African Rebels Melee Ship

Assault Hexeres - Swordsmen

As centuries passed, naval tactics and needs changed across the Mediterranean. There was a move towards larger ships, partly as an expression of national or dynastic power: the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt were particularly fond of large ships to show their wealth and influence in a physical way. These 'polyremes', a term meaning many oared, were not suitable for ramming work in battle. In practice many of them had no more oars than smaller ships; what they had were more rowers per oar than smaller ships. A Roman hexareme or Greek hexeres would have a couple of banks of oars with three men per oar, and appear to be an over-sized version of a smaller ship. Even so, thanks to being tremendously heavy and strongly constructed, they were slow moving, and hardly capable of the quick turns needed to take advantage of enemy mistakes. Instead the large ships made use of their wide decks and plentiful carrying capacities and became fighting platforms for infantry and artillery. Boarding or long-range bombardment were the methods to be used to defeat the enemy; naval warfare had come full circle in terms of fighting methods, even if ships had grown significantly.

(Swordsmen)
Although some historians use Aethiopia to refer to all of the sub-Saharan regions of Africa, it was commonly used in reference to those regions in the south of Egypt that became the Kingdom of Kush. The skilled swordsmen from this area followed a long tradition of elite troops from the south that begun under the Egyptian and Nubian dynasties. Although they went into battle wearing only simple cloth armour, the Aethiopians did employ Greek thureos-like shields. These sported a central handgrip, and offered greater protection than the hide-bound wicker or wooden shields of the sub-Saharan tribes. They also used a form of khopesh-like sword that would eventually evolve into the shotel used by the later warriors of Aksum. This had a forward curving, sickle-like blade designed to reach around an opponent’s shield, either to hook it away or pierce his vital organs.

Unit Name Assault Hexeres - Swordsmen

Main Unit Key Aet_Sword_Six

Land Unit Key Aet_Sword

Naval Unit Key egyptian_six

Soldiers 160

Category Heavy Ship

Class Melee Ship

Custom Battle Cost 1180

Recruitment Cost 1180

Upkeep Cost 236

Missile Damage 32

├ Missile Weapon rome_javelin_precursor

├ Projectile javelin_prec

├ Missile Damage 20

├ Missile Ap Damage 12

└ Base Reload Time 15

Accuracy 5

Range 40

Reload 0

Shots Per Minute 4

Ammunition 2

Ship Health 1206

└ Ship egyptian_six

Ship Speed 5

Melee Attack 31

Weapon Damage 34

├ Melee Weapon rome_generic_sword

├ Melee Damage Base 30

├ Melee Damage Ap 4

├ Armour Piercing No

├ Bonus vs. Large 0

├ Bonus vs Elephants 0

└ Bonus vs Infantry 0

Charge Bonus 14

Melee Defence 50

├ Base Defence 25

├ Shield oval

└ Shield Defence 25

Armour 45

├ Armour cloth

├ Armour Defence 10

└ Shield Armour 35

Health 55

├ Man Entity rome_infantry_medium

├ Man Health 40

└ Bonus Hit Points 15

Base Morale 40

Abilities

• Row Hard 30
  Increases speed for 30 strokes.
  Ship speed

Attributes

• Hide (forest)
  This unit can hide in forests until enemy units get too close.
• Resistant to Heat
  This unit tires less quickly in the desert.

Strengths & Weaknesses

• Very good hull strength
• Heavy crew
• Slow speed
• Strong ramming
• Very good boarding

• Very good attack
• Average defence
• Average damage but low armour penetration
• Good morale

Requires Buildings
Lv. 0	Drydock (east_port_military_4) Level 3

Faction Availability
Grand Campaign	Axum Blemmyes Meroe African Rebels Kush Kushite Secessionists Kushite Nobles
Hannibal at the Gates	African Rebels (Hannibal at the Gates)
Imperator Augustus	African Rebels (Imperator Augustus)