Gymnitai Hoplitai- Naked hoplites!!!

[Maion Maroneios]

Indeed. Even if they did fight naked, I believe they Gymnitai were simply not important enough to be represented with a unique unit. It is true though, that an unarmoured hoplite would had much more maneuvrability that a fully-armoured one, but in a hoplite vs hoplite fight, the armour would make all the difference. Imagine yourself being naked and sandwitched between your enemy pushing you behind and your allies pushing you forwards. Not very pretty, if you ask me.

Maion

[ARCHIPPOS]

perhaps the most historicaly accurate way to feature those guys would be a retinue member for the KH FM ... say after 10 victorious battles or so ( to represent the historic rarity of those gymnitai) the said FM could get a yelling crazy looking bastard in a corinthian helmet with the description:

"this man counts an eccentric and fearless warrior in his ranks of bodyguards who prefers to go naked into battle: +1 valour in combat , +1 troops morale, -1 chances of casualties recovering afer battle " or sth in these lines...

But frankly is it worth it??? go into the trouble of editing and modifying traits for a lame looking 1X1 cm pic and the opportunity to portray this exciting but rare aspect of hoplite warfare??? i dunno...

"here lie the naked hoplites obedient to EB's law of historic realism"

[Maion Maroneios]

If you ask me, no it isn't.

Maion

[IrishHitman]

Indeed. Even if they did fight naked, I believe they Gymnitai were simply not important enough to be represented with a unique unit. It is true though, that an unarmoured hoplite would had much more maneuvrability that a fully-armoured one, but in a hoplite vs hoplite fight, the armour would make all the difference. Imagine yourself being naked and sandwitched between your enemy pushing you behind and your allies pushing you forwards. Not very pretty, if you ask me.

Maion

And slightly homoerotic as well

[Maion Maroneios]

Well, did you know that (due to fear and concentration) you never get an erection when battling? Same goes when you sport intensively. IIRC, the andrenaline rush causes the penis to shrink. Basically the same that happens with men who take andrenaline injections.

Maion

[Cute Wolf]

That was my solution to your problem... made them replace the standard hellenic flagbearer in KH Bodyguards, and add, frighten_infantry trait to them...

[Maion Maroneios]

That was my solution to your problem... made them replace the standard hellenic flagbearer in KH Bodyguards, and add, frighten_infantry trait to them...

Maion

[ARCHIPPOS]

how the heck did you do that???

[Cute Wolf]

Just replace the officer line in KH bodyguards with celtic uirodusios model....

[Ghaust the Moor]

That was my solution to your problem... made them replace the standard hellenic flagbearer in KH Bodyguards, and add, frighten_infantry trait to them...

Wow, that is epic.

[Celtic_Punk]

IF this was true in any sense, why would my ancestors' groups of naked warriors be so scary to the Mediterranean people? I think that if a Greek tried to join your phalanx naked, he'd be branded a barbarian and cast out, rather than held as a hero.

[Ibrahim]

I dunno about greeks, but one mubaariz (dueller) went to duel naked, or at least half naked.

then again, Arabs have a history of odd fighting techniques...

[ARCHIPPOS]

"IF this was true in any sense, why would my ancestors' groups of naked warriors be so scary to the Mediterranean people?"

weeeeeell... we see that Greeks viewed such naked warriors as sth exceptional and rare within their own battleline, a leftover from heroic,mythical,ahistorical times ... a cultural eccentricity if you will...
and then suddenly they were faced with masses of naked ,huge Gauls in war ecstasy for whom fighting naked was not an exception but the norm... that could explain the psychological impact of naked Gauls on Greeks... they were familiar with nude heroes but never seen it incorporated "en masse" into an army...

[Rilder]

Now just imagine if we didn't stop doing this, and heroic soldiers would get their picture taken nude.

[Celtic_Punk]

We didn't... My mate from basic showed up during a mortar barrage wearing nothin but his body armour and helmet in Afghanistan. Sure he was in the shower, but he was showing up for battle naked... so does that count?

[Ca Putt]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I just think they felt like little boys again :D

Well maybe the nudity was just one fragment of the Intimidating effect of Naked Warriors whereas a equally important aspect was that they appeared somewhat "crazy" and people usually don't look forward to encountering a (naked) Madman with a Sword. they probably knew of the Berserk-ish impact of the Gaesatae, probably that made them even more "scary". Apart from that, respecting Naked Warriors as heroes may have lead to thoughts like "Help, were fighting against Heroes, were doomed, Zeus help us!"

[ARCHIPPOS]

i've taken a look at an EB II preview yesterday ... and i was amazed to see that they actually featured a non homogeneous looking hoplite phallanx!!! you could see different shield patterns,helmets etc within a unit!!!! so perhaps the boys at EB team could consider throwing a few naked hoplites in the bunch??? that would reconcile historical accuracy with extreme coolness

here's the link btw!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGff-muPIis

[antisocialmunky]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I just think they felt like little boys again :D

Well maybe the nudity was just one fragment of the Intimidating effect of Naked Warriors whereas a equally important aspect was that they appeared somewhat "crazy" and people usually don't look forward to encountering a (naked) Madman with a Sword. they probably knew of the Berserk-ish impact of the Gaesatae, probably that made them even more "scary". Apart from that, respecting Naked Warriors as heroes may have lead to thoughts like "Help, were fighting against Heroes, were doomed, Zeus help us!"

Yes, for example Beserkers would taunt the enemy by mutilating themselves infornt of the battle lines.

[ARCHIPPOS]

The battle of Little Big Horn (1876)
"Sitting Bull was spiritually prepared for the assault, for he has sliced his hands , removing 50 small pieces of skin from each. After his self-mutilation he had the dream vision in which he has seen soldiers "falling from the skies like grasshopers,with their heads down and their hats off"

(http://books.google.com/books?id=t2x...num=1#PPA10,M1)

Again the motif of the charismatic hero-warrior, the ritualistic self abandon , the sacrificial self destruction in the service of his people... seen amongst naked warriors, berserkers, hero prophets, zealots etc...