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Topics - Parthian Shot

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Amazons: Total War / Amazons: Total War 8.0 Released
« on: June 03, 2013, 10:16:26 PM »
Amazons: Total War Ranked Among MOD-DB's Top 50 Titles
As of October 18, 2015, Amazons:Total War 8.1A has been released

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WARNING : MATURE PLAYERS ONLY
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This mod contains some female nudity in the depiction of conflicts in antiquity, therefore if there is any reason the laws affecting your area prohibit you from viewing such content (for example, if you are under the age of 18 in most areas), please do not access the download.

By either downloading or installing this mod's compressed file, the user who performed the download/installation acknowledges that he (or she) is legal to view such content and he or she is solely responsible for the use as well as the consequences of the use of this mod.

Keeping the aforementioned prerequisites in mind, Please do not pass along or forward link to the download file without this warning be shown.
And while playing multi-player online, please be mindful of the opponent's age or sensitivity, as each player is solely responsible for the unit(s) he or she selected to play.



[here], or [here], or [here], or [here]


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COPYRIGHT : STATEMENT OF RESOLUTION
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In addition to great amount of work by the members of the mod team, this mod is an accumulation of work from many sources as mentioned in the credit section of the readme folder in the compressed mod file. The said credit and acknowledge statements are carefully compiled and extra efforts made so as to be as accurate as possible. If, for any reason, there is an unintentional omission of credit or accidental un-permitted inclusion of prior art, the mod team, as represented by its mod leader, would be more than happy and willing to make corrective actions in a timely fashion to address said grievance(s) of copyright issues. Therefore any complaints of this nature should be addressed first to the mod leader (link to private message as shown above) so as to allow the Amazons Total War mod team to make amend of such mistake prior to any means of escalation.
As an attached clause, any copyright claims or complaints to third parties, without substantiation, and without attempts to resolve the issues first with the said mod leader shall be deemed as frivolous harassment.


You need 7zip utility to uncompress the file. Due to increase in complexity, it is recommended the system has a minimum of 4GB RAM to have more trouble free gaming experience. You also need Rome Total War/Barbarian Invasion 1.6 (or Rome Total War Gold Edition) in its vanilla form.

The original Whitepaper is published [here]

For the weapon description, you can read them [here].

For the factional background of the game, you can read more detail [here].

For the Balanced Unit Modeling Concept, or B.U.M., you can read more [here].

18+ viewers only, Amazon Total War 6.0 series, 7.0 series, 8.0 demo videos by Naxzul666, please "like" the videos if you find it helpful.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

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Amazons Total War mod has on multiple occasions reached the top 10 ranking of ModDB's Top-100 Titles.


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Amazons: Total War / 20,000th download for Amazons Total War 7.0
« on: April 03, 2013, 03:10:24 AM »
T'is with great pleasure I would like to announce the 20,000th download today for Amazons Total War 7.0 series.
Since its first release on January 7th, we have anticipated Amazon Total War 7.0 to be better received.
But the result has surpassed our best estimate.
By comparison, the previous release, the 6.0 series, had its 10,000th download 8-9 months into the publication. The 7.0 has doubled that number in just a little shy of 3 months.
Besides the terrific support of the fans and a first rate mod team, I would also like to thank the forum website for the tremendous assistance in making this happen.

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Amazons: Total War / Amazons: Total War 7.0 Screen Shots
« on: March 23, 2013, 03:10:23 PM »
Amazon Longbow archers, Mercenary

Nocking and drawing the bow:
with large size composite double bow with two sets of limbs and two strings. because the animation is not fully perfected yet, the following description is necessary to describe the hypothesized sequence: On horseback or on foot, "nocking" of the projectile is by drawing one bow string first to an anchor location, usually on the opposite end of the shoulder and deposit the string at a smooth-surfaced hook, the arrow is then drawn with the second string and at the end of the draw cycle, the end of the arrow is nocked to both bow strings. Or the second string is drawn to the hook and arrow inserted and nocked onto both strings.

In contrast, the English longbow is drawn only to the chin or the side of the archer's jaw or lips.

Helmet Harness:
The helmet, with an opening on the top, is set on the wearer by the wearer's hair around the pate and/or the crown, drawn from inside of the helmet to the outside of helmet through the top opening. And the hair pin or hair rings are used to retain the hair on top of the helmet. To make sure the hair does not tumble down to interfere with close quarter fighting or horseback archery. The hair is propped straight up with a flexible wooden stick and then twirled on the top of the stick. In this fashion, the wearer does not need chin strap to fasten the helmet.

Helmet Drape:
The drape can be chain-mail links in copper alloy or iron. It is more effective if the drapes are in two layers, and with hair (whatever remained inside the helmet) wrapped in between the two layers. The idea is not to deflect close range shot or blow, but to cause a long range or strayed projectile to get disoriented when it hits the first layer of the chain mail, and thereby introduces a rotational moment to the impact as it penetrate through the wrapped hair, and then it would be easier for the second layer to stop the incoming missile because of the rotational momentum. So in some aspect, this is similar to a WWII space armor concept. The drawback is, the chain mail drape can not prevent blunt trauma, and can not really protect the wearer from a stabbing thrust.


The aforementioned anthropology theses are entirely conceived by Parthian Shot. Written permission is needed to quote or use the above information, in part or as a whole.

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Amazons: Total War / Amazons: Total War 7.0 Video Trailer
« on: March 13, 2013, 10:57:47 PM »
New Mod Video Trailer for Amazons: Total War - Recalesced  by TWC content staff has been published.

It is PEGI 18 only, so it is for 18+ viewers, please "like" the video if you find the content helpful.

Not a valid youtube URL

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Amazons: Total War / New Amazons Total War Trailer Video Release
« on: March 11, 2013, 08:34:08 AM »
This is to announce the latest Amazons Total War 7.0 demo has been released, thanks to the TWC Content Staff.

The video is rated PEGI-18


Due to the trailer's length limitation, these are not shown in the video:

What are not shown:

- elephants with new animation model
- newly added weapons such as halberd (cavalry's favorite weapon before stirrup), pole ax, and so on.
- new mano-ballista (man portable ballista) animation
- new battle wagon video
- new high resolution cavalry and infantry models.
- new strategy for game playing.

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In developing the Amazon Total War mod, I have set a few principles for the project.

At the time was just for myself and my partner, but later on it was quipped as the "Parthian Shot's Laws" by other  team members, so the name "Parthian Shot's Laws" stuck.

These requirements are listed below:

1. A unit model's appearance, its equipment, and its ability, must bear direct relationship with the infrastructure of the region where the unit is trained and raised, as well as with the cost of the unit.

Case in point, a town with a population of 700 and a lone blacksmith can not recruit a unit of 100 fully chain-mailed men-at-arms in a single turn. As stated below, chain mail was extremely expensive and time consuming to produce, so the texture must correspond with the cost as well as the location where the unit is recruited.

2. iron equipment and weapons are easy to rust, requires constant cleaning and maintenance, and must be assigned higher recruitment and up-keep cost.

Any one in the combat tour out in the field will vouch for the fact that iron and even steel equipment is constantly a pain for maintenance, requires polishing, oiling/greasing, rust removal, paint. A not so well-known fact is that some copper alloy can be 90% as hard as the best of modern day steel and won't rust away as easy.

So most factions in Amazon Total War are using bronze, or other type of copper alloy armors. Except the Celt, the Gauls (Arvernii), the Carthaginians, the Romans, and few others.

3. chain mail is not a lower quality armor to plate mail, it is quite effective and it is also quite expensive to produce.

A full suit of chain mail armor cost 10,000 man-hour to make in 400AD, with a very skillful armorer being able to make about two links in the chain mail a day.

So chain mail in Amazons Total War is more for linkage between major pieces of armors. Only Celts, Gauls, Romans and Carthaginians can field mostly chain mail armored units and the cost is adjusted to reflect the expenses.

4. arrow is not cheap or easy to manufacture, it require a highly developed manufacturing complex.

The shaft of the arrow requires curing and drying for 5 years, it is then lathed into the arrow shaft. Otherwise, the arrow shaft will not be straight, or was straight when it is made, but will be warped when deployed. It then needs to be varnished to protect the wood against insect (termites comes to mind), and other damages.

In Amazons Total War, only factions with rich timber resources and high industrial development can fully supply its army with large store of arrows per archer. Other factions only can get so many reloads per archers.

5. Sword is not for every militia and his/her cousin, sword is very time consuming to make, and even then, it is easy to bend and to break.

Sword making is an art, not an exact science in the ancient days, and forging a sword is time consuming and tedious work even by a highly skilled labor force.

So the use of sword in Amazons Total War is sharply curtailed, unless the unit is an aristocratic or patrician unit.

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Amazons: Total War / Amazons: Total War 7.0E Released
« on: March 05, 2013, 11:51:24 PM »
    Amazons: Total War Now Ranked Among MOD-DB's Top 100 Titles
    7.0E release is out,

    Download 7.0E release [here],  [here], or [here]

    Changes in 7.0E

    1. New Linked Armor-Clad Cavalry animations
    2. New optimized Suebii (German) Quest
    3. New Roman Elephant troop
    4. New hi-res animations to replace vanilla low res units.
    5. game re-configuration make recruitment and combat more balanced
    6. corrections of animation problems of previous releases.
    7. adjusted strategy setup
    8. More challenging renegade and rebels.

    changes in 7.0D
    • - add Suebii (Germans) to the quest factions, similar to the Far East Celt.
    • - add hidden resources to control the availability of the Amazon Advanced Units
    • - Experimenting making both AI and Player factions to be able to have advanced units at the same time.
      currently, only one faction can have the advanced weaponry at one time.
    • - re-balance stat on units just switched from sword to ax or halberd
    • - add new hi-res animation units to replace vanilla units
    • - eliminate the parasole cover for the western Celt battle wagon.
    • - new Amazon Sword Maiden models to replace the old Amazon Sword units
    • - correct foot wear B.U.M (Balanced Unit Modeling) issues.
    • - re-evaluate cultural "barbarian" buildings per naftykid's recommendation
    • - re-animate Noble Maiden
    • - re-animate Amazon Hoplite

    changes in 7.0C
    • Massive optimization on animation speed, and space saving
    • New Amazon Peltast units animation
    • New Amazon Heavy Peltast units animation
    • New Amazon arbalest cavalry and Infantry animations and new weapons
    • New Amazon attires to match Amazons to the same "primitive" level of other "barbarian" cultures
    • changing "skirt"s to be more of a waist-wrap
    • changing loin-cloth from front only to front and back, same as Thracian peltasts and woad warriors.
    • removed redundant animation for secondary weapons that is never used.
    • corrected 3D model and texture inconsistency for Amazon Hoplite units and Dismounted Pathfinder units.
    • re-animated Amazon Longbow Chariot Archer
    • re-animated Scythian Head Hunting Maiden

    As of February 25th, 2013 - 7.0C beta, the 3rd release is out.

    7.0C enhances the realism even farther, with major new animation revamp. New specification states that swords are much more costly to manufacture than many close quarter combat weapons. For light and low-cost units, therefore, if swords are their secondary weapons, they must be replaced with something more representative of their cost-performance relationship (according the Balance Unit Modeling , aka the B.U.M. principles)

    • New animations for 2handed ax units
    • New animations for halberd units
    • New animations for Amazon Dispatcher Corp, now using short halberd instead of sword
    • New animations for Amazon Brigandine Archers, now using short halberd instead of sword
    • New animations for Macedon Geothe Mercenaries
    • New animations for rebel Amazon archer units.
    • New EDU stat for new units to reflect the changes.
    • New Amazonia, Libya, and Thyssa general's units
    • New Amazonia strat map captain animation.
    • New Geothe strat map captain animation, to correct a weird problem with default texture file, uncovered by Katsoro.
    • New heavy standard bearer animation, with female soldiers instead of male.
    • New light standard bearer, now with druidress or Camilla priestess.
    • New Amazon priestess and colour guard animation
    • New Amazon Militia Hoplite animation, instead of spear and sword , now with lengthened pike (18ft).
    • New Amazon Round Shield foot units, now with shield slightly enlarged, and armed with short ranseur style pike, instead of spear and sword.
    • New Amazon Round Shield cavalry units, same as the Round Shield foot units.
    • Complete re-work on Amazon Pathfinder animation.
    • Minor change on Amazon Xiphos Cohorts animation
    • After three years, finally added mano-ballista animation for advanced units. This includes
      -Amazon Path Finder
      -Amazon Noble Maiden
      -Amazon Grenadier Cavalry
    • Amazon Ballista Elephant "Gunner"s, with new model ballista
    [/list]

    9
    Amazons: Total War / Amazons: Total War 7.0A Released
    « on: February 02, 2013, 10:08:03 AM »
    This is to announce that the first non-beta 7.0 mod has been released.

    You can find the download URL here

    10
    Amazons: Total War / Interview with TW Center Content Staff
    « on: January 28, 2013, 04:45:27 PM »
    Here is the link to an interview about the Amazon Total War with TW Center Content Staff, SonofPerverel

    http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?p=12510809#post12510809

    This is a discussion about the future plan of the Amazon(s) Total War and how we get this far.

    11
    Amazons: Total War / Cultural Background of Amazons Total War Factions
    « on: January 23, 2013, 05:43:03 PM »
    As you folks might have already know, the Amazon: Total War - Reignited mod (6.0 series) has four Amazon Factions. The mod is developed after Subrosa's excellent theme, ie adding four factions of Amazons to the RTW game, plus introducing the Sarmatian from RTW/BI expansion pack.

    The Amazons: Total War - Recalesced (7.0 series) has four Neo-Amazon factions which can become Amazon like if correct cultural path is taken and their Quest(s) are fulfilled. These are

    - Armenia (or Armens in the mod, who absorbed the Kingdom of Mittani, the ancient horse breeding and horse trading people in Asia Minor),
    - Carthage (because Queen Dido, according to the story, was once a priestess in the Amazon Theocracy Sisterhood)
    - Sarmatian (because of their lineage to the Amazons)
    - Far Eastern Celts (because of their recent near-annihilation at the hands of the Huns, and therefore their women's role in the army).
     
    To help to gain more background understanding of Amazon: Total War mods, I thought I add the cultural, archaeological, as well as anthropological stories/references to this forum, so the players can have better perspective of factions playing out in the game.
     
    The Amazon Factions in Amazons:Total War are
     
    1. Geothe Amazonia
    2. Thermodon Amazonia
    3. Thyssagetae, or Thyssa
    4. Libyan Amazon

    The Neo-Amazon Factions are

    1. Far Eastern Celt [7.0 Series only]
    2. Armenia
    3. Sarmatian
    4. Carthaginians
     
    I. Geothe Amazon
     
    Up to the 400BC, the Geothe (pronounced "Jia-Zee", ancient form of Jyazii) Amazons were the guardians of the Caucasus Gate for fifteen centuries. They claim to be the original Amazon Nation from which all other branches of Amazons originated. However, for reasons unknown, at around 400BC they are being forced out of their homeland in the Caucasus Mountains, first migrated to the western shore of the Caspian Sea, and later settled in the region east of the Azov Sea. The word Geothe, which literally translates to 'from steppes', are the tribal name of the people and the name 'Amazon', which is the sacred name derived from the river Sinus Amazenus, where Priestess Camilla is said to be hurled across by her father when she was an infant.
     
    According to Virgil (Aeneid, Books VII and XI), Camilla's father, Metabus, was fleeing from his enemies carrying the infant Camilla when he encountered the Amisenus (Amazenus) River. He fastened the baby to his javelin, then dedicated the baby girl to the Goddess Innana (the equivalent of Diana or Artemis in the Greco-Roman world), and hurled the javelin with the baby across the river. He then swam to the opposite bank, where he rejoined Camilla. True to the oath, Camilla grew up to become a great warrior and a renowned huntress, stayed to be a maiden her entire life to serve the Goddess despite advances from many suitors. She led an army of maidens which started the Camilla sect of the Artemis cult. The Geothe warriors took great pride to be called the Amazons because of their most revered heroine from the River Sinus Amazenus. To the Geothe as well as all the Amazonians, the word Amazon signifies the oath sworn by Camilla's father, an oath that dedicates a maiden to the Goddess to become a warrior and protector of her community or her friends in need. Such females know not what hearth chores are like, but are more at ease with archery, javelins, close-quarter combat, and equestrianism. Virgil recorded the legend of Camilla as the official court scribe at Rome in the year Octavian ascended to become Augustus, the first Emperor of Roman Emipire. Virgil purposely made Camilla a Volscian maiden in his writing to flatter the new Emperor (Volcia in Italia being Octavian's birth place), and to inspire his fellow Romans, but every reader of his time who has any sense of geography knows that the river Sinus Amazenus Virgil talked about is located not in Italia, but near Sinope in Asia Minor, between the border of Aram (Armenia) and Themiskyran Amazonia.
     
    Because most horses of their time are only 12 hands tall (48 inches or 120cm), really glorified ponies in real life, the limitation of smaller horses made women the ideal cavalry soldiers. Being more petite and lighter in weight, they can travel farther and faster with the pony-size horses. Even though their number is never great, their often small sized mobile army can strike their enemy where they least expected, and can destroy much larger forces because of their advantage in mobility and long range fire power of their missiles.
     
    In addition to possessing the best women cavalry, the Geothe Amazons also enjoyed a special relationship with the Kingdom of Mittani, both factions being the founding members of Melanchlaenae, (or the Black Coat Society), and therefore has advanced knowledge of horse breeding. The Mittani people pioneered the horse breeding technique where they successfully bred horse to 15-17 hands tall. Although Mittani traders sold gelded horses in great numbers to their neighbors, the true secret of breeding is only known to a few factions, such as the Aramites (Armenian) who eventually absorbed the Mittani people, Pre-Alexander Egypt, and the Geothe Amazons.
     
    The Geothe's other fortes are their education and secret library system, the Geothe Priestess Society usually gathered their local populace and train their womenfolks to defend their community from marauding adventuring menfolks, the likes of Aeneas, Ulysses, Hercules, and Jason, ie the so-called Quest Heroes. These marauders almost always plundered, stole, raped, and murdered their way through their travel, leaving matriarchal communities in destitute through such raids. So the Sisterhood inspired their pupils with the deeds of heroines such as Camilla's, or that of the Amazon Queen Panthesilea, so these womenfolks can be organized to better defend their communities.
     
    This also has the benefit of solidifying the Priesthood's support base, and to imbue the peasant women with such fighting spirit so as to create potential recruits for the Priesthood novitiates. The Priestess Sisterhood also educated their local womenfolks on crops, animal husbandry, and basic form of hunting or fighting skills, such as stone throwing, javelin throwing, and some in archery. The priestess sisterhood are a collection of maidens who are located in various geographical regions, most are well versed in horse riding, horse archery, hand to hand combat with daggers, axes, spears, and swords, as well as the secret of the sacred fire. They rely their means of communication mainly on the horse riders to be able to cover long distance, from one Amazon community to the next, all through relay message dispatchers on horseback. The Sisterhood hold secret archive only accessible by the members of the Priesthood, and in its archive contains all the dispatches between the Amazon Communities. Such messages relating news of potential threats, new technology and innovation of every kind.
     
    Like the later Hungarian and Magyar cavalry, the Geothe Amazon also train their horses to lie down on th battlefield, this allows them to conceal some of their cavalry units on the battlefield.
     
    II. Thermodon Amazonia
     
    These are the most well known Amazons to the Greeks and the Romans. These are the colonies of the Amazons migrated from the Caucasus Mountains. Their establishment in the Asia Minor guarded the incursion of Medes, and later the Persians from overpowering the Western Asia Minor. The Persian rulers only required the token of submission in the forms of earth and water, they would then send a representative of the King, known as the Setrap to rule the region. As long as the tax is paid and the levy called, the Setrap pretty much let the people do what they want. Unknown to most of the men-societies, the Amazons heavily infiltrated the Persian and Median Setrapies, to such an extent that they are the arbitrator of politics in the region most of the time. The early beginning of the Carian League, for example, is the classical case, where the league formed its own governing body, with the consent of the Setrap. It was so well established, that later on even the Greeks and the Roman would grudgingly allow the league to exist, even allowed their officiation in 168BC. The league in various forms lasted until the the early days of the Byzantine Empire. For people who may not know, the U.S. Consitution is, in many ways, based on the Carian League Bylaws. It is under these guises the matriarchal societies continue its intangible influence on the men-societies through-out the Asia-Minor.
     
    III. Thyssa Amazons
     
    Caucasus Albania is a term describes an ancient geographical domain around the Caucasus Gate by the Caspian Sea. This is not to be confused with the Albania in southern Europe, but it refers to the very border region between Europe and Asia. The Albani Amazons were the Amazons of Albania. They lost their homeland to the Geothe Amazon because of the Quarrel of The Guardians. The Albani ancestors were the matriarchal followers of the Aphrodite sect. For fifteen centuries, they and the Geothe, who represented Priestess Sisterhood of the Armtemis/Innana Sect, guarded the Caucasus Gates that protected the Ecumene Europa from the steppe incursions. When the Albani declined into orgiastic and wanton ways, disaster struck, and the Geothe Priesthood took over the control of the Caucasus Gates for the very survival of their own people.
     
    Henceforth, the Albani Amazon ceased to be their former selves, and become a semi-wondering people whom the Greek scholars referred to as the Thyssagetae. "Thys" means society or people, "Geta" means clan/army, with "geta-i" (Getae) means area ruled by such army, and "Sa-Getae" means White Army Land. The Thyssa Amazon is no longer ruled by their Priestess Caste, but instead a matriarchal hereditary monarchy is established, and their Priestess Sisterhood is replaced by shamans who also fulfill medicinal needs as well as midwife work amongst their people.
     
    The Thyssa controls important regions which demarcates forest steppe from the steppe, with abundant supplies of wood for fortification, and weapon components such as spear shaft, and arrow shafts. A common misconception is that the nomadic horse archers have abundant supplies of arrows. The truth is, the most horse archers can only afford two or three good arrows on her/his own. Without the wood-lathing technology, straight arrow shaft is painstakingly slow to make. Requires aging (as long as five years), curing, cutting, and trimming. A warped arrow shaft is as good as firewood for the camp, so unlike the spear shaft or javelins, arrow shafts are usually produced from highly developed weapon industry with large scale of processing, quality control, and skillful arrow smithing. And the Thyssa Amazon are one such faction which has both abundance of supply as well as the expertise and the facilities for such undertaking.
     
    At this point in time, the Thyssa Amazons are in possession of great swath of land. They have built the legendary cities of Gelon and Qabala. Gelon alone, is said to be a wooden walled city thousand times the size of the legendary city of Troy.
     
    They have mated for some generations now with the local Finnic people, and many have become red haired and even more light color eyed.
     
    The Thyssa Amazon maintained a proud tradition of mounted women cavalry warrior class. So their cavalry force are highly effective. The equestrian class were required to train and evolved their tactics. The Thyssa were therefore very much aware of the many tactical improvements made by their former rival, the Geothe Amazon. Many of the units are copies of the Geothe warriors. But they have long lost the secrets of the sacred fire and the horse breeding knowledge.
    Being rich in timber and woodcraft also allows them to equip their missile units with extra stores of arrows or javelins.
    The Thyssa Amazon also train their horses to lie down on th battlefield, this allows them to conceal some of their cavalry units on the battlefield.
     
    Strategically, the Thyssa Amazon have the benefit of being surrounded by squabbling neighbors, many of them are minor factions.
     
    They also have the advantage that the regions under their control are at the northern edge of the inhabited world, or Europa Ecumene. So there is no worry of threats from all sides.
     
    Like the Geothe Amazons, the Thyssa possess great knowledge in metal-craft, but their lack of iron resources is a great disadvantage. Only swords or dagger blades, spear tips, and most importantly, the arrowheads or bolt head are made of iron. The Thyssa did not have the knowledge of the beryllium bronze alloy, so their bronze armors are heavier and less effective.
     
    Their two neighbors, the Scythians and the Sarmatians are constant sources of menace to the Thyssa Amazon. But the worst fear of all, is the Geothe faction who possess knowledge that will end the world the rule of men.
     
    IV. Libyan Amazon
     
    From the time immemorial, the Amazon communities stretched from India to North Africa, from the Steppe of Asia to the Adriatic Sea, to the Pyrenees Mountains. It is all matriarchal societies linked together through chains of pony express like messenger system, or through secret outlets in the major sea ports with messages sent using maritime fleet of the Sea People. Bearing the fruit of its labor over the centuries, it become a secret federation of prosperity and cultural enlightenment, despite many conquests claimed by the men-societies, the raiding and the pillaging of the so-call the “Heroes” like Jason or Hercules, the Amazon Federation remain mostly hidden to the men-society and only a few in the Secret Sisterhood of Artemis and Aphrodite as well as the leaders of Sisterhood's military caste know the true extent of the vastness as well as the glory of its achievement. But gradually, all these greatness are being eroded by the encroachments of belligerent menfolks like the Assyrians, the Mycenaeans, the Dorian Greeks, the Asiatic Steppe nomads, the Massagetae, the Persians, and then Alexander, and his pretenders, the Diadochi.
     
    In time of great conflicts, or conquests of men-armies, the Amazon ran to their hidden fortifications they built over the centuries, like hidden city on the Isle of Lemnos, or the temple fortress on the Island of Hespera, the cave world in Caria, the wooden redoubt at Gelon, the riverbank garden at Tartessos, and the list of the places goes on and on. When the entire town or village got massacred or decimated by the men-armies, the refugees in the fortress would then re-emerge to rebuild their homes, and to restore their ways of life. In North Africa, the pattern has gone through similar repetition over the centuries, but all things changed when Queen Dido, who used to be a Priestess of the Amazon Sisters, return to her native home of Tyre with the Sea People and then founded the City of Carthage at the Northern shore of Libya. The land of Libya (the geographical location the Romans later called North Africa) has since forever been divided between the Libyan Amazons and the Carthaginians. And a cooperative coexistence ensued. But Carthage is all for the greed of trading, so instead of remaining hidden in the Amazonian way, it sets itself up in earnest to engage in commerce. And soon Carthage become the most important relay-trade-station for the sea traders in the lucrative trade between the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Mediterranean Seas. No other trading cities in the mid-Mediterranean, such as the Greek colonies in Sicily or southern Italia, is as successful as Carthage. While the Libyan Amazons remained hidden to the prying eye of all the visitors, whether they are traders or spies, both the Greeks and the Romans have become very envious of the Carthaginian wealth. When the Sea People finally squabbled between the Phoenician faction and the Carthaginian faction, the Libyan Amazons once again took refuge in their hidden temple fortress on the Isle of Hespera.
     
    Unbeknownst to Amazon Libyans, the Athenian Greeks, ever eager to set up a North African Trade Colony with the aim to take over the commercial revenue of the Carthaginians, had eye on the Island for some time now because it would make a perfect Athenian trading colony to compete against the City of Carthage. So while the Amazons take refuge in the temple fortress on the Hespera Island, with all their army away watching for a possible Phoenician invasion, the massive Athenian Greeks Expedition force landed on the Hesperides island and took the Libyan Amazons completely by surprise and the Athenian murdered all the living beings within the walls of the temple fortress, menfolks and the children included. All the priestesses except a handful who are away in the military are murdered and the entire library burnt to the ground. The Libyan Amazons had lost all their cultural roots, all the secret communication code books, the Amazon Stelae, and their the intellectual caste, plus their political leadership in just one fateful day.
     
    The catastrophic event forever severed the tie between the Libyan Amazons from the rest of the Amazonian Federation. The surviving members and its warriors ran deep into the African continent, and maintained a semblance of community along the edge of the great Sahara Desert. Amongst its military leaders, a junior officer Animone (meaning "Defender who is without fault") rose through the rank and became the leader of its people and the Queen of the Libyan Amazons. The Libyan Amazon had since lost its Priestess Caste and had become a hereditary monarchy ruled by Queen Animone's descendants. Its religions are part Egyptian (in the theology of Amon, the first true monotheistic preaching with which Alexander himself later embraced), part Greek, and part Phoenician.
     
    Centuries passed, on the year of Alexander's death, Queen Theseis of Libya paid a secret visit to the Temple of Amon at Siwa Oasis. The Oracle of Siwa, as in most oracles through out the Amazon land, was a front-organization with design to turn the Greeks' attention eastwards towards Persia, so as to leave the Libyan Amazons and the Carthaginians in peace. The Amazon Federation agent at the Oasis presented the Queen with the most alarming news, that the secret Amazon code thought long lost at Isle Hesperides during the Athenian raid has re-surfaced, and the Stelae are now being located by the sacred tree in the temple fortress ruin on the island of Hesperides. Those who are in possession of the code and know how to break the code, can amass enough technological advances to dominate the entire world and therefore to end the world of men. So for the past half a century, the Libyan Amazons have been quietly preparing to restore their domain to their former glory and to end the world of the men as we know it.
     
    In the year of 270BC, the Libyan Amazons are on the run again, with the Numidian, the Iberian, the Carthaginian, as well as the Egyptian hot on their heels. The Libyan must find a new homeland, and then plan its conquest to take back the temple fortress of Hesperides, in the hope that once it has the possession of the Stelae, where the secret code are inscribed, it can establish a relationship with another Amazon faction, it can then break the code and build a Libyan Empire along with a new army the world has never seen.

    [COLOR="DarkRed"]January 10th, added Far Eastern Celt background for Amazons Total War 7.0[/COLOR]

    V. Far Eastern Celt

    Far East Celts are the Celtic people who lived in the Far East Asia, they are also loosely known as the Tocharians, or Yuezhi by their Chinese Ally in the war against the Huns.
    From 2,000 years past, the Far East Celts had dwelled in the Ting Shan Mountain Range halfway between China and Scythia. In the past fifty years, the Hunnic Empire has forcefully "evicted" them from their ancestral homeland after terrible slaughters, so the Far East Celts have just settled in a region called the Tarim Basin. It is surrounded by Great Gobi Desert in the East and steep mountains in all other three directions.
    The Far East Celts' language and their appearance are every bit as their Western Celtic cousins, being tall with blonde hair and light colored eyes. But in so many ways, the Far East Celts are much more advanced than their western counterpart.
    They are the first people known to have domesticated horses. They also have highly advanced culture and industries.
    But unfortunate to the Far East Celts, none of their technology have been applied to war until the Hunnic aggression, and in many respects, they are perhaps the most peaceful and docile of all 'barbarians'.
    And just as their Hindu neighbors to the south, they would not likely start a war, unless being provoked first, but unlike their Aryan Hindu neighbors in the south, who advocated peace through strength and have established the largest army in the world in the recorded history up to this time to deal with any potential threats. In contrast, the Far East Celts are mostly ill prepared to wage any war. To make the matter worse, after the terrible conflict with the Huns and being forced out of their ancestral homeland, they are now severely deprived of menfolks. So their army is made of mostly women and even girls.
    Like the Western Celts, only taller and heavier, their men can be as tall as 6 foot and 6 inches (195cm) and even their women can reach 6 foot tall (180cm) as well.
    This presents a recruitment disadvantage for their cavalry, because only their most petite women or girl can ride light horses. And the men, however few are left, need to go to war on specially bred heavy horses, and this factor makes their men cavalry prohibitively expensive. Because of their technological advances, however, the Far East Celts are experts at wagon warfare. So their short fall of cavalry is more than made up by the fact that most of their fighting are done using the battle wagons and chariots.
    Being at the crossroad of Asia and Europe, the Far East Celt also has a variety of exotic military units, such as camels riders, and Indian Elephants troops, and so on.
     
    But a quite unique military unit of their own is the Linked Armor-Clad Cavalry. This is consisted of heavily armored horses linked together by either yoke or chains, 4-20 horses abreast. This is done so the horses will not swerve around the enemy formation during a charge and instead will assault the enemy formation head-on. Even if one of the horses is mortally wound during the onslaught, the momentum of the whole unit can not be stopped, this usually ended up in completely smashing through of the enemy formation they are up against. The linked Armor-Clad Cavalry, often misnomered to be linked cataphract, also has side benefit of requiring only one or two riders per rank (or team) of horses, so as short of manpower as the Far East Celts are, this tactical arrangement fits into their situation perfectly.
    Further more, such cavalry unit does not require advanced cultural development to be recruited, and as such, they can be deployed early in the campaign.

    Strategy:
    The Far East Celt has finally had a break from the Huns, now being isolated from them by the Great Gobi Desert, and they now called the Tarim Basin their new home. To the south, sheltered by the world's highest mountains, the largest army in the world with 90,000 war elephants is guarding the Indian Subcontinent from anyone who dare to provoke them. In the west, the Massagetaes, once a powerful empire, now became no more than a renegade province of the Seleucids, but they still possess a powerful mobile army. And because of the high mountains to the North and the great desert to the East, the only way for the Far East Celt to expand is to go westward and this can only be done by building up an army powerful enough to overcome the Massagetae army.

    12
    Amazons: Total War / Weapons of Amazons Total War 7.0
    « on: January 23, 2013, 09:09:36 AM »
    This is a compilation of unique weapons and special tactical units of Amazon Total War 7.0.

    1. Area Denial Weapon - similar to minefields, first on RTW mods
    • - Tribulus/Caltrop
    • - field booby-trap
    • - field incendiary mines
    2. Mounted Vehicular Units
    • - Horde Wagons
    • - Amazon longbow chariots
    3. Mounted Assault Units
    • - War Wagons
    • - Linked Armor Clad Cavalry, sometimes misnomered as Linked Cataphract
    • - Infantry supported assault chariot (still being developed)

    4. Stand off weapons (mostly from 6.0)
    • - Double Bow, or Double Draw Bow
    • - lead shot with iron casing
    • - Large Composite Bow
    • - Giant Composite Bow
    • - Giant Double Composite Bow
    • - Large Double Composite Bow
    • - Mano Ballista
    • - Pole Sling
    • - carro-ballistae
    • - wagon mounted catapult

    5. Stand-off projectile
    • - Pyro-Thermite-jar
    •        hand thrown or pole-sling thrown
    •        ballistae launched

    6. Close Combat Units and Weapons
    • - Halberd Cavalry
    • - Double handed long swords
    • - Pole Axe

    Stand-off Weapons

    Double-Bow

    which is in use by many units in the Amazon factions in this mod. This is a weapon appeared in ancient Hindu as well as Persian manuscripts. The deployment of such weapon is perhaps much more ancient than the date of the manuscripts. The primary advantage of the double-bow is to allow archers with shorter arms (or equestrian with confined space such as on the horseback or on a chariot) to achieve parity against bow of longer draw. The simple physics is that the longer the draw of the bow, the faster and farther the arrow (or missile) will go. The other way to make the missile to go faster with shorter draw is to add more poundage onto the bow. As the poundage increases, however, the limbs and the bowstring will go through much faster rate of wear and tear and therefore break down much more frequently. The archer shooting higher poundage bow will also get tired quicker in battle than an archer pulling two strings (of lesser poundage) twice. So the Double-Bow, or the Double Draw Bow is introduced as a solution.

    The double bow has one riser (the static, none-flexing part of the bow which also doubles as a grip) but with two separate sets of limbs (or prods, as it was commonly called in ancient time). Unlike the modern compound bow with split limbs, each set of limbs has its own separate bow string.

    To shoot the bow, the archer first draws one bowstring to a hook on the gorget (neck armor), she then draws the second bow string onto the same hook. The archer then attach either a shaft as a guide, if she is shooting the stone, lead block, or as in Amazon Total War - Reignited mod, iron-casing filled with lead. Or she would attach an arrow with special nock onto both of the bowstrings. Once the projectile is in place, the drawing hand then took over the hook and release both bow strings at once.

    For archer who is not wearing armor, such as the Finnic Amazon Archers in the mod, she would use a metal bite, and use their teeth to hold the bite while drawing bow strings. The bite has a smooth shape protrusion which functions as a hook, and the bowstrings are nocked onto the hook, while their teeth are holding the hook!

    The bow is actually designed to shoot stone, lead block, or as in the case of this game-mod, iron-casing filled with lead, but usually not the regular arrows, because the nock of an arrow for such a bow must be specially made to allow the arrow to be attached to both bowstrings at once. Such custom made part is a very expensive proposition in the ancient days. Whereas, if the bow is shooting a stone or a lead block, a bare arrow shaft, or multiple shafts binded together is used as a guide, and the projectile is launched using the binded shaft(s)s as a rail. In the Amazon Reignited mod, the Geothe Amazon archers shoot iron-casings the size of a thumb (1.25inch diameter, 3 inches long), which is filled inside with lead. The tail-end of the cylindrical casing is fluted to allow the missile to spin in the air, so this in effect, become an ancient form of rifling armor piercing bullet.

    Large Composite Bow

    A regular composite bow is for archer to draw naturally, such that her draw length is the length measured from her chin to her shoulder plus the length of her arm. In preparing for war, the military planner would sought ways to improve the range of their warrior's missile weapons. The simplest way is to equip the archer with larger bow, and ask her to draw the bowstring passing her chin. Composite bow is easier to increase in size as well as draw-weight than a one-piece wooden bow. Because the increased stress on larger bow can be matched by adding laminating material on the reflexing side of the bow to strengthen its structural integrity, whereas, the one piece wooden bow is limited by the strength of the wood.

    The large composite bow would allow the archer to draw the bowstring to the opposite shoulder, so as to allow 25%-35% increase in energy. This would translate to harder hitting arrow or slightly longer range (about 10-15%).

    Giant Composite Bow

    When the larger size composite bow is not hard hitting enough. There is the giant composite bow. The archer would draw the bow string past her chin and then past her other shoulder, and the draw stops with her drawing arm fully extended up to her drawing arm's elbow. The giant composite bow can be dangerous to the foe, and to the shooter alike, because it is easy for a novice archer to knock off her own ear or nose if the bow string is not released with the proper shooting form.

    As dangerous and as difficult to aim as it can be, the giant composite bow increases the draw length by 75% and the range of the missile is increased by 35%.

    One of the major disadvantage of the Giant Composite bow shooting arrows as its projectile, is the limited amount of arrow-store an archer can carry with her. It is not necessarily a matter of weight, more pressingly it is matter of the volume, because the arrow for such bow would be the size of small javelin, an archer can only afford enough carrying space to carry 10-15 reloads with her, before the load gets cumbersome, wheather she is on horseback or on foot.

    Giant Double Composite Bow

    Of the most freakish horse archery missile weapon in the antiquity must be the giant double composite bow. The archer must have a perfect shooting form, and using a special bite in her mouth, she is able to draw the bow to her opposite (drawing arm's) elbow. She would then use the special bite which has a long extension and double as a launch rail. The length of the extension is usually measured to half of the archer's shoulder width, plus the arm length up to her elbow.

    To shoot the weapon, the archer first securely place the bite in her mouth with the long extension pointing opposite of her bow arm, she then extends her bow arm fully, and draw the first bow string past her chin, then past the opposite shoulder, and when her drawing arm is fully extended except at the elbow, she has to find and place the bowstring onto the end of the mouth extension (the nocking point) while she is biting down the bite, along with the extension, to hold off the drawing weight of the bowstring. She then draws the second bowstring to the same spot. so now with her mouth biting down hard to hold both bow strings at the end of the mouthpiece, she somehow has to place the projectile at the nocking point. Her drawing hand now slowly replacing the hold of the bowstrings on the mouth piece, and she would then adjust the aim, then release the missile.

    The Giant Double Composite Bow can almost double the range of regular composite bow, but it would be difficult to shoot an arrow with it because it is impossible to place and nock the arrow onto the bowstrings and replace the hold from the mouth piece onto the drawing hand, all of the steps with the archer not able to look at the nocking point. So the Giant Double Compsite Bow must be shot with stone, lead block, or lead ingot, or iron-casing shot filled with lead.

    Large Double Composite Bow

    Of all the technological quests in the ancient time to allow horse archer to shoot missiles farther with harder hitting power. The Large Double Composite Bow is perhaps the most rational weapon. It uses double sets of limbs and double bowstrings, plus an anchor point on the shoulder, so the archer would draw her bowstring past her chin, and keep on pulling until she can place the bowstring onto the shoulder armor plate on her opposite shoulder. There is a hook on the shoulder armor plate which is polished and smoothed so as not to cut the bowstring, the archer would place the bowstrings, either one at the time or two of them together, and place the strings onto the hook. The archer would then place the projectile (be it arrow or pyro-jar, or lead ingot, or iron casing) either on the rail, or on the bow string and release both of the bowstrings with her drawing hand.

    Another advantage of the LDCB is that if the archer has two nocking hooks attached to either side of her shoulder armor, she would be able to easily shoot the bow ambidextrously on the horseback.

    Amazon Mano Ballista

    By name it implies this weapon is a man-portable ballista. Contrary to popular belief, this is a very different weapon from a crossbow. A mano-ballista uses torsion spring mechanism whereas a crossbow uses compression spring mechanism.

    On the mano ballista, there is no limb or prod that flexes to store energy. Instead, there is a pair of metal or wooden rods each is insert into its own turret like rotary wheel. Each wheel is tightly bound with sinew or hair. or if the advanced metalsmithing is available, metal torque spring, the weapon, in its common form would otherwise resembles a crossbow, except the rod does not flex, and the spring power came from the sinew, hair strains, or rotary metal torque spring on the rotary wheels.
    The real advantage of the mano-ballista is the fact that the weapon can be rapidly mass-produced. Whereas a composite bow takes 5 years for the laminated layers of glue to cure, the mano-ballista can be quickly assembled and deployed if all the components are available. It is also more powerful and accurate (ie. less variation on the speed of the missile) than most limb flexing bows. But it takes longer to draw and to shoot and some designs are more cumbersome to carry.

    So here we are describing the Amazon Mano-Ballista, and the main difference is its loading method. The mano-ballista archer on horseback would place one end of Mano-Ballista onto the sole of one of her sandals. She would then pull the launching rope/string back with one arm, while her foot is holding the other end of the mano-ballista, and in effect, "cock" the ballista in one pull. She would then level the weapon and place the projectile on the launching string pouch, aim the weapon and shoot. The sequence is almost as fast as shooting a regular horse bow. But the weapon is far more powerful because the drawing method with a foot and a hand can assert much more force and put more energy into the mano-ballista than a bow or smaller mano-ballista drawn with just two hands.

    There is often a misconception that only the Greeks, and later the Romans, have such technology to make the mano-ballista in 270BC. If we look further east to the Orient, the entire army of the King Chu of China, of approximately 300,000 soldiers, is outfitted with crossbows, catapult, and mano-ballistae as early as 480BC at all level of their army.

    Caro Ballista

    This is the same carriage ballista from the RTW/BI, but fires the powerful pyro-thermite-jar to long range. Missile launching platform like this is actually fairly common, because the Amazon and many people of the Caucasus of their time are, from period to period, wandering wagon people.

    Pole-Sling

    In release 6.0a and later, a new weapon has been introduced called the pole-sling. In a general way, the Roman Onager, so proliferated in the RTW game, is a supersized pole-sling.

    From the anthropological perspective, the original pole-sling was probably deployed in combat when combatants ran out of spearshafts. Wooden shaft is not as easy to manufacture in the ancient days. The wood needs to be inspected for defects, stored and cured for about 5 years, hewn to the correct shape, fire-hardened, then coated with varnish.

    But very often when an army is equipped (or given) with greenwood javelin or spear, and it did happen in history, they would find the wooden shaft buckle when thrusted against the opponent, and depending on the weather the shafts would warp over time, making accurate placement of hit (be it spear or javelin) a much more difficult proposition. The fitting of greenwood with spear shaft would also resulted in loose fit and often the spear tip would fall off the shaft when the user least expected.

    In the Roman record, there were two legions which are armed with plumbata (leadened darts), each dart is about 60cm in length. But the record also stated that the Plumbata can be launched to great distance, such that the legionaires no longer need archer support. The only plausible way such heavy weapon can be launched by a single soldier on the move to such distance (120meter-180meter), is the use of pole sling.
    But there is one advantage of greenwood or flexiwood, that it makes a great pole sling. So if we can visualize an army with greenwood shafted javelin or spear. They are far better off using the greenwood as a pole sling and their spear tip (or lead block that fits onto the end of the shaft) as sling missile weapons than engage their opponent with handheld spears, or hand-thrown javelins.


    Stand-off Projectiles

    Fluted Iron-Casing filled with Lead

    The making of arrow shaft is not as simple in the antiquity as it is today. So it is actually more economical to shoot stone, lead block, or lead ingot witha bow. Lead can be easily melted and measured and made to the precise weight and shape, than a long piece of wooden shaft, which must be aged, cured, inspected, then hewed or lathed to guarantee the straightness of the shaft. The lead is also a more ballistically efficient material than wood, and will shoot farther and retain more velocity at long range, with the compromise that it is a higher density projectile, so its initial velocity is slower than the wooden arrow. The iron-casing is used during war time to allow the missile to become armor piercing. One benefit of iron+lead combination is that, as the iron-casing goes through shield or armor, the kinetic energy of the missile is suddenly translated into heat, so the impact of the missile also allows the iron to heat up the lead so as to turn the lead into toxic vapor or liguid, while the iron-casing is still penetrating through the target.

    Pyro-Jar

    This is an ancient weapon which can be used either as a grenade or as a ballista launched projectile (like an ancient form of rifle grenade).

    This is not simply an incendiary weapon. The main difference is that incendiary weapon merely causes fire, whereas, the thermite weapon superheats the target it impacts and turn it (the target) into combustable fuel.

    The ancient form of thermite jar is an earthen jar the size of a small milk bottle. Prior to launch or throwing, a small piece of iron spike is inserted or affixed at the bottom of the jar. The spike has an iron stop against the jar in such fashion that, once airborne and impact on a surface, the iron spike which hits the impact surface first would be pushed back and its backend stop would split the bottom of the jar and thereupon breaking the jar. The iron spike also double as a ballistic stabilizer, because it is heavier in density than the jar, it would land first on impact. And the combination of iron spike with the jar will minimized the chance of the projectile to tumble or wobble during flight.

    The jar is filled with thermite material in the form of phosphor isolated in a special non-oxygenated liquid, with the tail-end of the jar filled with magnesium and rust. The idea of thermite is to create a super-heated thermal reaction to 2,500 degree Celsius. A small milk bottle sized jar would super-heat a frontage about 16 square-foot, and turn everything which normally do not burn, into combustable fuel (hence the definition of thermite), that includes shield, armor (iron or bornze), clothing, and flesh. At that temperature, rust, as well as water (remember that human body is 95% liquid, 55-60% pure water) will become an oxidizing agent for the ignition and thereafter the highspeed combustion of the target area. The rest is just gory details. From a tactical stand point of view, thermite weapon is much more lethal against armored target, than normal incendiary weapon in antiquity.

    As to the manufacturing of the ingredients (warning-people don't try this at home), it is a much less glamorous task. Phosphor, for example, can be extracted and isolated from urine, and human body has an amazing amount of phospher needed for cell membrane functions, as in phospholipids. Magnesium can be mined naturally from magnesite, a magnesium carbonate mineral. Rust can be any metalic rust.

    Vehicular Units

    Ancient proto-Europeans (aka Proto-Indo-European [PIE] such as Alans, Germans, Norse, Celt, Goths, and so on) are often wagon wandering people, so it is not surprising that the symbol most often associated with PIE is that of a spoke wheel (wagon wheel). And the it is also not surprising that their wagons could be used in warfare. However, this mod is not depicting the wagons as forts (aka tabor or laager), because the laager as a wagon fort can be easily implemented with fort animation using wagons as fort walls (we will add that later). The new wagons as weapons added are to depict offensive use of the wagon, in effect, use of them as the world's first heavy tanks, long before the elephant was first used in warfare.

    [By the way, the anthropology theses this mod team is advancing state that the same PIE in matriarchal society are at least some of the Amazons the Greeks are referred to. The reason the Greeks only saw women riders were because women were the only warriors small/petite enough to ride on most of the ancient horses over a certain distance away from their base (wagon fort?) of operation. It is not unusual that the advancing scouts from many nomadic tribes would ride up to two hundred some miles ahead of their wagon trains. And it is also possible that their leader is with the scouting company to reconnoiter the terrain as well as to survey the nearby sedentary people. Hence the Greeks mentioning of Amazon Queen(s), either riding into battle to Troy or raiding the Balkans. For the Amazons to "invade" Greece, their wagon train must stay near what is today's central/west Turkish plains because from the east of Phrygia or Caria, it is too mountainous for the large wagon to pass the mountain passes without building proper roads, not to mention these wandering folks would need proper wagons with brakes. And of course the wagon people have no boats to transport their large wagons over the Dardanelles Strait either, so the Greeks only saw their scouts and not surprisingly, they are all women, because women are the only riders who can stay on the horseback this long distance away from their base without the horses getting tired. Not that men are not better equestrians, but it is an economy of operation and a matter of survival. After all, the horses with smaller payload would run away from danger much faster than the horses with bulkier load.]

    War Wagon

    This is not a chariot and does not need the maneuverability either. But it can be fast, nearly indestructible and carry with each wagon a great deal of fire power.

    Horde Wagon

    This gives the horde faction some units they can be using as replacement for heavy infantry, but can also be used as medium cavalry to pursue slow enemy who is running away.

    Infantry Heavy Chariot

    This is from the ancient central Asian and Chinese scripts about using heavy Chariot with assigned infantry (sort of like the use of infantry support tank in WWII), whereby, when assaulting the enemy field formations, the infantry would follow the chariot closely on foot and when the chariot charges into the enemy formation to create a breach, the infantry that followed will try to exploit the breach.

    Mounted Assault Units

    Linked Armor Clad Cavalry

    This is described in Tangut and Khitan records, and the use of such cavalry is perhaps many many centuries earlier. The idea is to link the armored horses 4-20 together with chains or yoke, and to form an unbreakable rank which will not allow individual horses to swerve around the enemy formation but will charge head on into it, so as to smash the enemy formation. The Jurchen deployed such units in the battlefield and it was nearly invincible. Each rank only need a rider or two to rein in the horses and they would carry halberd and/or composite bow to suppress the enemy's attempts to engage them from the flanks or rear.

    From anthropologically analysis, this unit tactics is likely born out of desperation and it was probably meant as a stop-gap measure at its earlier conception. Possibilities are

    1. An industrious people (nation) lost a significant battle, or a series of great setback, such that they do not have enough cavalry soldiers to man their available heavily armored horses.
    2. Not typical of most nomadic people of Central Asia at 2-4th century BC, they have powerful horses, probably results of advanced animal husbandry program.
    3. They might have difficult time finding cavalry soldiers in the first place. Such as their equestrians are too tall or heavy for even "large" war-mount, a relative term for their day.

    Facing with prospect of either renewed enemy hostility, or new military threat, most likely from the Hunnic aggression (really the only menace of Central Asia in 2nd-3rd century BC), someone came up with the idea to link the armored  (or perhaps at first, unarmored) horses together in a rank 4-20 (depends on the terrain of the battle field, in Amazon TW 7.0 mod, it is only depicted with 4 horses linked together), with one or two cavalry soldiers manning each "team", or rank, of linked horses. The result must have been a spectacular success. For many Central Asian powers with reasonable degree of technological development began to copy such cavalry unit in earnest.

    In the Amazon Total War 7.0 mod, the Far East Celt faction is the only faction who has access to Linked Armor Clad Cavalry units. This is not based on record, but on reasonable deduction of logic. Because they are the only people who really met all the criteria as stated above.

    1. They suffered major defeat at the hands of the Huns, such that their king was slain and the entire people, or what is left of them, were forced out of their ancestral home of Ting-Shang Mountain and moved to the Tarim basin (nowadays the Chinese North Western Frontier).
    2. Like their western Celtic cousins, they are tall stock of people (recovered male mummies from archaeological digs are as tall as 6 foot and 6 inches). This makes it very difficult to find suitable war mounts for their men cavalry.
    3. They are very industrious people and are also now being credited as the first people who domesticated horses with their own horse breeding program.
    4. After the Far East Celts settled down at the Tarim Basin for sometimes, the Huns have now located the Far East Celt's whereabouts, but even after the Huns have overrun the other people, some of them in the same geographical vicinity, they left the Far East Celt alone, as if something magically happened such that the Huns became afraid of the Far East Celts. Now we have to remember at this time the Huns are at the zenith of their power, really the largest empire on earth at the time.

    Compare to the other heavy cavalry units, the Linked Armor Clad Cavalry is more economical than elephants and requires less soldier to man, and can traverse more rough terrain than chariots.

    13
    Amazons: Total War / Amazons Total War 7.0beta Released
    « on: January 22, 2013, 09:05:10 PM »
    Hi,

    I am Parthian Shot, I am the mod leader for Amazons: Total War. The latest 7.0 release is the 2nd sequel to Subrosa's outstanding Amazon: Total War mod. It requires Rome Total War with Barbarian Invasion 1.6 (or Rome Total War Gold Edition) to play.

    Unlike many fantasy or yet-another Greco-Roman mods of RTW/BI, The 7.0 mod allows players to explore many modern military concepts in the battlefields of antiquity.

    Such as

    - Mobility and stand-off weapon capabilities using women cavalry units.
    - Area Denial "minefield" deployed by Roman field engineering unit.
    - Guerrilla Warfare, allowing agent to be sent into enemy territory to raise an army deep behind the enemy line.
    - Long Range Mobile Artillery, allowing artillery barrage, fire support, as well as fire suppression.
    - Wagon Warfare, allow combat not dissimilar to WWII German Panzer tactics, as espoused by Gen. JFC Fuller.
    - Linked Armor-Clad Cavalry, a formidable cavalry formation used in Eurasia for centuries, first time depicted on any video game.
    - Terrifying Super-heating Incendiary weapons known in modern military parlance as the Thermite Munitions.

    Other Features

    - Extended campaign map, now including Eurasia and Northern India.
    - Quest based game playing. Player must fulfill faction specific mission to advance to higher cultural level.
    - Breath taking scenery using custom RS II battlemap.
    - Because ancient horses are mostly 12 hands tall (48 inches, or 120cm), this mod added a great deal of women equestrian units to fully explore mobility issue on the battlefield.
    - New faction such as Far Eastern Celt, based on latest archaeological finds and extensive anthropological studies, first time on any video games.
    - Balanced Unit Modeling (or. B.U.M.):Unit's recruitment infrastructure, cost, appearance, and capability must have direct relationship.

    To download please click the dowload link here: http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?t=575356
    and remember to read the warning.

    Shown below is a demo video for Amazons Total War: [if you think the video is helpful, please "like" the video]

     Not a valid youtube URL
    If exilian would like to host this mod, please contact me via email.

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