Subscribe to download
Greek Gastraphetes [2024]

Gastraphetes Unit Mod Resurrected

The gastraphetes, lit. “belly-releaser” or “belly-shooter” in ancient greek, was a greek ranged weapon, a sort of primitive crossbow.

It was considered a hand-held siege weapon, as it was capable of hurling rocks of more than 15kg at distances close to 200m and would lay the foundation for the later development of larger siege weapons such as oxybeles or ballistae.

Its maximum range exceeded that of any other infantry ranged weapon of the time, although this also depended on the type of projectile and the specific firing conditions. In general, it is estimated that its maximum range was close to 300m, and its effective range in the order of 150m to 200m.

The ammunition used was usually arrows or bolts, heavier than those used in traditional bows, which helped to maintain their strength and penetration at long distances. To load the gastraphetes, the operator would rest the weapon against his stomach (hence the name) and push forward, using his weight to draw the bow. This allowed a large amount of energy to be stored and released when fired.

• Unit name: Gastraphetes
  
• Soldiers number: 120
  
• Category: Missile infantry
  
• Class: Light infantry
  
• Custom battle cost: 710
  
• Custom battle limit: 6
  
• Recruitment cost: 710
  
• Recruitment limit: 6
  
• Upkeep cost: 120
  
• Health: 40
  
• Base morale: 40
  
• Melee attack: 8
  
• Weapon damage: 24 (Base: 20, AP: 4)
  
• Projectile damage: 33 (Base: 18, AP: 15 [!])
  
• Projectile range: 170 [!]
  
• Charge bonus: 3
  
• Armour: 65 (Base: 30, Shield: 35)
  
• Melee defence: 37 (Base: 12, Shield: 25)
  
• Shots per minute: 2 [!]
  
• Ammunition: 5

• Very long range
  
• Slow rate of fire
  
• Very good damage and armour penetration
  
• Large shield
  
• Very weak in melee
  
• Poor morale

• Resistant to fatigue
  
• Hide (scrub and forest)
  
• Precision shot

The unit can be recruited only by Athens and Syracuse from the Hoplite Barracks (level 3 military building) only in Grand Campaign. It can also be used in custom battles in Grand Campaign only by the same two factions.

Its main function is the destruction of heavily armored priority targets, as they can easily destroy the armor of heavy units with the first 3 or 5 bursts, and with a concentrated fire of several units they can eliminate really fast very heavy units such as Royal Spartans, even attacking them head on.

As a secondary function is the elimination of projectile units. If you are going to use it to fight other ranged units, it is recommended to use its “precision shot” ability, as ranged units usually don't have much armor.

While they may seem an ideal unit to fight other ranged units because of their extremely high range, their effective range is actually in the middle of their maximum range and this is where they shine to eliminate slow and heavy units. At maximum range they can be easily countered by slingers or archers, because Gastraphetes have the lowest rate of fire of all ranged infantry units, and they also have low ammunition, so in general you will want to use them against targets where you can get value of the AP damage.

In melee combat, they have similar stats to normal peltasts, so when they run out of ammo, they will still be useful for chasing and harassing enemy missile units. However, because of the weight of their equipment and ammunition, they are considered “light” units, not “very light”, so enemy projectiles will still have some lightness advantage over Gastraphetes.

Just subscribe, download and activate through the Mod manager in the Game launcher.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In order to display unit text in-game, you must have your game set to english, any other language will display blank text. This is a limitation of the game engine that there is little that can be done around; while it is possible to translate mods, it is a tedious process and requires that all mods you use that add text must be translated and contained in one file, so there is no easy way to do it for everyone at the same time.

On the other hand, while the unit will appear in the in-game encyclopedia, it will not have a historical description and instead will just say "placeholder". Again, this is a limitation of the game engine, and while it is possible to add a description, it is again a tedious process that requires all unit mods that want to display their historical description to be contained in one file... Thanks, CA.

All credits go to @morfeasnikos, the original creator of the Gastraphetes mod along with its models and animations, and to @Leadbelcher Bill, who restored the original mod to an updated version that works with the current version of the game, but for the WoS campaign and also adds many more units. I took this latest mod by @Leadbelcher Bill as a base to create this one in standalone form and for the Grand Campaign, in fact internally it maintains the same structure in the files. The unit icon is reused from the original version by @morfeasnikos. I do not claim the creation of absolutely any of these things. The only thing I did was edit the files and stats, trying to make a unit as balanced and historically correct as possible. Since the original authors authorized me to share their work, I do too! Just remember to give respective credits to them, as most of the work was done by their hand, not mine!