Current Gaesatae?

[lobf]

I do not see what Foot has to do with Celtic historical research. What he and we (I was and am still part of the EB team) did was not accept statements without proper argument and proof from just anyone.

Because Foot passionately defended the old research, which is why I brought him up.

I'm afraid that you've just called one of our most respected members a liar, and a falsifier of information. Not a good way to start, really. Ran, unfortunately no longer in our group due to personal reasons, is a world-class scholar, whose depth and breadth of knowledge is vast and countless. Perhaps some old post of his will enlighten us here, but until any further information comes to light I would gladly put my trust in his knowledge.

This has annoyed me for almost 10 years and I was hoping that there would be some recognition- Ranika was a liar and falsifier of information.

I dunno. Sorry to drudge up old shit. Like I said, it's annoyed me forever and I was hoping there would be some acknowledgement or closure.

[QuintusSertorius]

How about we spare everyone the trip down memory lane and leave sleeping dogs where they lie?

[paullus]

The Gaesatae drugs thing was clearly inspired by the persistent (and not entirely baseless) theories that the Cu Chulainn saga and Viking Berserker traditions, sometimes linked to Indo-Aryan haoma warrior potion traditions, not to mention the well-based use of drink and augmented drink by many warriors throughout pre-modern history.

Ranika, who I do not know, seems to have been a widely-read amateur historian/linguist devoted mainly to the Irish Celtic world, and was much too prone toward attempting to extrapolate fantastical traditions from that context into the EB historical context, and willing to invent some period details to corroborate the extrapolation.

We're tried, in EB2, to stick to things on which we're sufficiently confident, either because there's a proof we can give, or at least strong conjecture and plausibility attendant all reconstructions. I think there's a possibility many warriors in the EB timeframe used strong drink, perhaps even some naturally occurring drugs, to steel themselves for battle. But we cannot attribute any such tradition particularly or especially to the gaesatae.

[Frostwulf]

Ranika, who I do not know, seems to have been a widely-read amateur historian/linguist devoted mainly to the Irish Celtic world, and was much too prone toward attempting to extrapolate fantastical traditions from that context into the EB historical context, and willing to invent some period details to corroborate the extrapolation.

This is the very nice way of saying this:

Ranika was a liar and falsifier of information.

I completely agree with this!
On a side note, I did tend to find Foot fair on most of his decisions, and Ranika fooled just about everyone. Paullus and Moros it's good to know that EB 2 has been more stringent in accepting the historical material. I think you guys have been doing that for allot of years now?

How about we spare everyone the trip down memory lane and leave sleeping dogs where they lie?

Woof, woof, lobf just woke me up.

[Genghis Skhan]

The Gaisaitoi are no longer stunningly OP in EBII, but they are still very fearsome and useful. As expected, they remain the best naked infantry in the game, and are among the top tier of infantry in EBII anywho.