Re: Game customization

[Stan Shebs <shebs at cygnus dot com>]

   Date: Wed, 6 Oct 1999 22:57:09 +0100
   From: Hans Ronne <hronne@2.sbbs.se>

   >If you really wanted to do Late Roman era barbarians (which would be
   >interesting, wish I had the time to try my hand at it :-( ), I think
   >you would want to have a number of barbarian sides, each with multiple
   >units.  Although the Romans were pretty dismissive, the "barbarians"
   >weren't that far behind technologically or organizationally; they just
   >didn't use a system of writing to extol their own virtues. :-)

   I would agree that technologically, the Romans were not that far ahead, but
   they were certainly better organized. Just consider the following: almost
   every barbarian leader who successfully fought the Romans, from Arminius
   to Alarik, started his career as a Roman officer. Hardly a coincidence. You
   might cite Vercingetorix and Jugurtha as exceptions, but they were both
   defeated by the Romans in the end.

The fact that there even *were* barbarians serving as Roman officers
is a big hint that they weren't that far apart culturally.  After all,
a Mt Hagen Highlander (New Guinea), though scary in person, probably
wouldn't do very well if dropped onto the command bridge of a CVN... :-)

								Stan