AOE3 Mod - Battle for Hindustan: Mughals

Home City: Dilli
Sardar: Gurkhani Sardar
Officers: Mansabdar

by Zuber Singh, edited by Bhagat Singh

A once glorious empire built on the backs of equally glorious rulers is slowly dying. The great horse armies of the Mughal Empire, which had once ridden the length and breadth of Hindustan, the Indian subcontinent, are slowly fading away in an increasingly modern world. From the creeping decay of their huge citadels, armies ride and march out once more. One final push for survival, it could mean the end of the Mughal world or it could mean the Mughals will soon see their empire rise like a phoenix over all of India, as it had done in the lifetime of their ancestors. Either way, the emperors of this sleeping giant will not let their palaces or grand armies become a mere memory of their magnificent past.


Siege Banduqchi

The Mughal war machine is mix of old and new, with a deadly effectiveness in the field. The Mughals are descended from the Khans of the Mongol Empire, and it clearly shows in their armies. Their expert horsemen wield the bow, lance and other weapons with dangerous skill. The Mughals brought with them not only a new era to India, but also gunpowder. Their Atish-baz, or fire-playing arsenal includes musketeers of fierce reputation, cannons of legendary size and rockets that rain down death, to name a few. The Mughals while being outsiders are ethnically and culturally as diverse as the lands they have come to rule: as such, the Mughal army comprises and has access to warriors not only from the familiar Indian Subcontinent but also to exotic mercenaries from far flung lands.

Siege Banduqchi, are musketeers equipped
 with siege technology - mantle, pickaxes,
 large amounts of gunpowder and muskets.
These are available to the Mughals
in later ages when siege becomes necessary.

Bhumi

Still, the Mughals are rulers of India and have come to define Indian culture itself; as such their armies are distinctively Indian. Their huge walking towers of lumbering terror complement their swift riders. The war elephants of the Mughals can quickly turn the battefield around when used correctly. Their brave but rustic Hindu militiamen (Bhumi) are ready to die for honor and the nobler and courageous Hindu vassals are more than willing to populate the city like Mughal war camps. The Mughals are an aggressive civilization and excel at siege, but do not underestimate their ability to defend. The strength of their fort-cities are stuff of legend.

Bhumi, Veteran Bhumi and Honored Bhumi
Armed with a khanda, the Bhumi force is no less than the  Mughal cavalry.
Do not underestimate these native Hindu warriors.

Tabinan Archer, Veteran Tabinan Archer and Honored Tabinan Archer
Descendents of the Mongol nomadic cavalry archers, the Tabinan Archers
combined with Tabinan Lancers are the backbone of the Mughal force.

Note from Zuber and I:

Even as a two man team we are making great progression on this mod, and hope to release it in the near future. However as a two man team our ambitions for the mod are severely limited and we are progressing at a rate much slower than we would have liked. This is why we are looking for interns who will be interested in joining our team in this venture, who would be interested and committed in this mod. Experience doesn’t matter as we believe that will come eventually but hard work is definitely what we are looking for.

Age of Empires III: Battle for Hindustan (work in progress)

Written by: Zuber Singh
Edited by: Bhagat Singh

Hindustan, the Indian Subcontinent, its riches were once the envy of all the nations of the world, its rulers the most powerful men of their time, the sheer size of its armies were innumerable. By the turn of the 18th century, Hindustan was also to become a battleground, witness the fall of mighty empires and the birth of new ones as a bitter power struggle erupts: from petty diplomacy to total war. Bhagat Singh Bedi and Zuber Singh Ahluwalia proudly present “Age of Empires III: The Battle for Hindustan”. Take control of four brand new civilizations as they battle for control of the wealthiest land of the world: Hindustan, claim what is rightfully yours or take what isn’t, change history!

The Mod offers four civilizations that replace the existing Indian civ (which, with all due respect to the game developers, was not accurate at all in presenting the complex cultures and armies of India. It under presented the horse armies and had too many elephants compared to other cavalry). These new civilizations, namely the Hindustani Civilizations: Mughals, Marathas, Afghans and Sikhs are each starkly different from each other and other civilizations as well. For one, the Hindustani civilizations do not have an explorer but instead have access to the Sardar to lead their colony; each civilization has its own Sardar who has various benefits but the same basic functionalities as the explorer. However, all Sardars are mounted. In addition to this, the Hindustani civilizations have access to Landowners and Officers. These act like the daimyo of the Japanese civilization in that they are powerful cavalry units who are able to train units and receive shipments. The Hindustani civilization does not have to build wonders to age up and instead ages up manually choosing from a list of personalities. Furthermore, each civilization has access to powerful religious powers that can act as great boosters to any field of progress, be it economy or military. So, without further ado, we present to you, the Hindustani Civilizations!

First up, the Mughals. Look out for them in the next post.

AOE3 Mod - Nihangs and Tabinan Lancers

I ended up finishing the Nihang textures for all upgrades, Nihang, Veteran Nihang, Honored Nihang (the game is American, we decided to keep the Honored spelling as they were) and Legendary Nihang. Nihangs are still the only Sikh unit in the mod. After studying Sikh armies I found out they were always a mix of various ethnicity and religions e.g. Muslims dominated in the Sikh artillery. Only the Nihangs were completely Sikh in their make-up. Hence there will be two Nihang unit, the Chakram and this mod's Nihang. The latter is available for recruitment in the barracks, the former is only available through shipments as Chakram belongs to the Udasi sub-civ.
There have been changes from the last update on Nihang textures. For one their clothes will change colour according to the team colours. So if the team colour is blue their clothes will be blue but if the team colour is red their clothes will be red. I also gave them chain mail to wear underneath the Char Aina armour. And I re-textured the shield to look like an Indian Dhal.

From Left to right, 3 Nihangs, 3 Veteran Nihangs (gained chainmail and a shield) and 3 Honored Nihangs (gained char aina and a katar). In history most Nihangs would have been without much armour but what the heck they look awesome! Legendary Nihangs have the same textures as Honored Nihangs.



I began working on Mughals yesterday and ended up completing their Tabinan Lancer unit for all upgrades Veteran TL, Honored TL and Legendary TL. Mughals also had awesome cavalry archers. I have begun texturing their Tabinan Archers. Currently looking for ways to show their upgrades to Veteran and Honored. Mughals will retain India's elephants and Zamburak so I don't need to texture anything else for the Mughals. I am reworking their Bhumi militiamen unit, as the previous model did not allow for team colours to appear on the unit. This is important since their Dhal will not look like a blue bulls-eye as it did previously but more like the Nihang shield shown above, and so it will not have team colours. That means the team colours must appear on the unit somewhere.
I have asked my team partner to do a mod write-up, which will be a proper overview of the mod. it will present all Civilizations, their units, specialties, explorer units, etc. When it is ready I will publish it.

From left to right, Tabinan lancer, Veteran Tabinan Lancer and Honored Tabinan Lancer.

Oh and a Merry Christmas and Happy Gurpurab to all!





Legendary Nihangs invade enemy colony and are immediately met with resistance.

Legendary Tabinan Lancers destroy invading European artillery.

Updates and Sikh Mod

Hi guys, yes, I could have blogged more but didn't feel motivated enough. I have been working on several paintings, both historical and fantastical one. (I actually started many more pieces but some were lost due hard drive failure. I have been much more careful about backing up my work since then.) I also started laying out some ideas for future games I might do. One of my dreams is to create some video games of my own, with characters that are designed by me, with Sikh characters, and so I regularly remember that dream and design characters and gameplay around it.

As I was in the process of doing this, I felt very motivated to work on a mod that I have been involved in. I started this back in 2009 when I felt like I had nothing to do. I always feel like that for some reason, even though I have a lot on my plate... it's full! When I first announced it, I made a new friend in the process and he got me started. I did not know squat about programming so I left that job to him. I would take care of the art, while he (enjoys math) would take care of the programming. He was actually thinking of a similar mod, and so was very quick to join me. With Sarbloh Warriors down, I saw this filling its spot.

We planned to mod the Sikh Empire for Age of Empires 3. Age of Empires is a real time strategy game where you choose one of many civilizations and take on the other civilizations in battle. The Age of Empires series is one of my favs and so this was very exciting.
Its second expansion has India already but a modern India. It has one Sikh unit to begin with, Chakram, a hoop thrower. That's right its main attack, it's only attack is to throw a Chakar (and to hit someone with it if they come close). Ridiculous, I thought to my self. The game was awesome, and Chakram was even cooler but it did not feel right when I played it. Udasi, a sub-civilization can train Chakram, a Nihang... a Nihang who does not use swords... you get the point...

So this winter, feeling very motivated, I got back to that mod, got back to playing Chakram, got back to altering the game files so that I could train more than 23 Chakrams! This winter, I took a deep breath and thought "This is it! If I can't give this guy swords..." I never finished the sentence, I don't think negative. "I can give this guy swords!" I thought positive and it paid off, Nihang was born. Though, this was just a Chakram with a sword. I later went back and 'modded' meaning modified the textures to make them look different.

This was a new step for me and I realized how easy programming this game was. Well, this was not REAL programming. This was modifying existing code (computer language that is translated into the game), well-written, easy to understand code.
So the next week, I was found living on my computer, except for maybe sleeping and bathroom breaks. I really got into it! I managed to create several units (the playable soldiers of a civilization) before that friend and I got back and shared code. (I still have to work with what he has already done, which was most units of the Sikh Empire). As an immediate reaction to his input, I started creating Maratha, Mughal and Afghan units. All of a sudden a rush in my energy levels and motivation made me very confident. I decided we will split the Indian civilization into Afghans, Marathas, Mughals and Sikhs. More units, more playing styles and more research that needs to be done... It is only now that I realize how big of a task it is to create even one civilization let alone four! However difficult it might be, my plan is to finish at least two. I am hoping we get a few other like-minded people to help us. If this ever gets finished it will be the coolest mod ever! Right now I am back at university and getting back to studying science but hopefully I will come back to the mod this summer.

Here's a screenshot of the mod, of Sikhs and Mughals in action. Click on it to see the full image. (We can only modify existing units, so I cannot make the different turbans more accurate than this)

Art in the Making - Old Art, New Art and Tons of Sketches!

Having my other projects locked away in my older hard drive gave me a chance to start up some new ones and work on the really old ones. Its because I hadn't backed up the middle ones... oh well. Let's start with the really old ones. I am talking about Mai Bhago, Banda Singh Bahadur and Udasis of Guru Nanak. I was quite certain then that I was going to complete them by now but I haven't. I once spoke about how the painting on Hari Singh Nalwa, lacked that extra punch. Well, these ones are in that position currently.
Mai Bhago one just looks mundane really. I recall Kanwar Singh from Art of Punjab making the same comment about his Mai Bhago charge. I thought I could make one that wasn't. I did several versions of Mai Bhago's cavalry charge last summer, as well as, other generic cavalry charge scenes from interesting angles. Let me know what you think of all these, leave a comment below.




With Banda Singh Bahadur, he is approaching oncoming infantry and cavalry, and that puts him into a better position. Still I thought it could use some work.

Last summer, I gave the painting that 300-style, dark and gritty look to see if it could be improved. It certainly looks interesting! But as I worked on the painting this year, I tried several things one of which was to change the perspective so more of the background warfare could be seen. This will allow me to add more depth to the painting. Also, dynamic clouds in war paintings complement the action so I'll be developing those as I work on this next year. If you're wondering why I changed his khanda to a tulwar, its because khandas don't do very well on horseback.


Speaking of war paintings, a frown is rarely seen in Sikh paintings. Even on the battlefield, one finds no frowns. I always found that strange and also this, which is even more strange: dark skin is never seen unless its to represent Mughals or Afghans, both of which are descendants of Mongols who are as pale as the Chinese! Anyhow, I intend to annihilate both norms! I'll post more about them later.

Battle of Chamkaur - Sahibzada Jujhar Singh was a sketch I did back in early 2008. As you can see, the horse is just ghastly. Essentially, what I had in mind was Jujhar Singh overwhelmed by Mughal Cavalry. I couldn't draw horses so I ended up doing Sahibzada Ajit Singh instead, and decided I would come back to this.

With Mai Bhago, Banda Singh Bahadur and now Udasis of Guru Nanak that was three paintings with side view of the main characters. I don't know why my paintings usually ended up like that. However, I ditched the side view with a rough layout of Udasis (again last summer). After laying out the side view, it became much easier to portray from a different angle.



I came up with these last summer as well, portrait shots of Guru Nanak and Mardana. After laying out the compositions, I put them aside to work on a different painting on Guru Nanak, which kind of built up on previous sketches. As I did that I thought to myself, its good that I am painting spiritually uplifting paintings now because that's an even bigger part of our history. However, I did not spend much time on them because I had a lot of other paintings ahead.




I'll end with three paintings I am working on right now. Everything except Banda Singh Bahadur was done last summer or the year before. These projects I began just a while ago. One is about Guru Amardas ji, one about Guru Gobind Singh ji and one about Guru Nanak Dev Ji. I am going to put aside Udasis for a moment, and get this painting of Guru Nanak out first. There were several scenes I went through (above), before I captured the right moment. Expressions are always important to me in a painting so let me know if you have an idea of what expressions they have, leave a comment below. Also, see if you can judge the content of the full painting from the expression alone!

This is Khalsa! BoC - Sahibzada Ajit Singh

This is blasphemy, this is madness!
Madness? This is KHALSA!

So I finished BoC, the day before yesterday. I got a few suggestions since then so I might work on it a bit more but then again I might not. I have been working on the critiques for 3 weeks so I am a bit burnt out by it, and besides there are always things you can improve. Especially, since my anatomy, clouds, etc. are quite weak. But I have been taking care of that with studies; I want my upcoming paintings to be even better.
Anyways, this was a huge project. From the size of the canvas down to the armies in the background to the amount of research that went in. I used a lot of references, pretty much for everything you see in the painting. This project was a massive learning experience as it created a lot of frustration but I kept at it and finished it. This is truly something for me to be proud of!
If you're wondering why I removed the poll, it was because the poll website is not working, and it was messing with my blog. I did not lose out on the results, however. I was keeping an eye on it. It was clear that Udasis of Guru Nanak and Banda Singh - Battle Charge were tied with the most votes then Machiwarra and Akali Phula Singh WIP, followed by Mai Bhago - The Brave Kaur and Akali Phula Singh SP. I think the poll really showed the split in my audience. Half of the people voted for a war painting and the other half voted for a non-war type. Either way, I will be doing both. In a couple days, I will do a major update on my website, which will include new versions of all WIPs, and sketches of new ideas.

Battle of Chamkaur - Sahibzada Ajit Singh
for prints visit: www.sikhiart.com
for a better experience play this track! 300 soundtrack


Background Storyline: Sahibzada Ajit Singh's horse has been seriously wounded, forcing Ajit Singh to fight on foot. The young Prince, after being wounded himself, notices a Mughal cannon being readied for teh seige. He charges the infantry that guard it. Some high ranking Bhumi militiamen and Cavalrymen see his strategy and rush to the spot...

The story of course is based on an actual event where Guru Gobind Singh's oldest son (Ajit Singh) volunteered to defend the small fortress they were in. The Mughal army had surrounded it, and there seemed to be no escape. Guru Sahib was sending Singhs in fives to keep up the defense. Inside the fortress, many Singhs prepared themselves for death, and many defended the fort with showers of arrows, along with the Guru.

This is one of Bhagat's more detailed paintings. There is a lot to look at, much to learn, and many things to discover. Once you receive the print (and make sure you get the biggest one you can), lookout for: Mughal cavalry archers, Chamkaur Di Garhi (It's there alright), the fortress with Khalsa forces, two Singhs who charged the forces along with Prince Ajit Singh, Mahouts (elephant riders) see how many you can find ... and there's much more... seriously!

Some details of the work here, 3 of them are updates of the WIP details I had in this post, the other 2 were randomly picked:

This is blasphemy! This is madness!

I have no idea why I named the post " This is blasphemy! This is madness!". Perhaps, I was thinking of the movie 300, and somehow related that to my exams, which BTW will be over on Thursday! WOOT! I worked on my paintings a little, here and there. Its not much but I have exams going on, come on!I found some nice references for the horse for the Banda Singh - Battle Charge, so that worked out well. And for Baba Deep Singh one, I had Akaal_Singh from Flickr help me out with some shastar or weapons that Baba Deep Singh Ji might have carried. He also sent me pictures explaining how a farla is added to a dastaar and how a puratan Dhumalla might have looked like. BTW check out his photostream, he has some lots of pictures of amazing artifacts.

Another thing I wanted to share was some details from the Battle of Chamkaur WIP. The cool thing about this painting is that its one of my biggest, over 8000 by 5000 pixels, which is around 80" by 50" when printed on to canvas. However, this means that it will take longer to finish for two reasons. One, that my computer is ancient so it cannot take the stress, and two because Baba Ajit Singh turned out be so darn detailed and I feel compelled to carry out that detail on the Mughals, as well. Being an amateur artist, I crafted detail onto his armour like there was no end! I went overboard and added sweat on Baba Ajit Singh! His beard was styled and every hair was hand painted. It is quite frustrating to do that much but I think, the end product will show the true work of the labour. When this is done its going straight up on my bedroom wall!
I didn’t think that this painting process would require so much research but you know what? I learned a heck of a lot of things! Did you know Mughals specialized in cavalry and that their infantry were vilalgers? Mansabdars were the highest rank. Banduqchis were villagers but with a Bandook or a Matchlock. Did you know there were Hindus in the Mughal army? Mughals had Hindus in their armies called, Bhumi. These were Hindu infantry! I incorporated this into the Battle of Chamkaur. In the foreground, you will see two Bhumi soldiers. Ajit Singh is stepping on a Banduqchi while taking out another Banduqchi and a villager/infantry. In the far back, there is a Mansabdar, a detail of him is coming up.
Not only did I learn about the structure of Mughal army, but I also learned about how the armour and weapons looked like back then. My craze for this newfound knowledge was one of the things that led me to overdo the armour.

OK, enough typing, they say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I present to you, a few thousand more words! Oh, and YAY! I have followers, following my blog! Wicked!

(click on the images to see enlarged view)