Wu-shan, Holmgard and Padmassa

[Sombre]

Heheh. No credit needed. Are you relatively happy with the look of the auroch? (forget the rider, that one I did doesn't really look like any of the units you described, I just got carried away) I had some other shapes I was working on; one that looked more like a buffalo and so on.

The lizard is finished though. I can give you the tgas or you can just make them from that bmp.

[DrPraetorious]

Will make from bmp.

I rather like the black rider with a whip - the auroch is quite handsome. I might use him as a hero.

I'll just credit you as sombre - unless you want not to be associated with the image library

[Sombre]

Ok after ten minutes or so tinkering with barding I have something more to show and need input. I don't know much about Persian or Assyrian barding, but I googled it and found some pictures and I also had a book with some nice sassanid heavy barding in it, so I started a couple of barding prototypes. Not trying to make a polished looking graphic, just get the design of the barding/saddle roughly right. I had a more complicated design but in the end this simple one

It's not finished at all, it's basically just a rough marker showing where the barding will be. You could also use it as a placeholder I guess, although it would look pretty bad ingame. Anyway, I need to know if this was the kind of barding you had in mind, or if you wanted less, or some other style entirely. This has kind of a cataphract feel to it but you can still see the colour of the auroch underneath and there's lots of opportunity for detail on top. A closeup of a persian barding pic is above it. Lemme know what you think. I figure this is good experience if I want to start messing around with other weird kinds of cavalry :]

[Sombre]

Holy crap. I just realised I'm going to HAVE to make zebra/gazelle/alpaca/camel cavalry now. Seriously.

Well I was planning on making some kind of machaka mixed with north africa thing in the future, so I guess it's all cool.

[DrPraetorious]

That is, in fact *exactly* what I had in mind.

I'd originally called those units "Cataphracts" rather than "Knights" but decided the terminology was too confusing. Whada ya think?

[Sombre]

Cataphracts would be fine. I think a lot of people would know the term, or instantly figure out what it meant. Or you could just use 'heavy cavalry' or 'shock cavalry' or something.

[DrPraetorious]

That's not the problem, but "lacking in cataphractly virtue" just doesn't quite cut it. There is an equivalent Persian concept but it applies to warriors in general. Part of it is that it isn't strictly Asyrrian, it's got all sorts of evil influences from other source material.