The Tartar Steppe Puns

I'm reading the Tartar Steppe and would like to use a critical lens in order to attain a better understanding of the book, but I'm not sure what critical lens to use, is there anyone that can help me in choosing an appropriate one?

I had a discussion on this earlier, but it was before the Steppe Lancer nerf had taken place. Now that the Steppe Lancers aren't nearly as overpowered, let's try again.

Seeing as the Mongols come from the steppes just like the Cumans and Tatars, wouldn't it make sense for them to have Steppe Lancers? Additionally, if they were to get Steppe Lancers, it'd be neat if their Light Cavalry HP bonus were also to apply to Steppe Lancers. This would be balanced out by their lack of Plate Barding Armor, making them easier to kill with ranged attacks.

Honestly, it'd give them another neat option without being overbearing since SL's now cost 45 gold apiece instead of 30. It'd be hard to incorporate them into your army alongside Mangudai and Mongol siege.

Again, this is all theoretical, so don't freak out.

Edit: The name of the people group is Tatar in English! Sorry, in my language we use the same word for all

From the feared hordes of the Scythians and the Huns, to the powerful and cosmopolitan Mongol Empire. From the Russian Tsardom and Soviet Union, or the rule of the Qing Dynasty, to the modern day. The people and land of Central Asia has left a profound and fascinating impact on our human history and in worldbuilding. Whether it's often seen devastating hordes like the Dothraki of Game of Thrones, or the full breadth seen in works like Elizabeth Bear's Eternal Sky.

So, how have you incorporated or been inspired by this part of the world?

• Do you work with classic hordes, what are your thoughts on this trope and how does that affect how you use it?

• Do you take inspiration from the Pax Mongolica, or the conflict between remaining nomads or becoming sedentary imperialists?

• Do you work with influences from Tengriism, or the unique forms of Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism of the Steppe?

• Do you utilise icons such as Horse Archery, or the Silver Tree? How do you make them yours?

• Do you work with 20th century history, from civil wars to communism, or perhaps to the modern day and beyond?

I am particularly interested in closer cultural inspiration, and I'd love to see you discuss not just straight lore but also the way you've utilised this inspiration. This is a good way to make it easy for others to respond. If you're only writing lore please try be more brief, focus on the most interesting parts and allow people to respond for more. I am particularly interested in writers from the Steppe and you work with your own culture and history, as we of course primarily only see writers from the West.

If you comment please do upvote the thread (it gets you more attention!) and seek out other comments where you can compare and contrast your work. The best way I find to get feedback on my writing is always to go to others and compare my work to theirs, rather than hoping someone comes to me.

Bonus points if it’s constantly described as “Mysterious” and “Exotic.”

Have you ever wondered why the Trojan horse was a horse, or why Homer gives his heroes names like Hector the horse tamer? And who in their right mind brings chariots to a naval siege? There sure are a lot of steppe warrior influences in the Trojan War, and these were ancient themes even in Homer's time.

> "Despite Mycenae and Troy being maritime powers, the Iliad features no sea battles. So, the Trojan shipwright (of the ship that transported Helen to Troy), Phereclus, fights afoot, as an infantryman. The battle dress and armour of hero and soldier are well-described. They enter battle in chariots, launching javelins into the enemy formations, then dismount—for hand-to-hand combat with yet more javelin throwing, rock throwing, and if necessary hand to hand sword and a shoulder-borne hoplon (shield) fighting." - Wikipedia

On that note, here is a National Geographic article on Homer's Barbarians. Based in part on the steppe influences in the Iliad, the author argues that the story is from an era a thousand years earlier than what is generally accepted by scholars:

> [T]hat picture of the Greeks doesn't make sense any later than about 1800 to 1700 B.C. After that, the Greeks had arrived in the Mediterranean and started to create a civil society. Before that, they were essentially tribes from the steppes between the Black Sea and the Caspian—nomadic, male-dominated, violent.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/1/150104-homer-iliad-odyssey-greece-book-talk-travel-world/

I've seen some maps, but I wonder how much influence the empire had over the steppes. Were there ever any serious attempts at expanding further into the steppes? Did the steppes have any impact on Persian culture/art?

What would be the ideal plan to get the most out of my resources and my economy?

Im not a native english speaker just ask if you dont understand me.

Originally, I don't mind the bug. However, people started to use the bug to lame my ship early game, and my tc arrows can't even touch the horse. Also, I couldn't find my last two sheeps normally because they get lamed. It seems like the only way to deal with that is to abuse the bug and lame back?

I find it interesting that the nomadic steppe people were so successful at conquering its neighbors. They include the Hunnic people that was one of the leading cause of destruction of Rome, the Mongols who established the largest continental empire, the Mughals who conquered part of India, the Turks, the Seljuks, the Timurids all seemed to gave stemmed from the nomadic steppe people.

I know they are loosely based on several euro-asian cultures, specially near mongolia, rusia and northern china.

After some investigation I found several tribes and ethnic groups they could be based on:

• The Kazakhs (that had a religion called Tengrism, but they differ in some aspects, specially earth-sky interactions?),
• The Mansi,
• The Kanthy, both of which had a shamanic religion of which I couldn't get a lot of, but I have a hunch,
• and probably the Samoyeds.

Does anyone know specific cultures the kin is based on?

So today I was browsing stuff, just minding my own business, until I saw mentions of a mod for EU3 called 'Steppe Wolf'. Because I was curious about it, I went to search about it, but all I could find were some... "Admitedly Interesting"pics and people saying it was 'meme-worthy', but no exact details about what exactly it was doing.

Sooo, does someone like, know something that can shed light on this super old mod, just for the sake of curiosity?

This is something that I've seen repeated a lot on the internet, that wagons and chariots predated horse riding because the horses were too small to ride. Let's leave the fact that the Botai, the earliest culture with solid evidence for horse riding did not have wheels or wagons aside and focus specifically on the Western Steppe herders.

Now to me this argument never made a lot of sense, because I've ridden my fair share of smaller horses who could carry me without issues, and that is taken in account that nowadays we ride as a hobby, and therefore do not want to hurt the horse.

The people of the eneolithic steppe on the other hand, tortured disabled people, so I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that they did not spend too much time wondering if their horses could carry their weight on their backs. Herding horses also seems like a really difficult task from the back of a wagon in my opinion.

So I did what I always do in doubt, and that is to read The Horse, The Wheel and Language, and I basically found my answer there.

The horses of Dereivka, a site dated to 4200-3700 BCE and likely belonging to the Sredny Stog culture, stood around 13-14 hands tall, or 137-144 cm. That is smaller than the modern horses used for horse riding, but roughly the same size as the Przewalski's horse, the descendant of the Botai horse. Przewalski's horses are not commonly ridden but it is not impossible. Icelandic horses are roughly of the same size and they can be ridden as well.

A rule of thumb I remember from those days was that a horse should be able to comfortably carry 20% of their weight. An Icelandic horse should be able to carry a 70 kg person without issues. Icelandic horses are chunky though, Przewalski's horses are a bit smaller but still should be able to carry 60 kg with little issue.

Your average Yamnaya man was 1.75, I don't think we are ever going to find out how much they weighed, but I'm guessing somewhere between 65-75 kg on average. So this is a bit on the heavier side for horses to comfortable carry people, but like I said earlier I doubt the steppe dwellers would have cared much, horses were a cheap source of winter meat anyways.

Western steppe herders riding horses is definitely within the realms of possibility. Unfortunately vertebrae do not survive well because those would hold the most information, as bit wear cannot accurately tell if a horse was ridden, or if it was pulling a wagon. There are also several types of horse bridles which