Cilician Frontiersmen

"They arrayed the right and the left wings, and setting out like a company of brigands, [...] fell upon the foe with a great uproar and struck them with horrifying terror."

— John of Drasxanakert, History of Armenia

In game

Cilician Frontiersmen — Vital statistics
	Light melee infantry which is affordable but rather weak, useful against enemy spears, siege weapons and buildings. Strong versus siege weapons, buildings Weak versus heavy cavalry
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed	Upgrades to
	10s (150t)	105	8	16	2.1s (32t)	29
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 40; : 40	: 1; : 1	1		1	Melee	Small defensive bonus versus missile infantry.

Overall strategy

Although these men are often levied pastoral nomads or peasants, years of hard living in the mountains of beloved Hayasdan have made Cilician Frontiersmen proud and exceedingly vicious warriors, despite being clothed in nothing but crude leather armour and armed with a wooden buckler and a long axe, making them the reception committee for trespassers of Armenian soil.

These men thus have one advantage: they do not require as much food as other factions do, as their food ramp cost is eliminated. However, as all levies or tribal units go, they are rather undisciplined, and so are rather slow on the march. In any fight with the dreaded cavalry archers of the Mongols and Saracens, or the weaker Asian light infantry, these men will be easily outmatched by their plodding speed, although it will be said that they will be capable of resisting arrow fire. Of course, as with most non-heavy infantry, it is highly advised to screen them away from heavy cavalry, whenever so required.

Unit summary

• Medium infantry unit that sacrifices speed for cost efficiency.
• Diet Plus — Cilician Frontiersmen don't require as much food as other factions do, making them easier to produce.
• Flat Footed Failure — The poor movement speed of the Cilician Frontiersmen make them prime targets for swarming by light infantry, or by missile units, ergo they must be escorted, preferably by heavy cavalry, whereso possible.

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  Cilician Frontiersmen.

History

Throughout history, the experience of eastern Anatolia has always been one characterised by valiant defence in the face of relentless assaults by countless enemies at one point in time or the other. This, and the treacherously broken terrain and the sparseness of this mountainous terrain have all formed a rugged and resilient race of people who in spite of many troubles and many conquerors, managed to outlive their occupiers and maintain a fierce sense of identity and pride in an ever larger and sometimes hostile world.

It is thus unsurprising that even until our day, the people of this harsh mountainous realm have always been martial peoples, having experienced so much bloodshed in confronting some of the world's fiercest barbarians and most ambitious empires. In ancient times, it was a frontier region between countless different polities: first between the Hittites and the Assyrians, then between the Assyrians and the Cimmerians when they poured in southwards across the Caucasus, and finally between the Romans and the Persians.

Of this last conflict, much must be said regarding the Middle Ages. With the fall of the Sassanians, the area of Cilicia and the rest of Anatolia came under Arab control, before passing back to the Byzantines, whose lapse in strength then allowed the native Armenians to re-assert their independence. From the 19th century onward, Cilicia would remain a core part of both mediaeval kingdoms in Armenia that of the Bagratids, and then the Hetumids.