Tuatha Race

[Psitticine]

Just an addendum for those who might be curious:

I was browsing aimlessly through a book and came across a reference to Avalon and its "roots".

Emain Ablach (Ablach = "having apple trees") is the name of an island that is home to Manannan mac Lir, one of the most powerful of the Tuatha de Danaan/Sidhe. In the Imram Brain, one of the old sagas, the hero, Bran, quests to find the paradiscial isle (supposedly located somewhere off the coast of Scotland) after being presented a silver limb from one of the isle's apple trees by a mysterious and beautiful woman. The source I read this in (Mackillop's Dictionary of Celtic Mythology) describes Emain Ablach as "one of several Celtic contributions to the Arthurian concept of Avalon."

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Jasper:
One of the minor thematic things that's always bothered me about Dominions is that while it seems to get things right...

Not always. Hastati and Principes disappeared after Gaius Marius reformed the Roman army, yet they come equipped with segmented loricae which started to be widely used 2 centuries later.

[Jasper]

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Jasper:
One of the minor thematic things that's always bothered me about Dominions is that while it seems to get things right...

Not always. Hastati and Principes disappeared after Gaius Marius reformed the Roman army, yet they come equipped with segmented loricae which started to be widely used 2 centuries later.

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You picked a particularily bad place to put your elipsis! This is much better:

"One of the minor thematic things that's always bothered me about Dominions is that while it seems to get things right with the _Tuatha_ and _Firbolg_..."

Note the distinct lack of reference to Rome... Besides, minor details like you mention are IMHO well within the scope of "designers license", especially considering the real Roman Army didn't have Serpent Cataphracts or Spectral Legionaires. More bothersome to me is how Triari are handled.

[Nagot Gick Fel]

Originally posted by Jasper:
Besides, minor details like you mention are IMHO well within the scope of "designers license", especially considering the real Roman Army didn't have Serpent Cataphracts or Spectral Legionaires.

Sure these are minor details I can live happily with, and so are the Serpent Cataphracts etc. But if you can accept them, what's wrong with the Faery Queens and her "pixies"? You seemed to imply _these_ were out of the scope of designers license.

[Keir Maxwell]

Originally posted by Jasper:
More bothersome to me is how Triari are handled.

If you are refering to the Triari having 1 strat move while everyone else has 2 making them move seperate I agree. If the Pythium gets strat move 2 for their Legionaries they should get it for the Triari as well.

Cheers

Keir

[Jasper]

That's exactly it! Republican Roman armies were composed of Hastati, Principes, and Triari -- not the first 2 plus the 3rd when they could catch up!

However considering that the Triari will be used for different tactics than in history (i.e. placed right smack in the middle of the front), it's not such a big deal. I just think of them as more heavily armed Legionaires, coincidentally called Triari.

[Jasper]

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:
Sure these are minor details I can live happily with, and so are the Serpent Cataphracts etc. But if you can accept them, what's wrong with the Faery Queens and her "pixies"? You seemed to imply _these_ were out of the scope of designers license.

Correct. I consider the paradox of using both the myth inspired Tuatha/Firbolg and the related but Victorian children's tales flavor Faerie Queen to be much further out of whack than an obscure detail about Legionaire's armor.

The Faerie Queen sticks out in sharp contrast to the strongly themed nature of the rest of dominions. May as well have the Little Mermaid as a hero for Atlantis.

Purely subjective opinion of course. Not much point in arguing about it.