Historical Accuracy?

[General Tony]

So I was just wondering, how historicly accurate is the Roman factions unit rosters?

[Xavier Dragnesi]

To an extent, the units are rather accurate, though many of the more powerful units are overpowered. The Romans had hastati, principes, triarii, legionary cohorts, praetorian cohorts and urban cohorts, but the gladiator things are fake, they never were in the army. The cavalry is all correct up Praetorian cavalry, which is questionable, as well as Cavalry Auxilia.

As for other factions, Egypt was out of its chariot times, and more based on a Greek way of fighting due to Alexander's conquest, so all the chariots were incorrect. The Seleucid Empire is well done, though many of their units were not around at the same time as others. The Greeks ... Well the RTW concept of hoplites in a phalanx is somewhat incorrect. It is more historical that they fought with overarm spears in a solid shield wall type thing. Pontus was rather well done, though I don't think their chariots were realistic either.

The barbarians are, how shall we say it? Interesting. The Britons are pretty accurate, with chariots and woad warriors and the like. The Germans are just overly strange. I don't think they had men that actually went beserk, nor are the spear warbands that historical. Thrace... I'm not sure about them, but I don't think they were influenced by Greeks to the point of phalanxes. Scythians weren't too bad, though I don't think Maidens are real. The Iberians are very bad though.

[Old_Scratch]

though I don't think Maidens are real. The Iberians are very bad though.

Herodotus wrote that they existed, but then again he also had a tendency to be quite inaccurate in some parts of the The Histories.

[Haxiel]

RTW has rough historical guidelines mixed with a bit of arcade gameplay to make it more appealing to people who are not that interested in history. You will not learn history just by playing the game, nor all events, factions, etc. are historically accurate, but there are mods that can pretty much fix all of that, like Rome: Total Realism for example, that are hosted in this forums and you can download freely.

[Scutarii]

Well, since you ask, most factions roster's have gaping holes in them, with the possible exception of the Romans. The gladiators and dogs are completely ahistorical, and the Urban's are as well (they should be an oversized lower quality legionairre unit to reflect their police duties in Roma). Praetorian Cav shouldn't really exist, to my knowledge, and the other higher end Roman cav should be really expensive and should still suck pretty bad. They're completely overpowered compared to other factions troops (Romans didn't beat the world because the legions were super-elites, they won because of good timing in their wars and a bit of luck). Otherwise, its more of a fact that more could be added to the Romans that CA missed, like a correct auxilary system, particularly in Italy and Gaul, and some more units like Antesigni (sp?).

Don't even talk to me about how CA totally trashed the Iberian faction in vanilla. Iberia: Total Disrespect is more like it.

[melis]

The gladiators and dogs are completely ahistorical,


Actually the romans had dogs in their armies, after campaigns in brittania they brought back mastiff dogs that they used both for hunting and in their army. They even armored the dogs and put a spiked thing around their necks.

sorry for bad english

[Lord Thesaurian]

i totally agree with all these statements. RTR is the most acurate game ive ever played (duh), much better than RTW. And actually the Germans did have "berserkers" to an extent. They would often take men and get them drunk, aroused, and really pissed off before a battle, producing what we would call berserkers. There has been archaeological finds of skulls cleaved in half and large areas full of skeletons missing limbs, heads, etc. in Europe, slaughtered by German warriors. So yes, there were berserkers. They may not have been the crazy supermen who plunged into bloodlust spontaneously, mulching all enemies before them like live mowers, but they existed, like i said, to an extent.

[SonOfAlexander]

The pre-marian armies are pretty accurate, but the after-marian legions less so.

[cupoftea]

I think Carthage is pretty well done, Egypt still has the same units it used like 2000 years before, romans are overpowered, greek's arent accurate, macedons are pretty accurate i think.

[Simonsen the counqerer]

Roman cavalry is overpowered in the game
but the infantry is not that overpowered.
remember they had some of the most diciplined infantry at their time.

[Lucarius]

Roman cavalry is overpowered in the game
but the infantry is not that overpowered.
remember they had some of the most diciplined infantry at their time.

Yes i remember but i mean with Arcanii and ,
but upgraded Urban Cohorts can win of a group upgraded Spartans.
__________________________________________________________

ow and a little question here:

how many pilums did the romans carry with them to throw ? (i think 1 maybe 2)
in the game you can throw like 5 times with 1 unit but how was that in the reality. ?

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

just curious.

[Simonsen the counqerer]

The Roman Legoinaires carried 2 pilums each into battle.

[Selifator]

Carthage is very misrepresented. It should have access to huge bodies of mercenaries, not units of it's own. Also the fact that you can recruit regional troops all over the world is a bit silly.

[Juicemisbruk]

if u want historical unit roster, and a 100% better game play EB or RTR...pretty much all the rosters in vanilla is inaccurate...

[Lucarius]

Arcani, Dogs, Gladiators etc.
are not that realistic.
i recommend to play (download) Rome Total Realism / Europa Barbarum.
if you are interestted in the greek history and persian wars i recommend to download The Rise of Persia.
there is also not much balance between the RTW factions,
Rome is really strong and has alot of units to play with.
(i know it's called ROME Total War but still more balance would be great.)

[HERO_331]

I'd say that the Roman unit roster is around 75% accurate. On a different note, did the Carthaginians actually have Sacred Band? I know of the famous Theban Sacred Band, but haven't heard of Carthage having one. Just curious.

[Kiwiphoenix]

Yep, tough elite foot soldiers from the elite of Carthaginian society. Second to none in terms of training and equipment.
Though they were apparently wiped out in 310BC and never reformed... so, yeah, slightly anachronistic, but not too badly, compared to Egypt.

[Genius of the Restoration]

Each soldier carries 2 in game as well. Sometimes the unit can throw more pila than that if some didn't throw theirs when others did earlier. Two were generally used IIRC, so that's accurate.

[Lucarius]

Oke Thanks for the awnser.