Women in ancient warfare

[Tiberius Nero]

I vaguely remember reading testimonies about Sarmatian women, I think, fighting alongside men. That is, a few Sarmatian women, and certainly no girl-only warbands. With the MTW2 engine, where unit members don't have to look alike, one cound probably make some female skins for some units of some factions.

As for the "all-male population" in cities, it helps to think that this number represents only the recruitable population, not counting old men, women, children etc.

[russia almighty]

Probably where never hot . It was all the girls who when you saw them you said



"Are you sure thats a women ?"

[Watchman]

Odds are any such "amazons" were warrior nobility; unless there was a specific reason for them to emphasize their sex in their appereance, chances are they just looked like any other well-armed cavalry warrior. The way the articles of clothing most universally common among the nomads (eg. trousers, kaftan...) were and are AFAIK rather "unisex" in appereance wouldn't really help matters.

On the side of pure conjuncture, references to female warriors (and the occasional noblewoman's grave with weapons) are AFAIK common enough in different contexts that such an institution presumably existed among the Iranian-speaking steppe peoples in one form or another. Logically speaking it probably had some religious or magical significance; whether this would result in the "amazons" being squadroned together or dispersed among the mundane formations, for any number of murky mystical and symbolic reasons (as perhaps a sort of living standard or icon), is anyone's guess.

As it goes, I'd say the EB approach does the job well enough; you can freely assume a random smattering of fighting women among the aristocratic cavalry if you wish, rendered indistinguishable by the war gear and the limits of the game engine.