EB news - Friday, March 11

[khelvan]

Greetings Europa Barbarorum fans!

I have just a short update for you this week, with a few new units.

First, we have the Briton Silurii Byrnai, modelled by Prometheus and skinned by Spartan Merc. The Byrnai (Spearmen) of the Silures are the basic foot soldiers of the fierce southern tribe. The Silures are a powerful tribe; disciplined, well trained, and brave.



Next we have the Thanuvaniya foot archers, modelled and skinned by Weirdshady. These foot archers almost certainly represented the poorer elements of the various infantry levies of Parthia. These men are skirmishers only and not inclined to close with enemy troops.




Finally, I want to throw you horse archer fanatics a little bone. Here we have Baktrian Dahae, Scythian Light Cavalry, Parthian Dahae, Sarmatian Aorsi Riders, and Steppe Cavalry. Steppe Cavalry: These light horsemen come from the Pontic steppe north of the Black sea. They are the Scythians, and for many a long year were the scourge of civilized nations everywhere.




Please note that unless stated otherwise, ALL pictures shown in our news posts are of works in progress. We continue to improve on all parts of EB, and will do so long after our initial release.

As always, if you have questions or comments, the best place to post them would be here:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=70

Or here:

http://www.twcenter.net/forums/index.php?showforum=60

You may find old news posts in these forums, including a preview of our new map:

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=42840

We give special thanks to http://www.imageshack.us who provide us with a simple, foolproof, and free way to show you all these pictures each week.

Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

-the EB team

[Big_John]

cool! hey khel, on that first pic, you say the byrnai are members of a 'southern tribe'..
but what faction(s) do they belong to? i'm ignorant.

p.s. the various horse archers are quite pretty.
i will have fun hunting them down and destroying them with my germanic hordes.

edit: hey, i'm first.. what a great life i lead.

[khelvan]

Err, umm...you were supposed to guess based on the woad & shield patterns!!

(Seriously, the Britons. I have corrected this, thank you.)

[Drag0nUL]

Nice pics.Esp. the horse archers. However you give 5 names: Baktrian Dahae, Scythian Light Cavalry, Dahae Cavalry, Sarmatian Aorsi Riders, and Steppe Cavalry but only 3 pictures.So I was wondering which of these units does each picture represent.

[Crownsteler]

Great wirk again, Khelvan :)

Drag0nUl;
----------------------------------------------->
scroll to the right :)

[Idomeneas]

[jerby]

ok, so sarmatia and Scythia are represented. what faction is deleted? numidia is replaced by Bactria,
so Thrace has gone for Sarmatia? btw what is, in general, teh difference between the two?

[Orda Khan]

Very nice again, as usual. I particularly like the gorytus and recurved bows!!!

....Orda

[tsyed]

Those horsemen look really sweet, but I had a suggestion/question.

Most of the pictures I've seen of Parthians and Scythians show them wearing that leather looking cap with the flaps on the ears. Should you be showing these horsemen wearing that? Also, would it be possible to use the basic Persian head for Sythian and Parthian units, but with lighter hair perhaps? These gaulish faces don't have the full beards which I understand the Scythians/Parhtians favoured.

[Sarcasm]

@ Khelvan

What´s the orientation between your unit names and the pics?

[Ignoramus]

If you replace Thrace, make the Goths playable in Sweden! It would be excellent1

[khelvan]

Left to right, top to bottom.

[Angadil]

Those horsemen look really sweet, but I had a suggestion/question.

Most of the pictures I've seen of Parthians and Scythians show them wearing that leather looking cap with the flaps on the ears. Should you be showing these horsemen wearing that? Also, would it be possible to use the basic Persian head for Sythian and Parthian units, but with lighter hair perhaps? These gaulish faces don't have the full beards which I understand the Scythians/Parhtians favoured.

Ok, here are a few considerations regarding the looks of those units. In no particular order:

1) These units represent peoples from diverse groups of Iranian nomads. Not just Scythians or Parthians (in fact not one of them is "Parthian", in an ethnic sense).

2) The archetypical image of "Scythians" comes from the so-called Graeco-Scythian art from the shores of the Black Sea, mostly in the 4th and 5th ct. BC. It is, therefore, a bit of an snapshot, in space (European Scythians) and time. Moreover, artistic conventions play a role and Scythian appearance may have been standardized in those depictions so viewers could immediately tell who was a Scythian and who wasn't. Nonetheless, and even within these relatively narrow limits, you still find enough variation in the appeareance of "Scythians" including no facial hair at all and no headgear. When you expand to the other groups of Iranian nomads, you get still more diversity.

3) Those 5 units are not all the horse archers you can expect to see in EB

[The Stranger]

i think represnting scythians as a faction is wrong cause they where driven of the steppes by sarmatians and celtic tribes around 330 bc

[Angadil]

i think represnting scythians as a faction is wrong cause they where driven of the steppes by sarmatians and celtic tribes around 330 bc

In EB, Sarmatia is a playable faction and Scythia is not

That said and while, your statement is roughly correct, the Scythians were still a force of some importance at the date for EB's begining and, certainly, more so c. 330 BC, some 60 years before. In fact in 330/331 the Scythians were capable of annihilating a 30.000 strong (allegedly) Macedonian army under Zopyrion, governor of Thrace. There was an Scythian kingdom that held the western part of Crimea and some land along the lower course of the Dniepr river and that made it well into the ADs.

Additionally, most Celtic movement into the area did not occur as early as 330 BC and they mostly went south into the Balkans.

[SkyElf]

Great pictures EB! I'm looking forward to your first playable version of the MOD! How close is EB ready for us with a download? first Since you indicated that EB will be still busy with more updates to the MOD.