Another thing for the patch.....(probably unnecessary)

[Mikeus Caesar]

I just decided to go on RTW for the first time in a month, and do my own highly innacurate version of the battle of thermopylae. It consisted of 4 units of spartans .vs. one parthian and one pontic armies consisting entirely of eastern infantry, and the map was alpine mountains. Anyway, i have my spartans ready and waiting when suddenly the enemy armies walked on to the crest of the hill. it was like the scene from zulu. 'Zulus sir. Thousands of em.' Only problem was, these zulus looked like homocidal and homosexual zulus dressed up in their pink and blue pyjamas. It was hilarious....

[Watchman]

A little snag is that by what I've read, there were a couple of thousand other Greeks besides the Spartan threehundred down there. And that was on the last day when most had left...

[TinCow]

It would be nice if they provided the appropriate maps and starting positions for the episodes of Decisive Battles. While I'm sure much of those were scripted, at least we would have the appropriate maps with which to mod the battles ourselves.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Ehem, but didn't you bother reading about the colour problems? It really spoils the atmosphere of a big battle when you suddenly see that your fighting what looks like 4500 homocidal homosexual soldiers.

[Watchman]

Parthian Eastern Infantry does look pretty horrid, I'll give you that. Though instead of homosexuality I'd write it down as an example of some pretty succesful visual-psychological warfare - most human players are going to have serious trouble looking at those huge purple hordes.

Be nice if the designers had made some concessions to peoples' eyes, though.

[Kraxis]

While I agree that the Parthians should have had more suble colourations (like that of the Hungarians in MTW would be nice), I think you guys are overdoing it. I have faced large Parthian armies without getting into that snicker-state that you all seem to suffer from. Just try to remember that pink was not a sissy colour back then.
Try and think back to when you were a child, then purple was also a sissy colour, but do we think that now? No, it is the colour of royalty, Praetorians and such. A real manly colour.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Nah, back when i was young, purple meant 'the best flavoured crayon'. Pink and bright blues meant 'yucky yucky yucky'.

[Bartman]

It really spoils the atmosphere of a big battle when you suddenly see that your fighting what looks like 4500 homocidal homosexual soldiers.

I thought that the Spartans made a point of homosexuality among their troops.

Here's a quote from http://people.westminstercollege.edu...rm/battle.html

"In the Spartan army, homosexuality was accepted, even encouraged-it was a mark of shame if a younger soldier was not courted by an elder; the theory was that it encouraged unity, as well as battlefield glory-a soldier would not want to shame himself in front of his lover by pulling back from a fight, or flinching before the enemy."

If I see 4500 Spartans coming at me, my response is generally:

[Mikeus Caesar]

Yes, but Spartans look big and tough and scary. When you see 4500 pontic and parthian eastern infantry come over a hill, your general reaction is to think 'Dear god, what were CA thinking when they gave these factions their colours?' After all, who wants to fight what looks like thousands of people wearing pink and blue pyjamas?

[Watchman]

They don't really give me "the giggles". More like "the winces". They are, bluntly put, aesthetically atrocious.