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I shall have to check it out.  I rather like the tale of the last Saxon king.

M.

Ruthven said:

Also, it protects the stomach head-on, but if somebody went low and stabbed up they'd be able to get it from underneath easy.

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If he stood there and took it like a corpse, it could be a problem.  With the scutum and the fact that the soldier wants to live, however, this is never going to happen.

M.

Much in agreement.  You can actually alter this yourself, if you wish, with the item editor, which you can get at the repository. 

M>

Stalin wasn't making much progress in his efforts to the west (against Finland and the like), which is another reason.

M.

ufo said:

@Wandering Knight: I see what you mean - I'm not exactly knowledgable on medieval items, so I have no idea about weights and such. I couldn't tell you whether an iron longsword would weigh 2 kilograms or 20.

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About 1.14 kg, actually.

Basically, this thread has it down.  It's a portable wall, similar to a mantlet.

M.

ufo said:

I was under the impression that, historically, pavise crossbowmen would turn their backs to the enemies and reload while sitting on their knees, so that the shield was facing towards the enemy, almost touching the ground. This would also avoid the hassle of constantly dropping and picking up the shield.

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Until you're hit, then you regret it.  Keep in mind a pavise, by nature of it's design, isn't particularly light weight.

M.

Well, I wasn't disagreeing with that fact :p

M>

Might also explain why you say "right" so much.

The glove inside of a plate gauntlet isn't all that thick.  It's primary purpose is to allow articulation, as opposed to force absorption.  Materials thick enough to absorb a dead on blow makes the hand useless.

M.

Availability was the bulk of it.  Ease of weapon manufacture was the other (casting is more time consuming than forging, and is less consistent).  It shows a transition in many societies from a small warrior elite to a larger warrior class.

M.

The gauntlets on the achievement of the Black Prince had knuckle dusters on them in the form of lions.

Swadius is correct in his last statement, though.  Grappling is a *very* important part of the medieval martial arts.  In fact, it is the essential basis of any Warrior's training.

M.

What's it do?  Do you just load a model into it and it tells you how many units it is in length?

M.

Fei, where those pictures I posted what you were looking for?

M.

Farmind has won the thread, I guess.  Wish I had brought the numbers with me :S

M.

Ruthven said:

*Glares at Bible-believers*

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Cut that out.


To answer the original question, I think they would have been able to defeat them if the drive was there.  Rome has always been about adaption; against the Huns I'm sure they would have begun a focus towards equipping cavalry to repulse them.  Against the Germanic tribes, the heavy infantry was sufficient; the break down in organization in the later empire caused Rome to lose out, however.

M.

In Europe, not that I'm aware of.  There's evidence, but the handgonne only really comes into play after the development of corning.

M.

Sensei said:

It's interesting that they used Newton's 3rd law in the medieval times, but didn't actually know what it was 

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What the hell are you talking about?  We have known about the "third law" since the dawn of time.  You push something, something happens.  It's a force of nature.  Newton's rather arrogant method of saying what was known and naming it after himself was only a more recent development.

M.

Ash, you are good to be skeptical, however wrought iron is pretty soft unless you work harden it.  Even low carbon steel is pretty soft.  If you go by your local Lowes, you can find bars of steel used in a variety of things that you can bend fairly easily.  We have a different conception of materials today because our industrial capabilities (machines and tools to regulate a variety of conditions) churn out fairly hard materials as the de facto norm.

As to the steel content of a Roman weapon during the 1st century BCE, I cannot link you directly to anything, but I do recall in discussion mention of their knowledge of tempering, which requires a certain concentration of carbon to work.

Steel is just an iron alloy.  You can make technically correct steel by using things other than carbon (and we do), but the term usually means an iron carbon alloy with less than one percent carbon (though you can get it up to 3%).  Basically the ratio is a range as opposed to a set amount.  If you alloy it with oxygen, you get rust.  This is how it generally occurs in nature.

I would look up the steel making process, which I will not waste your time with here.  Particularly look into bloomeries, which is how our ancestors in the iron age and middle ages refined iron into something useful.

High quality bronze weapons are not on par with the average quality of medieval weapons.  Bronze does not temper and cannot flex well (or at all for the most part).  Bronze weapons would be expensive due to the materials and time required to prepare a casting mold. 

Keep in mind I am not an expert in this matter.  I have spoken to individuals who are experts (and practical experts) in the field, however, and I have done my homework.  Bronze is a great metal, but it loses to iron for a grand range of reasons.  By the time the high middle ages comes into play, bronze is only being used for hilt components for swords, and have not been weapons for a long, long time.

M.

Sounds exactly like I already play :S

M.

Assuming we're going by earth tech and dages, the hand cannon would be in already.  In fact, Rhodoks' could be using them.

Cannon already existed on the European battlefield as well.

M.

Can I play too?

But in all seriousness, it will only really differ from current in-game swords by its hilt design.

M.