The Roman legionaire was the result of many centuries of conquering warfare. Roman equipment was a combination of the best weapons, armor and shield that Rome had had to confront in many different battlefields. They adopted the Iberian falcata after Cannae, and later on the mail armor the Celtic nobles wore. They also used their heavy shields as an offensive weapon, and the famous pilum. Maybe they weren´t more strong or agile than their enemies, but they had the best equipment by that time. Many times (not only Alesia) they were outnumbered by barbarian or eastern armies, but they won. And they won due to several factors, the most important one being the simple superiority of their infantry, and with this I mean their discipline and their equipment, not if they were veterans or not. Romans weren´t specially smart at battles (usually), they just charged head on, for they were pretty confident in the superiority of their infantry. Plain and simple. And that´s precisely what led them to the major defeat of their history at Cannae, but that´s because they were facing the @#~€! goD!

The truth is I´m absolutely pro-greek jerby, so I´d like to believe what you say about greek military being superior to roman military, but unfortunately that´s wrong.

About the Spartan issue, I know they were better as soldiers! But as long as they kept the phalanx formation. Even being nice swordsmen compared to other greeks, they weren´t equipped for blade combat. In fact, their swords were about 30 cms. long, for they were reluctant to fight outside the phalanx, and they lacked armor by that time (or just used the Linothorax). In Spartan words, "we use short swords because we fight close to the enemy". Oh... I suppose my sofism is betraying me again

Anyway, this discussion can be eternal...so let´s concentrate in the AI...

Comments about RTW AI :

@ bodidley

Mmmm... you mean the feeling of being chased off by a half-a-ton monster, entirely made of a combination of muscles, bones and horns? It just lasted a few seconds after I realized my foolishness and jumped behind the protective wall again, and it looks that my mind has tried to forget that, so I´m not quite sure