Regarding the Byzantines

While reading about the Byzantines I stumbled upon the fact that they divided their military into themes, themes being different districts from where they drafted their armies.
Well, that souded to me really similar to the chinese banner armies.

To compare:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Banners

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thema

Since both concepts sounded pretty similar to me, and since the chinese aren't on this mod anyway, what if byzantines train their units in the same way the chinese do in normal aoe3?

It's certainly a unique and, at the same time, familiar way of displaying their units, and with enough creativity, you can create a really different civ from the chinese even if they train units in the same way (Just as chinese and russians don't feel like you were playing the same civ.)
Besides, both civs have flamethrowers! It was meant to be.

Yes, great idea. It would make the civ more unique.

But, I would not give them banner armies like the Chinese. I would give them armies like the Russians, trained in groups.

The units would include:

INFANTRY

Akritoi (10): Weak, but cheap spearman. Originally a Greek unit.

Spoiler:

Varangian Guard (5): Heavy infantry armed with a pole axe. Good against cavalry.

Spoiler:

CAVALRY

Pronoiar (1): Heavy cavalry similar in rank to the European knight. They were armed with lances or swords, good all-around.

Spoiler:

Cataphract (1): Heavy cavalry armed with a lance, good against infantry.

Spoiler:

Anatolia Rider (1): Mounted archer good against cavalry.

Spoiler:

If you wanna Byzantine units, I can give you many infos Peugeot407. But in the price of the textures for 1 more unit :p

@iliander: We have already sort of decided the five Unique Units for the Byzantines: Akritoi, Varangian Guard, Kataphraktoi, Firethrower and Fireship. We might use some others as Unique Upgrades though.

@Hoop: I think that's a pretty good idea, certainly something worth discussing in the Team Forums. Expect to see something similar in.

@Chris: Would the offer also go for Byzantine unique techs?


peugeot407

Hm, I see more units coming in the horizon thugh Actually Tahattus does not seem to agree with this, if he stays with his opinion, I will ask you texture some units that I wanna use somehow (cannot tell you how yet, I might reveal it in the future...) I have already started hand-writing what you want me to, but I will post 'em when I will finally know what you will offer in exchange Robert. So, I must wait for Tahattus.

@Peugeot: Kataphraktoi could receive the Pronoiar upgrade, and if there is a cavalry archer, it could get the Anatolia upgrade.

I think the Banner Army thing would be awesome for Byzants! I will probably never play the mod, but it sounds awesome.