Rome vs Han China

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rommel

rommel

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Obcession said:
I know how they use the pilums, but how would the Chinese army fair against it?
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Well, It's easy to get close enough to use their pilum, advance in tortudoes to protect from the crossbow and reploy in the 3-lines formations after, it's would easily pierce the Chinese Armor, the light pilum, of 750-900g can kill anykind of lightly or unarmored trooper, the 1,5kg heavy pilum can even pierce the heaviest armor. And BTW, for chinese assieging Roman, roman did some great fortification too, don't underestimated them...
 
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TJJH

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I'm sorry to break this to you, but crossbow bolts went straight through any armour that wasn't plate, and could even pierce that when fired accurately enough.

Pilums didn't work against the Huns, and they wouldn't work against the Han either. Especially not against a complete mobile army like the Han were.
 
rommel

rommel

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TJJH said:
I'm sorry to break this to you, but crossbow bolts went straight through any armour that wasn't plate, and could even pierce that when fired accurately enough.

Pilums didn't work against the Huns, and they wouldn't work against the Han either. Especially not against a complete mobile army like the Han were.
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well, the roman curved shield offer much more protection that you can even think about it in this time and their armor was good to, the roman "armora locata" was better than the heavy chainmails used century later by knight, pilum don't work against anykind of cavalry, don't forget that, and the Huns were only cavalry, not the Han army...
 
Liberator

Liberator

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Well, the Roman dosen't just have ballistas, their also have a catapult (the latin name is : onager, onagri) That was good in siege and could break thick wall, the Romans used to launched 20-35 pounds rock with their onagers.
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Catapults, yes yes. I know Roman uses it.

Roman soldiers are disciplane. And they've got nice shield. I read on books saying that China got some good formations too with good shields.
 
Liberator

Liberator

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I'm sorry to break this to you, but crossbow bolts went straight through any armour that wasn't plate, and could even pierce that when fired accurately enough.

Pilums didn't work against the Huns, and they wouldn't work against the Han either. Especially not against a complete mobile army like the Han were..
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I would say crossbow bolts can pierce plates, but not thick ones.

I agree with you on the pilum thingy. Chinese soldiers does have formations but when attacking, soldiers will just go anywhere on the battlefield hacking and slashing, I personally do not think Pilum will be any use.
 
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pathfinder

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rommel said:
well, the roman curved shield offer much more protection that you can even think about it in this time and their armor was good to, the roman "armora locata" was better than the heavy chainmails used century later by knight, pilum don't work against anykind of cavalry, don't forget that, and the Huns were only cavalry, not the Han army...
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Don't forget it was the Han cavalry who drove the Huns from their capital.
 
FriedRiceNSpice

FriedRiceNSpice

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pathfinder said:
Don't forget it was the Han cavalry who drove the Huns from their capital.
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Han cavlarymen were drawn from Chinese living on the frontiers. They had to fight the Huns constantly, and also lived a similiar nomadic lifestyle revolving around the horse. Chinese cavalry were of high quality, not much different from the Hunnish cavlary. They fought with composite bows, spears, and swords/shields.
 
rommel

rommel

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FriedRiceNSpice said:
Han cavlarymen were drawn from Chinese living on the frontiers. They had to fight the Huns constantly, and also lived a similiar nomadic lifestyle revolving around the horse. Chinese cavalry were of high quality, not much different from the Hunnish cavlary. They fought with composite bows, spears, and swords/shields.
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i understand this point but the Han army was not only cavalry...
 
rommel

rommel

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FriedRiceNSpice said:
But they had enough to destroy the Roman legions!
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At their apogy, the Roman Empire got a total of 24 legions, 16 cohorts in Rome (10 Praetorian and 6 Urban) and 122 cohort of legionnary garrison in cities. That mean aproximatly 208,920 men ready to fight. If all the units are destroyed, the conscription of citizen is an option...
 
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