Byzantine Cataphracts?

[anders]

quite right, the byzantines as a HA faction wasnt at all what I, for one, expected them to be, I thought they should be more infantry-based, with a solid spear core and the HAs more as auxilaries.

any of the history buffs here care to give a picture of the byzantine army composition at say, ca 1080 and just before the fall of constantinople?

[Rhyfelwyr]

I remember hearing somewhere Byz armies were around 75% Skutatoi (armoured pikemen)

[Flavius Merobaudes]

They had all kinds of cavalry, each with a special purpose. A mixture of these troops was typical that could shift balance to adapt to the enemy they were about to fight.

Infantry often consisted of mixed units, the foremost lines being spears or pikemen, the lines behind them heavy sword infantry. So these were mixed units.
I wonder if we'll see mixed units in future TW games...

For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_army
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_battle_tactics

[anders]

so the lack of piles/spears for the byz in the game is a pretty big omission then..

[Guru]

I think I saw a Byzantine Spearmen mod somewhere... Oh yes, here:
LAca's Heavy spearmen (pike version) http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=1521
One handed spear version http://www.twcenter.net/forums/downl...o=file&id=1530
I haven't installed either one since it seems like too much work for me I dont know if those mods are compatible with other mods yet.

[Flavius Merobaudes]

I can't understand why CA didn't give the Byzzies some decent spear-/pikemen. Yes, that's one of the most severe omissions in the game.

Thanks Guru, the unit looks nice. From their style they could fit into the Broken Crescent mod ... which I guess they'll be a part of.

Kataphrakts are the top heavy cav for Byzantium, so it's good to get them only from the highest level stables for game reasons. There's no fun in having available your best units right from the beginning. I mean, Vards and Katas right away? Come on, the game is won before it even started. So, although historically incorrect, it seems quite good to me.

Kataphrakts and Byz. Lancers are the only cavalry in the game that have the "highly_trained" attribute, as far as I know. And I believe it helps avoid casualties in charges. I've done some test battles some time ago, charging peasants with heavy cav. Almost all knights had some casualties (about 5). Katas had zero or one. Seems like an untidy formation causes some casualties.
Open to discussion...

[Rhyfelwyr]

Thats an interesting point. I wish the unit cards would tell us more.