Balkan Axemen

"The army was now complete. Twenty-four units of foreign soldiers had been acquired through the mediation of Bohod Zein ... Others were rougher and cheaper recruits, from as far east as Greifswald on the Baltic and as far south as Giessen ..."

— Richard Herley, The Flint Lord (Pt I, cap 6)

In game

Balkan Axemen— Vital statistics
	Light mercenary axemen. Very proficient against armoured units, structures and siege machines, but is indisciplined. Strong versus unarmed units, siege weapons and missile units with low accuracy or rate of fire Weak versus melee units, especially heavy cavalry.
Prereq:	Build time	HP	LOS	Attack	Attack speed	Movement speed	Upgrades to
Level 3: Heraldry and Code of Honour Military	4.3s (64t)	95	5	25	1.6s (32t)	25
Cost			Created from	Armour	Weapon range	Specialty
Base	Ramp	Pop
: 50 : 10	: 40	1		1	Melee	Defensive bonus versus light missile units. Damage bonus versus buildings, siege weapons. Damage penalty versus cavalry. Cannot be directly selected with your mouse. Is invisible when not moving.

Overall strategy

Cheap but weak mercenary melee unit, very susceptible to heavy cavalry but is a passable melee unit with an armour-piercing attack. Balkan Axemen can cloak, but can't be selected.

See also

• Light Axemen
• Axemen
• Anatolian Axemen
• Illyrioi Peltastai
• Balkan Skirmishers
• Balkan Horseman

History

In Antiquity, the peoples of the Balkans were subdivided into tribes and clans. These people produced and traded cattle, horses, agricultural goods, and wares fashioned from locally mined copper and iron. They were also involved in commerce and warfare with their neighbors, and also mingled with the Thracians, another ancient people with adjoining lands on the east. Councils of elders chose the chieftains who headed each of the numerous tribes. From time to time, local chieftains extended their rule over other tribes and formed short-lived kingdoms. During the fifth century BCE, a well-developed Illyrian population centre (Illyrians being themselves of Balkan stock) existed as far north as the upper Sava River valley in what is now Slovenia. Illyrian friezes discovered near the present-day Slovenian city of Ljubljana depict ritual sacrifices, feasts, battles, sporting events, and other activities.

Feuds and warfare were constant facts of life for the Balkan tribes, and in later centuries, Illyrian pirates — a people of Balkan stock — plagued shipping on the Adriatic Sea, which often attracted the ire of larger neighbours. When the Illyrian kingdom of Bardhyllus became a formidable local power in the fourth century BCE, Macedonia's Philip II (father of Alexander the Great) launched a pre-emptive invasion. Philip defeated the Illyrians and assumed control of their territory as far as Lake Ohrid. His son Alexander routed the forces of the Illyrian chieftain Clitus in 335 BCE and Illyrian tribal leaders and soldiers accompanied Alexander on his conquest of Persia.

Following the Celtic incursions into Grece and Asia after Alexander's death, the Balkans would come under the influence of two distinct peoples — the Celts in the north, and the indigenous Illyrians, who quickly began to assert their independence from the Greeks and created several new kingdoms. Independence would not last: incensed by Illyrian raids on Italy, the Romans overran the Illyrian part of the Balkans in the Illyrian Wars. Roman forces captured Illyria's King Gentius at Scodra in 165 BCE, and would eventually subjugate the Balkans by the end of Augusts' reign.

References

• Gill NS, Albania — The Ancient Illyrians