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Well, the doru was only 8 feet long--shorter than a short pike.

As to animations: I was wondering if it were not possible to design a new animation for them, by the use of a slinger skeleton.

Here, a bone_weapon can be used, which will let you rotate the spear.

If you get this done, can I have a copy for my SYW mod?

Seriously, this will look most stunning on the map!

For morale and fatigue, yes.

as to it as a main feature: no. Perhaps an optional add-on? I personally think the player to have choice here--especially as I had this idea the other day (for my mod, but I'll share it here):

what about hiding all the information, and leave it to the player's wits and experience to decide? historically, a general wouldn't magically know if an enemy unit (or his own) were wavering/routing, save by great experience/talent.

While I don't propose this idea of mine as a default--only another option--it is something to consider, for those seeking a challenge.

What of the 1:20 size? Works well for my Seven Years War mod.

And if a unit by itself is too small, you can merge it with others similar, which would free up slots.

So a regiment of cavalry in the Hellenistic period would be 50 men on huge; a Roman legion would total 240 men.

I admit this would make units small on Huge compared to other mods, but you get the advantage that you can accurately represent the organization, strength, and size of most ancient armies.

here's one scheme, for example (consular army, four legions):

2x velites (90 men each)
2x hastati (180 men each)
2x principes (180 men each)
2x triarii (90 men each)
2x equites (30 men each)

here I merge two legions' worth of men into one unit, for the sake of having sufficient strength, but also to allow the representation of the large auxiliary corps.

The other ten units would then have 1 general, and 9 auxiliaries of your choosing.

A late republican Legion could then be as follows:

1 "first cohort" unit (120 men)
1 "regular" unit (120 men)

You could also go with a single legion, 240 men strong, with eagle included.

A taxis of cavalry in this scheme would be 50 men; the phalangites can be made to represent 4 regiments (total strength ~240 men).

If I may suggest something:

when making the UI cards (not the ones you have displayed, the ones in the unit selection area), why not display the full soldier on the card, rather than just the upper half of the body?

Unless you find it unaesthetic.

well, here are some ideas I had which I originally proposed over at EBII. Maybe they'll gain track here--for statting:

number of soldiers: probably as it is now.

Attack: (rowers/100)+(marines/100)+ram size--if there is a ram (go by the numbers, so a trireme=3, quadrireme=4, etc). every catapult piece large enough to do damage is worth 100 marines (i.e. 1). a combat tower is also worth 100 marines.

any ship which has rowers, but doesn't need them in battle, or jsut doesn't use rowers, then the crew is treated as marines are).

All attacks should be melee.

defense: for each row of rowers, 2 points armor (so a quadrireme is a 10). Every 30 marines, 1 defense. Any protective canopy or tower=1 armor and 1 shield. If the ship runs on sails only, then the crew number in total should be used, so that every 10 crew would be 1 attack, and 1 armor. any sort of metal lining on the outside would add 1 defense and 2 armor for every 2 rows

A liburna would be treated as a bireme in this scheme--an unusually heavy and powerful one.

hit-points: maybe we should try to tweak this, to see if it helps. In this case, I'd propose 1 hp for every row of rowers.

Morale: I'm thinking each row should get 1 point morale, and 2 morale for every 50 marines, and we make all morale normal, and trained. I tweak this, in the hope that it might help fleets survive more often--unlikely as is.

(so a trireme is ~4 morale, and a Roman quinquireme ~6)

So, opinions? thoughts?

I like the first one the most. But I can't help but wonder if we can swap the centurion for a Greek commander or something.

[Here ya go]

Need words? Here ya go.

Oh, where would life be without almighty gigantus?

Well, at least I'm not the only EB II member here (I'm Ibrahim at the Org) 

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.

One thing--since it occurs to me:

I know it hasn't been finished--that is a given, and that RedFox has not really returned to it. However, I can't help but feel we could enhance the beta by integrating the already unlocked hardcoded limits from that injection project. This can then be released to the Public at large. All we need to do is to compile the injection .dll (or is it meant to be .exe? the notes aren't clear). This will then be released.

I ask, because we might just attract more support if we just release what has been done so far (included within the mod), which is already considerable as is (BI features in ALX, ALX ones in BI, unit size increases, etc). We'll have to contact Redfox, or alternatively find someone else to compile the code into something the average Joe can use.

I've been giving it a go myself, but haven't been as successful as Redfox (not as well trained).

I know, not directly related to the Beta, but I feel the beta would be more attractive with this when its public release comes--call it advertising with goods.

Letting you guys know I'm alive: beta tester and occasional adviser .