Ideas for 1001 Arabian Nights-themed nations

[sector24]

National summons are easy; you have Marids, Ifrit, Shaitan, Ghuls, and Jann.

I was thinking they should have fire and earth with minors in air and death. Hidden in Sand should be something they should be able cast out of the box or with randoms.

One big problem is that horse archers are awful in Dominions 3. Even with composite bows they will be too expensive for what they do, and there's no Parthian Shot built into the game. Might be better to go the LA C'tis route and have some incredible capital only swordsmen, but just average recruit everywhere units.

It's important to separate out the eras. The Arabian Nights theme seems like it would be EA. Would 11-13th century saracen warriors and assassins be MA? After the fall of Alamut and the arrival of Marco Polo, the Mongols have a heavy influence and the "Arabian Nights" theme doesn't really apply. If that's LA, it would be largely divergent nation.

[Cerlin]

Is it just me or is half of the stuff you all are mention basically abysia? I always felt that they were loosely based on the middle east. Personally I would prefer a LA turkish nation than a MA arab one, or maybe one of each hmmmm. I do not think they are "fantasy" enough to be in EA personally. They didnt emerge into the world until "MA" anyhow.

[Omnirizon]

the Whirling Dervish is actually a priest, not a warrior. A priest-mage would be more appropriate for this Persian archetype; probably with air, earth, astral, and death magic paths. The 'whirling' adjective is a reference to the spiritual dance they perform.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish
http://www.dankphotos.com/whirling/

[Renojustin]

Very interesting and a good point Omni, but let's not forget the mythology of Magic: The Gathering, either. Whirling Dervish or any unit doesn't necessarily have to be their historical equivalent. It's often more fun to mix it up and take some artistic liberties!

In my opinion, the name Whirling Dervish deserves some play as a badass melee unit.

[Wrana]

Firstly, to Renojustin:
Well, MtG's ideas are strange to say the least. However, there were at least 2 fantasy strategy games with strong Nomad faction of Arabo-Persian kind. I mean Master of Magic (of course!) & Age of Wonder. As for melee unit - ghazi will probably be fine name for these!
-- Historical near-OT warning --
Actually, Arabs of early era often used melee infantry (which we can know from Byzantium military textbooks), fighting in falanx-like formation. Their military is also often depicted riding 2 on 1 horse (which was actually a way to transport foot archers, & can be translated to Dom3 engine by having said archers with map move 3). What they didn't had are composite bows, at least of Mongolian or Turkish quality, so their early cavalry should probably have just shortbows. Also, Arabian cavalry preferred melee (charge) attacks, which led to their defeat by Frankish heavy cavalry of Carl Martell.
The main "fantasy races" in folklore of the region were often named as "daw, jihn, ghul, and peri", in that order, at least in Persian sources (I have no English version, so probably spelling may differ). Daw were servitor race, relatively stupid, but strong and able to shapechange. Jihn we know. Ghul were maneaters with some magic skills, but often depicted as having no armsor legs. Peri were a race similar to Dominions Vans/Thuatha, but, according to Persians "made by Creator not from clay, but from fire", their women were said to be most beautiful & they lived in their own cities.
At the time of Crusades we see appearance of Hashishiin mentioned above. Also, at that time Arabians began use of Turkish mercenaries & slave warriors, which introduced their composite bows (though these also were not "light cavalry", being armored in chain mail!). As war against non-beleivers became less popular among civilised citizens, the special ghazi were introduced - they lived in their training camps at the borders and helped to defend these against Frankish barbarians (i.e., Crusaders ).
Later still, Turks mentioned above became rulers in the region. The best known is, of course, Osman Empire with its Janissaries and Sipahi. (Mongol influence I never heard of, unless you count that Tamerlan actually saved Constantinopolis by crushing Bayazid the Lighning's army at Ancara... )
---end of near-OT---
According to this I would make first era based on lightly-armored troops, supported by recruitable members of genie races. The medium period will include medium-armored horse archers, sacred ghazi & probably some armored infantry, though the latter was not numerous. Plus sacred Assassins, of course! The late period should include mail-armored cavalry and Janissaries of Osmans. Of course, heat preferrence, as was already mentioned. Camel caravans I would make recruitable animals with negligable combat ability but providing supplies. As for eunuch assasins - unfortunately, Dominions engine doesn't allow poisoned coffee as weapon...
I would also move this discussion into Mods area unless official version is going to be produced soon...

[sector24]

Good post, Wrana! It was my understanding that the Mongol "influence" was to break up the hashashin as an organized force and relegate them to independent assassins for hire, bandits, or dissolve their members into more standard military (paramilitary?) orders. So basically somewhere in the timeline the assassin concept would either go away or the assassins would be inferior or lose sacred status or whatever they had in an earlier age.

However, I must admit my understanding of that time period is somewhere on the "wikipedia" level, and not the level of legitimate knowledge or understanding.

[Aezeal]

I'd start with one age, and I think EA would be best to really fit 1001 night stuff, high magic potential.

Maybe fashion it a bit like LA patala, humans ruled by magic beings is nice, the magic beings also being the sacreds.

I'd love to help but I'm no good with graphics so I doubt I can be of much use unless you want to let me make the stats etc