the Great]

HA HA HA I like the mounted russians on bears......good pic,but I've never seen bears That Big.
Well mentioned Sheogorath on the grenadiers of the period hurling grenades.
Anyone wanting to see this goto YOU TUBE website where you can watch the video on the Battle of Poltava

[Sheogorath]

Polar and several species of Brown Bears can get up to eight feet at the shoulder.

A few moments on Google yields this:
http://tim.blogware.com/Bear/Bear.jpg
Bears get BIG.

Just a warning:
There is some blood in that pic, but no more than you'd see in a boxing match.

And you should mention that that video is horrendously innacurate. Like I said in the topic where it was posted...very much a product of the Russian nationalist cinema.

[Privateerkev]

CA and their TW games are about historical acccuracy.

The idea that TW games are in any way historically accurate is simply laughable.

But to be fair, their games are not meant to be historically accurate. Which is why I always roll my eyes when people complain about units not being "period" such as hornet chuckers or flame throwers. TW games are meant to be fun. And in that, they succeed. I play computer games for the same reason I watch movies, and that is to be entertained. I don't do either to learn about history. For that, I read a book. And even that is problematic.

[Cyclops]

Headless Hessian Cav the best so far.

18th century fantasy units I'd like to see:

British wagon-mounted rocket units. I know they had the Congreves, but IIRC they were late, ineffective experimental units. My ideal rocket unit would be a war-winning uber-weapon with unparrallelled range and accuracy. Also when you win an Heroic victory it would discharge its final round into a glorious fireworks display.

Hungarian Vampire Insurrectio. Cause fear and increase in strength as the opposition loses men. Unfortunate penalties for non-night-time battles.

Turkish Camel-mounted Eunuch artillery: extremely ineffective, constantly firing blanks. Causes sympathy and wincing in onlookers, and able to ride long distances without apparent soreness.

French Colonial "Wolf-Brother" Native American Ninjas. Combat bonus vs yokels and

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Lions disguised (really badly disguised too) with wickerwork frames to resemble a giant wolf : of course this "Disguised Lion" unit will appear as a rebel in certain southern French provinces)

Late period Bartix irregulars (sorry, EB gag).

Napoleonic Old Guard with a "Grumble" button that does nothing really, just activates a sound effect that makes them say "Merde" "sacre bleue" and "Oh, like, Magnifique....not!" in a really sarcastic tone.

18th century fantasy I expect to see:

American soldiers that can beat British regulars without French help.

Really big cheap Russian infantry units that stand around waiting for their opponents to freeze to death.

Unbreakable Redcoats (vulnerable to Americans only)

Horse artillery that fires on the move.

[Sheogorath]

The Russians had more of a reputation as 'unbreakable' than the British, really. The Redcoats were SOFT compared to the Ruskies.

Horse artillery that fires on the move...kinda like the Panzerphants?

[Cyclops]

The Russians had more of a reputation as 'unbreakable' than the British, really. The Redcoats were SOFT compared to the Ruskies.

Yes that was what the French noticed at Borodino etc, but the myth about Russian forces in many eras is they were basically peasants herded into line to be shot down until the enemy ran out of bullets and then froze.

Its true at times this was the Russian approach, but not vs Napoleon when they fought extremely bravely and took a lot of killing.

Horse artillery that fires on the move...kinda like the Panzerphants?

More like chariot mounted ballistae, but yeah, you get the picture.

[Cyclops]

The internet.

Could you print the internet for me so I can browse it later?