How historical is the Romans not having artillery prior to Marian Reforms?

[NavinKumar]

How historical is the Romans not having artillery prior to Marian Reforms? The Romans use artillery against Numantia(133BC), Carthage(146BC) and Corinth(146BC). I was assuming that the EB team was sticking to historical accuracy and I was assuming that they would have included at least some type of artillery(light scorpions,ballistae) after the Polybian Reforms and added more advanced types with the Marians? Anyway this could be amended in a easy and concise way?

What are your views on this guys? I mean even Carthage gets artillery earlier than the Romans.

PS: This is not EB bashing just a wonder if the great EB team made a oversight which has yet to be rectified even in EB 1.2.

[Cute Wolf]

Who need artilleries when you have Pedites extraordinarii to clear up the walls, and even polybian princeps are best against anything on walls except bulldozers (read : hoplitai)

[Knight of Heaven]

Who need artilleries when you have Pedites extraordinarii to clear up the walls, and even polybian princeps are best against anything on walls except bulldozers (read : hoplitai)

Yes but that isnt the issue.
The romans should had artillery before marian reforms.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

They do, artillery can be recruited from regional MICs in Greece, because at this period it was being built by Greeks.

[Maion Maroneios]

If I'm not mistaken, after the siege of Syracuse the Romans got their hands on Archimedes' siege engines, no? So couldn't or didn't they just copy the technology like what happened with the captured Quinquiremes of the Carthaginians?

Maion

[Aulus Caecina Severus]

During the roman siege of Syracuse at 214 -212 BC: thanks to Archimedes Syracusian use ballistae and scorpions against romans...
So you can make this siege weapon reclutable in Syracuse...
Why not?

[Maion Maroneios]

AFAIK there are, but the reason of the thread I believe is to ask why the Romans cannot recruit them in their own homeland.

Maion

[Mediolanicus]

They do, artillery can be recruited from regional MICs in Greece, because at this period it was being built by Greeks.

No it can't. Not according to the RV and not according to the fact that I can't recruit them with lvl 5 regional MIC's in Athene and Byzantion.

[Watchman]

That seems to be the case. Odd. I'm pretty sure they were supposed to be available as regionals from the start, or the Polybians at the very least...?

[Watchman]

Hmm. Searching my EDB would seem to suggest the Romans can get their artillery from their Polybian factional barracks rather than the "local" ones...

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

Who needs artillery anyway? Nothing that good old numerical superiority and a couple of ladders can't do, especially for Romans.

[Andy1984]

Who needs artillery anyway? Nothing that good old numerical superiority and a couple of ladders can't do, especially for Romans.

This sounds so WWI...

[A Terribly Harmful Name]

This sounds so WWI...

For every dead Roman, three become serviceable in the next day . That's my Romani motto.

[Foot]

Hmm. Searching my EDB would seem to suggest the Romans can get their artillery from their Polybian factional barracks rather than the "local" ones...

I think that's because we can't change recruitment through the era period with local barracks.

I remember talk of a script that would spawn "captured" siege weapons when taking over certain cities such as Syracuse, but it appears nothing came of it.

Foot

[Nirvanish]

This may be a bit off topic but when did the onager first come into use? To me the thing seems much simpler than a type of ballista but is not used in EB.

[Watchman]

Late Roman times AFAIK.

I think that's because we can't change recruitment through the era period with local barracks.

Hmm, I can see the problem. Would it be a major issue for them to be available also from the "local" barracks, though ? After all technically speaking players aren't really supposed to keep high-level examples of those around when they switch to the lower-numbered govs anyway (though most probably do because it'd be a pain), and does it really make much that much of a difference if the artillery in those relatively outlying provinces can be recruited from both chains...?

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

This may be a bit off topic but when did the onager first come into use? To me the thing seems much simpler than a type of ballista but is not used in EB.

The Onager is an inferrior form of artillery, it's certainly in use by 50BC, but you'd really rather have a ballista.

[NavinKumar]

Hey guys, any way we could amend this in-game, for at least Polybian faction MICs to be able to produce these units. It makes me feel sad that Rome cannot humble the impudent metropolises of the Mediterranean with her vaunted artillery. Nothing beats demolishing the walls of the dirty child-sacrificing Carthaginians than good rock and flame...

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Hey guys, any way we could amend this in-game, for at least Polybian faction MICs to be able to produce these units. It makes me feel sad that Rome cannot humble the impudent metropolises of the Mediterranean with her vaunted artillery. Nothing beats demolishing the walls of the dirty child-sacrificing Carthaginians than good rock and flame...

If you look up a few posts you will see they are available in exactly this way.

[Watchman]

Mind you I'm not quite sure *where* you can recruit them from the Poly "factional" MICs. From what I could tell of the hidden_resource reqs, it anyway wasn't Italy since they didn't match those of the Romani infantry... places like Graecia Magna and Hellas itself presumably. Strikes me as a little weird to have to build high-end Poly factional barracks there for absolutely no other reason than getting artillery though.

...then again, if you're rolling in enough dough that you can seriously start considering actually *using* the things, I doubt it really matters much. It's rather unlikely you're going to need more than one settlement capable of making the things anyway.

[MarcusAureliusAntoninus]

There was also talk of making an artillery mercenary unit for Greece and Sicily, but nothing came of that either...