switching weopons

[General Aetius]

I was just playing EB and wanted to ask the following question after seeing my Dahae riders switch between bow and spear. In real a real battle how did these troops carry their secondary weapons around when fighting with their primary ones. For example the Persian archer spearmen. How did they hold that long spear while using their bows.

2nd Question: We all know how the Romans organized themselves but did the Germans, Gauls and other Barbarians tribes have standard formations or did they always have different ones at different times. I remember reading somewhere in Tacitus' books that the German standard single unit formation was one with an equal number of men on all sides forming a square with equal strengths on each side.

General Aetius

[Mediolanicus]

1. With horses, the spear would either be in some kind of holder, but that would have resticted movement a lot. So, more often they didn't carry a spear at all, but first shot arrows and then went to pick up their spears. That's what spear carriers were for.
Or there would just be 2 different "units", lancers and horse archers.
The RTW engine can't really copy battles as they were historicalle fought, with supply trains, "units" in which all soldiers had all sorts of different outfits and weapons at all and all that.

Archer spearman would just carry their spear along and stick it into the ground next to them while firing their bows and then pick it back up when they fought or ran away, I suppose.


2. I doubt it very much they had standard formations.
They either charged en masse or changed their tactics according to the situation. (which doesn't mean they didn't have a strategy, I just think they didn't have a basic strategy like the Romans had.)
Most tribes used ambushes mostly, so that doesn't give you much opportunity to use standard formations.
There would of course often be fighting techniques that were traditional, like Gastatae or other elites in the front line and such.

[Cartaphilus]

The vikings used the boar formation (svinfylking), some sort of wedge attack, and a shieldwall (shieldburg), so it is easy to suppose that the germans knew them too, or at least similar ones.

[blitzkrieg80]

The vikings used the boar formation (svinfylking), some sort of wedge attack, and a shieldwall (shieldburg), so it is easy to suppose that the germans knew them too, or at least similar ones.

This is true. It is a fact that they weren't organized to the degree that they had fresh lines come to the front as the front line turned back like the legion, but using tactics and well-timed discipline are pretty separate issues. It is interesting to note "caput porci and caput porcinum, attested first in the fourth century in place of the earlier cuneus and possibly a loan from Germanic, trasmitted through Germanic mercenaries in the imperial army" meaning they actually borrowed from the Germans and not the other way around, but this involves the high influx of German Aux and working with them to the best degree, which is by their own tactics/lang.

[Jaume]

Carrying secondary weapons was not very complicated as long as they were little axes or swords (a belt and a case should be enough). The roman legionaries used to carry a "Furca", some kind of wood-stick to carry hulls or paenulas.