Category:Swords of the Prophets units

There are several pools of "regional units" available to all factions.
 * The first, the "Roman" consists primariy of Byzantine units. Horse archers are a common sight in these armies. Scale armour is the common theme that holds them together, but only the Byzantines proper can access Rise of Kings units. Byzantine lancers are a halfway house between European lancers and Persian ones. The signature unit of the Romans is the tagmata cavalryman.
 * Byzantine barracks units can be repeatedly upgraded, so militia and Skutatoi can be upgraded to Spathatoi and Kontaratoi
 * In contrast, most Byzantine elite units are heavy cavalry. You do have access to the Droungos, which is a heavy Byzantine lancer early on, but he can be replaced by tagmata lancers. Byzantines also receive the Immortals, which can be replaced by Scholae later on.
 * Cavalry aside, Byzantines don't build Hovels or Peasant Dwellings, but they do have the Peasant Commune - this building allows the Byzantines to get levy units straight away, namely the Limitanei which can be replaced with Akritae. Infantry and cavalry aside, the Byzantine nation is equipped with state-of-the-art siege machines.
 * In contrast with the Byzantines, the Africans are far poorer, and do not get the Scholae or Immortals. They also don't get any horse archers, so they must rely on African and German mercenaries, of which they have many. They are still a minor faction, so they don't get many units.
 * The strongest and most powerful Byzantine units feature the all-new kite shield.
 * The second, the "European" contains mostly European units. With few exceptions, they are usually Germanic and so consist of Feudal Retinue swordsmen, Javelin Cavalry and Retinue Horsemen
 * Most European factions are capable of rasing only Javelin Cavalry, Retinue Horsemen and Lancers, but a few like the Russians or Franks either have upgrades, replacements or simply can train heavy cavalry outright. They concentrate heavily on medium and light melee infantry, but eventually tech up and go their separate ways.
 * Slavic fasctions don't recruit militia. Instead, Axemen and spear infantry often feature heavily in their armies,
 * Bulgars are in effect Turks who eventually start Slavicising. By the time you are done with themm, they will have Kopienostzi infantry, who are a weaker version of the Byzantine heavy infanry, along with Druzhina both on foot and on horse.
 * Similarly, Russians are a mix between the Vikings and the Slavs.
 * some factions like China can raise crossbow levies.
 * the third, the Central Asian group, relies on hard-hitting cataphract lancers instead of conventional cavalry. They are arguably the best heavy cavalry units. Central Asian factions mostly rely on both cavalry archers AND javelin cavalry together, with cavalry archers usually being more.
 * Steppe Archer is available as a cavalry archer
 * Magyar Noble Cavalry is retitled as Bek Cavalry
 * The fourth consists of Asian units
 * While China and Korea are considered civilised, Japan is somewhat semi-barbaric in that it has few units.
 * China and Korea get plenty of ships to play with
 * Chinese infantry is nothing but they have siege weapons.
 * Finally, there are also Indian and African armies.
 * Indian armies revolve heavily around one thing - war elephants. As such, sword infantry and heavvy cavalry or light horse cavalry are non-existent until much later, and can only be recruited from a Warrior Hall.
 * Nubian/Nobatian armies revolve around two things -archers, javelins and spears. Javelin cavalry and medium cavalry units are the usual units that they use while siege technology is primiti9ve for them at best.

Naval units?
I think we may need to recycle units from Rise of the Moderns, or Warbirth. Rise of the Moderns seems best, so
 * Tibetans, Indians, use the same naval units.
 * Turks and Bulgars.....still unsure.

Mainstream:
Others:
 * Vanilla: Dromond, Longship (Longships are available only to Viking factions)
 * Chinese: Barque, Tower Ship, War Junk
 * Indian: War Canoes, War Barge, War Junk?
 * Arab: Dromond, Dhow (light attack?)
 * (Viking factions cannot get Dromond, only Longship)
 * Roman: Dromond, Chelandion (Dromonas), Dromonarion (Liburna), Chierosiphon
 * African: Only Liburna is available.
 * Tibetan: War Canoes only
 * Koreans: Barque, War Junk only
 * Turkish: Dhow only
 * Magyar, Khazar: Dromond only
 * Norse: Karve, Longship

Siege:
 * Byzantines and Tang  have the best collection: Trebuchet, Ram, Scorpion.
 * Bulgars, Chinese: only Trebuchet and Ram
 * Tibetans, Koreans, Japanese, Indians, Persians: Only Scorpion and Ram
 * Desert factions - Africans, Arabs: Mangonel Ram, Scorpion
 * Romans - Visigoths, Khazars, Britons, Franks, Varangians, Lombards : Mangonel, Ram
 * Everyone else (Saxons, Magyars, Makurians, Turks, Sogdians, Norse, Avars): Ram

What about unit design?
So where does this leave us?
 * Arabs, Sogdians use the same Peon as the Moors, Armenians and Siclians from Rise of Kings. BUT.......
 * Arabs and Africans use the South European unit set.
 * Sogdians use the Asian set like China and Tibet.
 * Both India and Makuria use the same Indian tileset (India and Makuria have different units)
 * Spearmen (2 versions required)
 * Arabs and Makurians use the same spearman - the vanilla Arab pike BUT
 * Indians use the old vanilla hoplite and phalanx from RoN
 * Supply wagons: Arabs and Indians use a unique supply wagon. Essentially with an Indian-looking attendant.
 * Scholars and Generals: there are now several different scholars:
 * TYPE 1
 * Asian - based of Korean scholar
 * Europeamn - the conventional. Your baldy guy
 * Indian - does what it says on the tin. The general sits on an elephant.
 * AMERICAN - generals only.
 * TYPE 2
 * Moorish, European - the Arab scholar, as used by Persians and Arabs.
 * African Indian - scholar has the same appearance as India's but the general is horsebound.
 * EUROPE: South European. Used for Roman civs, as well as Persians and Arabs.
 * AMERICAN: North European. However this also includes the Franks who are otherwise considered to be Romans.
 * ASIAN: Used by Turks as well as other Asian civs - this includes Sogdians, Chinese, Khazars, etc.
 * INDIAN: Old RKC Muslim skins. However they are now used for only Makuria and India.
 * IROQUOIS (unused)
 * ARAB (unused)

Western units balance (as per Stephanie)
There should be five grades for units: Further rules
 * Romans - Romans are at the top tier. They are very powerful, but costly and slow
 * Franks - cheaper but inferior.
 * Germans - cheaper but inferior
 * Celts - cheaper but inferior.
 * Vends - pre-vikings - very weak, but cheap, so they specialise in aggressie tactics.
 * Norse units should be on par with Celts. But Celts should be a little togher, Norse weaker but more powerful.
 * Frankish units have Roman attack/speed, but German-level stats.

Costs:
 * Vends, Celts: +0 (except for powerful Viking units)
 * Germans, : +1/ +2
 * Romans : +2

These rules apply only to Barracks sand Stable units.