Skudra Tabari (Scythian Axemen)

Skudra Tabari (Scythian Axemen)
Skudra Tabari (Scythian Axemen)
Primary Weapon	Type: axe Attack: 8 Charge: 4 Lethality: 0.165 Attributes: Armour Piercing
Defence	Armour: 2 Shield: 2 Skill: 11
Recruitment	Soldiers: 40 Cost: 1194 Upkeep: 299 Turns: 1
Mental	Morale: 11 Discipline: normal Training: untrained
Other	Hit Points: 1 Mass: 1.05 Attributes: Can board ships, Can hide in forest, Mercenary, Very Hardy, Can dig tunnels Formation: square Side/Back spacing: 1.2/1.4 Ownership: Aedui, Arche Seleukeia, Arverni, As'Sab'yn wal'Jau, Baktria, Casse, Epeiros, Getai, Hayasdan, Iberia, Koinon Hellenon, Makedonia, Pahlav, Pontos, Ptolemaioi, Safot Softim biKarthadast, Saka, Sauromatae, Senatvs Popvlvsqve Romanvs, Swebozez, Eleutheroi

The Scythians raise these dangerous axemen from subject populations and their own settled kindred and find them to be especially useful for countering heavy infantry.

Description

Armed with a Tabar axe, the primary offensive weapon of these infantrymen, they are protected with only the crescent shaped Taka shield and light armour. While unable to hold against most steppe cavalry, they can do deadly damage to some of the more “civilized” people’s inferior cavalry. But they would not last long against those same people’s massed heavy infantry. Despite some of their shortcomings, any steppe general would think twice before fighting a long campaign without these soldiers.

Historically, despite all steppe peoples' reliance on cavalry, most of them fielded infantry of some type at one time or another. In the case of the Scythians of the Pontic steppe, axemen were either recruited from subject farming peoples or from the growing proportion of settled Scythians, often young warriors from the tribes.

Usage

Light infantry armed with only their armor-percing axes and their speed. Like other light axemen, they are good at ambush tactics and at attacking heavy infantry at the flanks or the rear.

Also, like other axemen; however they are no match for heavy infantry one-on-one and missile attacks will see many of them dead due to their poor shields and littile armor. Likewise, they are weak against cavalry charges.

For nomadic factions, they are probably the only available infantry good enough to attack settlements.

Skudra Tabari AOR