Russian "streltsy" oxymoron

[Slaists]

I think I mentioned this waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when the game first came out :P

It should be pointed out that not ALL streltsy were equipped with muskets, or, indeed, ranged weapons. Some were equivalent to policemen or a local fire squad (as mentioned in the flavor text).

Still, it is somewhat strange that they're equipped with bardiches, which were traditionally used by old style musketeers as a brace for firing the musket from, back when they had to be made with inch thick barrels and weighed a hundred pounds. Purely melee streltsy would probably use swords or something.

By the XVIII century the remaining (Peter the Great curbed them down a bit...) streltsy were musket troops some of whom did carry bardiches, pikes, etc; similar to western european musket units of the time (eg. exclusively pike units were not common at the time; more common were mixed musket - pike units).


But never mind that, could you imagine a unit NAMED "longbowmen" in English (for example) carrying only bills? "Streltsy" means "shooters" in Russian. It's as simple as that.

[Sheogorath]

By the XVIII century the remaining (Peter the Great curbed them down a bit...) streltsy were musket troops some of whom did carry bardiches, pikes, etc; similar to western european musket units of the time (eg. exclusively pike units were not common at the time; more common were mixed musket - pike units).


But never mind that, could you imagine a unit NAMED "longbowmen" in English (for example) carrying only bills? "Streltsy" means "shooters" in Russian. It's as simple as that.

To be fair, not all military units are accurately named. Grenadiers are an example from the games era. Paratroopers/airborne units from our own. Did you know that there are countries with no air force that, nonetheless, have paratroopers?
They're sort of the modern equivalent of grenadiers for many armies.

Either way, the municipal streltsy still existed as well. I THINK that's what theyre modeling the ETW units on, but, of course, it could just be typical CA fantasyuniteering. I can't say either way.