Utility: Armament Reference/Partial Mod

[HoneyBadger]

Right now, this is just a jumble of ideas that have not been fully formed. Please take it with more than a single grain of salt, and as an unfinished, unpolished project.

As for it's purpose, this is a thread to gather together my ideas regarding the cross-Nation standardization, primarily, of personal weapons and armour in the game, as a guide for my own mod balancing, and hopefully as a guide for anyone else interested in making their own mod Nations. It will start with all the basic types of weapons and armour in the game, and then extrapolate from there, into a whole that I hope will be as holistic as possible.

Different technological progression will also be taken into consideration.

To give examples: Middle era Ulm being the supposed height of human metallurgy, will be compared to the supposed smithing abilities of the dwarfs in the game (superhuman, but still partially grounded in technology), and then to the other partially to wholely magical materials, substances, and etc. All other human metalworking will be compared to MA Ulm, and will only find peers among the best LA equipment, individual items such as the equipment of heroes/generals, and Forged items.

Materials will also be compared to each other, and defined separately, based on their individual worth.

Bronze will be compared to iron/steel, with the supposition that bronze is generally inferior as a weapon material, except for blunt instruments, but superior as an armour material. Iron will be considered the worst (but least expensive) of the three, but "cold iron" may gain some potency over magical beings, and perhaps demons. Steel will be subdivided into levels of quality, with even the most generic Ulm black steel near the top.

Copper, silver, and gold will all be defined as "magical" designations, rather than descriptions of their absolute contents. While in real life, a sword made of gold would be desireable only as a tradegood, in the game it is a potent magical weapon. That's useful canon. Silver ofcourse has long had supernatural connotations, and it only makes sense to continue that tradition, while copper has similar, if more subtle and more primitive, connotations.

Other magical materials will be included as well, not out of pretense, but again as a reference base. In this, historical mythology will be my guide as much as possible, with the addition of more modern fantasy and my own imagination, where I feel it will further the cause.

The current game statistics will be used as a starting point, but will be considered only semi-reliable, for balancing considerations.

As much historical reference as possible will be given for each item, and I'm going to strive to make the list as complete, and as historically accurate (considering the inevitability that this will branch out into the realm of mythology and fantasy atleast somewhat) as possible.


I'll start with a discussion of missle weapons, because I find them the most difficult to keep track of when modding.

Sling
Cestrus (heavy leather sling, fires a manufactured dart instead of a stone-Macedonian)
Fustibale (staff sling, more powerful and accurate than a sling, can fire an iron or lead shot)

Atlatl (spear thrower)
Woomera (spear thrower)

Basic types of bow (more or less generally available):
Shortbow (small basic bow made from a single piece of wood)

Reflex bow (powerful but short, highly curved bow)

Selfbow (medium bow made from a single piece of wood)

Flatbow (longer bow with no recurve)

Recurve bow (more powerful curved bow)

Longbow (long, powerful selfbow)

Horsebow (medium laminated bow designed for horseback)

Greatbow (longer, thicker, more powerful curved longbow)

Special types of bow:
Bushbow (small crude/very basic selfbow, smaller than shortbow)

Pellet Bow (small bow, fires sling pellet)

Cabled Bow (medium selfbow reinforced with a cable)

Hankyu (laminated asymetrical short bamboo bow-Japanese)

Yumi (laminated asymetrical medium bamboo bow-Japanese)

Daikyu (laminated asymetrical long bamboo bow-Japanese)

Hwal (composite reflex horn bow-Korean)

Parthian bow (recurved composite bow-for purposes of the game, a generic name for an upgraded Asian composite bow, variations of which were used by the Mongols, Turks, Parthians, Huns, Persians, and others.)

Elephant bow (largest, most powerful bow, laminated-African)

Note: The best (possibly magical) selfbows/longbows may be made from yew, a wood with mythological significance. Also, magical bows might be manufactured from such materials as stone, ala the Iliad/Odyssey.

Basic types of crossbow:
Pistol-bow (hand crossbow, may be used on foot or on horseback)

Belly-bow (primitive crossbow)

Ferengi (foot-cranked medium wooden crossbow made from composite materials)

Cranequin Bow (medium crossbow designed to be used from horseback)

Lockbow (medium crossbow)

Arbalest (heavy crossbow)

Seige Arbalest (heaviest single-shot crossbow)

Special types of crossbow:

Chu-ku-no (light repeating crossbow)

Manuballista (heavy repeating crossbow)

Stone bow (light crossbow designed to fire stones or small bullets)

Bullet Arbalest (heavy crossbow designed to fire bullet shots)

Discus Bow (medium crossbow designed to fire forged discs of razor-sharp metal)

Double Bow (heavy under/over crossbow designed to fire two bolts in succession)

Arcuballista (extremely heavy personal crossbow designed to fire three bolts at once)

Seasling (waterproof crossbow designed for underwater use, has a short range and low power)