The Maccabees 1.2

Dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nwcvnr0do255kic/maccabee%28final%29.pack

Version is updated to 1.2!

Changes from previous versions: Balancing changes with armies, bugs fixed, changed culture to eastern, added more units, buffed Nabataea.

In the 2nd century BC, Judea lay between the Ptolemaic Kingdom based in Egypt and the Seleucid empire based in Syria, kingdoms formed after the death of Alexander the Great. Judea had been under Ptolemaic rule, but fell to the Seleucids around 200 BC. In the narrative of I Maccabees, after the Selucid King Antiochus issued his decrees forbidding Jewish religious practice, a rural Jewish priest from Modiin, Mattathias the Hasmonean, sparked the revolt against the Seleucid Empire by refusing to worship the Greek gods. Mattathias killed a Hellenistic Jew who stepped forward to offer a sacrifice to an idol in Mattathias’ place. He and his five sons fled to the wilderness of Judah. After Mattathias’ death about one year later in 166 BCE, his son Judas Maccabee led an army of Jewish dissidents to victory over the Seleucid dynasty in guerrilla warfare, which at first was directed against Hellenizing Jews, of whom there were many. The term Maccabees as used to describe the Jewish army is taken from the Hebrew word for "hammer".

This mod adds the Maccabees to the Campaign map with Jerusalem as the capital, along with numerous other changes.

4 Turns Per Year fully integrated to add to depth

Diplomacy:
The Maccabees start out at war with the Selucids, and non-aggression+trade with the Ptolemys.
Egypt is at war with Nabatea and Nabatea is allied with the Selucids. This forces the Maccabees to convince the Nabateans to fight with them against all greeks, or join Egypt against the Selucids and Nabatea.

Starting Positions:
The Selucids start out with an army all ready close to Jerusalem. Since the Maccabean army consist primarily of guerrilla troops and missiles, and the selucids have pikes and elephants, the best wat to win is to attack the Selucids.

New Units!!! (All thanks goes to BigBadWolf, +rep for his awesome new skins!!!)

Not all of these units are historical, but they get the feel of the Jews as an ambush faction. This is the only way they miraculously defeated the Seleucids, through guerilla warfare.

Zealots: High attack, guerrilla deployment, but no armor
Zealot sligners: High missile attack, decent melee attack, no armor, guerilla deployment.
Nazerites: Basically an eastern Beserker
Armored Zealots: No guerilla deployment, lower charge bonus, more armour and melee defense
Judean Pikemen: Slightly higher attack than regular pikes, slightly lower armor.
Judean Cavalry: Javelin cavalry, no armor, good melee stats, guerilla deployment
Temple Guard: Heavy spearmen
Lions of Judah: Elite Swords (awesome new skin!!!)
Desert Lancers: Mid-tier lancers
Gallilean Hillmen: eastern skirmishers with axemen
Maccabean Bodyguards: heavy shock cav (max 2 per army)
Hasmonean Nobles: Heavy missile cavalry
Samaritan Shock Infantry: Heavy falxmen
Levite Priests: Druids for the Maccabees
Judean Thureos: spear guerillas
Mighty Men of Israel: Hybrid elite sword/bow unit
Judean Raiders: Axe Cavalry

Vanilla Arabian Units are also included.

The Maccabees are primarily an infantry faction with guerilla and special troops. Though they have cost effective light cavalry, they have no elite melee cavalry.

Buildings:
The new units are based on 5 chains.
The Royal Sanctuary (Temple) chain gives Zealots>Levites>Nazerites
The Levy camp gives: Galiliean Hillmen,Judean Pikemen> Zealot slingers, Judean Thureos>Samaritan Shock Infantry, Mighty Men of Israel
The noble camp gives: Noble Swordsmen, Armored Zealots>Temple Guard>Lions of Judah
The light stables give: archer camels, spear camels>judean cavalry>hasidic cavalry
the heavy stables will give: desert lancers>hasmonean nobles>Judean Bodyguards (max 2 per army)

New Building: The Holy Temple

In Jerusalem you start with a level 2 sanctuary, letting you recruit Zealots and Levite Priests.

Tips: This campaign is difficult, as the Seleucids are very powerful, and you have to fight a two front war against first the Selucids and later on the Nabateans. Allying with the Ptolmies will be very important or paying the nabateans to break their alliance with the Seleucids (which is pretty easy, since they start out -40 relations).

In the battle when you first attack the Seleucid army at the start, there is a steep hill where you can hide your guerillas and deploy slingers. You will have to coax the Seleucids into an attack with your camel archers to get them to attack, otherwise they will just sit there. The battle is definatly not easy, as they have elephants and cataphracts. However if you stop these units effectively you should win.

Bugs:
None that I know of.

This mod is NOT compatible with ANY mods that change the startpos (turns per year mods, changing starting positions) inlcuding DEI, hegemonia large empires, etc.

Recommended mods to use with:
Talents, traits, toadies
Dresden City Sack, Liberate
Major empires mod (to keep Seleucids and other major factions alive)
Reduced food and squalor mod (A must if you dont want to have rebellions and food shortages every 20 turns)
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Again, special thanks to BigBadWolf, he did an excellent job on the units, and did some testing on the mod. He also did patch 1.1 single handidly, and helped me with the new units. Couldn’t have done this mod without him.

Future updates:
> If I have time, change all factions’ historical position at 168 BC
> Change Jerusalem settlement model
> Whenever CA finally releases the campaign editor, I will make Jerusalem the main settlement with walls in Nabatea

Please report any bugs/suggestions in the comments, I will try and fix them.

Enjoy!