Gaesatae way too overpowered

[Frostwulf]

Watchman I shouldnt have lumped your quote in with Philipvs Vallindervs Calicvla, he did say there were beserkers.

"Make the sacrifice" shock troops haven't been an all that unusual thing in history, actually.

I was talking about true beserkers being rare, not "Make the sacrifice" shock troops.

Anyway, the Gaesatae work by a combination of applied chemistry and sheer bad attitude, whereas if I've understood correctly the Viking bärsärkagång was at least partially a neurological issue. In any case I've read the Vikings at least typically formed their various crazed warriors into small shock units which were employed as "forlorn hopes" to lead assaults and take down enemy leaders.

I would agree with what your saying, except I cant find any historical documents on the Gaesatae and I havent seen anyone but me put any historical reference to them. The Viking part I agree with from what I read, the only thing I would add is that they were infrequently used as royal bodyguards(king Harald Fairhair).

I take it you're not very familiar with the basic principles involved ? Having a psychological edge over your opponent, particularly through fear, is a major advantage in hand-to-hand combat.

Im familiar with it, it does happen in sports as well such as MMA, Boxing and other Martial sports. In some of these sports, especially if you face someone like Bob Sapp, you can see fear in their eyes. But regardless the person may start of with a disadvantage due to fear but the training takes over and they can overcome which has happened many times. From my understanding soldiers who are well trained can over come this because "their training takes over" -Andy McNab SAS.

Now, it's a given fanatical maniacs on combat drugs like the Gaesatae aren't going to be particularly intimidated by about anything (short of an elephant anyway), but they're going to be damn scary to face especially for troops who already have some issues with the ferocious and intimidating Celtic way of doing battle. And being skilled swordsmen unconcerned with pain, fear and fatigue they're going to be real whirlwinds on the attack, and the Celtic longsword was doubtless a most unpleasant device to be at the receiving end of at the best of times. Good luck trying to get them to even pay much attention at your feeble attempts at landing in a blow (especially given their large Celtic infantry shields) - they'll probably quite happily take a down the road lethal wound in exchange of slicing your head off anyway, and not even notice it...

The Gaesatae may be good on the attack but they didnt even do to well against javelins. If they cant defend against javelins how do you expect them to avoid constant thrusting and slashing from swords or spears? Not all the soldiers are going to be paralyzed with fear, they will fight back. Depending on the soldiers these attempts are hardly feeble, a thrust to the heart a cut off head and other places are for the most part an instant kill. The Gaesatae were dieing to javelins! They were not just waltzing through them. Again if these things falling from the sky were killing them, then competent soldiers would have a better chance of killing them. As far as fear is concerned, the Gaesatae did break when they were pushed back.
Now for the drugs. Most drugs now are much stronger now because of the technology we have, everything now is enhanced. The drugs the Gaesatae were raw and primitive, therefore most likely not nearly as effective as has been claimed on these forums. Yes they could help over come fear, but they most likely will not make you immune from pain. If it did think of novacane and trying to talk with that in your mouth! If you want to say adrenaline that I can understand up to a point.

if you don't feel pain and your adrenaline is rushing, your body wont go to shock so you'll have more staying power). Take also the Zulu war. There are British reports of Zulus fighting with arms crushed by bullets like they were normal.
If you want to really test the effect of drugs, don't go for the numbing ones

mAIOR I agree with what your saying, though I never heard that about the Zulus doing that. Im not disagreeing with you, I just never heard that before.

AGAIN Ill ask. Where are you guys getting the information on the drugs they take? What battles did they participate in and who wrote about it? I already heard enough about peoples thoughts, now how about the facts to back this up.