Tower Penteres, Egyptian Archers

Recruitment Cost 990
Upkeep Cost 198
Missile Damage 35
Range 125
Shots Per Minute 6
Ship Health 1,020
Ship Speed 6
Melee Attack 8
Weapon Damage 24
Melee Defence 12
Armour 10
Health 45
Strengths & Weaknesses
  • Good hull strength
  • Medium crew
  • Average speed
  • Average ramming
  • Average boarding
  • Very good missile combat
  • Long range
  • Average rate of fire
  • Good damage but low armour penetration
  • Very weak in melee
  • Very poor morale
Description

The 'five', called a quinquereme in Latin and a penteres in Greek, was a ship first used by the Syracusans against the Carthaginians sometime around 398BC. Like other polyremes, a term meaning many-oared, the chances were that it did not have five banks of oars but that the word 'oar' was used to mean 'rower'. In such a case, the arrangement of rowers would be two-two-one going up from the waterline. It makes sense to keep as much weight as possible low in the vessel to help its stability; a high centre of gravity makes any ship liable to capsize if struck from the side. The quinquereme, then, would be a formidable vessel both in terms of appearance and combat value. With a large fighting contingent aboard and plenty of deck space, this heavy vessel could cope with most enemies and threats.

Native troops supported the Greek phalanxes of Ptolemaic Egypt. Brave and proud warriors, Egyptians fulfilled several roles, but were most commonly used as peltasts, skirmishers on the flanks of the phalanxes, or as non-phalanx infantry in difficult terrain. Although the Ptolemies adopted all the trappings of the Pharaohs and their religious infrastructure, there was still much unrest among the native population long after the succession. This was due mainly to the way the Greek overlords used the traditions of the Pharaohs to fill their coffers at the expensive of ordinary people. The core of Ptolemaic armies was always Greek until the Battle of Raphia in 217BC, when they faced such a large Seleucid force and Ptolemy IV was forced to muster some 30,000 native Egyptians for the first time. Need overcame the suspicion of the disenchanted natives; the performance of the Egyptians in battle eventually led to a greater proportion of native troops in the Egyptian army and, in time, more diverse roles for those men as they gained the trust of their Greek commanders.

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