Spearhead (2)

What are the Romans doing with steel?

They had steel back then, it's just been perfected over the two thousand years since.

And I imagine much harder to make back then.

Didn't the Romans get steel from the Gauls? Also, I believe the square semi-cylindrical Scutum came into use after the Republican period, long after Rome conquered Iberia.

I should have said rectangular above rather than square.

@dowekeller True, but this game is plenty historically accurate in other areas, I'm sure they didn't worry about people poking their shield theories lol.

As for where they got steel from I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the Chinese were making "crap" steel (that is to say, really weak steel) just after 1000 B.C. or something like that. And it spread to around the middle east in like 400 or 300 B.C., and after that I'm sure it wouldn't have taken too long for the technology to spread west especially considering Alexander started his trek around 300 B.C. as well.

Steel manufacture was at the time quite fiddling and labor intensive involving folding in layers of iron and carbon from charcoal. IIRC, the celts, particularly the Gauls were quite advanced at this technique since well before the first millenium.

That doesn't mean the Roman Army had steel weapons, it was not uncommon for some time for armies to be outfitted with softer, but much cheaper iron weaponry.

Yeah they probably were iron. Steel wasn't "popular" until like 300 A.D.? Or around there. But again, I wasn't particularly concerned with being entirely historically accurate lol. I'm SURE the battle this screenie depicts never happened lol

Spain WAS however conquered by Rome, although I think it was primarily to deny it to the Carthaginians who had launched attacks at Rome through it. Anyway the Spanish were one if the first Celtic peoples to be Romanized.

Not before it was an empire, I believe. I could be wrong but I don't think the SPQR ever made it that far. And even after it was romanized, the Visigoths gave them a really long run for their money all over the place. I think they took over Gaul for awhile but were eventually pushed into Spain and they stayed there for awhile beating down the Romans.

Steel was invented closer to 1000 AD, not BC. During the battle in question, the Romans would have been armed with iron and the Iberians with bronze.

It was invented far before 1000 AD, it just wasn't made popular until around that time.

The gauls put up a much better fight than the spanish. Shame I felt the need to conquer them first.

@ComradeRavenhawk I don't really find much of a difference between any of the "barbarian" factions (Spain, Gaul, Germanic, Scythia, Dacia) with the only exception being Briton because of those damn chariots.

Game doesn't get REAL interesting until you're fighting the "empire" factions that know what they're doing, like Macedon, Egypt, Pontus, and eventually even your Roman brethren. =)

Well, the issue became that, shortly before I finished off the gauls, and while I was beginning the war with spain, The briton's decided to get in on the action.
So, I had a three front war going on with nary the supplies to support it as the gaul territory is far from the richest land to capture right off the bat.

@ComradeRavenhawk The Heavy Chariots from the Britons are actually easier to deal with than the light ones, I feel. Roman cavalry and generals tend to be able to fend them off well enough, but those damn light ones have archers and just like to ride around behind the lines and pepper arrows on your cavalry. Their infantry are a joke once the chariots are gone, even their generals.

This screen shot is actually from my old game, which I have since finished. The game I'm on now I decided to play as the Brutii, and I'm finding them much more enjoyable than the Julii. It was far more challenging, but also far more fun, to start off invading Greece, moving through Macedon and Thrace/Dacia, and then sailing down to conquer Egypt. I sailed down to Egypt because by the time I had Dacia and Thrace, Pontus had eliminated both the Armenians and the Seleucid Empire (which I was honestly surprised to see them do), and since I have several ports lining that side of Greece, and Egypt too, I am making a killing off them on trade. I'm going to let them be for now unless they try to make the first move. For now, I am beginning my sweep west and will march on Rome and the Julii, and capture the Scipii's portion of Italy and Sicily, isolating them in Africa.