Beta AAR turn 3 Now Up at CMHQ!!!! oh and Gladiator ROCKED!!!!

[Guest KwazyDog]

And for those interested that Pz IV took probably something like twice the hours of a normal vehicle texture. Id say around 20hrs went into that one, hehe. Just becuase rounds done bounce off it as well as a Panther dosnt mean it shouldnt have a pretty texture

Hehe, actually Ive found myself looking after them a hell of a lot more since their new paint job

[Speedy]

Gladiator was a good movie, however I have a few nitpicks with the initial battle. Firstly it was my understanding that the pilum was a missile weapon, used to render the enemies' shields useless, why do they carry it into the melee with the Germans. Secondly the legionaires primary weapon the gladius was a short thrusting sword used with an underhand thrust, not the Errol Flynn sword fight shown. Thirdly, might be wrong on this have to watch the movie again to check, I thought I saw stirrups on the cavalry in the initial battle.

The one other point I want to bring up is what happened to the 12 years of Commodus' reign, according to the movie he seems to have become emperor and died within about a year.

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IN VINO VERITAS

[jdmorse]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Speedy:

Gladiator was a good movie, however I have a few nitpicks with the initial battle.... I thought I saw stirrups on the cavalry in the initial battle.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>Yeah I think you are right. I caught that when Maximus talked about how his kid had problems standing in the saddle.....wasn't it the mongols who originated the stirrups? Before seeing the movie access http://www.salve.edu/~romanemp/commod.htm for a quick summary of Commodus' reign and "actual history" that the film took liberities.Even with the inconsisitencies noted above the film does rock. It transports you THERE and shows that human nature hasn't changed much in 2000 years.

$6.50 a ticket here in the NW.

[This message has been edited by jdmorse (edited 05-08-2000).]

[jdmorse]

infamous double post.....oops sorry

[This message has been edited by jdmorse (edited 05-08-2000).]

[Fionn]

Hehe. I haven't seen it yet but that Gladius slip-up is interesting.

They can actually show you corpses of guys who fought against the Romans (Thracians etc) and show you that virtually all died due to six-inch gut stabs from Gladii.

As for the pilum.. You're right of course. Do they show head deformation? As you probably know the Pilum's head was made of soft metal so it would deform when it hit a shield and this couldn't be thrown back effectively at the Roman soldiers.

Also, there seem to be many other errors in the movie from what I've seen in trailers. As you pointed out the presence of stirrups is a big no no but probably unavoidable for legal and insurance reasons.

Also there's a common misconception about the thumbs up, thumbs down thing but I'll save that for a trivia quiz later .

As for the initial battle... I haven't seen the movie BUT I will note that very often you don't get to fight battles according to the textbook .

[jdmorse]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Fionn:

Also there's a common misconception about the thumbs up, thumbs down thing but I'll save that for a trivia quiz later<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> As I remember it, didn't a closed fist mean life and a thumb extended in any direction meant so long sucker? I know the film perpetuated the thumbs up-thumbs down myth.

[Guest hunt52]

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

As for the pilum.. You're right of course. Do they show head deformation? As you probably know the Pilum's head was made of soft metal so it would deform when it hit a shield and this couldn't be thrown back effectively at the Roman soldiers.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

From what I have read this was a side benefit. The primary advantage to the pilum was that it would pierce the shield and bend. This would make the shield 1 pilum-weight heavier. (A not inconsiderable weight.) Most people would drop their shield and therefore have no shield. This made them easy targets for the foot soldiers with their gladii. I've also seen pili that were hinged at the base of the point specifically to bend and be reuasble.

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>

Also there's a common misconception about the thumbs up, thumbs down thing but I'll save that for a trivia quiz later .

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thumbs down = sheathe your sword, the dude lives.

Thumbs up = don't sheathe your sword, the dude is toast.

- Bill

[Fionn]

Bill,

Yes, absolutely correct.. Although I'm not sure it was an actual hinge. I believe it may just have been a planned weakness in production.. Actual hinges on a spear would just freak me out if I had to throw it.

Anyways, you're right about the thumbs thing.

Thumbs down = sheathe.

Thumb up symbolised the upwards stab into the stomach of an enemy which every legionnaire was trained to make with the Gladius.

In other words thumbs up = "gut him".

[Mark IV]

Well, the gladius started out about 500mm long, and got shorter from there... I don't know which "Errol Flynn" sword was the problem, but the emphasis in gladiatorial combat was on the bizarre and unusual. The soldiers' swords seemed about right.

And the pilum served both purposes, as a stabbing weapon and as a throwing weapon. The Roman Army was around for a long time, and both the gladius and the pilum evolved- by Marcus Aurelius' time, the gladius had grown shorter, and the pilum was mostly thrown.

"Gladiator" is obviously not a "true story" even by Hollywood's definition of the term. It was still very catchy (I didn't catch the stirrups at all).