So basically everyone knows Nords are Scandinavians, Vaegirs are Russians, and Khergits are Mongols. And Sarranids are some desert tribes not sure which exactly, and if there is any certain single inspiration, or a few of them.
But I have seen some confusion about factions of Swadia and Kingdom of Rhodoks. And recently I found out what those factions were based on!
About the time period the game is set in, County of Flanders fought with France for their independence.
During the battle of the Golden Spurs, the french had very good heavy cavalry, and they depended on them in this battle (I heard actually in most battles, but I am not sure).
Flemish forces were mostly militia armed with pikes, spears, and similar weapons, organized by rich city guilds. There were also some crossbowmen (wikipedia also mentions bows, but only in one single point, and only says they were used, so I guess, there were some bowmen in the crossbow unit?). And they had almost no cavalry at all, one source claims there was just 10 mounted warriors on the Flemish side, because most nobles sided with France.
Basically the French charged, and got completely annihilated by Flemish pikes, their nobles killed, and County of Flanders gained independence.
This started "infantry revolution", cavalry wasn't the dominating force of battlefields anymore, and some nobles started fighting on foot.
Sounds familiar?
Also one fact I left for later - Do you remember this weird Rhodok weapon, the "spiked staff"? Turns out it's Flemish weapon, "goedendag", which was used in that battle among spears and pikes.
What's weird though, is that Swadian coat of arms, looks very similar to the Flemish one!! Perhaps at first they were going to make it Flemish coat, but later someone said, hey, it doesn't make sense for lowland nation to have a bear as their coat, and highland nation have a lion, so they swapped them?
But I have seen some confusion about factions of Swadia and Kingdom of Rhodoks. And recently I found out what those factions were based on!
About the time period the game is set in, County of Flanders fought with France for their independence.
During the battle of the Golden Spurs, the french had very good heavy cavalry, and they depended on them in this battle (I heard actually in most battles, but I am not sure).
Flemish forces were mostly militia armed with pikes, spears, and similar weapons, organized by rich city guilds. There were also some crossbowmen (wikipedia also mentions bows, but only in one single point, and only says they were used, so I guess, there were some bowmen in the crossbow unit?). And they had almost no cavalry at all, one source claims there was just 10 mounted warriors on the Flemish side, because most nobles sided with France.
Basically the French charged, and got completely annihilated by Flemish pikes, their nobles killed, and County of Flanders gained independence.
This started "infantry revolution", cavalry wasn't the dominating force of battlefields anymore, and some nobles started fighting on foot.
Sounds familiar?
Also one fact I left for later - Do you remember this weird Rhodok weapon, the "spiked staff"? Turns out it's Flemish weapon, "goedendag", which was used in that battle among spears and pikes.
What's weird though, is that Swadian coat of arms, looks very similar to the Flemish one!! Perhaps at first they were going to make it Flemish coat, but later someone said, hey, it doesn't make sense for lowland nation to have a bear as their coat, and highland nation have a lion, so they swapped them?
