Shields?

[geala]

a lot of keltoi didn't wear trousers too, especially the hellenic influenced ones.

That's a point for Celtic cleverness because if you can wear a tunic and insist on wearing uncomfortable trousers you are a *insert inoffensive insult of your choice*.

But I think most of the Celts outside Spain against whom the Romans fought wore trousers or breeches or shorts. Could you give examples for the others? Ok, it's terribly ot, so perhaps we should start a "clothes for the lower limbs or not"-thread.

[Prussian to the Iron]

haha. but i oculdnt imagine having celts and germans with shorts on....it seems a little cold up there.....

oh i know, we could give the lower regiions barbarians bermuda shorts!

[mini]

Bean

I seem to recollect from somewhere, that Marius required a few things made en masse for his Head Count armies.
Amongst those the sagum, a particular cape made in Liguria which served to protect the legionaire from cold&rain etc.

I seem to recall this cape was usually red (why escapes me), which might be why we associate romans with red


Do keep in mind that Mars = a red planet. Red was associated with ares and mars and later with mars bellona.
Which might be why they painted the cape red in the first place, dunno.



As for the rest of the topic, uniformisation was present to a certain level.
Especially after Marius, when Quintus Servilius Caepio junior erected massive towns dedicated to make army equipment.
As for the shields, they were probably created uniform (blank) and then painted by the soldiers.
Painting upon production would be both costly and time consuming.

[/Bean\]

Yes it was always my belief that the Romans became 'red' after Marius. Though this information about the cape is not new to me (I think I learnt this a long time ago and forgot), I did only just reread it while searchin through some of the sites mentioned on this thread. So thanks Mini, keep it up. We'll get to the bottom of this.

I suppose the main question would be: In EBII, wll the early Romans still be protrayed as Red (not on the campaign map, that looks great, but rather in their equipment.)? The Triarri and Principes especially have red shields during the Polybian era; will they still have in EB II?

[Strategos Alexandros]

I'm far from an expert on Roman history, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought they'd have a mix of shield colours as befits men who provide their own equipment, i.e. reds, beiges, browns etc.
Edit: I realise this is probably a bit of a stupid question but they did still provide their own equipment in the Polybian era right?

[Ibrahim]

I'm far from an expert on Roman history, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I would have thought they'd have a mix of shield colours as befits men who provide their own equipment, i.e. reds, beiges, browns etc.
Edit: I realise this is probably a bit of a stupid question but they did still provide their own equipment in the Polybian era right?

until around 122 BC, they provided their equipment.

[Strategos Alexandros]

Thanks. I thought so but I wasn't certain.

[Mithick666]

Will there be differences between different regions of the legions in the imperial era? i read in a book
(las legiones romanas de Peter Connoly)

A passage from Tacitus, in describing the battle of Cremona, relates that legionaires collected 2 shields of fallen enemies, and hidden after they tried to infiltrate the lines contrary to disable a catapult.

[Ibrahim]

Will there be differences between different regions of the legions in the imperial era? i read in a book
(las legiones romanas de Peter Connoly)

A passage from Tacitus, in describing the battle of Cremona, relates that legionaires collected 2 shields of fallen enemies, and hidden after they tried to infiltrate the lines contrary to disable a catapult.

I doubt either shield you have here presented is good for the EB timeperiod-I know the one on the left is from Dura Europos, c.200-250AD.

same for the Cremona deal.

[/Bean\]

We don't even know if we're going to have Imperial Units...its certainly not a top priority for the developers. If EB bins all the Augustrian units (as it should in my opinion), then there will loads of unit spaces freed up for other factions. And with the massive amount of factions EB II will have compared to EB I, and the basically the same amount of unit space, they're going to need all the spare unit spaces they can get.

[Ludens]

Will there be differences between different regions of the legions in the imperial era? i read in a book
(las legiones romanas de Peter Connoly)

A passage from Tacitus, in describing the battle of Cremona, relates that legionaires collected 2 shields of fallen enemies, and hidden after they tried to infiltrate the lines contrary to disable a catapult.

I don't think that's possible: it would require a unit for every province and that is simply too much. Anyway, if there are going to be regional differences between units, than the Romans with their standardized equipment are probably the last to get it.

[Prussian to the Iron]

We don't even know if we're going to have Imperial Units...its certainly not a top priority for the developers. If EB bins all the Augustrian units (as it should in my opinion), then there will loads of unit spaces freed up for other factions.

well, if you bin the imperial units than you would have to give rome more specialized units (like some sort of ethnic heavy infantry, and same for other types)

[/Bean\]

Whats wrong with the Marians? I'd bet about 3% of all the people that play EB actually make it to and extensively use the Imperial Units. Take that 3% and compare it to all the people that would benefit from new factions with complete unit rosters in EB II. I think that speaks for itself.

[The General]

Whats wrong with the Marians? I'd bet about 3% of all the people that play EB actually make it to and extensively use the Imperial Units. Take that 3% and compare it to all the people that would benefit from new factions with complete unit rosters in EB II. I think that speaks for itself.

3% might be a bit high estimate. ;(

[/Bean\]

Point made then, I think.

[Mithick666]

It'sa good idea to sacrifice the Roman units for the new factions, at least the team get back something in return like previous cohorts and Praetorian evocata is because the current are fat boys