i’ve been trying to plan ahead for my army and i find myself finding it difficult to come up with alternatives to Chariots. the cultural inspirations i’m using for my army (Roman with arab allies) never used Chariots in war, but chariots are pretty potent in the game right now. I’m already using War Elephants for the “mammoth” unit in KoM, so i’m hoping to come up with something else.
any ideas?
So you want a theme, but also units that you like even if they don’t fit? Well, the chariot stats are heavier than light cavalry (i.e. mounted scouts) but still speedy and still shoot.
Arabs as you’re probably picturing came after the Roman Empire fell. The Romans would have beeni in contact with Parthians or early Arabs.
Parthians would have cataphracts , which would be best represented by knights.
Early Arabs were nomadic and used a lot of cavalry and camelry. Horse archers will probably make more sense as mounted scouts, but there were heavier horse archers (as in, more armour) too. There was also camelry with bows, which is what I would use for KoW as they’re significantly and more obviously different.
So either cavalry with bows, but also some armour, or archers mounted on camels.
I made some flying carpets for my Arabian army - I did both 1 and 2 man versions.
They are made from old plastic bases heat-treated and printed carpet pictures on top. The flying stand are plastic wine glasses. Super easy
definitely an option. though i might use those if i need to make any Hero/General/Wizards on pegasus instead.
sorta. i’ll be using crusades era figures because that is what is out there, but the original idea came from the fact that the roman Empire actually did have Arab allies/Vassals… like the Ghassinids. Pre-Isamic obviously. (3rd century. the Ghassanids actually fought on Byzantine Rome’s side against the Islamic conquest.)
though in this case i’m using a mix of roman eras to reflect a Primovantorian force allied with tribes in Ophidia (represented by the arabs)
my main reason for looking at something other than chariots is just visual. chariots are common visuals for these games, and in theory i could just do a figure swap on an egyptian chariot or even adapt the plastic victrix celtic ones the same way, and i have that as a backup plan.
but i’d like to do something more visually interesting and less conventional, if i can think of something that fits.
yeah i’m going to do late Roman Cataphracts for Knights… usign the gripping beast plastics as soon as they come out. i like the Kontos. i have some of GB’s light roman cav for troop sized units of mounted sergeants as well (bought a box awhile back before deciding the “rome+arabs” theme, waste not)
as far as Camel Riders go, i’d actually considered those for mounted Scouts, purely for the visual effect.
one thing i’d considered was to play up the fantasy side a bit and go for something like the Mumak from LOTR… maybe use the Acheson Creations Paraceratherium or their Baluchitherium with scratch built howdahs for archers.
I did not express myself very well, sorry.
I meant that I would use horse archers as mounted scouts and camel archers to count as chariots, if I were you.
You could get really nuts and use a biped fantasy creature, like a Minotaur, and put an Archer in a wicker backpack rig and get some Master Blaster action going on. Roman Bartertown isn’t going to run itself you know.
