Dark Ages Total War: Early Era

[ULC]

I'd like to hear from the community (not just modders) about what factions they would like to have in Dark Ages Total War, considering it is the community that will be playing it, and I would like it to be as fun and enjoyable as possible. Also, suggestions beyond which factions to include are welcome, such as units (must include evidence for such a unit, as were sticking as best we can for historical accuracy ), faction symbols (for flags and prebattle), and kings and heroes (again historical accuracy).

We already have for the early period (as a reminder, the early period starts at 632)...

Britons
Irish
Picts
Scots
Anglo-Saxons
Saxons
Norse
Neustrasians
Austrasians
Burgundians
Basques
Frisians
Suevi
Visigoths
Bavarians
Lombards
Beneventians
Carinthians
Avars
Bulgars
Khazars
East Romans
Sassanids
Arabs (In need of naming)

For High (Starts in 800)

Irish
Scots
Welsh
Wessex
Norse
Holy Roman Empire
Asturias
Aquitiane
Bavarians
Beneventians
Moravians
Polanes
Bulgars
Magyars
Khazars
Volga-Bulgars
East Romans
Cordovians
Tahertians
Aghlabids
Abbasids
Abkhazians

For Late (Starts 912, a supposed time of the "conversion" of the Khazars to Judasim)

Irish
Scots
Wessex
Norwegians
Sveans
Danish
French
Holy Roman Empire
Astrurias (Leon?)
Burgundy
Italians
Papacy
Bohemians
Polish
Lithuanians
Magyars
Bulgarians
Cumans
Kievians
Rostovians
Volga-Bulgars
Khazars
East Romans
Abkhazians
Seljuks
Armenians
Abbasids
Tulinids
Tahertians
Aghlabids
Idrissids
Cordovians

Again, any suggestions as to the line up for the early period are welcome, as are units, flags, kings and heroes.

[Alex D]

Carolingian(Charlemagne) for the early/high era please. For the Carolingian units: Scola Heavy Cavalry and Carolingian Heavy Spearmen.
As for kings and heros: Charlemagne(king) and Roland(hero).
Also for high era: Avars. Special unit: Avar Horsemen. No known kings or heros, but since they were completely nomadic ,they did have this nifty completely portable town/city they moved around with them.
Cheers
Alex

[axel]

Here s a map from the russian tribes: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chazaren
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seltsjoeken
wot about the petsjenegen they where turkisch clans wot fight for Byzantine but in 1053 they join the seldjuks but i always thougt they where a tribe of there own like the cumans and the volga bulgars?? :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pechenegs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Khazarfall1.png
i am searching for the arab factions i found somme maps with kingdoms.:
http://www.euratlas.com/time1.htm
http://www.euratlas.com/time2.htm
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/sbookmap.html
http://www.euratlas.com/atlastor.htm
i think the seldjuk of rum and the armenians and more wot i could see on the maps
i hope this helps

[Noir]

Nice faction rosters and well researched it seems to me YLAC

I'd be satisfied like this - just make sure that the starting positions ensure that an area (say France) can support adequately in financial terms all the factions you assign there - ie there is a balance of province number/wealth/factions present there. It tends to make the AI factions give a much more challenging game. If not, the clans on poor lands will be quickly swallowed by the ones on rich lands and in a few years you'll be ending up with 4-5 superfactions and everyone else gone.

Noir

[ULC]

Nice faction rosters and well researched it seems to me YLAC

I'd be satisfied like this - just make sure that the starting positions ensure that an area (say France) can support adequately in financial terms all the factions you assign there - ie there is a balance of province number/wealth/factions present there. It tends to make the AI factions give a much more challenging game. If not, the clans on poor lands will be quickly swallowed by the ones on rich lands and in a few years you'll be ending up with 4-5 superfactions and everyone else gone.

Noir

Thats actually one of my concerns, particularly for the British Isles, where we have about 4-5 factions duking it out at a time. This makes me what to remove thye Picts, but I would like to here what everyone else thinks. Actually, the AI is rather hard now that I implemented the features I want for DATW (Streamlined building system, which is rather RTW and M2TW like, but the MTW AI seems to grasp it better then the previously aforementioned games, negative CAB/CDB for non spear units, Fear for more then just camels (Beware of the Norse in High and Late!), higher rebellion rates, etc.)

Alex D, as for the Carolingians are represented by the Austrasian faction in early, and the the "Holy Roman Empire" in High, so no worries. As to the Avars, by 800 they were a broken people and held no real political signifigance IIRC, but if you could come up with proof otherwise then I may consider it, so long as it doesn't hurt other factions.

I have long considered it, but I want to hear what the community thinks first. My idea was that since many factions during this time period were switching religions, which is hard to do game wise, I could intsead turn religion into culture.

[ULC]

In the name of self interest and wanting to what the community wants, thinks, and feels....BUMP!