Spartacus in EB2?

[Frtigern]

I usually don't play the Romans (barbarorum!) but I was wondering if EB2 scripts any type of gladiator/slave uprisings in the game, especially led by the rebel general Spartacus? What interests me more is whether EB2 has or can add units that would have that gladiatorial feel to them; like the different types of gladiators that existed historically. Wikipedia describes 25 types of gladiators. Obviously some of these types are more suited for entertainment value than real combat, but those skills could transfer to combat weapons. You could even separate all those types into different classes of infantry: heavy, medium spearmen, skirmishers/light infantry, etc. There were also cavalry and archer types. While the helmets may not be best suited for real combat, other pieces of armor can be useful in combat like manicae and greaves.

The stereotypical Mirmillo (Myrmillo/Murmillo) gladiator


Was Spartacus' rebellion unique in the ancient world where combat entertainment slaves were able to organize and rise up or were there other instances in the EB2 time-frame where these types of slaves were able to at least organize a resistance, even if it was short-lived? In EB2 I could see provinces which have coliseums or historically had them where if public order got too low/civil unrest too high or slave population too high it would spawn a gladiator rebel army, complete with different modeled gladiator unit types! Of course, the types would be distributed based on how common each type was. Most likely the majority of the army would consist of hastati-like (if that) slave levies, although with nothing to lose, morale would be higher, but training and overall armor would be less. It wouldn't be too interesting if they were just your cheap levies armed only with a small shield and a spear. Even spacing would also be looser comparing a Roman hastati to a Gladiator hastati and probably the same for the heavier classes.

This is R2TW but you can see kind of what I'm talking about but I would like even more diversity. What's interesting is the differences in sizes reflecting the selection of the biggest strongest gladiators and of training them to gain advantage over opponents.


But lets say I want to role-play a Spartacus-like scenario where I have to fight against highly organized armies with a mix-mash of units, which faction would be best both for its own recruitable units and its access to mercenaries that can depict a Gladiator-like army composition? Since the slave trade crossed borders, I want as many different ethnicities represented; Gaul, Iberia, Germany, Illyria, Thrace, Galatia, Numidia, Briton and so on.

"I've Had My Fill Of Games, Let Us Leave This Arena Forever."

[Sar1n]

EBII does not have unit slots free to waste them on gladiators.

[Jervaj]

Yeah, I don't think they will ever do this. Slave revolts will likely use local/regional units that feel appropiate, but they are not going to create and use a slot for a specific unit for uprisings.

[Roma_Victrix]

It's also a completely Roman centered world view. The Romans are fun to play with and I've dominated the map with them in a 1000 turn campaign (ending in the 20s BC), but most people don't play anywhere near that far into the game. You don't get the Marian reforms until about turn 700 or so (in the latter half of the 2nd century BC). That should be the last major unit reform of the game. Scripting an event with tons of new units in the 1st century BC makes little sense. Slave revolts are already kinda represented anyway with periodic rebel stacks appearing throughout the campaign map, with strong rebel armies appearing especially in Liguria, Ptolemais Akko, Celtiberia and Sicily. The latter region makes sense too considering the Servile Wars that preceded the rebellion of Spartacus.

[Frtigern]

What I want to clarify is that I do agree that there shouldn't be dedicated unit slots for gladiators but that rebellions/revolts in Roman territory will consist of unit types that already exist in the EB2 world and that the types of units in those rebel stacks will coincide with your conquests of territories and your decision to enslave them. For example, as Rome you conquer Spain or Carthage, and in order to control unrest you enslave certain cities, which adds to your slave population. Now you have a pool of slaves from that region, some of whom are trained to be gladiators. During a rebellion, those gladiators would have the arms and armor of the places their home and since they are gladiators they wouldn't just be their local levies but your semi-professional unit types from whichever region they are from.

Archaeological study into the first gladiatorial combat would be interesting. I feel there is a misconception about gladiatorial games centered around the era of the Colosseum in Rome (80 AD-404 AD), so people may assume that was the only period in which gladiatorial games took place. The Colosseum simply existed during the peak of such games, whereas Livy placed the first gladiatorial in fight in 264 BC and there could have been similar games in southern Italy before that. Another assumption is that gladiatorial games took places only in round or oval stone amphitheaters, and that the lack of such enduring structures equals the nonexistence of any gladiatorial games, however not all amphitheaters were stone and so gladiatorial games could've taken place much more remote provinces or where constructing stone amphitheaters wasn't practical. Archaeologist Jean-Claude Golvin states the first stone amphitheaters at Campania, Capua, Cumae and Liternum were built towards the end of the second century BC. It is not too much of a stretch to hypothesize that older more crudely built stone or wood amphitheaters had existed before and that slaves, either captured soldiers or slaves trained to fight were pitted against each other for Roman entertainment earlier than thought.

[Grimmy]

Maybe add a voice script so that whenever a rebel unit is clicked on, it says "I am Spartacus!" for the first rebel unit clicked.

And thereafter, "No! I am Spartacus!" for each rebel unit clicked on following the first.