Does this include the Eastern Roman Empire?

[GameHog9]

Stupid question I know but I want to make sure

Ive tried a few Rome mods and im looking for one that portrays the late roman legion (armed with circular shields, longswords and chainmail) and includes the Eastern Empire as a playable faction.

Looks like IB fulfills the first but does it the second . . .

[Magister Militum Flavius Aetius]

yes, it does. All of the IB mods do.

[Valentinian Victor]

Stupid question I know but I want to make sure

Ive tried a few Rome mods and im looking for one that portrays the late roman legion (armed with circular shields, longswords and chainmail) and includes the Eastern Empire as a playable faction.

Looks like IB fulfills the first but does it the second . . .

Not sure what you mean by 'the late roman legion (armed with circular shields, longswords and chainmail) and includes the Eastern Empire as a playable faction.'. Legiones in both the Western and Eastern halves of the the Empire appear to have been armed and armoured in an identical fashion. The vast majority were armed with the scutum type shield, i.e. oval in shape. There is evidence for guard units to have circular shields, as evidenced on monumental works such as then now lost Column of Arcadius and the mostly destroyed Column of Theodosius, as well as in some Late Roman artwork. Swords were the 'Spatha', which was the precursur to the longsword. They were also armed with a 6 foot long spear (Spiculum), a shorter 3.5 foot long javelin (veruta), possibly five hand thrown darts (martiobarbuli or plumbata) and a small sword/dagger (semi-spatha). As to armour, well the jury is out on that one as there is no real consensus on what body armour the troops wore (mail hauberk, scale hauberk, metal cuirasse, leather cuirasse, thoracomachus, padded armour, unarmoured, take your pick!).

Other than that the mod allows you to play both halves of the Empire (and a jolly good mod it is too!)