Crowd-sourced Civ: Mauryan Indians

[Enrique]

Taking the liberty to show off something Pureon whipped up (textures are a serious work in progress):

Lovely work! nice textures so far. I would suggest to brighten up a little the inner part of the arch on the roof to show off the arch details and window.

[forCarthage]

Historical Background

The Mauryan Empire was founded in 321 B.C.E. by Chandragupta Maurya, a Sudra from a family of peacock tamers. Before the Mauryan Empire the main power in the Indian Subcontinent was the Nanda Empire. The Nanda kind was a man named Dhanananda who ruled as a dictator and made many enemies this way. One of his enemies was a Brahmin named Chanakya who the king repeatedly mocked in public events and eventually exiled. While in exile, Chanakya came across the province of Magadha where he was cared for by the Maurya Family who had a strong grudge against the Nanda Empire. Chanakya saw great potential in Chandragupta in particular, and convinced him to start a rebellion against the ruling Nandas. Through eloquent speeches written by Chanakya, Chandragupta managed to get the entire province of Magadha to rebel. They faced the mighty Nanda army of 200 000 infantry, 80 000 cavalry, 8 000 chariots and 6 000 elephants. Chandragupta however, proved himself to be an excellent general, conquered the Nanda Empire, seized the Capital Pataliputra (then made it his own capital) and deposed Dhanananda. The Nanda empire was over, the Mauryan Empire was its replacement.

Chandragupta then began conquests west against the eastern borders of the Seleucid Empire (a greek kingdom, and remnant of Alexander the Great's conquests). In 305 B.C.E. Chandragupta marched 300 000 troops west and the Mauryan-Seleucid war had begun. In 303 B.C.E., the King Seleucus admitted defeat and granted Pakistan, Afghanistan and parts of Iran to Chandragupta. He also gave his wife Helen away as one of Chandragupta's many wives. Chandragupta then began conquests south. He stopped at the Deccan Plateau in 300 B.C.E. These would be his last campaigns, and Chandragupta Maurya died 2 years later, but he had established the largest Empire the Indian Subcontinent had ever seen.

The Mauryan Empire did not grow in size until 272 B.C.E. when Chandragupta's grandson, Ashoka took the throne. Ashoka crossed the Deccan Plateau and conquered the rest of southern India in 270 B.C.E. and then later that same year sailed to Sri Lanka and conquered it within a month. He returned to Pataliputra as a hero for his great achievements. After Ashoka's campaigns, the Mauryan Empire had only one Kingdom left to conquer on the Indian Subcontinent. That was the Kingdom of Kalinga just south of Magadha. Ashoka invaded Kalinga with a massive army of over 600 000, which was almost 10 times the state army of Kalinga. The Kingdom was brutally destroyed, much more savagery was displayed here than in the southern campaigns. Ashoka was immensely guilty at what he had done, and soon after conquering Kalinga, he converted to Buddhism. To show his devotion to the Buddha, he constructed hundreds of Stupas and towers across the Empire. Ashoka the Great did to Buddism what Constantine the Great did to Christianity. When the Emperor changes religion many people tend to follow him, and so spread Buddhism in India. Ashoka had brought the Mauryan Empire to its maximal extent, and popularized Buddhism on the Indian subcontinent, which is why he is remembered today.

Ashoka died in 232 B.C.E., and immediately after this the Mauryan Empire began to decline. Fighting between Buddhists and Hindus broke out over the Empire resulting in many states wanting independence which they received sometimes through military campaigns. None of the later Mauryan Kings were as good at ruling as Chandragupta or Ashoka were and the people were realizing that weakness. Their eastern borders in Iran, Afghanistan and much of Pakistan were conquered by the Seleucid King Antiochus the Great and their southern borders soon rebelled as well. By 200 B.C.E. the Mauryan Empire was only about half the size that it was under Ashoka. The straw that broke the Camel's back was when in 185 B.C.E. the last Mauryan King Brihadratha was assassinated by his top general Pusyamitra Sunga who founded the Sunga dynasty which would last for less than 100 years.

The Mauryan Empire was very ethnically diverse. Its ruling family the Mauryans were of Bengali descent, but they had thousands of ethnic groups hailing from Myanmar to Iran. Religiously it was also very diverse as the Mauryan Dynasty let all religions into their empire. The largest religion in the Mauryan Empire was Hinduism as it was Chandragupta Maurya's religion. The second largest religion was Buddhism which was made very popualr during the reign of Ashoka. The third largest religion was Jainism, which was the main religion of the previous Nanda Empire and many people in the North still worshiped it as the Mauryans allowed them to. Smaller religions included Zoroastrianism on its Western frontiers.

The Mauryan Military was composed of 4 very broad troop types: Infantry, Cavalry, Chariots and Elephants. The majority of a Mauryan Army was made up of Infantry, approximately 2 thirds. The most common type of Infantryman would be the Bowman. They would use a Longbow, which was just as advanced and deadly as the English Longbow of the 15th century. The bows were made of many different materials including Bamboo, Bone, Palmyra and wood. The arrows were very varied and featured everything from sharpened sticks to elaborate metal-bladed devices, but generally had tips made of Ivory or Cattle horn. Sometimes the arrows would be poisoned. Spears were used both for throwing and for close combat, and there existed many different types of spear in the Mauryan Empire. For example the Sula was a pike weapon while the Kunta seems to be a throwing spear. The spears were most likely made of wood. There were many types of maces as well including the Gada, Musala and Parigha. Some theorize that the club was thrown, while others assume it was for melee combat. Swords were used less by Infantrymen and more by Charioteers. The cavalry were mainly light cavalry, armed with either Javelins or lanced and used mainly for skirmishing, reconnaissance and pursuing routing enemies. The Chariot was extremely important in Mauryan Warfare, and in Indian warfare in general ever since the Aryan migration and up until medieval times. Chariot riders were well armoured and carried either swords or bows. The chariots were lighter than the Indus Valley Civilization's Chariots, and this is why I say 'Since the Aryan Migration" as the Aryan Chariots were very different. They had 2 wheels as opposed to the Indus Valley Civilization's 4 and were lighter in design. Generals often rode in Chariots, or else they would ride on an Elephant. The Elephants used would have been the subspecies of Asian Elephant native to India Elephas Maximus Indicus. They would often times have archers on them, although the real weapon was the elephant itself. They would be used primarily in full frontal assaults. Sometimes a single charge was enough to rout an enemy army. Sometimes the Elephant would have iron sheaths covering its tusks.

Emblem

Probably the Lion of Ashoka, that was the state flag after all.

Units

Infantry

Sula Kshatriya (Spearman)

Gada Kshatriya (Substitute Swordsman)

Kunta Kshatriya (Skirmisher/Javelinist)

Longbowman (Archer)

Cavalry

Prasa Kshatriya (Spear Cavalry)

Kunta Horseman (Javelin Cavalry)

Elephant Archer (Archer Cavalry (it was Mythos Ruler's Idea I know))

Champions

Howdah Elephant

Chariot

Heroes

Chandragupta Maurya

Ashoka

Brihadratha

Miscellaneous

Sudra Woman (Female Citizen)

Buildings

Stupas (religious building)

Hindu Temple

All I can think of for buildings.

Hope yall like imy post!

[The Crooked Philosopher]

I wonder if you know how they use the weapon "Gada" ? Perhaps you could visit the website: http://www.scientificwrestling.com/public/325.cfm?sd=2 where they have some good explaination of Gadha and its function.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Nice write up. I suggest Chanakya as the 3rd hero.

[The Crooked Philosopher]

I have found an article from http://www.emotionar.../DHANURVEDA.pdf and i wonder if this could help?

I have found an interesting link http://www.crystalinks.com/indiaships.html where it mentions indian ships and warship and i found a book about Indian shipbuilding from ancient time to present. The book Naval Construction in India which i found it in scribd did mentioned Chandragupta Maurya was the first to recognize admiralty as a state department.

There are three kind of ship:

Sarvamandira: Royal ship for transporting treasuries and horses, have the largest cabin from one end of the ship to the other.

Madhyamarnandira: Pleasure ship, have cabins only in the middle part of the deck.

Agramandira: Warship of Ancient India.

Edited June 4, 2012 by The Crooked Philosopher

[Adi12]

A modification of Atenmesses52's list of building names, because Sanskrit and English are such different languages I searched for the general idea rather than exact translation.

Sources: http://spokensanskrit.de, A Learner's Sanskrit-Tamil-English Dictionary, my mom

• Civ Center- Rajadhanika (literal meaning- “place”, “king's residence”)
  
• House-Griham (lm- “house”)
  
• Corral- Goshala (lm- “cowshed”)
  
• Mill- Khalla(lm- “mill”)
  
• Farmstead- Kantu(lm - “granary”, “barn”)
  
• Field- Kshetra(lm-“soil”, “field”)
  
• Palisade- Aphalaka(lm- “palisade”, “enclosure”)
  
• Outpost- Uparaksana(lm- “outpost”)
  
• Barrack- Sainyavasa(lm- “barrack”)
  
• Port- Naukasthanaka(lm- “harbour”)
  
• Market- Vipana(lm- trading place)
  
• Temple- Devalaya(lm- “abode of the gods”, “temple”)
  
• Tower – Udarka(lm- “look-out place”)
  
• Stone Wall(not sure if needed) – Shilabanda(lm- “stone Wall”)
  
• Wall Tower(not sure if needed)- Puratta(lm- “watch tower on city wall”)
  
• Gate- Dwara(lm- “gate”, “entrance”)
  
• Fortress- Pura(lm- “fortress”)
  
• Elephant Stables- Chatura(lm- “elephant-stable”)
  
• Pillar- Stambha(lm- “pillar”, "column")
  

[The Crooked Philosopher]

I found a useful link where it have a thorough description about Ancient Indian Ship and its shape and sizes, hope you guys will like it.

http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/rawdataupload/upload/insa/INSA_1/20005af4_137.pdf

[Pureon]

Thanks guys, very helpful!

Here's an update of where I am so far:

Textures and meshes are all experimental and nothing is final! So don't judge me on my modeling skills just yet

[The Crooked Philosopher]

I have some opinion to express, the elephant archer should change to war elephant or samnahya in sanskrit while Varu for royal elephant as a replacement to the howdah elephant.

Edited June 5, 2012 by The Crooked Philosopher

[Dread_Boy]

@Pureon it looks kinda childish but I like it. It would be nice if you could place few different houses from different races just to get a feeling how they blend together. Otherwise, good job.

[historic_bruno]

I have found an article from http://www.emotionar.../DHANURVEDA.pdf and i wonder if this could help?

I have found an interesting link http://www.crystalinks.com/indiaships.html where it mentions indian ships and warship and i found a book about Indian shipbuilding from ancient time to present. The book Naval Construction in India which i found it in scribd did mentioned Chandragupta Maurya was the first to recognize admiralty as a state department.

There are three kind of ship:

Sarvamandira: Royal ship for transporting treasuries and horses, have the largest cabin from one end of the ship to the other.

Madhyamarnandira: Pleasure ship, have cabins only in the middle part of the deck.

Agramandira: Warship of Ancient India.

This led me to War in Ancient India which has info about ships and naval warfare including a few images, references a number of sources.

There are some potentially useful images in "A History of Indian Shipping", pages 40, 42, 46, 48 and it has some content specifically about shipping in the Mauryan period, in addition to earlier and later periods.

[The Crooked Philosopher]

I found the book Indian shipping; a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times in archive.org/ but i'm not sure if this is illegal to upload the link or not but if anyone wish to read the book just visit the website and type the book name and its free.

Hope this could help.

Edited June 8, 2012 by The Crooked Philosopher

[historic_bruno]

I found the book Indian shipping; a history of the sea-borne trade and maritime activity of the Indians from the earliest times in archive.org/ but i'm not sure if this is illegal to upload the link or not but if anyone wish to read the book just visit the website and type the book name and its free.

Hope this could help.

It's mentioned in the post right above yours Also referred to as "A History of Indian Shipping". It's freely available on Google books.

[The Crooked Philosopher]

The thing is Google Books version you post omitted most of the paragraph and archive.org have a complete book for free.

As far as i know, 0 AD was the only independent RTS that have put a considerable time and effort to create a true Indian faction instead of a splinter faction. Unlike the modders that we know for working certain project they could barely achieve what 0 AD could due to the limit that the original game imposed, thats why i intend to see the Mauryan faction become a playable faction and perhaps i have become a little bit impatient to see the next release with the Mauryan included, anyway i just want to see it release as soon as possible.

[forCarthage]

As far as i know, 0 AD was the only independent RTS that have put a considerable time and effort to create a true Indian faction instead of a splinter faction. Unlike the modders that we know for working certain project they could barely achieve what 0 AD could due to the limit that the original game imposed, thats why i intend to see the Mauryan faction become aplayable faction and perhaps i have become a little bit impatient to see the next release with the Mauryan included, anyway i just want to see

it release as soon as possible.

I know right! I never get to play as India in any historical RTS games! Now I can, thanks 0AD!

Edited June 10, 2012 by forCarthage

[Pureon]

We will not be releasing the Mauryan civ in 4-5 weeks, it will need a lot longer than that. Progress with architecture hasn't really got much further than this:

And it wouldn't be a Mauryan civ without elephants, and those need to be completely redesigned and animated which will take a long time. We are looking for an experienced Blender skeletal animator to help us out.

[quantumstate]

I went an had a look at a book on Mauryan Indian art and architecture earlier. I have attached a zip with pictures (Big file). The quality isn't great, I should have been more careful taking the pictures so some text is a bit hard to read. Also the book had practically no information about normal buildings and had a comment that "Mauryan Architecture is the least known subject in Indian history."

There is a lot about pillars, quite a bit about the caves and some information on palisades, a fancy pillared hall and some religious buildings.

I have categorized the stuff by the chapters of the book. The "... - plates" folders contain the photographic plates from the back of the book along with an index of the plates. The number on the plates are pretty hard to read, however they should be in order (I skipped some uninteresting pages).

I wrote down some stuff about the palisades.

The palisades enclosed a city which was a parallelogram 9.2 miles long and 1.7 miles wide. The palisade was about 2.7m high and about 3m deep, there was space inside of it to walk and there was a roof (so people probably walked on top). There were loopholes for archers and 570 towers at intervals of roughly 67m t be used by archers. There were 64 gates, a possible archaeological find us a gate with a width of 4m but it is not certain that they found a gate. Sale wood was used which did not grow locally so must have been transported.

On the outside there was a moat/ditch which was 184m wide and 14m deep (The books author suspects that this is not an accurate size, this comes from a historical source, there isn't archaeological evidence.)

Another city had three moats with widths 25, 22 and 18m at a separation of 2m, one was kept muddy, one willed with water and the third was dry. Mud ramparts are also reported of varying size up to 11m high and 22 wide (also sounds unrealistically big).

In general buildings were primarily built out of wood.

Mauryan Indian Book.zip

[TheDarkJedi]

Hi Guyz,

Just skimmed through the thread, and I have few things to share:

• Spearman (basic->advanced->elite): Spear is called " Bhala" in Hindi and "Shul" in Sanskrit, but 'Trishul"(Trident), a slightly altered form of spear is more common in India. Trident is also depicted as the main weapon of a number of Indian Gods. A man with Trident will be called "Trishuldhari".
  
• Swordsman (basic->advanced->elite): Sword is called "Talwar" or "Khadag/Asi" in Hindi and Sanskrit respectively so a swordsman would ideally be called "Talwarbaaj" or "Khadagdhari/Asidhari". My suggestion would be to call them as "Kshatriyas" , which refer to the warrior class of that time in place of swordsman. Some of them could use two swords at a time.
  
• Slinger (basic->advanced->elite) : Slinger is called "Gulel" in Hindi but I dont think Indians used it for military purposes, in place of Slingers you can use "Chakrams" (Sharp edged steel disks (like Frisbee), that can be used as boomerang/or slings).
  
• Skirmisher (basic->advanced->elite): A basic infantry unit is called a SANIK (Sanskrit) or SIPAHI (Hindi/Urdu), which became "Sepoy" during British rule.
  
• Archer (basic->advanced->elite) Archer can be translated as "Dhanurdhar" (Sanskrit) and "Teerandaaj" in Hindi/Urdu, One of the greatest archery skill of that time was being a "Savyasanchi" (Ambidextrous).
  
• Cavalry Spearman (basic->advanced->elite) Horse Cavalry is called "Ashwarohi" or "Ghudasawar" in Sanskrit and Hindi respectively.
  
• Cavalry Swordsman (basic->advanced->elite)
  
• Cavalry Skirmisher (basic->advanced->elite)
  
• Cavalry Archer (basic->advanced->elite)
  
• Woman/Female Citizen: A female can be called "Naari"/ "Mahila"/"Stri"
  
• Trader: "Vyapari"/ "Vaishya", Vaishya refers to the trader class of that time.
  
• Healer/Priest: Healer is called 'Vaidya" and priest a "Pujari or Pandit", Brahaman also refers to the Healer/Priest class of that time.
  
• Fishing Boat: Fisherman is called a "Machuara" in Hindi and "Matsyapalak" in Sanskrit
  
• Merchant Ship: "Vanijyik Nauka" is the literal translation.
  
• Some kind of warship(s): Warships are called Yudhpot.
  

Notes: Indian civilizations should also have Chariots (Rath) as cavalry. Person sitting in a chariot can act as an archer from distance, while using lance in close combat.

Maceman can be another special unit. Muscular men yielding maces to crush enemy forces.

A war elephant with a big mace tied to his trunk can be a devastating champion unit, destroying everything which comes in it's way(Put archers on it's back for added firepower)

Basic->Advanced->Elite can be translated as Rathi-Adhirathi-Maharathi in Warrior terminology but I need to dive deeper in this.

A warrior is called "Yodha",

Heros: I think Chandragupta Maurya is essential if you are naming it Mauryan Civilization, he is the founder after all.

Ashoka can be the another one, He ruled almost all over the India except far southern territories.

Chanakya is a great choice if you can have a Strategist/economist kind of hero, Without his help Chandragupta could never have become a king.

• Civilization Centre: If you mean capitol it will be "Rajdhani"
  
• House: "Ghar"
  
• Corral/Animal Pen: Goshala
  
• Mill (wood and mineral dropsite): "Bhandaar"
  
• Farmstead (food dropsite): "Khalihan"
  
• Farm Field: "Khet"
  
• Palisade (wooden wall): "Deewar"
  
• Outpost (wooden tower): "Chauki"/ "Machaan"
  
• Barracks: "Chhawni"/Senawaas
  
• Dock: "Bandargah"
  
• Market: "Bajar"
  
• Temple: "Mandir"
  
• Defense Tower (usually stone):
  
• Stone Wall/Wall Tower/Gate: Gate is called "Dwar", Stone Wall should be "Pathar Deewar", but that's a literal translation.
  
• Fortress: "Kila"/"Durg"
  

Also Indians do not kill cows for food, but worship them as mother, they are anyways herded for milk products.

Most of the translations I did for the Civil buildings are Hindi/Urdu names and not the original sanskrit ones, but these are the ones mostly used now a days.

Architectural references I will submit after some research.

I am a bit reluctant about the information provided for unit research http://www.europabar...its8.html#india, it looks quite complicated and I am not sure about the origins and names of the units as well.

If you guyz have any questions please feel free to shoot.

Edited June 15, 2012 by TheDarkJedi

[MishFTW]

@DarkJedi, I'd lean towards using Sanskrit over Hindi for the ones you where you gave bilingual names.

[TheDarkJedi]

Hey guyz, few more suggestions/observations:

1. I guess you guyz are going to have altars as a special structures, Altars are very important in Hindu culture, but they are not independent structures, they are usually built inside a temple. Altar is the place from which offerings are presented to God/Deity so most of the temples have altars inside them. An Independent Altars can be constructed at any place but they are mostly used for temporary worships.

So I was thinking we can have something like temporary altars, which can boost up productions/effectiveness of nearby units. Altar technology can be unlocked from the Temple and only priests can build them. Once built it's life will slowly decrease overtime, Effectiveness of priests/monks/healers can be increased according to the total number of altars a player have at a time.

2. Temples need not have statues of any Gods at all, even in real life God's idol is placed at the deepest place inside a temple and is not at all visible from outside.

We can have a generic temple structure so that even if that is razed no one would have any issues.

These are not from Mauryan times but are built along the ancient lines, these might give you some idea .

For emblem if we can make something out of this:

As for the architecure, since they used wood extensively, it is very difficult to find architectural evidences from that time. But a search for "Nalanda university" or takshshila might shed some light on it.Both of these oldest center of education belong to 4th to 6th century AD

Nalanda:

Taksshila (Taxila):

According to few historians, Chanakya was a professor at Takshshila university.

Source: http://www.hindu.com...61653990500.htm

PS: Most of the things we know about Maurya dynasty come from two books "Arthshastra"(Economics) by Chanakya and "Indica" by

Megasthenes (Greek Ambassador sent by Selukas to the court of Chandragupta) but there are almost none architectural evidences...I suggest using "Gupta Architecture " as a foundation.

Feel free to contact for any further information

Edited June 16, 2012 by TheDarkJedi

[SDM]

If anybody wants, I can check out this book in my library (available in the Fine Arts Library of The Ohio State University):

The roots of Indian art : a detailed study of the formative period of Indian art and architecture, third and second centuries B.C., Mauryan and late Mauryan / S.P. Gupta

Encyclopaedia of Indian history : land, people, culture & civilization / Anil Saxena

Well now I'm starting to think that someone already got this book, but I'll post the scans for some of the pages anyway.

https://docs.google....VGgzZFN2WHpPWG8

https://docs.google....cEY0UExZVjJNWGM

https://docs.google....MlB4bjJqTEY5Rm8

https://docs.google....LU1La0xNdlBuVUE

https://docs.google....R01tR21EUldzaFE

https://docs.google....VldNZDlHbmhUMms

About Vidisa Temple- The structure was eliptical, its longer axis measured 8.1 m and the shorter 3 m. At a distance of 2.5 m on all sides of the foundation trench of the wall of this structure runs the foundation-trench of another wall, also eliptical in plan and absolutely parallel to the first wall. The outer wall's foundation trench, however, had a distinct projection on the eastern side (the longer wing of the elliptical structure) which measured 7 x 4.85 m, there was a contemporary brick-rammed flooring but its exact limits could not be ascertained simply because it was subjected to floods and later disturbances. But it has been noticed that at some places the floor extended beyond the rubble enclosure of the later period, mentioned above. The brick-rammed flooring was perhaps plastered with lime all over since a layer of fine pale brown earth, occasionally with streaks of lime plaster was found all over.

Edited June 18, 2012 by SypheDMar

[quantumstate]

If anybody wants, I can check out this book in my library (available in the Fine Arts Library of The Ohio State University):

The roots of Indian art : a detailed study of the formative period of Indian art and architecture, third and second centuries B.C., Mauryan and late Mauryan / S.P. Gupta

Encyclopaedia of Indian history : land, people, culture & civilization / Anil Saxena

Well now I'm starting to think that someone already got this book, but I'll post the scans for some of the pages anyway.

https://docs.google....VGgzZFN2WHpPWG8

https://docs.google....cEY0UExZVjJNWGM

https://docs.google....MlB4bjJqTEY5Rm8

https://docs.google....LU1La0xNdlBuVUE

https://docs.google....R01tR21EUldzaFE

https://docs.google....VldNZDlHbmhUMms

About Vidisa Temple- The structure was eliptical, its longer axis measured 8.1 m and the shorter 3 m. At a distance of 2.5 m on all sides of the foundation trench of the wall of this structure runs the foundation-trench of another wall, also eliptical in plan and absolutely parallel to the first wall. The outer wall's foundation trench, however, had a distinct projection on the eastern side (the longer wing of the elliptical structure) which measured 7 x 4.85 m, there was a contemporary brick-rammed flooring but its exact limits could not be ascertained simply because it was subjected to floods and later disturbances. But it has been noticed that at some places the floor extended beyond the rubble enclosure of the later period, mentioned above. The brick-rammed flooring was perhaps plastered with lime all over since a layer of fine pale brown earth, occasionally with streaks of lime plaster was found all over.

This was the book I was looking at in http://www.wildfiregames.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=16056&st=120#entry241853. My pictures aren't very good quality though.

[SDM]

I thought that was what you were looking at, too. The attachment didn't work for me, so I couldn't check to make sure. I'll look for other sources, then.

By the way, if there aren't many references for architecture, what does WFG plan on doing with the Mauryans?

Edited June 19, 2012 by SypheDMar

[MishFTW]

I think the logical thing to do would be to borrow from other similar civilizations. The Guptas come to mind.

[sankrant.chaubey]

Actually speaking, the common language at that period was prakrit, not sanskrit.... Sanskrit was for the cream da la cream brahmins.. Try to find the prakrit words......

The sages were not only the kind of scientists, they were good millitary generals too (they taught the warriors, no childs play).

I would also recommend to include a swordsman unit called 'yoddha'. These warriors were one of the first martial artists(It were the Indians who migrated buddhism and martial arts to other parts of the world!!) who fought withought any armour with short swords - Idential to the celtic frantics- though civilized and cheaply available.