UNIT: the Peltast

[Kryten]

This unit is for Exsanquination's Alexander the Great mod, but is also suitable for any Hellenistic nation such as the Greeks, Macedonians, Seleucid Syria, Ptolemaic Egypt, Pontus, Pergamon, Bithynia, Rhodes, plus the Aetolian and Achaean Leagues. It could also be used for other nations such as the Thracians, Illyrians, Italian Samnites, Spanish Iberians, Jewish Maccabees and Carthage (as mercenary Spanish troops).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) download the zip file to a temporary place on your PC

2) use Windows Explorer to open the CivilizationIII/Art/units folder on your PC and right-click the units_32 file so that you can rename it (otherwise it will be overwriten, so you may want to keep a copy)

3) now use the unzip browser to unzip the file into Civilization/Art/units. This will create a new folder called Peltast which contains all the .flcs and files, as well as a readme.txt file with full instructions on how to add this unit to CivIII using the CivEditor.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Kryten]

Suggested stats for this unit (see the readme file that comes with the unit for more details):-

Attack 2, defence 2, move 2 (the same as the Impi, Jaguar Warrior and Samurai, so that it can reteat from slower heavy troops).

Zone-of-control (so that it can use its javelins to 'pelt' any enemy columns that try to move past it).

And for those people who like to give missile unis a defensive bombardment (and I'm one of them, as it adds a little bit of tactics to the combat system and helps differentiate between similar units), I suggest a modest bomardment factor of 2, range zero and rate of fire 1 (I like to give slingers, javelinmen and archers with light hunting bows a bombarment of 2, while the more powerful composite or recurved bow and the crossbow/longbow has a bombardment of 3).

[Kryten]

What is a Peltast? Well here is the Civilopeadia_text file that comes with the unit:-

"Peltasts were first used by the Thracians about 800 BC. Armed with bundles of javelins carried behind their shields, they proved their worth by defeating an elite 700 man Spartan mora by simply outrunning the slower hoplites while continuing to pelt them with showers of javelins. Later peltasts were equipped with bronze Thracian type helmets and the larger oval thureos type shield (adopted from the celtic Galatians in 280 BC), and were a part of every Greek and Macedonian army in the hellenistic world, usually as mercenaries. So common were they that by the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC the word "mercenary" had almost become a synonym for "peltast".
Used as general purpose medium infantry, they were much better equipped at fighting hand-to-hand than light infantry armed with slings and bows, but were also fast enough to keep out of the range of the heavy infantry. They could take on the tasks that these other specialised units could not handle, such as fighting in difficult wooded terrain, ambushing enemy columns, chasing down skirmishers, flank marches and so on.
Their use declined following the expansion of republican Rome, who did not use peltasts. But by the time of imperial Rome in the 1st century AD, the Romans themselves realised the need for fast troops that were capable of performing tasks that slow heavy Legionary was not suited for, so they created the famous Roman Auxiliary, armed with javelins, swords, helmets and shields, which eventually made up half of all the soldiers in the empire."

(after I've finished all the Macedonian animations I want to make a Roman Auxiliary....)

[Mistoffeleez]

haven't tried it yet, but the animation there looks really good. nice job

[SpencerH]

Kryten

Nice job. Did you notice the shadow faults in the death flc?

[Kryten]

Oops! You are quite right SpencerH.

I thought that I had given the unit thorough testing, but I must've missed it. I assume that you spotted it by using FLICster, because fortunately it is so small that it's hard to see in the game.

If anybody wants to know what we are talking about, there is sometimes a slight problem with FLICster in that if an object in a frame gets too close to the edge, then a thin one pixel wide 'ghost' line will appear in the last three frames of that direction (no, I'm not going to tell you WHICH direction of the death flic has this flaw....see if you can spot it for yourself in the game. I bet you can't! ).

I promised that I would eventually add some civilopeadia pictues to this unit at a later date. When I do I'll correct the death.flc and upload a new zip file.

Well spotted SpencerH (....you £*$%! )

[Optimizer]

Good work!

Should it have offensive or defensive AI?

What would it upgrade to? Is there a medieval equivalent?

[Caliban]

Nice work!

I think it should have offensive and defensive flag...