However, the single-grip hoplite shields are nothing more than a cost-saving measure. It turns out that they didn’t do this out of ignorance, even though a lot of the artists working on these games are not, of course, experts when it comes to ancient military equipment. Why did the Creative Assembly do this? Did they not realize that Argive shields don’t look like that? I must say I was terribly disappointed when I discovered this, especially when it turned out that this was already the case in the original Rome: Total War! The Greeks in Total War: Arena also fight using single-grip hoplite shields.Īs a reminder, this is what the inside of an Argive shield actually looked like: A lot of the time, the hoplites hold their shields in a manner that seems like they are equipped with the double-grip. The sad thing is that I never really noticed until someone pointed it out to me. Instead, they use a single grip! Here, have a look at this screenshot, which should make it clearer as to what I’m talking about: This allowed the shield to be carried on the left shoulder and arm.īut if you look closely at hoplites in Total War: Rome 2, you’ll notice that their shields don’t have the double-grip construction.
The most characteristic element of the ‘Argive’ shield is its double grip: it has a central porpax through which the warrior put his left arm up to the elbow, and an antilabe near the rim that served as a handgrip. The Hoplites, in its diverse forms, remained in vogue for a period of about 700 years and disappeared only during the reign of Alexander the Great that is during the 4th century BC.One of the things that I discovered only fairly recently is that the shields used by hoplites in Total War: Rome 2 are actually incorrect. Though initially its presence or absence in warfare did not make much of a difference yet in the subsequent wars when more innovations came to be made in these weapons, these weapons proved to be real assets. It is believed that many of these would be mercenary troops which were hired from the regions lying on the outskirts of Greece. There were an increase in the use of light infantry like peltasts (javelin throwers) and archers as well. Peloponnesian Warĭuring the Peloponnesian war, a slight innovation was observed. Another advantage of attacking in such a manner was that it kept the army of soldiers alert during a combat at a particular time rather than to just be limited up to the first few ranks. These frontal attacks were very difficult for the enemy to handle. The phalanx presented a shield wall along with a bunch of spears pointing to the enemy thereby actually performing frontal attacks on them. The hoplites would lock their shields together and then few of the foremost of soldiers would then project their spears out over the first rank of shields.
The Hoplite Phalanx belonging to the Archaic and Classical periods of Greece was a formation in which the hoplites would line up in ranks in close order. Though there are no records which point out that there was any drill practice which was carried out but there are glimpses on vases as well as on statues which indicate faintly towards a drill movement.īut one thing which can be stated with much certainty is that there was no formal training for side arms like Axe or sword since these were considered to side weapons. It would be an impossible task to even think that the hoplites did not undergo any formal training to be a part of the army.