Re: [SGII] Furry troopers

G'day Donald,

>Ahhh, today, I watched a documentary about the ancient Roman Empire. 
They
were
>discussing the attitudes of the Roman Army.  Besides the training,
excellent
>equipment (for the period), they had a standing order...no retreats.
>This stems from the fact that two well trained warriors with shields
had a
real
>problem seriously hurting each other.	Only the man who turned and ran,
could be
>easily hurt.  So hense the standing order.

I'd heard this before, but wouldn't actually mind knowing how often the
rule was broken -  did they have organised withdrawals? Or is their
decided
lack of a "lets get out of here tactic" part of the reason they're not
still here? <And before I get a lecture on the finer points of the fall
of
the Roman Empire I do know there was a HELL of a lot of other factors
involved, thanks.>

>Rome defeated many opposing armies this way.  And at it's hight (about
>117-120AD), ruled an empire about 2 million square miles for about six
and a
>half centuries. (Thats about 54% of the land area of present day United
>States...with an army of about 850,000 men.  Awesome!)

Mmm guess I'm being picky as we'd probably only see the military types
on
the board anyway, but I'd say that that was a characteristic of the
military of that race not of the race itself. Bet not to many roman
merchants had a "no retreat rule" ;)

>Perhaps a race with the "no retreats" attitude could do quite well, if
properly
>organized and supplied.

That'd be the key here.

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Elizabeth Fulton
c/o CSIRO Division of Marine Research
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email: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au