The historically wrong thread

[Akka]

?
What's this shouting for ?

I see this thread as a kind of "anti-easter egg", where we try to find the little errors. The same as it's fun, in a movie, to try to see the little glitches (like the Odysseus who wears a digital watch, or the guy who is wounded on the left arm in one scene, and the right arm in one other).

I don't see it as complaint, bashing, accusation or else...

[A.Saturnus]

A rather big inaccuracy is the amount of desert on the map. Before the Romans had control over it, most of Northern Africa wasn´t desert. The same for Asia Minor. In ancient times, it was in fact 90% woodland.

[PFJ_bejazuz]

there was also a meteor strike in Germany in the period (alrowan had a thread about it on the .Net)

now THAT would make for some interesting gameplay

also - the Silician pirates were a world power who humbled rome & near starved the city out - a dreadful ommission from the game

but - hey

we hate the Romans so much ... we MP VI not RTW

: )

[Sin Qua Non]

Oh Oh Oh! I got one I think!

The corvus quinquireme is presented as the ultimate of Roman ships, especially since it is the only one that has the raven on it. But historically, didn't the raven cause more problems than it solved? I was under the impression that it was so heavy that it impacted the vessel's seaworthiness, and really slowed the ship down. I thought the Romans only used it in limited capacity, and then abandoned it pretty quickly.

[Longshanks]

Egypt during the time period was ruled by Macedonians & Greeks. Egypt at this time was actually one of the Greek Successor Kingdoms, a remnant of Alexander the Great's Empire. While the rulers went "native" the army was mostly made up of Macedonians & Greeks, and were armed and fought like other Greek and Macedonian armies.

The Carthaginian Sacred Band did not exist during the game's timeframe. They were disbanded about 300 B.C.

The Gothic heavy cav is anachronistic. The Goths did not emerge as one of the more powerful Germanic tribes until the Late Roman Empire. During the game's timeframe they were unimportant and far from Rome's borders.

The area that is today Belgium and Holland was not controlled by Celtic tribes originating in Britain. The area was controlled by Belgic Gauls. That territory should belong to the Gaulish faction rather than the Britons.

Chariots were obsolete even long before the game's timeframe. They had been made obsolete by cavalry which easily defeated them. Some factions in the east still used them, but they weren't anything near as powerful as they are portrayed in game. The primitive Britons also used them, but they also weren't as powerful as portayed in game. The Britons used them as a vehicle to ferry nobles into battle, and just as quickly out of it if things went sour more than anything else.

Gladiator armies: They didn't exist, at least not as seperate units on the battlefield. They weren't a part of Roman armies. The Romans conscripted some slaves, gladiators and other riff raff into a legion once after Cannae, but they were trained and equipped just like other legionaries. In slave rebellions gladiators sometimes took part, but they wouldn't have been segregated by gladiator type and armed in that fashion on the battlefield. Gladiator training and weapons were designed for fights in the arena, they weren't well suited for the battlefield.

[Patricius]

The 31th dynasty expired within a human lifetime of the game's start date - though I see little evidence that the Egpytian faction in the game has anything of Late Period Egypt about it. The simplified pharaoh's crown, perhaps - though I somehow think that archers did not wear them - unless Late Period Egypt had some demented form of collective leadership .