The Unofficial "little things we want in EB2" topic

[Majd il-Romani]

I think the Roman legionaries (post marian) should have undyed tunics and no tassels on their helmet. Instead they can have a small bronze loop on their helm.

theyre using the M2 engine, which means some tunics will be red, some blue, some white, and some helmets will have tassels, some not, some will be montefortino, some Imperial Gallic, and others Coolus. People have got to remember that its M2, not RTW. No more clones!

[ludwag]

Chain mail can be loose and jingle too. And I didn't think they all had leather strips on their armour.

The things hanging down from their belts made an unique sound

theyre using the M2 engine, which means some tunics will be red, some blue, some white, and some helmets will have tassels, some not, some will be montefortino, some Imperial Gallic, and others Coolus. People have got to remember that its M2, not RTW. No more clones!

Why should romans have different helmets and different colours in one unit? Thats just stupid

[Majd il-Romani]

Why should romans have different helmets and different colours in one unit? Thats just stupid

because the EB2 team would have to add a whole new unit to have a different armor/helmet, so you would have "montefortino cohorts" and "Colus Cohorts." But maybe the different helmets could be armor upgrades...?

[Foot]

The things hanging down from their belts made an unique sound

Why should romans have different helmets and different colours in one unit? Thats just stupid

If you are going to insult someone please do back it up with some evidence. Do you believe that the romans recalled all armour when a new upgrade was added?

Foot

[ludwag]

how many times have they upgraded their helmets in the timeframe of eb2? from montefortino to coolus thats one and I dont think that just some of them got the new ones, and someone stayed with the old ones becouse they got them for free. But since you know better than me I believe you. But my impression is that everyone weared the same equipment becouse the state payed for it. Maybe they was a little mixed in the period when it changed. But When they reqruited new cohorts why should they choose between different helmets?

About the sound from marching and the foacale scarfs I can get evidence, But I think you allready know. It was not meant to insult anyone in any way

[Foot]

You appear to be fixated on this state-funded armour as being intentionally uniform. Think of coins minted by a central bank. At any one time there would be in circulation any number of coins many with different styles. The belief that the roman government would have recalled all helmets or other pieces of armour when a new design was brought is a badly thought through proposition by any standards. Apart from the prohibitive cost of such an act the logistics of such a feat would be astounding. Rather, I imagine, each armoury would send back request orders to the central armoury and manufacturing centres to replace any lost or damaged incurred while a force was on campaign. These requests would be filled with whatever was available. The main armouries would then request replacements from the manufacturers to restock their central depots. As a manufacturers started making new designs for equipment these would slowly seep through the system, but it would have been the height of stupidity to completely replace an armoury's stock of helmets with a new design. A particularly rich or influential general raising a legion may well have been able to request uniform armour, but this would soon have changed while the legion was on campaign as damage and loss would mean that quartermaster's would have issued older equipment to the troops.

Foot

[Tellos Athenaios]

how many times have they upgraded their helmets in the timeframe of eb2? from montefortino to coolus thats one and I dont think that just some of them got the new ones, and someone stayed with the old ones becouse they got them for free. But since you know better than me I believe you. But my impression is that everyone weared the same equipment becouse the state payed for it. Maybe they was a little mixed in the period when it changed. But When they reqruited new cohorts why should they choose between different helmets?

About the sound from marching and the foacale scarfs I can get evidence, But I think you allready know. It was not meant to insult anyone in any way

First of all a state paying for armour is an exception. The 'Roman state' paying for armour much more so: recruits were expected to somehow get themselves their battle gear. There does seem to have been a (later) practice of allowing wanna-be legionaries to buy equipment in advance, a loan that would be witheld from their pay as soldiers. This does, however, in no way mean all helmets must therefore have been equal or even as much as all loaned equipment should have been uniform.

Military equipment seems to have been particularly prone to fashions, little improvements and gazillions of other reasons why one generation may come up with as many different outfits as there were troops: it may be true that for soldier X he could just go with the old helmet model H1324 v1.2 of his dad, but perhaps soldier Y who could afford to buy his own kit might have preferred the new/upgraded version of model H1324 v1.2 and settled for the H1325a v1.0. And soldier Z who is from the other end of the peninsula and has a wholly different background chooses to go with H5689zx v2.3. See what I mean?

Not to mention people might very well have wanted to do/add some (shield) modifications here and there -- hey the Samnites' only club got their own little symbol; we from Arretium got a marker painted upside down. Just to be a little different, make it personal. Could be useful of course: remembering whose regiment was standing next to you could be made as easy as remembering the little weird things in their panoply.