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<blockquote data-quote="Ulrick" data-source="post: 196928" data-attributes="member: 775"><p>SWEET.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And some of those similarities I shudder at when compared to the things that are going on here in the United States.</p><p></p><p>In my campaign setting I have an empire that Balkanized (sp?) because they didn't learn from the mistakes of past Empires. It has a very much "decline of Rome" sort of feeling.</p><p></p><p>When looking at history, I'm always fascinated at how Empires--seemingly unbeatable, collapse. And soon "barbarians are at the gate."</p><p></p><p>Back to topic:</p><p></p><p>When designing the countries and realms of my campaign world, I often look at armies of ancient and medieval times and see what I can use. For instance, I admire the way the Roman Legions fought using shield walls and the gladius'. Yet I also admire the Swiss Pikemen. So I combined the two. This balkanized empire that I mentioned used med. infantry as its main fighting unit. They roamed the battlefield in tight phalanxes with tower shields. The tower shields had a hole or two in its center or side for long spears or pikes to slid though--obviously the hole would be carve to fit the spearhead. And it could be used an arrow slit as well.</p><p></p><p>I'm just picturing a large group of soldiers hunched up inside a "dome" of tower shields, with spears poking out this way and that, while barbarian infantry and cavalry circle trying to figure out what to do.</p><p></p><p>Of course, if the barbarians had a spell caster with <em>fireball</em> it'd be over right quick...</p><p>And yes, there are other flaws with this approach, and I would consider the "dome formation" a last ditch effort...similar to what the Spartans did in the movie "The 300 Spartans." But I think they'd take a lot of enemies down with them.</p><p></p><p>Ulrick</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Ulrick, post: 196928, member: 775"] SWEET. And some of those similarities I shudder at when compared to the things that are going on here in the United States. In my campaign setting I have an empire that Balkanized (sp?) because they didn't learn from the mistakes of past Empires. It has a very much "decline of Rome" sort of feeling. When looking at history, I'm always fascinated at how Empires--seemingly unbeatable, collapse. And soon "barbarians are at the gate." Back to topic: When designing the countries and realms of my campaign world, I often look at armies of ancient and medieval times and see what I can use. For instance, I admire the way the Roman Legions fought using shield walls and the gladius'. Yet I also admire the Swiss Pikemen. So I combined the two. This balkanized empire that I mentioned used med. infantry as its main fighting unit. They roamed the battlefield in tight phalanxes with tower shields. The tower shields had a hole or two in its center or side for long spears or pikes to slid though--obviously the hole would be carve to fit the spearhead. And it could be used an arrow slit as well. I'm just picturing a large group of soldiers hunched up inside a "dome" of tower shields, with spears poking out this way and that, while barbarian infantry and cavalry circle trying to figure out what to do. Of course, if the barbarians had a spell caster with [I]fireball[/I] it'd be over right quick... And yes, there are other flaws with this approach, and I would consider the "dome formation" a last ditch effort...similar to what the Spartans did in the movie "The 300 Spartans." But I think they'd take a lot of enemies down with them. Ulrick [/QUOTE]
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