Armenian Phalanx

[Kalrotix]

Hello ! I just began a campaign with Armenia and I loke this faction a lot. Particulary the Armenians cataphracts ^^ . But I realized that they have one special phalanx infantry but when i used it in battle with fields of glory II they seem to be the same than heavy infantry in skin and in stats. I missed something ?

[PocusFR]

Right now Armenia can recruit Phalanx at Civilization level II or III. Not sure this is historical. Almost sure it is not ;-)
So it gets converted to FOG II unit Paighan Foot.

[Zarkarion]

Armenia may have been able to field pike phalanxes from its ex-Seleucid provinces during its (very) brief period of empire under Tigranes the Great, but there were never any actual Armenian pike phalanxes. There were Armenian imitation legionaries trained by his son-in-law Mithridates of Pontus's officers when Mithridates was in exile in Armenia following his defeat by Lucullus.

So any pike phalanxes in the Armenian army really ought to be provincial units from ex-Seleucid provinces, and (provided that the database was set up thus) these would get converted to pike phalanxes in FOG2.

[Kalrotix]

Originally posted by PocusFR:

Right now Armenia can recruit Phalanx at Civilization level II or III. Not sure this is historical. Almost sure it is not ;-)
So it gets converted to FOG II unit Paighan Foot.

Originally posted by Zarkarion:

Armenia may have been able to field pike phalanxes from its ex-Seleucid provinces during its (very) brief period of empire under Tigranes the Great, but there were never any actual Armenian pike phalanxes. There were Armenian imitation legionaries trained by his son-in-law Mithridates of Pontus's officers when Mithridates was in exile in Armenia following his defeat by Lucullus.

So any pike phalanxes in the Armenian army really ought to be provincial units from ex-Seleucid provinces, and (provided that the database was set up thus) these would get converted to pike phalanxes in FOG2.

Thanks for the answer !

Well I'm a kingdom so I suppose that i'm at civilization level 2, so I suppose that I can recruit phalanxes; But like I said in my party when converted to FOG2 they appears with the skin of the heavy infantry of the Armenians and the stats.

[Zarkarion]

Originally posted by kr-c:

Well I'm a kingdom so I suppose that i'm at civilization level 2, so I suppose that I can recruit phalanxes; But like I said in my party when converted to FOG2 they appears with the skin of the heavy infantry of the Armenians and the stats.

That is because the conversion database is based on the historical armies. So the Armenian equivalent of "Phalanx" maps to non-pike infantry. However, the conversion ratio will be higher for "Phalanx" than for Heavy Infantry, so a "Phalanx" will map to more of those FOG2 units than Heavy Infantry do.

Really, it would be more historical, and less confusing, if Phalanx was simply removed from the Armenian unit roster in FOGE.

As I said before, there is a good case for a Provincial phalanx unit in Seleucid territory somewhere nearby, although the idea that the Armenians may have fielded ex-Seleucid pike phalanxes after annexing the rump of the Seleucid kingdom is purely speculative.

Certainly, if there is a good reason why there should not be a provincial pike phalanx unit in Seleucid territory, Armenians having no access to pike phalanx at all would be more historical than them fielding pike phalanxes in their own unit roster.

[PocusFR]

Yes, that is a good move to do.

[Kalrotix]

Thanks for the answer ^^ An alternative could be that instead of armenian phalanx giving to Armenia the posibility to recruit imitation legionaries once at 2nd or 3rd level of civilization.

[Zarkarion]

Originally posted by kr-c:

Thanks for the answer ^^ An alternative could be that instead of armenian phalanx giving to Armenia the posibility to recruit imitation legionaries once at 2nd or 3rd level of civilization.

Possibly, although if they had them at all it was only for a few years during Tigranes the Great's reign, starting at the earliest after Mithridates of Pontus's exile to Armenia following his defeat by Lucullus in 71 BC. They were likely destroyed in the the Armenian defeats by Lucullus in 69 and 68 BC, or taken to Pontus by Mithridates when he returned to Pontus in 67 BC. There is absolutely no indication they were used after the reign of Tigranes.