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Subject: Ranks of Bronze
buzzard    10/1/2004 2:32:57 PM
I don't know how many of you have read this book. It is a story by David Drake in which a Roman legion, defeated by the Parthians is sold into slavery. OOk, sounds normal enough except the slave masters are aliens. They use the legion as a tool for conquering primitive worlds. The aliens are forced to do this by virtue of a set of policies enforced by the interplanetary alliance (or whatnot) that specifies that advanced weapons cannot be used against those without them. The Romans are given treatments which make them unaging, and the medical technology of the aliens is such that short of major nervous system trauma, anything can be repaired. Thus the legion fights on for a very long time. It's a good story for those that a interested. However, that is not the point of discussion I propose. What I would ask is would it be possible to take a bunch of modern era soldiers and train them to be effective with, say, Roman era tactics an weapons. Or for that matter would be be able to make a more effective muscle power army than a roman legion? For the sake of discussion we'll limit this to infantry. buzzard
 
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Ehran    RE:Ranks of Bronze   10/2/2004 4:11:40 PM
should be possible to do that. modern folks would if anything have a bit of an edge being physically larger and stronger than romans.
 
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eon    RE:Ranks of Bronze   10/7/2004 9:27:25 AM
The more frightening possibility is the inevitable result of L. Sprague de Camp's "Lest Darkness Fall". Imagine Roman legions, with their skill and discipline, with modern weapons. I for one wouldn't want to tangle with a Roman legionary, post-Marian Reform issue, with a Kalashnikov or its equivalent..
 
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wkwillis    RE:Ranks of Bronze   10/29/2004 12:06:24 AM
Stirling just did a book on this, with alien space bats wiping out our technology using their greater technology. He has a bunch of Oregon types reinventing fuedalism, chain mail and all.
 
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Ehran    RE:Ranks of Bronze   10/29/2004 12:22:14 PM
even in the world of "lest darkness fall" they were a long way from ak's. brown bess though they could have done. just think proto british infantry lines vs spearchuckers well light and medium cavalry by then mostly. i'd still be inclined to bet on the horse archers though just over the rate of fire and effective range considerations.
 
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