01-01-2008, 07:24 AM
Sean wrote:-
hock: .... and state absolutely that there was no such thing as Iberian cataphract cavalry in the West at the time of Hannibal, or indeed until late Roman times.
For that matter,virtually no mail whatsoever turns up in the artistic or archaeological record in Spain until the first century BC.( ask our resident expert on early Iberian warfare, Professor Fernando Quesada here on RAT )
Komanos wrote:-
Instead of having unhistorical up-armoured units, realise that armour's protective abilities are often over-exaggerated and change your rule accordingly.For most of the ancient period troops were graded by the type of shield they carried - body-armour was not so important. Therefore make armoured heavy Infantry ( big shields) only marginally more effective than un-armoured Heavy Infantry (big shields).... and thereby get the basis of your rules right! Then you won't need to un-historically 'up-armour' units to make them competitive!
(Shades of the WRG and their Super Heavy Cavalry in one of their editions...when some clever chap realised that by dismounting them, they went from almost invulnerable to totally invulnerable!! :roll: )
In terms of warfare/battles, armour/no armour is only a marginal factor !!!!
Quote:I've only got a general knowledge of Spanish warfare, and I didn't want to leap in with "Hah! They're wrong on this!" when I wasn't sure.Well, I will rush in where angels fear to tread!
hock: .... and state absolutely that there was no such thing as Iberian cataphract cavalry in the West at the time of Hannibal, or indeed until late Roman times.For that matter,virtually no mail whatsoever turns up in the artistic or archaeological record in Spain until the first century BC.( ask our resident expert on early Iberian warfare, Professor Fernando Quesada here on RAT )
Komanos wrote:-
Quote:I guess the point kind of is, when crafting individually unique unit rosters for 21 factions and more than a dozen rebel "factions," we've often been forced to rely on sources that are either few in number or even slightly outside our time period. There are many types of troops in the ancient world that we want to see represented, and if we only represented those that were particularly well-attested, we'd have a pretty limited unit roster, especially outside of Greece and Italy.......if that's the way it was, then that's the way it was....some ancient armies did, for instance have only one or two troop types...and that's no excuse to "use your imagination" when facts are few and thin on the ground....but here they are not. There were no cataphracts in the West until well after 100AD. And if you are more interested in 'playability' than the limits of 'historicity', then produce a fantasy game 'based on' broadly historical terms.......that is more honest than claiming 'historicity' whilst acknowledging "(we)...freely admit we are often..... on shaky ground with some units."
Instead of having unhistorical up-armoured units, realise that armour's protective abilities are often over-exaggerated and change your rule accordingly.For most of the ancient period troops were graded by the type of shield they carried - body-armour was not so important. Therefore make armoured heavy Infantry ( big shields) only marginally more effective than un-armoured Heavy Infantry (big shields).... and thereby get the basis of your rules right! Then you won't need to un-historically 'up-armour' units to make them competitive!
(Shades of the WRG and their Super Heavy Cavalry in one of their editions...when some clever chap realised that by dismounting them, they went from almost invulnerable to totally invulnerable!! :roll: )
In terms of warfare/battles, armour/no armour is only a marginal factor !!!!
"dulce et decorum est pro patria mori " - Horace
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
(It is a sweet and proper thing to die for ones country)
"No son-of-a-bitch ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country" - George C Scott as General George S. Patton
Paul McDonnell-Staff
