whats the special unit of the persians??

[Free Radical]

Im wondering cause I just hope Firaxis doesn't take up AOE 2 as an example and put elephant cavalry in there since that should be an Indian special unit....

[red_jon]

MAGIC CARPETS!!!!!

[Christantine The Great]

Um, the Persians did control a lot of northern India in ancient times...that's a tough one.

[red_jon]

OK, flying carpets then.

What else are the persians known for? Alladin? Hmm....

[Free Radical]

well, they are known for conquering half of the known world and for being one of the few ancient civilizations that still excist (along with the egyptians, greeks, chinese and a few others).

btw, persians are not arabs...aladin would be (I think) arabic...

[d_dudy]

The Immortals were once a very speacialized part of the Persian army. they were the emporer's (i think Xerxes) official gaurd but they were actually a signifigant amount of troops.

they should be some kind of infantry called the Immortals or Imperial Gaurd

that, of course, raises the question: How do you make them differant from the Roman Legion?

[korn469]

i've always heard that the persians had good cav...so possibly an improved horseman or knight?

[Swissy]

Possibly mounted archer. The Persians cavalry was for the most part bow armed. The majority used a self bow, but they did have a unit of Sakae Horse which used the composite bow. The Sakae, known as Scythians in europe, were a fierce steppe nomads well adapted to fighting on horseback. Many battle accounts refer to the Sakae Horse as the most devestaing unit the Persian had. Herodotus refers to then:

The Scythian soldier scrapes the scalp clean of flesh and softening it by rubbing between the hands, uses it thenceforth as a napkin. The Scyth is proud of these scalps and hangs them from his bridle rein; the greater the number of such napkins that a man can show, the more highly is he esteemed among them. Many make themselves cloaks by sewing a quantity of these scalps together.....Such as the Scythian customs with respect to scalps."
---- Herodotus, History

[star mouse]

Originally posted by Free Radical
btw, persians are not arabs...aladin would be (I think) arabic...

Aladdin is actually a Chinese character in Arabian Nights, according to my translation.

Any special units from the Arab world should be medieval because that's when they dominated, thus making the Golden Age fall at the right time. Swords and daggers made of Damascus steel were held in high regard in medieval times.

[Harlan]

There are a number of Persian possibilities. Elephants do more naturally belong to the Indians (and what else would the Indian unit be, anyways?). The Persians would buy or trade with India to get most of theirs.

One idea could be the Parthian archer, a deadly version of the horse archer. The Parthians specialized in being able to fire in one direction while riding in another, and that was such a powerful advantage that the tiny tribe of the Parthians conquered the entire Persian empire and took it over for several centuries. Few in other civs ever figured out how to do it, so it would be a honestly unique unit.

Another could be the Cataphract which was also used alot by the Byzantines. The Cataphract was a heavy cavalry, with lots of army, including horse armor. Kind of an early Knight.

The Assassins are also associated geographically with Persia but not a normal military unit, so I doubt they'll be in.

The Immortal isn't a type of unique unit, just an elite guard. Special units are not the same as elite guards. Special units you need to be able to build as many as you like, whereas the elite guard by its very nature is limited in number to 1.

And I don't know if it would be particularly Persian, but I hope some civ has a seige tower or seige engine of some kind, cos right now it looks like there won't be any of those.

[korn469]

Harlan

Parthian archer --> upgraded horseman
Cataphract --> upgraded knight

both sounds like a good choice to me...but if i had to go with one i think i'd go with a Cataphract

EDIT:
harlan the only thing about the indians having an improved elephant unit is that there isn't an elephant unit in civ3...so who knows what unit they will pick for the indian csu...hmmm is the ghuri the name of an indian military unit with the curved swords?

but since elephants are a luxery item they must make damn fine pets

[Stefan Härtel]

Choosing a unique unit for the Persians depends on what era of history you want to focus on.
If we're talking about the Achaemenid era (550-330 BC) there are some obvious choices:
* Immortals, the royal guards installed by Darius I. and from that point on the legendary part of the persian army (actually they propably weren't called Immortals at all. The Greeks propably got to terms mixed up: Anushiya meaning "followers", prpably the real term and Anausha, meaning "immortals").
* Because the Egyptians already have the Chariot, this one is lost for the Persians.
*The camel was in many battles on the Middle Eastern terrain of vital essence for the Persians, because it was the perfect weapon against the cavalry (their smell). This way, they for example won the battle of Pteria (547 BC).
* Elephants aren't really a Persian unit, I don't really understand why they were included with both AoE games. For the Achaemenids, the only known usage of elephants in battle was their presence in the battle of Gaugamela (331 BC).

The next Persian dynasty was the Sasanid, after ca. 600 years of foreign rule (Greeks and Parthians). Their signifcant units were
*Clibanarii, or Cataphractoi, a heavily armored horserider
*The Sasanids also had a royal lite corps called the immortals (according to roman historians)

In the Islamic age there isn't really much that makes the Persians pop out of the others. Cavalry, yes... but they weren't the only ones.

My pick thus: Immortals, Cameleers or Armored riders.
Immortals are only a elite unit, cameleers aren't just plain Persian, so I'd say include Armored Riders, Clibanarii, Cataphractoi, call 'em what you like.

[Harlan]

Korn469,
I still have a strong hunch that the Indians will have Elephant as their unit. Why? The pic for the Polytheism tech in the Civ3 tech tree is an elephant, as it was in Civ2. This is pretty nonsensical, and only makes sense if an elephant unit comes with that tech (for at least one civ, anyways).

Stefan,
If we look at the loose definition Firaxis gives to the Egyptians (including the Greek Ptolemies in them) and Bablyonians (lumping Hittites and others with them) on the official website, surely the Persians will be a lot more than just the dynasties you mention. I'm sure the Seleucids count (see Egyptian example!), as do the Parthians. So that makes the Parthian Archer fair game.

Also, as I mentioned before above, the Immortals don't really count, since royal guards are not a unit type. The game has veteran and crack unit status according to one review, and the Immortals would be better defined in the game as a single crack unit, not a different unit type.

Cameleers make much more sense as an Arab unit, when Firaxis gets around to making an expansion pack.

[Stefan Härtel]

Well, cameleers were used in the middle east more than 3,500 years before the invasion of the Arabs... think about Aramaeans, Syrians etc.
I don't think a Parthian or Greek unit really is representative for the 2,500 years of Persian history.

[korn469]

Harlan

i still disagree about the elephants, because i haven't seen a picture of an elephant military unit anywhere...i know that this is an old picture and Dan said it was just for testing animations but it looks like it has many of the special units on it

http://viewer.ign.com/media_page.jsp?width=1024&height=624&media=http://pcmedia.ign.com/media/previews/image/civ3_018.jpg&media_type=P&object_id=12062&adtag=network%3Dign%26site%3Dpchub%26adchannel%3Dpc%26pagetype%3Darticle&ign_section=1&media_name=Samurai%2C+tanks%2C+romans%2C+and+cowboys.+Yummy.

no elephants...so until i see an elephant i really don't think they are in the game, especially since elephants are in the game but as a luxery and not a resource