Jan Žižka

Ability
You gain an extra military action.

For Purpose of tactics, each of your farm can be considered as an Age A infantry or artillery unit.

Each of your armies produce 1 culture.

Jan Žižka in History
Jan Žižka, a Czech medieval general who led the Hussite rebellion in the first half of the 15th century, is one of the most badass military minds in history. Using his innovative, brilliant tactics, and his deep knowledge of typical medieval warfare, he was able to repeatedly stop and defeat the most powerful medieval European force – armored heavy cavalry. Even if severely outnumbered. And despite most of his army being made up of peasants. Yeah, that’s right – he trained farmers to stop several crusades sent against him.

Amongst his main tricks was his famous “wagenburg” - wagons that formed a kind of makeshift fort on the battlefield. The Hussites also employed massive use of firearms, and were arming and training the peasants to fight the way they knew how to. You know, knights may have spent lots of time training with a sword or spear, but peasants spent their life using farming tools, so why not turn them to weapons? It is not easy to parry a heavy flail with metal studs in a skilled farmer’s hand heading your way, and your plate armor does not help much here, either.

Žižka had many victorious battles under his belt - and all that with just one eye. And heck, later even with no eyes. Although blind, he still led his troops from victory to victory for several more years. Have we told you he was a truly badass leader?

In the end, "the one whom no mortal hand could destroy was extinguished by the finger of God“. Undefeated in battle, Jan Žižka died of plague in 1424.

Designer's Note
Žižka’s main ability refers to how he turned peasants into a formidable military force. Arm them with flails and scythes, and you have good infantry. Arm them with firearms, and you have an Age A artillery. By the way, there is still some Hussite legacy in military terminology – the word pistol comes from the Czech “píšťala“(flute) and howitzer is from Czech "houfnice“(anti-crowd thing).

Originally, the card said „as infantry or artillery of the corresponding level“. That meant you could form a fully working Napoleonic Army just from one knight and two Age I farms. In the end, we decided it was too random – you never know whether and how quickly you draw a suitable Age II tactic. So we limited it to Age A, and we added a military action to Žižka instead, allowing him to be more menacing in Age I – his innovative tactics were strongest in his own time. You can still pull out two antiquated Mobile Artilleries for +6 from just two knights, but it is not as crazily strong as it was before. (If you want to know about how to use mobile artillery in the 15th century, look up Battle of Kuttenberg :).)

The culture benefit just refers to the fact that Hussite armies were truly known and feared in the medieval times. In the later battles, the crusader armies turned to retreat even before the battle started, just by spotting the Hussite force and hearing them singing their chorale. (See Battle of Domazlice or Tachov). Anyway, being a bit patriotic, I always knew I want Žižka in the game, and I am happy he is now a good choice in Age I, introducing an interesting element to the gameplay. Considering a third Age A farm is not that bad an idea now.