Why don't the Hans have a infantry swordsman?

[Arup]

Why do we not have a Han Infantry Swordsman ?  In most, if not all depictions of the era, sword and helbs alongside crossbows is by and large the highlight of their weapons. "The jian was mentioned as one of the "Five Weapons" during the Han dynasty, the other four being dao, spear, halberd, and staff. Another version of the Five Weapons lists the bow and crossbow as one weapon, the jian and dao as one weapon, in addition to halberd, shield, and armour." - Wikipedia article on Han Military

[real_tabasco_sauce]

Since the dao is really big i think they could get the longsword mixin that the mace sword champs get.

[Arup]

6 minutes ago, real_tabasco_sauce said:

Since the dao is really big i think they could get the longsword mixin that the mace sword champs get.

exactly what my suggestion is as well

[Emacz]

2 hours ago, Arup said:

Why do we not have a Han Infantry Swordsman ?  In most, if not all depictions of the era, sword and helbs alongside crossbows is by and large the highlight of their weapons. "The jian was mentioned as one of the "Five Weapons" during the Han dynasty, the other four being dao, spear, halberd, and staff. Another version of the Five Weapons lists the bow and crossbow as one weapon, the jian and dao as one weapon, in addition to halberd, shield, and armour." - Wikipedia article on Han Military

prettty ez to add, they already have a template for "infantry_swordsman_special"

adding to historical now.
The current version of game doesnt exactly stick to accurately depicting the time period.  A lot more civs would have a variety of units.

Edited May 4 by Emacz

[Deicide4u]

33 minutes ago, Emacz said:

A lot more civs would have a variety of units.

Of course they would, every army in the ancient world had diverse military units. The challenge is to stick to what differentiated them one from another for gameplay balance and sheer fun factor. To give examples from the game:
1) Giving Persians more cavalry choice because they were renowned for it,
2) Giving Romans great sword infantry because they were feared for it,
3) Giving Spartans one-man armies early, and Leonidas,
4) Giving Gauls crazy units because the French always were a bit on the goofy side  

Edited May 4 by Deicide4u

[Emacz]

Thats what historical is all about

Persian we didnt add any more horses, they already have a lot, but we did add a camel  they used camel cavalry and supposedly they scared enemy horses.

Romans get a small sword bonus (but so do iber, spanish steal was quite sought after)

Sparta's shamps are stronger... i was thinking of adding their heroes p2, but at reduced health and dmg, but same bonus.  Maybe Ill work on that today.

Gauls themselves didnt exactly have a lot of other units per say, but other celtic tribes did.  We have the Rutheni archer, Rhaetian Axeman and Treveri Spear/Jav cav that you can get through the Celtic Coalition.

[Arup]

I love historical patch

 

[Emacz]

Thanks for the love @Arup

Just need more people to play so we can find all the errors i made and fix em

[Genava55]

On 04/05/2025 at 4:36 PM, Arup said:

Why do we not have a Han Infantry Swordsman ?  In most, if not all depictions of the era, sword and helbs alongside crossbows is by and large the highlight of their weapons. "The jian was mentioned as one of the "Five Weapons" during the Han dynasty, the other four being dao, spear, halberd, and staff. Another version of the Five Weapons lists the bow and crossbow as one weapon, the jian and dao as one weapon, in addition to halberd, shield, and armour." - Wikipedia article on Han Military

Technically, every civs should have swordsmen from the start. Even the Hellenistic civs.

[Genava55]

 

 

[Emacz]

7 hours ago, Genava55 said:

Technically, every civs should have swordsmen from the start. Even the Hellenistic civs.

What would their swordsmen be called/used for? 

For example from what I have read so far on sparta, doesnt really sound like Helots, Periokoi ever had swords.  Would just be spartiates as a secondary weapon. Which could be done... but since their spear attack is so strong, doesnt really seem needed.

[Genava55]

58 minutes ago, Emacz said:

What would their swordsmen be called/used for? 

Hoplites means 'men-at-arms', this is a generic word.

Swordsmen could be named something like Makhairaphoroi, aka 'makhaira-bearers', makhaira being a popular one-edged sword.

1 hour ago, Emacz said:

Would just be spartiates as a secondary weapon.

It is generally a secondary weapon yes.

[Agne1940]

On 04/05/2025 at 9:10 PM, Emacz said:

Thats what historical is all about

Persian we didnt add any more horses, they already have a lot, but we did add a camel  they used camel cavalry and supposedly they scared enemy horses.

Romans get a small sword bonus (but so do iber, spanish steal was quite sought after)

Sparta's shamps are stronger... i was thinking of adding their heroes p2, but at reduced health and dmg, but same bonus.  Maybe Ill work on that today.

Gauls themselves didnt exactly have a lot of other units per say, but other celtic tribes did.  We have the Rutheni archer, Rhaetian Axeman and Treveri Spear/Jav cav that you can get through the Celtic Coalition.


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That's actually a really cool breakdown — love how you're balancing things while keeping that historical flavor.

The camel addition for the Persians is a great touch. It’s a fun detail that also has a real tactical logic to it (horses freaking out around camels is historically documented, after all). Definitely adds depth without just stacking more cavalry.

I like the idea of giving the Romans a sword bonus too — feels appropriate, and the nod to Iberian steel is a nice bit of realism.

As for Sparta, champs being stronger makes sense, and having the heroes appear in P2 with nerfed stats but full bonuses sounds like a solid compromise. That could create some really interesting early-game decisions without being OP.

And yeah, the Celtic Coalition is shaping up to be really diverse. Even if the Gauls were more about raw infantry and numbers, bringing in units from other tribes makes it more exciting to play them.

Looking forward to seeing where you take this next — keep it up!