Amazon Total War: Re-Ignited

Mod Name: Amazon: Total War- Re-ignited
Author: Parthian Shot (and team)
For Game/Version: Rome Total War, 1.6 (Barbarian Invasion)
Status: In Development
Uses Mod:Switch?: Yes
Gallery: Yes
Home Site: Amazon: Total War forum at Total War Heaven
Download: Latest version 231 MB

A download site within RTWH is in the works. Note that the above site is not fully reliable, but it is all we have for the moment. Thanks for your patience.

Amazon: Total War- Reignited is a grand modpack based upon the superb award-winning Amazon:Total War modpack by our beloved SubRosa, and also upon the modification of that by ares7667.

In those modpacks, the world of Rome:Total War has been given a major overhaul. The Romans are consolidated, the other factions updated and improved, and three new factions introduced- branches of the Amazons, the feared women-warriors of Antiquity who were thought to be more myth than legend.

This modpack, Amazon: Total War- Reignited, by Parthian Shot and her team, take advantage of the newest and latest archaeological finds in Russia, Siberia, Kazakhstan, and other places where once the Scythians, Sarmations, and other steppe peoples roamed. The evidence coming to light is that there were indeed female warriors among the tribes, and that they were the basis of the Amazon legend.

The premises of ATW-Reignited:

1. At around 270BC, unless your faction is a large empire with great commerce power and technological development (Rome and Carthage come to mind), clothing and armors are expensive and time consuming to produce- so neat attires are luxury most factions simply cannot afford unless the combat unit is aristocratic or patrician based. Few other mods take the time to investigate the logistical side of recruitment, thus allow a small town of 700 population with a single blacksmith shop can create a over a hundred soldier combat unit complete with chain mail suits, shields, helmets, and weapons within a single season.

2. Chain mail is very, very expensive to produce and as such it should not be too widely available to units. It also takes quite a long time to produce a single suit of mail, having to individually sew a single open ring to four closed rings then hammer it shut, and repeat the process ten thousand times to form a single lorica hamata.

3. After Subrosa and others started their brilliant Amazon TW mods, many archeological finds have since proved that perhaps Amazons are not just in the Greek myths. So it makes sense to have an updated version to reflect a less fantasy based Total War mod and such mod should be dedicated to ancient matriarchal society.

4. Many armor designs for the line fighting units at the time are frontal armors and not all-around armor suits, which really are reserved for aristocratic or patrician units only. Historically speaking, the old thinking was that a fighting line unit with their back less protected would be less reluctant to turn their back towards the enemy and run away. Also such measure would save the governing entity a great deal of expense on armor procurement. For units wearing frontal-only armors, their protection values are re-evaluated to reflect such changes.

5. All the units’ hit points, protection value and so on, should be based on sound calculation of the unit’s recruited personnel, equipment, fighting style, missile weapon. A unit should not possess an arrow hit power twice as much as the next unit on the roster, simply because the unit is an elite unit. Any unit’s parameter should be based on good systematic and technical evaluation. For example, if an Amazon unit has a double bow, then it makes sense to have such a bow with twice the hitting power. Or if an archer’s unit shoot iron tipped or iron encased lead bolt, then it makes sense that the range can be much farther than an arrow with wooden shaft.

6. Horses in ancient times are really glorified ponies, usually no more than 12 hands tall (or 48 inches approximately 120cm). This gives women great advantages as cavalry soldiers due to their more petite body frame and less body weight. So this mod has more female cavalry units in more factions. Also their armor and number in the projectile store should be more than the men’s cavalry unit of equivalent mount.

7. Bronze armors were more proliferate than iron- and tougher than most would give them credit for. Even in modern days, the Beryllium Bronze alloy and other similar copper alloys can achieve 90% hardness of the best steel. So in regions short of iron resources, most units should only have arrow tips, swords, or axes made out of iron. The rest of equipment should be based instead upon copper-alloys. The iron can easily rust away, so the units equipped with iron armors will also have correspondingly higher up-keep costs. Chain-mail will to be the most expensive to maintain, with breastplates and other large surfaces easier.

The major changes in the ATW- Re-Ignited mod

  • Use of chain mail has been sharply curtailed. My calculation shows that in 250BC, it would cost 10,000 man hours by a skillful metal smith to create a complete suit of chain mail armor. Chain mail in this submod is used mostly for limb armor as well as linking the pieces between major armors plate or coats, making banded/splint mail the norm as well as making it quicker to produce.
  • Armors are shown not to be the perfect fit like the previous Amazon Mods, as most armors issued out of any royal armory would hardly be called custom tailored.
  • The four Amazon factions are Geothe (Jiazii), Thyss (Thyssgetae), Libyan, and Amazonia
  • Unlike the Subrosa mods, there are no Amazons based in British Isles, or Valkyrja in the Central Russia. Instead I have the Jiazii and the Thyss who are ancient Amazon tribes originally guarding the Caucasus Gates but they have since been scattered. The Libyan Amazons are the Gorgons in the previous mods, but their skins are now less of the Africana persuasion, unless the Libyan units are local Nubian recruits. Otherwise, the Libyan skins are more sun-tanned versions of other Amazon factions.
  • The Amazonia remain where they are and are mostly left unchanged except the infantry units are less fantastical and there are more cavalry units added.
  • In general, many more Amazon cavalry units are created and foot units reduced. As a matter of fact the primary advantage of the Amazons in this mod would be their use of small mobile forces with great fire power.
  • Bronze armored units have less upkeeping cost because the bronze alloys are less prone to rust away
  • Like the Sarmatians and the Scythians in previous Amazon mods, Carthage and Iberia now have female units drawn from their temple vestal virgins as recruits. Since in the legend Carthage is founded by Queen Dido, there ought to be more female warrior representation than the original RTW afforded this faction. However, unlike the Amazon units, these are more of the militia type units.
  • Macedon now has regular supply of Amazon cavalry as well as foot archer units, Thrace and Seleucid now have frontier Amazon horse archers.
  • Nudity: many of the light units are naked, female and male warriors alike, to reflect the cost factor of equipping such units.
  • Elephant units are now available to all Amazon factions, not just the Africana (Libya) faction.
  • Big surprise with the use of fire.
  • Also some missile units have long range capabilities due to the use of mano-ballista, double loaded bow, and shooting of iron casing lead bolt which is far more ballistically efficient than arrows with wooden shafts.
  • Only Armenia, Libyan Amazon, Carthage, Iberia, Rome, Gaul, German, Seleucid, and Celts are deemed iron rich, the rest of the factions are more reliant on bronze armors for protection. Their swords, spear tip, or arrow tip, still remain to be iron.
  • Cost and upkeep of iron armored units are increased exponentially higher.
  • Only aristocratic units have full armor, their cost also reflects the expense to make such armor.
  • The peasant rebel is the least properly attired. The regular units are somewhat better. The mercenary units are the best equipped and attired of all units.
  • All the Amazon units are now less Hellenized. Their armor and helmets are more Central Asian style than Greek. So Corinthian helmets are mostly replaced by conical shaped helmet. Lamellar (scale) armors are more common than plate mail or chain mail. Many are coat mail (or brigandine) armors.
  • Cavalry units are re-calibrated to show weight constraints. For example, it is not likely to have a mounted lighthorse unit with heavy shield, instead they would use Pelta or wicker shields riding a horse which is slightly larger than a pony. Only heavy cavalry troopers can carry heavy shields. Women cavalry can carry slightly heavier armor or equipment due to female’s more petite frame and less body weight. In each new unit description I would try to describe their equipment to justify the defensive and offensive ratings of such units.
  • Only the Armenia, Rome, Cartage, Iberia, Celts, and Gaul have full iron chain mail units.

Hereby the Amazon factions of ATW-R, in the words of Parthian Shot:

To help to gain more background understanding of Amazon: Total War – Reignited mod, I thought I add the cultural, archeological, as well as anthropological stories/references to this forum, so the players can have better perspective of factions in the game.

The Amazon Factions in Amazon:Total War – Reignited are:

1. Geothe Amazonia
2. Thermodon Amazonia
3. Thyssagetae, or Thyssa
4. Libyan Amazon

I. Geothe Amazon

Up to the 400BC, the Geothe (pronounced “Jia-Zee”, ancient form of Jyazii) Amazons were the guardians of the Caucasus Gate for fifteen centuries. They claim to be the original Amazon Nation from which all other branches of Amazons originated. However, for reasons unknown, at around 400BC they are being forced out of their homeland of the Caucasus Mountains, first migrated to the western shore of the Caspian Sea, and later settled in the region east of the Azov Sea. The word Geothe, which literally translates to ‘from steppes’, are the tribal name of the people and the name ‘Amazon’, which is the sacred name derived from the river Sinus Amazenus, where Priestess Camilla is said to be hurled across by her father when she was an infant.

According to Virgil (Aeneid, Books VII and XI), Camilla’s father, Metabus, was fleeing from his enemies carrying the infant Camilla when he encountered the Amisenus (Amazenus) River. He fastened the baby to his javelin, then dedicated the baby girl to the Goddess Innana (the equivalent of Diana or Artemis in the Greco-Roman world), and hurled the javelin with the baby across the river. He then swam to the opposite bank, where he rejoined Camilla. True to the oath, Camilla grew up to become a great warrior and a renowned huntress, stayed to be a maiden her entire life to serve the Goddess despite advances from many suitors. She led an army of maidens which started the Camilla sect of the Artemis cult. The Geothe warriors took great pride to be called the Amazons because of their most revered heroine from the River Sinus Amazenus. To the Geothe as well as all the Amazonians, the word Amazon signifies the oath sworn by Camilla’s father, an oath that dedicates a maiden to the Goddess to become a warrior and protector of their community or their friends in need. Such females know not what hearth chores are like, but are more at ease with archery, javelins, close-quarter combat, and equestrianism. Virgil recorded the legend of Camilla as the official court scribe at Rome in the year Octavian ascended to become Augustus, the first Emperor of Roman Emipire. Virgil purposely made Camilla a Volscian maiden in his writing to flatter the new Emperor (Volcia in Italia being Octavian’s birth place), and to inspire his fellow Romans, but every reader of his time who has any sense of geography knows that the river Sinus Amazenus Virgil talked about is located not in Italia, but near Sinope in Asia Minor, between the border of Aram (Armenia) and Themiskyran Amazonia.

Because most horses of their time are only 12 hands tall (48 inches or 120cm), really glorified ponies in real life, the limitation of smaller horses made women the ideal cavalry soldiers. Being more petite and lighter in weight, they can travel farther and faster with the pony-size horses. Even though their number is never great, their often small sized mobile army can strike their enemy where they least expected, and can destroy much larger forces because of their advantage in mobility and long range fire power of their missiles.

In addition to possessing the best women cavalry, the Geothe Amazons also enjoyed a special relationship with the Kingdom of Mittani, both factions being the founding members of Melanchlaenae, (or the Black Coat Society), and therefore has advanced knowledge of horse breeding. The Mittani people pioneered the horse breeding technique where they successfully bred horse to 15-17 hands tall. Although Mittani traders sold gelded horses in great numbers to their neighbors, the true secret of breeding is only known to a few factions, such as the Aramites (Armenian) who eventually absorbed the Mittani people, Pre-Alexander Egypt, and the Geothe Amazons.

The Geothe’s other fortes are their education and secret library system, the Geothe Priestess Society usually gathered their local populace and train their womenfolks to defend their community from marauding adventuring menfolks, the likes of Aeneas, Ulysses, Hercules, and Jason, ie the so-called Quest Heroes. These marauders almost always plundered, stole, raped, and murdered their way through their travel, leaving matriarchal communities in destitude through such raids. So the Sisterhood inspired their pupils with the deeds of heroines such as Camilla’s, or that of the Amazon Queen Panthesilea, so these womenfolks can be organized to better defend their communities.

This also has the benefit of solidifying the Priesthood’s support base, and to imbue the peasant women with such fighting spirit so as to create potential recruits for the Priesthood novitiates. The Priestess Sisterhood also educated their local womenfolks on crops, animal husbandry, and basic form of hunting or fighting skills, such as stone throwing, javelin throwing, and some in archery. The priestess sisterhood are a collection of maidens who are located in various geographical regions, most are well versed in horse riding, horse archery, hand to hand combat with daggers, axes, spears, and swords, as well as the secret of the sacred fire. They rely their means of communication mainly on the horse riders to be able to cover long distance, from one Amazon community to the next, all through relay message dispatchers on horseback. The Sisterhood hold secret archive only accessible by the members of the Priesthood, and in its archive contains all the dispatches between the Amazon Communities. Such messages relating news of potential threats, new technology and innovation of every kind.

Like the later Hungarian and Magyar cavalry, the Geothe Amazon also train their horses to lie down on the battlefield, this allows them to conceal some of their cavalry units on the battlefield.

II. Thermodon Amazonia

These are the most well known Amazons to the Greeks and the Romans. These are the colonies of the Amazons migrated from the Caucasus Mountains. Their establishment in the Asia Minor guarded the incursion of Medes, and later the Persians from overpowering the Western Asia Minor. The Persian rulers only required the token of submission in the forms of earth and water, they would then send a representative of the King, known as the Satrap to rule the region. As long as the tax is paid and the levy called, the Satrap pretty much let the people do what they want. Unknown to most of the men-societies, the Amazons heavily infiltrated the Persian and Median Satrapies, to such an extent that they are the arbitrator of politics in the region most of the time. The early beginning of the Carian League, for example, is the classical case, where the league formed its own governing body, with the consent of the Satrap. It was so well established, that later on even the Greeks and the Roman would grudgingly allow the league to exist, even allowed their officiation in 168BC. The league in various forms lasted until the early days of the Byzantine Empire. For people who may not know, the U.S. Constitution is, in many ways, based on the Carian League Bylaws. It is under these guises the matriarchal societies continue its intangible influence on the men-societies through-out the Asia-Minor.

III. Thyssa Amazons

Caucasus Albania is a term describes an ancient geographical domain around the Caucasus Gate by the Caspian Sea. This is not to be confused with the Albania in southern Europe, but it refers to the very border region between Europe and Asia. The Albani Amazons were the Amazons of Albania. They lost their homeland to the Geothe Amazon because of the Quarrel of The Guardians. The Albani ancestors were the matriarchal followers of the Aphrodite sect. For fifteen centuries, they and the Geothe, who represented Priestess Sisterhood of the Armtemis/Innana Sect, guarded the Caucasus Gates that protected the Ecumene Europa from the steppe incursions. When the Albani declined into orgiastic and wanton ways, disaster struck, and the Geothe Priesthood took over the control of the Caucasus Gates for the very survival of their own people.

Henceforth, the Albani Amazon ceased to be their former selves, and become a semi-wondering people whom the Greek scholars referred to as the Thyssagetae. “Thys” means society or people, “Geta” means clan/army, with “geta-i” (Getae) means area ruled by such army, and “Sa-Getae” means White Army Land. The Thyssa Amazon is no longer ruled by their Priestess Caste, but instead a matriarchal hereditary monarchy is established, and their Priestess Sisterhood is replaced by shamans who also fulfill medicinal needs as well as midwife work amongst their people.

The Thyssa controls important regions which demarcates forest steppe from the steppe, with abundant supplies of wood for fortification, and weapon components such as spear shaft, and arrow shafts. A common misconception is that the nomadic horse archers have abundant supplies of arrows. The truth is, the most horse archers can only afford two or three good arrows on her/his own. Without the wood-lathing technology, straight arrow shaft is painstakingly slow to make. Requires aging (as long as five years), curing, cutting, and trimming. A warped arrow shaft is as good as firewood for the camp, so unlike the spear shaft or javelins, arrow shafts are usually produced from highly developed weapon industry with large scale of processing, quality control, and skillful arrow smithing. And the Thyssa Amazon are one such faction which has both abundance of supply as well as the expertise and the facilities for such undertaking.

At this point in time, the Thyssa Amazons are in possession of great swath of land. They have built the legendary cities of Gelon and Qabala. Gelon alone, is said to be a wooden walled city thousand times the size of the legendary city of Troy.

They have mated for some generations now with the local Finnic people, and many have become red haired and light color eyed.

The Thyssa Amazon maintained a proud tradition of mounted women cavalry warrior class. So their cavalry force are highly effective. The equestrian class were required to train and evolved their tactics. The Thyssa were therefore very much aware of the many tactical improvements made by their former rival, the Geothe Amazon. Many of the units are copies of the Geothe warriors. But they have long lost the secrets of the sacred fire and the horse breeding knowledge.

Being rich in timber and woodcraft also allows them to equip their missile units with extra stores of arrows or javelins.

The Thyssa Amazon also train their horses to lie down on the battlefield, this allows them to conceal some of their cavalry units on the battlefield.

Strategically, the Thyssa Amazon have the benefit of being surrounded by squabbling neighbors, many of them are minor factions.

They also have the advantage that the regions under their control are at the northern edge of the inhabited world, or Europa Ecumene. So there is no worry of threats from all sides.

Like the Geothe Amazons, the Thyssa possess great knowledge in metal-craft, but their lack of iron resources is a great disadvantage. Only swords or dagger blades, spear tips, and most importantly, the arrowheads or bolt head are made of iron. The Thyssa did not have the knowledge of the beryllium bronze alloy, so their bronze armors are heavier and less effective.

Their two neighbors, the Scythians and the Sarmatians are constant sources of menace to the Thyssa Amazon. But the worst fear of all, is the Geothe faction who possess knowledge that will end the world the rule of men.

IV. Libyan Amazon
From the time immemorial, the Amazon communities stretched from India to North Africa, from the Steppe of Asia to the Adriatic Sea, to the Pyrenees Mountains. It is all matriarchal societies linked together through chains of pony express like messenger system, or through secret outlets in the major sea ports with messages sent using maritime fleet of the Sea People. Bearing the fruit of its labor over the centuries, it became a secret federation of prosperity and cultural enlightenment, despite many conquests claimed by the men-societies, the raiding and the pillaging of the so-call “Heroes” like Jason or Hercules, the Amazon Federation remain mostly hidden to the men-society and only a few in the Secret Sisterhood of Artemis and Aphrodite as well as the leaders of Sisterhood’s military caste know the true extent of the vastness as well as the glory of its achievement. But gradually, all these greatness are being eroded by the encroachments of belligerent menfolk like the Assyrians, the Mycenaeans, the Dorian Greeks, the Asiatic Steppe nomads, the Massagetae, the Persians, and then Alexander, and his pretenders, the Diadochi.

In time of great conflicts, or conquests of men-armies, the Amazon ran to their hidden fortifications they built over the centuries, like hidden city on the Isle of Lemnos, or the temple fortress on the Island of Hespera, the cave world in Caria, the wooden redoubt at Gelon, the riverbank garden at Tartessos, and the list of the places goes on and on. When the entire town or village got massacred or decimated by the men-armies, the refugees in the fortress would then re-emerge to rebuild their homes, and to restore their ways of life. In North Africa, the pattern has gone through similar repetition over the centuries, but all things changed when Queen Dido, who used to be a Priestess of the Amazon Sisters, return to her native home of Tyre with the Sea People and then founded the City of Carthage at the Northern shore of Libya. The land of Libya (the geographical location the Romans later called North Africa) has since forever been divided between the Libyan Amazons and the Carthaginians. And a cooperative coexistence ensued. But Carthage is all for the greed of trading, so instead of remaining hidden in the Amazonian way, it sets itself up in earnest to engage in commerce. And soon Carthage become the most important relay-trade-station for the sea traders in the lucrative trade between the Eastern Mediterranean and Western Mediterranean Seas. No other trading cities in the mid-Mediterranean, such as the Greek colonies in Sicily or southern Italia, is as successful as Carthage. While the Libyan Amazons remained hidden to the prying eye of all the visitors, whether they are traders or spies, both the Greeks and the Romans have become very envious of the Carthaginian wealth. When the Sea People finally squabbled between the Phoenician faction and the Carthaginian faction, the Libyan Amazons once again took refuge in their hidden temple fortress on the Isle of Hespera.

Unbeknownst to Amazon Libyans, the Athenian Greeks, ever eager to set up a North African Trade Colony with the aim to take over the commercial revenue of the Carthaginians, had eye on the Island for some time now because it would make a perfect Athenian trading colony to compete against the City of Carthage. So while the Amazons take refuge in the temple fortress on the Hespera Island, with all their army away watching for a possible Phoenician invasion, the massive Athenian Greeks Expedition force landed on the Hesperides island and took the Libyan Amazons completely by surprise and the Athenian murdered all the living beings within the walls of the temple fortress, menfolk and the children included. All the priestesses except a handful who are away in the military are murdered and the entire library burnt to the ground. The Libyan Amazons had lost all their cultural roots, all the secret communication code books, the Amazon Stelae, and their intellectual caste, plus their political leadership in just one fateful day.

The catastrophic event forever severed the tie between the Libyan Amazons from the rest of the Amazonian Federation. The surviving members and its warriors ran deep into the African continent, and maintained a semblance of community along the edge of the great Sahara Desert. Amongst its military leaders, a junior officer Animone (meaning “Defender who is without fault”) rose through the rank and became the leader of its people and the Queen of the Libyan Amazons. The Libyan Amazon had since lost its Priestess Caste and had become a hereditary monarchy ruled by Queen Animone’s descendents. Its religions are part Egyptian (in the theology of Amon, the first true monotheismic preaching with which Alexander himself later embraced), part Greek, and part Phoenician.

Centuries passed, on the year of Alexander’s death, Queen Theseis of Libya paid a secret visit to the Temple of Amon at Siwa Oasis. The Oracle of Siwa, as in most oracles through out the Amazon land, was a front-organization with design to turn the Greeks’ attention eastwards towards Persia, so as to leave the Libyan Amazons and the Carthaginians in peace. The Amazon Federation agent at the Oasis presented the Queen with the most alarming news, that the secret Amazon code thought long lost at Isle Hesperides during the Athenian raid has re-surfaced, and the Stelae are now being located by the sacred tree in the temple fortress ruin on the island of Hesperides. Those who are in possession of the code and know how to break the code, can amass enough technological advances to dominate the entire world and therefore to end the world of men. So for the past half a century, the Libyan Amazons have been quietly preparing to restore their domain to their former glory and to end the world of the men as we know it.

In the year of 270BC, the Libyan Amazons are on the run again, with the Numidian, the Iberian, the Carthaginian, as well as the Egyptian hot on their heels. The Libyan must find a new homeland, and then plan its conquest to take back the temple fortress of Hesperides, in the hope that once it has the possession of the Stelae, where the secret code are incribed, it can establish a relationship with another Amazon faction, it can then break the code and build a Libyan Empire along with a new army the world has never seen.

Further reading/information:

You can download 6.0E release here:
AmazonTW-Reignited_rev6_0e.7z

New Weapons:
Weapons of ATW-R

The weapons on this page are:

  • Double Bow, or Double Draw Bow
  • Fluted Iron Casing Missile filled with lead
  • Large Composite Bow
  • Giant Composite Bow
  • Giant Double Composite Bow
  • Large Double Composite Bow
  • Mano Ballista
  • Caro Ballista
  • Pyro-Thermite-jar