Why are Sotaroas cheaper than Toxotai?

[vartan]

This is all incorrect.

We can tell from skeletal remains the amount of muscle a person had, in addition to height and (for example) breadth of shoulder. From this we can conclude that the average Celtic warrior was several inches tall as well as being heavier set and having greater muscle mass. We know this had to do with their lifestyle because we have written accounts from Greeks and Romans, as well as being able to recover things like seeds and bones from rubbish tips at Celtic sites.

This not to say Greeks and Romans were weak, both peoples were incredibly tough, but they weren't as big, strong or hairy.

Lys makes a good point about the food. That's really great though. I never knew you could infer muscle mass from analysing bones. (EDIT: How does that work by the way? How do you relate bone mass to muscle mass?) @Lys: Safe to say that man today is on average weaker than man ~2000 years ago? (i.e. when you look at nutrition.)

[QuintusSertorius]

Lys makes a good point about the food. That's really great though. I never knew you could infer muscle mass from analysing bones. (EDIT: How does that work by the way? How do you relate bone mass to muscle mass?) @Lys: Safe to say that man today is on average weaker than man ~2000 years ago? (i.e. when you look at nutrition.)

It's fairly easy, actually. Strengthening your muscles in life necessarily strengthens and thickens your bones. They're the support structure, they have to be reinforced to accomodate the greater loads and stresses stronger muscles put on your skeleton.

Modern humans (assuming developed nations) have more pooling at the extremes than ancient peoples; more sedentary and weak people, but also more highly-active and strong people. People in the middle are probably weaker because they're not engaged in manual labour every day.

[Gabicho]

Modern humans (assuming developed nations) have more pooling at the extremes than ancient peoples; more sedentary and weak people, but also more highly-active and strong people. People in the middle are probably weaker because they're not engaged in manual labour every day.

This.
An average modern man is going to have less stamina and muscle mass than the average man 2,000 years ago, because nowadays people do comparatively much less manual labor and are mostly sedentary.
On the other hand, the high-end athletes of modern times, would surely out-run Pheidippides, out-wrestle Ajax and beat the crap out of Achilles. Modern sports science, advanced nutrition, steroids, etc, etc, means human physical capabilites are almost at the peak, while back then, well, they didn't have much of that.
There's also some type of tasks that were done in ancient times that would surely exert even the best athletes of this day. Like holding a hoplon for hours. But that's because nowadays, we don't have high-end-hoplon training. If there was an olympic sport about holding a hoplon, today's athletes would put the Spartans to shame.

[Tellos Athenaios]

No. Lysimachos point is true for Europe, up until about mid 20th centurty when at least in North West Europe people start to gain “length parity” with antiquity, and in case of some peoples especially males start to outgrow their counterparts of yore. Which is to say that in the Netherlands and Sweden we are on average bigger barbarians than we used to be.

Those length drops Lysimachos talks about coincide with times traditionally celebrated as some kind of “golden” age of growth and prosperity: growth and prosperity for a few extracted from society at large by further increasing relative poverty of the poor.

[The Celtic Viking]

Err, my EDU says that both cost 411 mnai.

Edit: actually, looking more carefully, there are two Sotaroas units with different costs. For Arverni, Aedui and Casse they cost 411. For the rest they cost 392, but have 1 less armour point.

[QuintusSertorius]

Err, my EDU says that both cost 411 mnai.

Edit: actually, looking more carefully, there are two Sotaroas units with different costs. For Arverni, Aedui and Casse they cost 411. For the rest they cost 392, but have 1 less armour point.

These are regional Sotaroas (I'm playing Epeiros-as-Massila) compared to factional Toxotai.

[The Celtic Viking]

These are regional Sotaroas (I'm playing Epeiros-as-Massila) compared to factional Toxotai.

Yes, I realized that, hence the edit.

In any case, while the total defence value is the same for regional Sotaroas and factional Toxotai, the Toxotai has one higher armour value but one lower in def skill. If def skill cost less than armour, then that can answer for some, and I believe Sotaroas get their 1 armour value from being Celtic, which might even mean that its value is free. That, along with worse modifiers and apparently a slower speed, might help explain the difference.