Amazons: Total War 7.0 Screen Shots

[Parthian Shot]

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.

[Parthian Shot]

Geothe Amazon Longbow Archer from 7.0C

The gears are similar to the Amazon mercenary longbow archers depicted above, except a great deal of equipment are using copper alloy instead of iron. The best armor grade copper alloy is about 90% hardness of the best of modern day armor grade steel, and it would not rust away as easily as the iron gears. So a unit deployed using copper alloy armor but using iron sword or iron encased, or iron tipped projectile, has lower maintenance cost than a fully iron geared unit, but just as effective.

The model shows the front loin cloth, as skirt was not in fashion, as a matter of fact, the skirt was only worn by very few men in certain part of the world, but not at all by women of the time. Fashion in 300BC is limited by the fact that fabrics are woven entirely by hand without advanced tools such as spinning wheels (with the exception of Far East Celt which is one of the Amazon Total War factions (depicted first in Amazons Total War), who has been using such tools, and so did the ancient Chinese). Even with the "industrial" societies (usually utilizing slave labor exploitation) in Greece,  Italia, and many parts of Europe, most women prefer one piece fabrics (chiton for example) arranged in a variety of ways. And such fashion clearly has its utilitarian purposes. As a single piece of garment can be easily adjusted for changing body dimensions.
And the most favored clothing, where they are available, is componentized animal pelt. And in warm weather, or in a life-or-death combat, the less clothing is the preference.

In ancient time, the concept of being naked is not a degrading moral issue as it is today. The word, gymnasium, for example, means a place to get naked, and it means being naked for both men and women who are in the gym. Most sports are engaged without anyone wearing any clothing, as are the athletes in the ancient Olympic Games. A properly trained military unit will not allow non-regulatory clothing to interfere with the weapon drill or combat performance. So either they were issued with uniform designed for such activities (read, a very expensive unit), or they are using their own gears (peasants or some militia units and therefore very cheap), or they are issued with faction's gear but not wearing anything which can jeopardize their survival on the battlefield (read, a unit with reasonable cost, but being naked other than their issued gears).


The model is also wearing a pair of garter chain-mails, these are more for the heavy infantry or cavalry who need armor protection against missile strike or weapon blow against their lower limbs. The garter chain mail limits the movement of the wearer and must worn with suspender straps (not shown), but it is ideal for cavalry to protect themselves from close-quarter infantry attack. But it will not be effective against a stabbing thrust of a spear or a sword.

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

[Parthian Shot]

Amazon Elite Scout


Though the scouts are similar in appearance as the longbow archers, as the armor, the double-bows, and swords they are issued are the same. The Elite Scout unit has military insignia(s) on their helmets, usually something easy to identify on the battlefield and frightful to the enemy.


In case of the Geothe Amazon, their scout has a pair of wings mounted on top of their helmets. Hence their nickname "winged maidens".


The scout does not use arrows, they carry a pair of arrow shafts as a rail component, and shoots iron encased lead cylindrical block about the diameter of a thumb with the iron casing ended with a sharp tempered tip. The other end section of the iron casing is fluted so as to cause fast spinning of the projectile during the flight. The fast spin stabilizes the projectile and the missile's external ballistics is not dissimilar to modern day armor-piercing bullets. So instead of carrying a back quiver, the scout carries hip ammo-container which allows her to have 60+ shots of such missiles. This affords the scout a very good stand-off capability.


In contrast, the regular longbow archers are very limited in the amount of arrows they can carry, because of their over sized double-bow requires arrows with extra long shafts and larger diameters to cope with the correct spine stiffness. Once their limited amount of arrows ran out, they will lose their stand-off capability, so they either have to withdraw from the battlefield or charge the enemy with their swords.


In comparison, the initial velocity of the iron encased lead cylinder is slower than the longbow archer's long arrow. But because of its superior ballistic coefficient, iron encased lead cylinder retains more velocity at much longer range. and that terminal velocity is the key for better anti-armor capability at distance. Whereas, at long range, the longbow arrow would lose so much velocity such that it will not be able to penetrate armor or shield but the iron encase lead shot will still go through enemy's armor or shield.


As for the cost comparison of shooting lead cylinder vs. shooting an arrow: As the Amazon Total War weapon whitepaper stated, to function properly, an arrow's wooden shaft must be selected, and cured for 2-5 years, re-inspected, and then precision hewn or lathed to guarantee straightness. It was then attached to the arrow head which need tempering, and then carefully fletched with feather or with thin woven reeds. To guarantee the accuracy, the concentricity of the three components (arrowhead, shaft, and fletch+nock) must be re-checked. Then the evenness of the fletch inspected, because any uneven fletching will cause the arrows to spin into helical trajectory which reduces its terminal velocity. So even with the faulty arrows rejected or relegated to training purposes, to be effective, the arrow-smith industry requires the availability of quality wood supply, a great amount of controlled storage, a team of knowledgeable experts, a great number of skilled crafts people, and careful planning to be able to maintain a steady supply of arrows for combat deployment.


Whereas, the lead can be mined and easily purified by melting and then formed into lead cylinders with ingots, which make each cylinder almost guaranteed in weight. For war time deployment, however, the iron casing would be applied, which increase the complexity of the manufacturing process, nevertheless, the casing is still cheaper than the cost of making an armor-piercing arrowhead.


The scout still retain the tradition of carrying the sword on her should strap. Using back quiver and carrying sword in the back is actually preferred over carry quiver or sword on the hip. With the scout and other units shooting iron cased lead as exceptions, back quiver allows faster draw of arrow. And shoulder strapped sword gives the soldier easier access and allows the sword to strike once it is out of the scabbard.


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