Mod: New nation : Shangri La, Hidden City of the Secret Masters

[Nounours]

A few sprites, then...

- First, an EA Rgyal Po (demon lord or king) attacking.



- a Bhödpa yack rider (EA & MA).



- a Bdud demon.



- a Shangrilan heavy infantry (MA).



- a Mi Gö.

[Foodstamp]

Wow those look really great. Excellent job .

[Sombre]

Nice work. You've kept things simple and used dom3 sprites as a base in an intelligent way. Just goes to show you don't necessarily need to do huge monsters from scratch to have pleasing graphics.

When I saw your Yak rider, I remembered a couple of sprites I did for a DrP mod that never got used. They aren't very good, but they might be of use to you - so feel free to rip them apart if that's the case. I won't be using them for anything. I think they were Auroch Cataphracts.

[Foodstamp]

Don't discount yourself. Those graphics fit in perfect with the game, I really like the yak rider with the silver barding.

[HoneyBadger]

The sprites look great, Nounours. As far as proper weaponry for EA, I would say the Phurba is your dagger of choice.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phurba

It would obviously work well as a magical weapon.

The Kukri, on the other hand, I think you're right about it being better for MA. It could show up in EA in some form-it may have been brought by the Alexandrian Greeks (in the form of the Falcata/Kopis)-but you can also argue that it showed up as late as the 16th century, with the Turks (Yataghan).

Here's a nice set of images, mostly of the Kukri, but with tarwars and katars, and some other interesting swords/knives, also:

http://www.himalayan-imports.com/faq/Historical.htm

Here's some modern images, which includes a Nepalese axe and some other tools. The company, Himalayan Imports, does pretty good quality stuff, and most of it authentic, from what I've been able to find out. And they're very good about giving you some background/history on what they make-they have some nice walkthroughs on their kukri-making, for instance.

http://www.himalayan-imports.com/one-time-knives.html

Here's an extensive discussion about ancient Tibetan soldiers/warriors, and their equipment and practices. I haven't read the whole thing, but there's some interesting speculation and documentation, including:
"Certainly some Tibetan armies, by the 9th century, seem to have been composed entirely of cavalry. Beckwith (in “The Tibetans in the Ordos and North China: Considerations on the Role of the Tibetan Empire in World History” in Christopher Beckwith (ed.), Silver on Lapis: Tibetan Literary Culture and History, Tibet Society, Bloomington, Indiana, 1987), mentions an army of 50,000 cavalry sent to attack the Uighurs in the Ordos in 809, along with other long-distance campaigns into Mongolia that would probably entail all-cavalry armies. Shakabpa (Shakabpa, Tsepan W D, Tibet: A Political History, Yale University Press, 1967) recounts the surrender of an Indian king to a Tibetan expedition: seeing long columns of Tibetan cavalry making their way into his country, he assumed that so many cavalry must be followed by an even greater number of infantry and elephants, and so surrendered at once against such overwhelming odds – but in fact, the cavalry were all there were!

***Other sources mention infantry, but they appear to be conventional infantry marching on foot; for example, a Tibetan chronicle describes an army of the Imperial period on the march, with cavalry in the van, archers and "dagger-armed soothsayers" in the centre, and mailed spearmen marching last***

(Thomas, F W, “Tibetan Documents concerning Chinese Turkestan. VI: The Tibetan Army”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society April 1933 and July 1933). I have only ever seen the dismounting idea mentioned in the Tongdian quote."

That last bit seems like something right out of Dominions3, with "dagger-armed soothsayers" (aka mages) accompanying the army

http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/ind...st=15&start=15

Here's an article by the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/13/ar...gn/13armo.html

It includes a video, but the video wouldn't play on my computer.

And last (but not least) here's an extensive website on Tibet and Nepal-focused museum collections:

http://www.himalayanart.org/links/in...?categoryid=21

Here's a picture of a Phurba:

[Nounours]

I have phurba, in EA and MA (used for example by some mages and demon hunters). They are magic daggers that cause more damage to demons.

For the kukri, I think I'll have one, in some way (perhaps as a sword, perhaps falcata) in EA, but it will be present mainly in LA, in the hands of some Ghurka-like mountaineers.

Garu dhaw and hasiya look great, i'll have to try to incorporate them in some way !

I will perhaps try to add some cavalry (medium probably) in EA and MA.

Oh, and I've almost finished the sprite of Srin Po'i Rgyal Po (cannibal demon king) of EA : it even manage to scare me, and I'm the one who done it! I hope you will like them (I'll try to post an image when it is finished).

[HoneyBadger]

I had the thought that it might be interesting to give a low level priest unit (H1) the enormous (3 foot long) ceremonial kukris ghurkas use to sacrifice an ox before battle (for the unaware-it's considered a favorable sign if the head of the ox can be completely severed with a single blow). It seems a priestly function, and would separate them from most any other human priest if they had such a high damage weapon.

The 'tarwar' swords from the first link looked like they'd be pretty fun, too. I have the suspicion that they really did come from the Turks, though, since they seem very similar to the "Talwar" or "Tulwar" (a middle-easten long sword with a blade that's distinctively thicker at the point), even in the name.

[Nounours]

Your great kukri wielding priest is adopted, HoneyBadger !
It will appear in LA, when Ghurka-like units will be part of the nation.

I already have included kukri, and gave it dmg 3, att 2, def 0 and length 0 (it's the short dagger-sized version).

It deals quite high damage and have a good attack bonus because of the powerful blows it can deliver, and because it is quick and easy to handle. I've got a kukri myself, a short one. Frightful weapon. Once, I used it to chop a knife-resisting watermelon. I damaged the table, because the kukri went through the watermelon like it was butter ! I didn't even try to deliver a very powerful blow, but these damned things are both heavy and razor-sharp edged !

For the "tarwar", I suspect it existed before the Turks brought it with them, but with another name, and the Turks, seeing it, said "Hey, look at the huge talwar these Nepalese guys have !" (or a medieval turkish equivalent), so the turkish name remained.
I think this type of blade is not so uncommon : the Romans used to fear greatly the kukri-like Dacian sword called "sica", and also known the similar Iberian "falcata". Some Scythian weapons and the Greek "kopis" and "makhaira" looked very similar too.

[Edi]

Those are kick-arse graphics, Nounours.
Yours as well, Sombre.

[Nounours]

Well, I changed my mind concerning the kukri and great kukri sword appearing in LA, because it was graphically challenging, and i didn't resist to try drawing it. So, now you'll have kukri as a weapon used by Lepcha archers (while Lepcha light infantry will use hasiya), and great kukri at the hands of dmu (demons), and perhaps Bhödpa warriors.

Here is a Srin Po swordsman armed with the great kukri.