MA: Al-Murrah: Desert Dwellers

[Starshine_Monarch]

Pretty much everything really. I'll think up the stats for the units and send you the sprites and all you'd have to is plug them in. I can make new sprites for the Jinn and Ifrit you have as well. As I said before I really appreciate your help, Dr.

Also I've been wondering. Equipment for units has a set resource cost now, so does it automatically add the item's resource cost to a unit when it is coded in? (Ex. Say a weapon I make up costs 4 resources and I say the unit I put t on costs 1 resource. When I play the game, will the unit cost 5 resources or 1?)

[DrPraetorious]

The resource costs are figured automatically.

In general, all human units should have an intrinsic resource cost of 1, except for heavy cavalry, who pay something like 15-20 resource points for barding, which you have to input yourself.

[Wizzil]

Can i suggest some ideas, being an arab myself i find it weird the game is lacking a distinct arabic faction (its a great game nonetheless), and i find this mod really interesting.

I'll list 3 ages to reflect some history, Tribal (Early), Imperial/Caliphate (Middle), and Taifa (Late).

For the Early Age(Tribal Age) the Al Murrah are a tribal confederation, with units more or less exclusively arab (reflecting on actual history)

Tribal Warband:basic infantry unit armed with swords, leather armor, javelins and large wooden shields.

Shiekh: Though i like your description, i'd still say sheikhs vary, some of them are warlike and like to lead from the frontlines and some hang in the back preferring to not fight.

Ansari: Remain unchanged, good light cavalry.

Camel Riders: unchanged, your description fits.

For the Imperial/Caliphate age, the Al Murrah start augmenting their army with non-arab, and slave troops as mentioned above Dervish (mountain people, primarly kurds) and Mameluke (turkish slave troops), though if you wouldn't mind i have better sacred name versions:

Sacred version of the Dervish could be the Serwan Peshmerga (Death Soldier) they reach a point where they totally cast away any fears they have and are pretty much crazy naked berserkers.

Sacred version of Mamelukes can be Fursan Al Halqa (Knights of the Ring, literally), a better armored version of their predecessor and improved generally.

Jund: Better armed armored version of tribal warbands.

Cataphracts: Heavily armored riders, though not to be confused with byzantine or sassanid ones, the arabian ones had leather lamellar armor mostly and leather barding.

To reflect the Caliphates centralisation, units will be lead by Qaed(Captain) which is an upgraded sheikh.

For the last age the Taifa, the Al Murrah have degenerated and become squabbling kingdoms of princes (Amir) and governors (Wali) without a central leader, they rely mostly on mercenaries and primarily non-native troops. Mamelukes and Dervish units will be present, aswell as:

Askari: drilled and organised heavy infantry, they use spears, metallic shields and chainmail or iron lamellar.

Lancer: armored with chainmail, lance and adarga shield (heart shaped shield)

Thats about it for now, these are just some ideas i have gathered for this mod to be used or not at all, i'm pretty new at the game and i have no idea how i could balance this all, so i'll leave it for the mod author to assign whatever he sees fit. If you like this, i'll provide more information with mythological units such as Djinns, Selbouhs, Ghuls, Ifreet etcetera and some wacky stuff like flying carpets and dancing ropes in my next post i'm not sure if its possible to fit these in the game though.

Hope you like it

[Sandman]

I'd shy away from using real world terms like Bedouin and possibly Mamluk.

I would go for pure fire and air as their magic paths. It's a good combination, is vaguely thematic and isn't 'taken'. Yes, they could legitimately have pretty much any magic path, but it's the same for all the nations. Plus, I tend to think nations with focused magic are more fun to play and easier to balance.

[Wizzil]

the words are just arab meanings for terms like Desert Nomad and Slave Soldier respectively, i do not see whats wrong with that, since Ermor and other roman based nations already use terms like Hastatus and Accensus which were originally latin terms for their soldiers.

though if you mean to go for more originality i guess i could help with that i guess

[DrPraetorious]

I agree 100% with wizzil - if the nation is modeled after the historical arab military, it's fine to use arabic terms for the military units.

I could see how someone might have a problem with islamic names for the various types of cleric - but the game has oodles of "bishops" in it, not to mention deacons, a few other religion-specific clerical titles.

[Sandman]

For some reason I had thought that Bedouin had a discrete ethnic meaning, but after checking, it doesn't seem to. So consider that objection shelved.

[Starshine_Monarch]

In response to Wizz, thanks a lot for the ideas, but right now, I'm mainly just focusing on getting the MA nation done first. If this goes well, I'll consider making EA and LA versions later.

I would like you to enlighten me a bit on the role of Dervishes. Everything I've read said that Sufi Dervishes were humble priests rather than fanatic whirling killers. I'd like to know where that idea came from and why. I would also like some info on the mythological creatures you mentioned. Also I'm thinking that instead of FED alchemists, they would be FES instead as I've read that alchemy also includes the study of astrology to a lesser extent.