Tall, and I mean TALL barbarians.

[kelvintyk]

I have been playing two separate campaigns as Rome and Macedon. I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed this but in both instances, during battles against barbarian factions, I realised my men were way shorter. The barbarian units seem to be a considerable one head taller than my Romans or Greeks. Is this intentional? Or some sort of bug? It feels odd when I see my short Romans going up against really tall levy spearmen barbarians.

[Wrathsputin]

I haven't had this problem as of yet.

[weirdoascensor]

Intentional.

[Revan The Great]

Yeah, it's a feature. The Italians of the ancient world (some would say the Italians of today) were rather short people, whereas the Barbarians but especially the Germanic types were consistently remarked as being of greater physical stature. So the average Barbarian warrior was just a lot taller and bigger than his Roman legionary counterpart, and I'm pleased to see the game reflect this.

[HinFoo]

its not the germans that are tall its the med-sea people that are really short.

[PROMETHEUS ts]

Thats the Biased portray and racism showed in this game , others have already lamented this and Jack Lusted seemed to not care about .

This is not only wrong genetically and historically , but its a sign of personal bias and quite offensive to the mediterranean cultures.

historically the differences by archeological finds are non relevant , and the height differences written by some autors are just exageration for poetic and dramatic representation .

Its strange how they took the "tall" feature but not the Bestiality , squalor and monsterlike descriptions .

[Jester]

they arent just a bit taller, and definitely not human-like taller. they look actually like some ogres or mountain trolls compared to the normal, civilized people


but yea, it s just what the ancient sources tell..... they were giants. but the sources also tell they were unwashed, dumb, primitive barbarians. i guess, both is true then....

[arthuros]

"Tall, and I mean TALL barbarians"

[Tazgrent]

Caesar notes in De Bello Gallico that during a siege, the Gauls standing on the fortifications laughed at the idea that the "diminutive" Romans could even push the siege tower that they'd built. As soon as they saw it begin to advance, they surrendered.

[absinthia]

it is quite possible the so-called northern barbarians were a wee bit taller and bulkier in average, but this is ridicilous.
i bet it is simply a scaling bug, like so many other bugs in this release.

one do not need to be excessively tall to appear huge to smaller people, 10 cm goes a long way. i am 1.73 northern germanic and you all look huge from down here.

[a tw player]

I like it, personally Nitpicking to be focusing on stuff like this even if I didn't like it though - Would much rather people complain about the apparent lack of any campaign AI!

[a tw player]

I like it, personally Nitpicking to be focusing on stuff like this even if I didn't like it though - Would much rather people complain about the apparent lack of any campaign AI!

[hellheaven1987]

I would rather say "bigger and muscular" than "taller".

[Kenios]

Look on the bright side, bigger men = bigger targets for your arrows.

[paradamed]

The height difference is huge. It is just ridiculous. It seems like an army of Shaquille O Neals vs Danny De Vitoes.

[jackwei]

The Bigger they are the harder they fall!!

[Halie Satanus]

All have common physical characteristics, blue eyes (truces et caerulei oculi = "sky-coloured, azure, dark blue, dark green), reddish hair ( rutilae comae = "red, golden-red, reddish yellow") and large bodies- Tacitus on the Germanic peoples.

It's not much, but for possibly the most recognized Roman historian to make such a comment there must have been something in it. Besides I've yet to see a historical document that described any 'Mediterranean' peoples as physically large or imposing....

[PROMETHEUS ts]

All have common physical characteristics, blue eyes (truces et caerulei oculi = "sky-coloured, azure, dark blue, dark green), reddish hair ( rutilae comae = "red, golden-red, reddish yellow") and large bodies- Tacitus on the Germanic peoples.

It's not much, but for possibly the most recognized Roman historian to make such a comment there must have been something in it. Besides I've yet to see a historical document that described any 'Mediterranean' peoples as physically large or imposing....

Yes and not .

Tacitus describes normal humans and the archeological evidence proves that he was not that far from truth , but as you shoudl know nazists took that book and made it an emphasis of that creating the myth of the master race and their higher heiths .
The truth is that the height difference between Italics and germanics was very small , noticebeable , but small .

Like at maximum 10 cms .

In this picture



remove the helmet of the romans , you can see how a German youth can swallow the head of a roman and hide it inside his own two times ,
Germans are portrayed as almoust 40 -60 cms taller and larger , basically some half giant the same proportion present betweenthe hobbits and Gandalf in the hobbit movie .
The romans reach without the helmet the shoulder of the germans , Germans can hide completely a whole roman inside .

This is pure fantasy and exagerated stereotype by CA unit lead.

Not on Earth you can find such a mass of supersized men as a whole population .

Also imposing and tall is one thing , supersized and giantic is another .

Also worth consideringthat the minimum height for a roman was of 1.70 to be taken into the legion , so any other weak argumentation about romans beeing 1.65 or shorter is futile .
Considering also that the Legio Italica was composed on only levies in Italy and had a minimum height of 1.80 , when the average germanic warrior was about 1.75 - 1.78
the celt warrior about 1.72- 1.76

you can understand how that representation ingame is overly and grossly exagerated .

Finally many legionaries were includedfrom Gaul provinces and later even from germanic provinces, thus making actually romans ( like in caesar wars( caesar himselv was 1.80 m ) ) actually as tall as their foes , but ... you still see romans describe the brute beyond the civilized world as tall , big , hairy and bad ... guess why?

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

It's truly amazing how people don't seem to understand artistic exaggeration. This game is not a historical simulator. Barbarians are giant so that when you march your legions into Germania, you can go "Holy those guys are huge" as they crash into your lines like a giant, screaming wave of fury and bloodlust.

[Neige]

It all depends on how you look at the game. I understand it's a computer game and is not meant to be 100% accurate and realistic in every respect, but I still don't like this type of exaggeration. It's too jarring and the difference is too ever the top to look at.

I can totally see clueless teenagers and action film fans buying into it though.