Manuballistas/Gastraphetes

[Hax]

To expand on what abou said, I believe that the use of the gastraphates was limited to mostly the city-state of Syrakousai. It wasn't that widespread.

[Cute Wolf]

To expand on what abou said, I believe that the use of the gastraphates was limited to mostly the city-state of Syrakousai. It wasn't that widespread.

unless Syrakousai was a playable faction, we won't have gastraphates wielding unit

[Hax]

unless Syrakousai was a playable faction, we won't have gastraphates wielding unit

Even if they would be, it's still highly unlikely that there would be a gastraphetes unit.

[Cyclops]

Were siege engines used in open battle much in the EB period? I recall Imperial Roman armies used some torsion engines, and just before the EB period there's a reference to a battle between and Phillip 2 of Macedon and I think Phocis where he gets bombed by seige engines in a valley (a really clever ploy) but I'm guessing it happened pretty rarely.

Even if they would be, it's still highly unlikely that there would be a gastraphetes unit.

I won't even bother to post my question about elephant-mounted gastraphetes with lorica segmentata for an emergent Gladiator faction then.

[MisterFred]

Me laughs!

[Ludens]

Were siege engines used in open battle much in the EB period?

I am pretty sure it happened rarely, if at all. The Romans had small, light projectile throwers, but the real siege equipment would take too long to deploy and too long to reload. And did they have some sort of ranging device or was it just done through trail-and-error?

[Cyclops]

I am pretty sure it happened rarely, if at all. The Romans had small, light projectile throwers, but the real siege equipment would take too long to deploy and too long to reload. And did they have some sort of ranging device or was it just done through trail-and-error?

My feeling with the battle Phillip vs the Phocians it was a set-piece: they set up in a valley and he netered through a narrow pass so they prolly had time to set range before the battle. I think the evidence is extremely thin so theres not that much to speculate about. Enough to say engines in battle are very rare and thanks to their cost and strat map slowness its the same in EB.

IIRC modders have tried but its not been possible to add torsion engines etc to the existing range of seige furniture like rams, towers etc. Shame, how good would it be to have an engineer unit or ancillary that lets you build a certain type of torsion engine or catapult-y thing but just for seiges? You could even (perhaps) have a Urban-like ancillary for barabarians offering to build Greek or Phoenecian engines for the less washed factions.