I looked up some of the weird units to see what they were IRL

Aserai:

Mamelukes are fairly well known in gaming circles but in case you missed the memo they were foreign slave soldiers in Egypt that formed the lord's household guard since they had no tribal loyalties or ruling stake. It turns out the Ghilman minor faction are basically the same thing, but for the Abbasid caliphate up in Iraq. All 3 of their units are the same thing. Ghilman is the plural of Ghulam and Koleman is the same word in Turkish instead of Arabic.

Faris is the Arabic word for knight (horse in Arabic is faras). It's apparently the origin of the Spanish name Alvarez (al-faris).

Beni Zilal means The Sons of Zilal. Beni, Bani, and Banu are all the same word in different grammatical forms.

Khuzait:

The kheshig are the Khan's royal guard. The Torguud are the half of the kheshig that guard during the day. I guess the T5 kheshig are the night guard then (khevtuul). If you're wondering how the hell you pronounce a word with 2 Qs in it, the first Q in Qanqli is pronounced K and the second q is actually supposed to be a G. The Qangli were an ethnic group the Mongols conquered. Kublai Khan eventually brought them into the kheshig in the 1300s, so well into the high Middle Ages.

Darkhan is a very high military rank in a wide variety of Central Asian civilizations, basically a general. No idea why it's the name of a spearman in this game.

I'm assuming the Karakhuzait are supposed to be the Kara Khitai, another central Asian empire that got stomped by the Mongols.

Sturgia:

Druzhina is Slavic for Companions like Alexander's. It turns out the first druzhina were made up of Varangians. Yes the same Varangians as the Byzantine emperor's Varangian Guard. Varyag is Varangian in old Russian.

Berserkers (bear shirt) and Ulfhednar (wolf coat) are crazy Norse dudes but you didn't need me to tell you that. TW can't seem to decide if they want Sturgians to be Kievan Rus or Vikings.

Skold is Norse for shield and bratva is brother in Russian so Skolder Brotva means shield brother.

Empire:

It turns out Bucellarii were basically the Roman version of the whole foreigners as royal guard thing everyone else seems to have going on. During the decline of Western Rome rich and powerful people started hiring barbarian mercenaries to form their own personal retinues rather than depend on the army. Under Belisarius and Justinian they formed the elite of Rome's forces.

If you're having trouble googling what the hell a Menavliaton is after dying to one so many times, it's because the thing is actually spelled menavlion (or menaulion, U and V were the same letter back then). It's a heavy Byzantine infantry spear so the fact you used to be able to couch it as a cavalry lance was hilarious.

The palatine guard (Scholae Palatinae) were the new royal guards after the Praetorians betrayed Constantine the Great (and like 3 dozen dudes before him). Unlike in the game they were a heavy cavalry unit.

Battania:

Fians were small bands of young nobles waiting for their dads to die so they could inherit everything. Until then they had nothing better to do so they banded together and went on adventures.

The falx was a Dacian weapon that was so effective against Roman legionaries they had to modify their armor while on campaign. For the record, the two handed falx is a short polearm with a 3 foot handle, not a sword. The rhompaia is a Thracian falx with a straighter blade so you can thrust it as well as swing (which you can't do in this game go figure). Since falxmen stopped being a thing around 100 AD these guys are probably the most antiquated unit type in the game.

All the Vlandians are pretty self explanatory.

Submitted May 11, 2020 at 10:49PM by Saitoh17 https://ift.tt/2xSyhMD