spartacus ???

[DeadRunner]

well i give a look to the units that will apear in Rome total war
and i see a gladiator.
i like history (because of that i take the arkelogist assistant )and i remeber spartacus a slave gladiator that make a revolution (is army was a gladiator army).maybe one of the side campaings is about him =))

[Gregoshi]

I'll bet you are right on that one DR. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

[Kilgore]

the real test of the new rome total war engine will be if you can zoom in close enough to see Spartacus' cleft chin http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

i'd like to see a spartacus campaign, if for no other reason than to justify gladitor units (gladitors did fight in the slave uprising, along with a lot of other slaves). i'm really not all that keen on having gladitor units as part of the roman army in RTW, but i suppose the game has to make that balalnce between fun and realism (its not as if its a 'sim' of the period.)

[magnatz]

Gladiators were never a part of the regular Roman army, but sometimes during civil wars the contendants managed to add a gladiator school to their own private army. For example according to Tacitus (Histories) gladiator units were used during the civil war between Otho and Vitellius.

However gladiators weren't probably that effective on the battlefield, due to lack of military training, and so they were mostly used to garrison captured towns, where their reputation discouraged the locals from getting weird ideas.

[DeadRunner]

i read that carthago will appear too =))) i hope they put the 3 punics wars.

will be so cool to play was Anibal http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/tongue.gif
other possible side campaing is the vergentorix ,when rome (julius cesar) destroy the celtic uprising(that will be so cool too )

One that maybe will appear is the civil war of julius against pompeu.

This is real a small fraction that can appears was side quest are many side campaigns and objectives that is a live time t put them all m8And my history knoledged is not that vast =((

[sparrow]

The game sounds well cool, the more I think about it.

I am already hoping for an expansion that will cover the dying years of the empire, and goth invasions....

http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[magnatz]

My exact wishes. http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/cool.gif

(and I always wanted to do a Gothic Wars mod anyway...)

[Oaty]

Quote[/b] ]However gladiators weren't probably that effective on the battlefield, due to lack of military training, and so they were mostly used to garrison captured towns, where their reputation discouraged the locals from getting weird ideas.

I think that is a bit debateable, althought the lack of discipline from training could be very well made up with there experience because we all know what happens to gladiators that cant perform. It would also depend how they were used. I think 1 on 1 they would be able to beat down most legonaires

[magnatz]

I have dug out Tacitus' Historiae and found out some cases of actual engagements where gladiators were involved during the civil war of 69 AD between Otho and Vitellius. All the battles except the last one were fought in northern Italy along the Po river.

Basically the commanders in charge of gladiator unit knew better than messing with legionaries, so they used them against auxiliary troops instead, and even then the results were not always good:

Cremona:
While the battle rages in the near village of Bedriacus, Marcius Macrus (the commander in charge of the 2000-strong gladiator unit in the Othonian army) crosses the river Po with a fleet of liburnae (light boats) and attacks the auxiliary troops of Vitellius on the opposite shore. The gladiators easily route the Vitellian troops, but Macrus is reluctant to exploit the success because he is worried that the enemy can be reinforced with regular troops.

Brixellum:
Vitellian generals Cecina and Valens threaten to attack the gladiators deployed on the opposite shore and begin to build a boat bridge. Marcius Macrus tries to counterattack by landing his gladiators on a island in the middle of the river, but a unit of Germans swims to the island before the liburnae can land, then proceeds to board and sink the boats and kill the crews.

River Po:
A unit of Batavian auxiliaries destroys a group of Othonian gladiators (possibly the last surviving gladiators in Otho's army) that were trying to pass the river.

Terracina:
The city is threatened by Lucius Vitellius ( brother of the emperor), and defended by a mixed force of Othonian marine infantry and gladiators, whose commanders Tacitus defines as buffoons. This is the one recorded engagement between regular legionaries and gladiators - the gladiators do fight heroically but are killed to the last man.

So basically gladiator units do belong in RTW, but they shouldn't be too strong IMO. They also should be expensive, to reflect the training costs and the limited availability.
(not to mention the negative impact on the populace's moral, when they go to the circus and find out that the show has been canceled because the gladiators have been drafted http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif).

Note:

Otho has a 2000-man strong gladiator unit in his ranks, a very small number compared with the rest of his army. His gladiators were drafted by the schools of Rome.

Tacitus defines the presence of gladiators in the army shameful help, but often recurred to in civil war times, so it is possible that there other examples other the ones I mentioned.