[elmokki]

Originally Posted by Wrana

Sorry for being late - those were my hashishiines.
I think they should be sacred, even if they won't probably be blessed often. However, it may be fixed through #onebattlespell...

Yeah. I gave a thought for it, but I ended up just having them as pretty much standard assassins (well, they have hauberk instead of cuirass, no leather hood, wasteland survival, and a second poison dagger instead of a short sword)

I might change my mind though, but I feel that this nation has quite a lot of interesting stuff already. If I end up making an LA version, it'll have a hashashin for sure though. I really want to make a version of this nation that can summon ghuls (and nasnas, if I end up making them, though I reckon literal half-humans will mostly be a novelty unit) without problem.

[quote]Considering your troops I think that it's better to replace (or add to) militia with bedhouin raiders who come only for loot - a widely used practice which survived until Ottoman times. I made those average quality lightly armed infantry and horsemen which fight only one battle just like Ermor gladiators (using #copystats, of course). They may be used as either attack force in early game, or as chaff later.[quote]
A pretty good idea actually. I don't really like the militia anyway and was thinking of scrapping it along with the lancer.

(Also, we made many troops using improved robes for armor, adding also turban and turbaned helm). Another thing I did was including both light stealthy troops and corsairs. Light raiders fought on foot but used horses for faster movement - thus Move 3.

I think improved robes would go for EA version of this nation (if even there). I do like the look of light armor anyway

Another thing I consider important is particularly good horses providing faster movement - this also giving a better offense to light lancers you seem having some small problem with (these are Arabic horses, so heavy Ghulams do not have them)...

I did think of faster horses along with the lower morale for all basic troops. I just came to conclusion that this isn't real life and faster horses isn't THE thing arabs are known for (though I do agree sheikhs who own horses is in top 10 of things that come to mind for me) nor is undisciplined armies. I still have the beduins morale 9 though, since they're supposed to be more undisciplined.

As for camels per se I just gave them a supply bonus. Camel troops can be made better if you consider that early Muslim armies used camels to transport their archers up to 4 per camel (I'd made just 2) and arrows for them. So, I propose to include a new "camel bow" (or somesuch) with unit description mentioning additional arrows and give camel archers 2 such attacks. Combined with animal awe, it would be quite good, I think. Another possible summon is cheetah.

Did they use more than one archer per camel in combat though? Atleast it'd look a bit silly with a dromedar.

Supply bonus is something to think about (though especially with the possible scrapping of lancer the heavier camel cavalry is actually quite a good unit, the archer less so.)

Cheetah is tempting as is rhino, but they'd go to nature and nature isn't a path I'm intending to give to (MA) al-Nadim.

As for commanders, I included also "Baghdad thieves" as spies. Another type you seem to forgot is khadi - judge (thus patrol bonus) and low-level priest. Higher level capital-only priest can be named Hoji.

I certainly won't be adding new priests without a really good reason (seeing that the nation already has 3, none of which is a mage with some priestly like with for example Marignon), but if you think khadi and hoji are better names for current mullah and imam (naturally with added patrol bonus) I'll look into it.

Mystics are good and I also thought that alchemists should be also researchers. I made another mage's type - sorceress with Nature and Air magic, as these are often mentioned in tales. I thought about making some access for Buried in Sand for these nations as it's thematic, but am not sure.

As tempted as I am to add new mages, I think I really can't increase the amount of diversity (F3, W3, S2, E2 are currently rather easy to get and A2 and E3 aren't that rare (6.25% for an alchemist) either). Sorceress would probably go to EA or possibly LA.

As for genies I think you don't need to go for Marids as "water genies". Actually, the name came from something with sense like "infidel" (actually, various genie names were often used interchangebly, but that's another story). So I decided that while all EA genies are sacred, by MA some choose to follow the Prophet and other choose not to. The former became "faithful jihn" - sacred, including both troops and mage-commanders (male and female, with different magic), while the latter became "marids" - non-sacred, but their commanders are stronger mages (troops would be either absent or easier to summon).

I can add my opinion on genie races if you want to make a common work, but I must warn you that this is mostly based on Persian sources.

The information of djinn in the internet seemed to really vary. Along with that Dungeons & Dragons crap - they invented a genie for each element.

I know the djinns aren't very exclusively of a particular element (even though many places do associate ifrit with fire and marid with water) and I'll sure give the more powerful versions of them some magic variance. I do quite like having them both as sacred and somewhat specialized even though having marids non-sacred isn't a bad idea. In any case we could just say that there's no prophet of Islam-equivalent in Dominions universe and keep the djinn as sacred beings of an earlier era

What certainly should be included is a spell summoning genies to build a palace!

A really good idea. I think I read genies lived in a city of brass (I have no clue how "true" that is, but sounds cool as hell), so a "Palace of Brass" would be a pretty cool spell.