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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Thresher" data-source="post: 1304659" data-attributes="member: 9983">I think its somewhat unfair to say that the roman leigonaire was any 'less' of a fighter than his barbarian counterpart, from a romantic point of veiw he may have admired and respected his enemies freedom, wildness and ferocity. But it ends at the battlefield.A roman soldier was a professional soldier, he wasnt a part time farmer, hunter-gatherer or family man, all he did in the 20years of service was learn how to:-Kill people in close combat-Follow ordersAnd after enough years the roman veteran has far more experience in actually gutting someone in close combat, drills every day with his companions to keep his reflexes up to speed and lets not forget that he carries at the time of Marius' reforms in around 100BC around 80-100 pounds of equipment. These where not weak, small men of the Asterix comics, they where formidable professional soldiers who made their living by killing other men and did it very well.Also on the side of the soldier was the fact that Rome had a lot of very good generals in charge of her armies who learnt a lot from the Greeks in terms of tactics and added to it by gaining the reputation of being utterly ruthless when aroused to fight. People didnt like fighting Romans for the simple fact that if you did cross them and annoyed them enough they where going to kill every single living thing that got in their way and anyone captured ended up in a life of bondage as a slave.Now, back your Gladius.While the Romans carried a lot of different types of swords, the cavalry making use of what we would term a light lance and longsword, their heavy infantry's primary weapon was the gladius and his shield which we would use in game as being a tower shield. In combinaition with his fellows the unit unleashes its Pila at 20-30ft and closes with the enemy. The enemy assuming he isnt killed by the pila moves in, often having to discard his own shield which has been disabled by the spears heavy weight.It is at this point the real killing begins.The best way to describe this would be to have a rugby scrum and give them knives and you'd probably have much the same result, pressing the enemy back.Also while the pressure was applied at the front line the enemy's own weapons where typically longer and he couldnt bring them to bear, let along swing or stab at someone who was less than a foot away and very heavily armoured, all the time slashing away at things like the enemies legs, groin and stomach.The Gladius works much the way that a contempory bayonet does, it only takes a few inches to kill or disable someone when the blade goes in.Ive done a bit of work doing up some feats for this fighting technique but most people have a bit of trouble understanding the tactics involved in bringing them in line with a 'relative' combat system like D20, so its a project thats sitting on the backburner for awhile.</blockquote>

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