Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal, checks the bows gifted by a kneeling Elamite refugee. It is possibly their prince, Ummanappa. Ashurbanipal rescued him from a lion after the prince failed miserably at hunting, an Assyrian specialty. While reluctant and having no love for foreign refugees, the Assyrian king gave Elamites sanctuary and shelter in his court, after they fled their lands following a coup.
Tribe of RADUMBA – Primitive Year 996
There were primitive men who arrived on the Jurassic Island with the Masai. They were the “Radumba” who were in intimate relation with the Masai. When they had arrived, the Radumba had done nothing but plunder.
However, they felt guilty about killing people cruelly, so they made a decision to hunt animals only and left the Masai. The Radumba developed a new device for hunting and strengthened their power. They came to shoot arrows better than the Masai. The Radumba built a village in the southwestern Jurassic Island, far away from the Masai.
The Radumba are the seventh tribe that emerges in the Jurassic Island. They split from the Masai in year 996, following a disagreement about Masai’s cruelty. They devised and upgraded the bow and are great bowyers and archers.
The Radumba is an easy tribe to play, because of their ranged prowess, powerful armory and flexible unit composition. Mass Poison Arrows is also a no-brainer.
Their legendary item is the Spear of the Volcano God (it is not a bow!). This spear is the most powerful weapon against dinosaurs, and so makes T-Rex hunting a breeze. It is the weakest legendary weapon when pitched against cavemen or spellcasters though. The Koaka’s Moonlight Sword comes in handy here when borrowed.
Against other tribes
Their first enemy is the Koaka, who are a no sweat. Ranged weapons are a natural hard counter to flying dinosaurs. Bows deal additional damage to Rhamphorhynchuses, poison arrows stun them, and Koaka doesn’t have much else to throw against Radumba. Conquered, Koaka provides Radumba with indispensable scouting, mobility and some dino muscle, which isn’t crucial, but is welcome.
The other western tribes are the Kumba and the Muspel. While the Kumba have means of countering spells, their Water Shield and Moonlight Shild is broken. Instead of blocking Muspel’s fireballs, they nullifie Radumba’s fire bow and their legendary weapon, Volcano Spear. Fortunately for the Radumba, Wood Shields work astoundingly great against Kumba’s basic weapons and low OP. Kumba’s Water Shield can be pierced with regular Arrows.
The Muspel are dangerous on their own, their Warlocks capable of evaporating whole armies of fragile archers. Care must be taken when using the mass Poison Arrow stun tactic. Powerful sorcerers are deadly.
The dinosaurs of Koaka come in handy here, as Rhamphorhynchuses are immune to Poison Cloud spell and can easily drain Magic Points with hit and run tactics. Wild Ginseng also helps, as fresh level II Koaka dinos can use it to full potential.
Those four allied tribes are the Western Tribes. Radumba helps by providing Poison Arrows and Wild Ginsengs, but Kumba with Boomerangs and their variety of snacks make it a bit redundant. These Western Tribes are more offensive, their only healing is through armory items for them. One may argue that the Kumba and the Koaka are defensive, but they pale in comparison with Iron Shields, Triceratopses, healing and resuscitation magic of the Eastern Tribes.
Against the Tyrano, the Radumba can spam Warriors with Arrows and Poison Arrows for stunning. Multiple archers can target a single dinosaur regardless of obstacles, and the green tribe has no healing before meeting Canus.
Dino clans are dangerous in the early game, where they can spend initial funds on ready-to-fight dinos and rush the enemy. If you survive this onslaught, you should be good to go.
The Tyranos don’t really have anything to throw at the Radumba in the mid-game. Hardy raptors and beefy Triceratopses won’t matter if they are stunlocked and bump into each other due to wonky pathfinding.
Perhaps the biggest boon against dinosaurs is the legendary Spear of the Volcano God. It’s deadly to huge reptiles. Well, as deadly as the Celestial Sword is to Primitives, but the Radumba has access to the best martial training of cavemen.
(Tyrano harass the Radumba in the very first mission, as the plot was intended to be different in the early betas. Their caveman has enough OP to be a warrior and wields a sword and an iron shield, which all hint at Masai influence.
Anyway, after the retcon it seems our blue archers met Tyranos on their way west while escaping the Masai. The body of water in the map must be the northern bank of Dream Lake. The pursuing party had weapons stolen from the Masai, or maybe from the Radumba themselves.
After passing the Dream Lake, the Radumba moved south, closer to the Koaka tribe, perhaps hoping that these two will be busy fighting each other.)
Against the Canus, the Radumba can stunlock the high-MP Elves one by one, before they cast their spells. Lacking the Boomerang, the attack can take a while, but stunning is one of the only ways to deal with powerful Elves. Remember that regular Arrows deal a bit bonus damage to them, so mix some into your stun commando unit.
Another tactic is to damage many units to half HP in quick succession to drain mana points of their best healers. Ranged weapons are useful for this, but aggroing a lot of enemy units is always a risky move.
Against the Masai, the Radumba have some trouble, but can win by massing troops. Ranged warriors can attack all at once, melee fighters must come closer and find a place adjacent to the attacker. And the pathing is not really great in this game =)
Masai Shields mitigate Arrow damage, but don’t prevent Poison Arrow stunning. Radumba Muscle Men armed with Wood Shields and Wild Ginseng are weaker than Masai Warriors, and unshielded bowmen die by the sword quickly. Treat these swordsmen like powerful units and stun them.
Against the Romek, the Radumba can win if careful. Warriors are immune to Ranger bonus damage, and stunlocking may prevent them from teleporting away. VP is strong in Romek, so Radumba must train their own to keep up. No Boomerangs in armory makes life harder though.
Overall
Overall it is the best tribe in my opinion.
As a Primitive Man themed clan, they start off weak, with just cavemen running around. The Radumba combine the Kumba’s hardiness and Masai’s aggression though, and can employ tanky Muscle-Men and damage dealing Warriors. This gives them a tiny early edge. Bows make passive hunting easy, and active hunting even easier. Hunting is money, which makes midgame come soon.
And midgame is the time to shine for the Radumba, when a commando unit with Poison Arrows is ready to take down just about anything the game has to offer. The only problem are massed high-level spellcasters, which should be tackled in endgame, when our units have more stats and some tasty Ginsengs.
The stunlocking array of arrows and the best snack in Armory is an excellent addition to any army composition.
They are fun to play and don’t forget, they are the protagonists of the sequel
Other stuff
Their building style is similar to the Masai’s. The Barracks are similarly boat-shaped, with less horns and a bow strapped to the front. The Armory is the same ancient Greek stoa, so more a shop than a forge. It has the forge-style visuals in the second mission, and its chimney and lava moat(!) would resonate with Fire Arrows and the Volcano Spear… The Sanctuary is an enigma though, it reminds me of bowstrings with a quiver in the back. Maybe these are totems. Looks like a sun temple or a sundial.
Their color, blue, is a primary color. Widely used by heroes of all kinds. It was in fact a rare and expensive dye, obtained from woad in the north, true indigo mixed with crushed crystals in Mesoamerica (called maya blue), and with lapis lazuli stones in Egypt and Rome. In Europe, in the Middle Ages, blue was a color with surprisingly little meaning. Only the poor bothered to make blue dye, as only poor blue was available. There was virtually no formula to make a lasting and saturated, vivid blue color fit for kings. This changed in the XIII century, but that’s a story for a less primitive website.
Blue is the color of the sky, of spirituality and the unknown. A peaceful color that suits the Radumba.
Their alignment is good, as they split from the Masai disgusted by their cruelty. The Radumba wish only for peace and they swear to hunt only animals for food.
Their legendary weapon, Spear of the Volcano God, sounds neutral, detached from the light-darkness dichotomy of Jurassic Gods. It is best used to hunt megafauna, while being the weakest against sapient species. While Perox’s spells use the elements and poison, the Radumba use Fire and Poison Arrows, but that’s just a coincidence, as technology origins differ from magical ones. They speak of creativity, not malevolence. Fire Arrows are a tool for razing buildings, and Poison Arrows stun, while their equivalent spells are all about damage.
There are Fire and Poison upgrades for the Soldier’s arrows, a Primitive Man faction archer in the sequel. The Radumba are said to be the protagonists of the original game and historical unifiers of the Island in the Primitive Wars lore, and the Primitives campaign start from the southwest, which is also where the Radumba have settled.
(There is a typo in one of the briefings that says it’s southeast, but that doesn’t add up, and likely is an error.