Amazon: Total War (v5.0+)

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Amazon: Total War, also known as Amazons: Total War, is a comprehensive modification for Rome Total War: Barbarian Invasion that focuses on ancient matriarchal equestrian society. Because the ancient horses are mostly 12 hands high (48" or 120cm), this facet affords women unfair advantages as cavalry soldiers due to their lighter body weight and more petite frame. The mod is about how small but mobile forces with stand-off weapon capabilities can defeat large conventional field armies even on the battlefields of antiquity. According to its leader, the mod is based on anthropological theses and the latest archaeological data about the Amazons with new tactics and features.

History

Parthian Shot had been working on an Amazon-centric Sarmatian Limigantes mod since November 2005. In the Summer of 2011, SubRosa Florens and Ares7667, both have stopped working on their respective Amazon Total War mods and releases, gave her their permission to continue the Amazon TW mod efforts. Their combined three mods were amalgamated to form the new Amazon: Total War from version 5 onwards. After Version 5, new versions-Version 6 (Amazon:Total War - Reignited), Version 7 (Amazons: Total War -Recalesced) and Version 8(Amazons: Total War - Refulgent) were released at various points. Download options for all versions of the mod are maintained by the Developers. Version 7 was listed as among the top 100 most popular mods on ModDB towards the end of March 2013, with Version 8 repeating the feat in April-May that year. The peak thus far has been May 29th, when it was the most popular mod, with over 1,400 downloads on that date.

A more detailed history may be found here.

Description

Amazon Total War mod starts on 270BC and since 5.0 series onwards, the mod has been using 4 turns per year and ends in 350AD.

Also since 5.0 release, it focuses Amazons as non-belligerent, peace-loving, and peace-making matriarchal theocrats in possession of some very destructive weapons. Because to the non-theocrats, the information and the cipher to decode this ancient weapon technology is thought to be long lost, the player's faction can not obtain such weapons by building higher level cultural buildings alone. The player must try to discover the lost Amazon Stelae and its communication cipher to be able to recruit some very nasty advanced technology units. A side effect of each successful discovery is to compel one of the Amazon factions' social elite to flock to the player's faction, and thereby destroys that Amazon faction.

The campaign also focus on military planner's view in an unbiased way. That is, due to the restrictive size of ancient war mounts (very few special breeding programs like the Akhal-teke horses aside, 99.99% horses being only 12 hands high, or 120 cm tall). So either by force or by intuition, most of the military planners would recognize the value of women as cavalry soldiers, due to their more petite body frame and comparatively less body weight. Therefore these planners are willing to recruit female soldiers for their own faction. In the Amazon Total War mod, even the Romans, who are practical but historically very gender biased people, can recruit Amazon Auxilia units due to Amazon Auxilia's capability (and their low recruitment as well as low up-keep costs).

Another factor is to recognize women soldiers as the alternative to the "normal" military recruitment, especially when the potential sources of male recruits are drying up, the decision to recruit (or not to recruit) the female soldiers units can become the choice of preserving a faction or let it die. The background for the 7.0's Far Eastern Celt faction is certainly a prime example of such scenario. Having been defeated and nearly annihilated by the Huns in 273BC, Far Eastern Celt have migrated to a new home, almost completely deprived of their menfolks. So in order to survive, they must enlist women to fight.

Technical Details

Amazon Total War (5.0-8.0) is a partial conversion for Rome Total War/Barbarian Invasion version 1.6 only. It only runs on BI 1.6 because of the horde feature. It uses the mod:switch option, so it will not interfere with any of your original game files. Be sure you apply it to a clean install of RTW, as you may experience CTD's when entering battles if not.

Difference of Amazon Total War Mods

From Parthian Shot, on Amazon:Total War 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, and 8.0 series

These releases are sequels to Subrosa's Amazon TW 3.0c mod. The mods are more of tributes to ancient matriarchal societies derived from these from Parthian Shot's Anthropological studies, rather than fantasy based on legend as in 3.0 and before.

The following are the differences listed in detail of new 5.0-8.0 mods vs the 3.0c mod which are outlined below

• - From 8.2 onwards, the years are spanned from 450BCE with a utility available to play 270BC version.
• - From 8.2 onwards, more battle wagons were made available to simulate heavy, medium, and light "tanks" in the ancient world.
• - The 5.0-8.0 mod series are more about women cavalry, as most ancient horses are mostly 12 hands tall (about 48 inches), women have distinct advantages as cavalry soldiers.
• - The 5.0-8.0 mod series are less fantasy based, relying more on archaeology finding and interpretations of latest anthropological theories.
• - The 7.0-8.0 mod series introduced Panzer like heavy units including Horde Wagon, War Wagon, Linked Armor-Clad Cavalry, and so on. These units differed from the Vanilla or other RTW mods' chariots, in that they are meant to emulate WWII Panzer unit tactics, only specialized cavalry or infantry (the anti-tank capable) units can destroy the Panzer units with relative ease, and only the pike and spear units can halt the charges of such Panzer units though doing so at a high cost.
• - The 5.0-8.0 mod series retained 3.0's four Amazon factions and renamed them to reflect the less fantasy nature of the mod. With the fourth faction relocated to the eastern shore of Azov Sea.
• - A serious attempt at establishing a direct relationship between the unit's equipment (animation skin, aka texture), as well as its capabilities, and its cost of recruiting and upkeep. This is also known as Balanced Unit Modeling (or B.U.M.), sometimes also collectively referred with some other criteria below as Parthian Shot's Laws.
• - fabrics and garments are expensive and time consuming to mass produce, so wherever possible, light or non-elite units are using animal pelts or otherwise wear very little clothing.
• - chain mail armors are extremely expensive and labor intensive to make.

 So the textures have shown most chain mail armor suits removed or reduced,
 Instead most chain mails are worn as linkage or joining pieces between two major armor components.

• - iron armored units are more expensive to maintain than copper alloys, iron rust away rather quickly, and must be meticulously kept (oiled and rust-polished).

 Fact is, some copper alloy are 90% as hard as the most advanced modern day steel, so there is very little incentive for factions who are lacking iron resources to switch to all iron armor. 
 Therefore, for these factions only swords, spearhead, arrow tips are made of iron.

• - The Egyptians are more Ptolemaic-like, so the generals are shown to be Greeks, the characters are still Egyptian in appearance as it is customary for the Ptolemaic court to retain dual cultural identities.
• - in 5.0-8.0 series, all Amazon agents are female, in 3.0 and prior they are male.
• - starting 7.0 series, wagon fighting units are added, while this does not simulate the wagon fort of Jan Žižka or the Taborites, it does attempt to show wagon warfare as if they are the ancient version of WWII German Panzer units.
• - from 7.0 series onwards, the campaign map is now extended from British Isles all the way to Indus Valley and Eurasia.
• - In 7.0 series, a new Far Eastern Celt faction is added, this is based on the latest archaeology findings and anthropological theses, never before shown on any video games.
• - From 7.0 series, area denial weapons are added to simulate the effects of minefield. The Roman Tribulus (aka Caltrop) can be deployed by field engineer unit.

 This is not a simple stake in front of a fighting unit as in the Empire Total War 
 but allows the player to lay the "minefield" independent of the fighting units prior to battle.

• - from late 6.0 series, Amazon agent can be sent into the enemy territory and raise an army deep behind the enemy line.
• - from late 6.0 series, high resolution battlefield landscape with customized RSII battle environment by Granto is used. From 7.0 series, these animations are optimized for speed and using smaller footprint.
• - from 6.0 series, stand-off missile weapons are added,

 . carriage ballista
 . large composite bow
 . giant composite bow
 . giant double composite bow
 . double bow
 . mano-ballista, or man-portable ballista
 . Pole Sling

• - more type of missiles are incorporated into the game

 . iron cased lead shot
 . sacred fire weapon
 . javelin-like arrows for giant composite bow

• - most Amazon units are more light haired with colored eyes, as they are depicted as the progenitors of many modern day European people.
• - Since the Amazons are portraying proto-Europeans before their migration to Europe. The Amazon armors and helmets are less Hellenized, but more Phrygian and "Caucasian" (or Central Asian for the classical period) in appearance.
• - Since Amazon Total War 6.0, there are capabilities (technology and unit recruitment) which can not be built, but must be obtained through Quest. Think of it as Marian Reform in RTW, but the reform is not triggered by year or what building is completed, but by whether a quest is completed or not. Amazons factions as well as pseudo-Amazon factions all have quests they have to fulfill in order to attain higher cultural strata.

Features

The 8.0 series allows player to switch campaign mode, so the mod is capable of four different campaign mode with 20 factions. From 8.3 onwards, it also has utility to allow players to either play the original nudity version (aka the Anthropology Mod), or with minimized nudity (aka Family Friendly Mod). The games plots are the same, and players can interchange and continue their saved game in either version. The family friendly version is still beta-tested, so warning is still posted to ask the players to play at their own risk.

• 1. in addition, it allows faction to recruit mercenary unit including heavy weapons/war-machines.
• 2. Rebel and renegade are beefed up with heavy units as well so the players never know what army they might run into.
• 3. added greek mobile artillery unit called Palintonon. The units shoots canisters of stone or lead block, so has more area capability but less range.
• 4. New modular biometric animation approach to make models more live-like without huge rendering overhead.
• 5. Generals are now awarded with titles when conquering or occupying a critical region, before, only the Amazon factions has this capability.

The 7.0 series allows player to explore many modern military concepts on the battlefields of antiquity. Such as mobility and stand-off capability, area denial minefields, guerrilla warfare, thermite munitions, wagon warfare (similar to tank battles), and long range mobile artillery. The 5.0 and 6.0 series focus exclusively on women cavalry's mobile warfare and stand-off weapons. The 3.0 and prior releases focus on Amazons from legend and myth.

Features added in Amazons Total War - Recalesced, aka Amazon Total War 7.0 Series

• 1. Area Denial "Minefield" weapons added.
• 2. Wagon fighting units added.
• 3. Linked Armor-Clad Cavalry added, this is the dominating cavalry formation in Eurasia for centuries, now depicted in a video game for the first time.
• 4. New campaign map extended to Eurasia.
• 5. New Far East Celt faction added, based on latest archaeology data and anthropological extrapolation.

Features added in Amazon Total War - Reignited, aka Amazon Total War 6.0 Series

• 1. Women fighting units for many factions
• 2. Quests for Amazon factions as well as Armenia, Carthage and the Sarmatians.
• 3. 512x512 texture for many units, this makes the appearance sharper than some new games's models.
• 4. Many Barbarian and all Amazon factions have higher tier buildings.
• 5. Naval fleet have much higher movement points than the original RTW/BI games, and this does not involved the buggy export_char.txt's starting_action_points modifications. This is much more realistic than BI or many mods.
• 6. spy can make money while in the enemy territory.
• 7. Integrated 4 turns per year script.
• 8. new missiles types, such as the thermite grenade munition, iron encased lead shot.
• 9. new stand-off weapons, double bow, mano-ballista, pole-sling, giant composite bow, and others.
• 10. cost balance on iron armored units vs. bronze armored units.
• 11. New Amazon chariot and wagon-cart artillery.
• 12. more realistic armor skins using the BUM concept.
• 13. light units either has little or no cloth, or uses animal pelts for clothing.
• 14. almost all line units wears frontal armors only, and their protection points as well as cost reflect that too.
• 15. From Release 6.0J, the diplomat can recruit army behind the enemy line, assumed there is a significant presence of diplomat's faction's supporter or people in that region.

Features added in Amazon Total War 5.0 Series

• 1. Thermite Ballista Weapons integrated from pre-5.0.
• 2. Amazon advanced units integrated from pre-5.0.

Parthian Shot's Laws

Since the release of Amazon Total War 5.0, there are criterion of considerations, sometimes referred to as Parthian Shot's Laws.

• Law #1. Community infrastructure and unit cost against unit texture and unit capability must show a direct relationship.

   Case in point, the game can no longer recruit full chain mail armored unit of 160 warriors from a tiny community of 700 with only a metal smith in town.

• Law #2. Chain mails are expensive and time consuming to manufacture, and where possible, use of chain mails should be minimize to limb armor, or used as linkage between two plate armor piece.

   Only factions with highly developed industrial complex or slave industry can field units with full chain mail suits.

• Law #3. Units with iron armors and armor accessories are given higher recruiting as well as upkeep costs.
• Law #4. Units with full garment are given higher cost for recruiting and upkeep, as clothings are expensive and time consuming to fabricate.

   Line unit or light unit should either have animal skin or animal pelts as clothing, or have as little clothing as possible. 
   only aristocratic units or patrician units should have full 'uniform's.

• Law #5. Line Units should have frontal full armors only, with their backs more exposed or more vulnerable.

   This is based on archaeological observation as well as extrapolated anthropological theories that units with less protected backs 
   are less likely to turn tails and run away from a fight. 
   It also reduces the cost of equipping such a combat unit.

• Law #6. Low cost unit does not equate to light unit. Light unit can not be fast and easy to hide without proper gear.

   For a unit to traverse through a variety of battlefield terrains, they must have proper footwear. If they can hide in long grass, then likely they have knee pad or knee protection. Proper footwear to allow them to negotiate terrain and this should be accounted into cost for recruiting.

• Law #7. Sword is expensive to forge and it should not be used as secondary arm for every low cost unit and their cousins.

   For low cost units, the secondary weapon has been or should be switched from sword to dagger, ax, short halberd, and so on.

The Team

Amazon: Total War 5.0-8.0

• Parthian Shot-Mod Leader
• Pea, parthian shot's partner, weapon research specialist, Animation Lead
• Celestial Shuttle Buddy, re-balance coordinator, script, text, and textures, since 6.0K.
• Bibi, Test Coordinator, since 6.0B.
• Animator #1
• Animator #2
• System Test Volunteer #1, Jenn
• System Test Volunteer #2, er_smith
• Chinese Translation Volunteer, Becky Lani
• allypup, campaign tester 7.0 Beta
• anfindol, campaign tester 7.0D
• Kaiser Christoph XVIII, campaign tester 7.0 Beta
• naftykid, campaign tester 7.0 Beta
• Totalwar14, campaign tester7.0 Beta
• WheeliePaul, campaign tester from 7.0D, unit card creator from 8.0A
• Draghour, campaign tester from 8.0, proof reader from 8.0A, co-sponsor from 8.0A.
• andrey, .cas trouble shooting and augmentation from release 5.04e to 6.0b.

Special Thanks

• GRANTO for his help to create custom RSII battle environment
• The Fourth Age: Total War Team for their gracious permission to use the multi-horse animation as well as their wagon animation.
• Terikel Grayhair, Edorix, and Spartan198 for all the publishing help
• King Louise Assurbanipal for his kind permission to use his Amazon models, even though his terrific work was not able to be used in the current mod because it ran out of modeling slots.
• Quaztalcoatl for the use of the Amazon .cas files for the re-skinned Amazon units used since the Re-ignited mod.
• Trajan for the use his .cas files from AR_S_Late_Roman_Army_Mod_V_3.0
• OC Grenadier for the use of the Amazon Axe cas file for re-skinned Amazon heavy units.
• Andronicus for his re-skinned Thracian Peltast animation.
• Sapped8 for his help to facilitate build-in Chinese font display and his help to Rebecca Lani
• the 左贤王 team for providing Chinese Calligraphy Display utility.

Visual Material

• 

  Amazon: Total War Gameplay

• 

  Jyazii Noble Maiden from 5.0-7.0

External Links

• Amazon: Total War on HeavenGames
• Amazons: Total War on ModDB
• Amazons: Total War at the Org
• Amazons: Total War at Exilian
• Version 7 Trailer
• Early 8.0 Series Trailer
• Later 8.0 Series Video