So here's my (relatively) brief report on the Nabateans:
For a little background, bear in mind that I have two computers: the one I'm on, the and another, which has the mod. That one decided to have a crash, but not before I gave it a few hours of game-play. (Forget about pictures though).
Anyways: to business!
The first things which struck me looking at the Nabateans is just how expensive the infrastructure is, relative to the size of the kingdom (two provinces). This added expense is of course a result of the economic system, with its system of penalties. Thus one of the challenges players will have for this faction is to find a way to manage the economy, as otherwise, you will be in the red in no time.
in my case, rather than build roads as I would in other mods, I focused on buildings which are profitable (Communal farming), then reduced and consolidated my armies (the navy was disbanded altogether). I then focused on capturing what Arabian provinces I could, to try to increase my tax base. Roads and other such expensive infrastructures I've had to delay, till I can have a good profit to my game. Taxes had to be raised for a short time. Barracks were out of the question for a while--at least for me--so I had to be careful with my men.
The military is numerous, but largely mediocre in quality, to be expected in this case, with the lack of armor an issue (again, to be expected). The main type of infantry which I found of use are the hill-men varieties (axe and spear). They get the job done though against lightly armed soldiers. I have to question why they have what look like green crusader coifs of cloth on their heads
One concern I have are the presence of the Ptolemies to the west: they are sufficiently dangerous early on as to warrant a large garrison in your core provinces at all times. It's a brave player indeed who will attack the Ptolemies first.
Diplomacy works well enough though, so if you can convince them not to ravage you, you'll be fine for a while.
Overall: A very challenging faction. I would say that you have to rule the Nabateans differently to other peoples with greater wealth (i.e. Rome, Ptollies, AS). I do wonder if the penalty on roads is excessive though. Granted it's to simulate the heavy maintenance, but there has to be something more that what we get out of it to justify construction (perhaps an increase in trade). I do like the result--at least for Nabatea--but I think we can tone it down a bit. You could alternatively introduce buildings which can lower the cost of maintenance (maybe privatized caravanserai or something).
I note the topography is somewhat improved in appearance to earlier releases (unless I'm looking at it to expect too much change).
Finally: we're going to have to find a full time texture guy for the units: we can't have everyone in this faction in Green
But on a more serious note: wicker shields weren't built that way in the region: leather covered bucklers and wooden shields were more common (usually buckler sized to perhaps 3 feet, round or rectangular). It can be fixed merely through a texture change, if we must retain the models.
