Big Shields

[Geticus]

Regardless I agree with his basic premise. Roman martial culture advocated the use of shield + body armor, but other strong cultures like early Frankish, old Germanic and Viking all prioritized the shield and mail was rare. The standard panoply of the Viking warrior was shield + helm + spear, and sword if he was well off. And the vikings armed in that way were very effective, winning the field many times against the Frankish knights who were the hardest hitting cavalry in the world at the time. While some of that may be attributed to their skill with spears regardless Viking successes in Asia and Europe as well as the rise of the Goths and Franks towards the tail end of the Roman empire demonstrate that the heavily armored way is not the only viable approach to infantry power.

[Julius Augustus]

Yes, bigger shields undoubtedly deserve a higher defence value. In EB, shields make up a relatively small part of a soldier's defence. A shield defence rating of 4 is kind of ridiculous (To me, maybe the EB team has some reasons?) when you consider that many units have a defence skill of three times that. My guess is that all scutum and aspis shields should get a shield defence of 6, not 4.

[antisocialmunky]

*I can't find the reference naymore, nvm*