(09-22-2021, 01:34 PM)NJohn1 Wrote: "Reducing battle length time" I was lengthening it , maybe double at least.Battle length, would still be limited by hours of daylight and battles seldom ran outside the 2 5 hours range, so having it at 7 is already putting it outside the top range.WW2 And WBTS combat validation models show A combat unit at 40% casualties to become combat ineffective offensively , reducing mission success to a 90% failure outcome, and at 60% combat ineffective defensively.
"Why bother with hand to hand" - well at 80,000 dead v 400 dead I think they probably didn't bother with much hand to hand contact.
"Were there archers present" - nothing stated that I am aware of but if the kit was available. I'm sure in that "fish/barrel" situation it could have been utilised to good effect by anyone, surely any martial person could turn there hand to volley firing arrows at a seething mass of naked Britunculi. I am hoping mass finds of scattered slingstones will be one of the final markers, but yet to get any options on that on any site. Although Dunstable was pimping pottery sling stones for a while.
"oriented towards London" - oriented to line of approach would be better here, anything from east to south west would be good depending on local terrain and terrain conditions in the immediate vicinity of the site. With Church Stowe there is an assumption of approach from both the South along Watling St and the East along the Nene valley accounting or the growing numbers as the Iceni flood the field from their home lands. Final approach and first point of retreat being Hunsbury Hill accounting for discarded weapons and quern stones.
"a large fort in an unexpected location close to a geographical feature" - I am content with several medium sized ridge top forts around said feature personally but I know there is an insistence in some quarters for the fort to be single and large, we differ on that. But terrain and timing trumps formal camp logistics for me. Needless to say Church Stowe ticks that box....
"I live for the day the battle site is re-discovered" - I suspect you are going to have a long life in that case ..... and maybe get a hobby
So I see the battle and pursuit phase as two parts of the whole, the first part generates to one side that they in for ahidding by casualty generation, not all KIA, this mostly happens in the pursuit phase as the WIA are finished off in close combat, so somewhere around 40 to 60% of the casualties need to occur that then turned into fatalities.
Missile fire in antiquity was not very lethal, it was of course causing injury, even by the time of Gettysburg, it took 7 million rands of small arms to cause 58,000 casualties, of which 7k become KIA, so c 120 missiles to cause a wound. So 4.8 million sling arrows and pila to get a similar casualty rate from missiles. otoh bayonet charges that closed to combat produced lop skidded dead to wia numbers.
Slings were being phased out as being combat in effective in Roman use in this century, so would explain the absence, and in QJM ( quantity judgment model)the sling is a fourth as lethal at casualty infliction as WBTS shoulder weapon, so you have to fire 4 times to get the same output.
Yes your spot on with church Stowe as a strong contender.
