This one was between the Roman Praetorian, the famed imperial bodyguards and emperor makers of Rome, vs. the Roman centurion, the front-line officer who commanded his troops with iron discipline.
Arsenal :
Super Centurion:
Short Range: Spatha
Mid Range: Hasta
Long Range: Cretean Bow and Pila
Special Weapons: Plumbatae and Pugio
Armor/Shield: Lorica Segmentata, Helmet, Greaves, Manaca on Sword Arm and Scutum Shield
fighting style: greek wresling, combat training vs a variaity of oppenents
tactics Tactics: Throw Pilum then charge, "cramping" , blocking and countering
Like all Roman soldiers, they would have thrown their armor destroying Pilums in then charged, to take full advantage of the confusion/panick caused by disabled sheilds and unremovable Pila. Roman solider were masters of knowing when to block and when is the best time to counterattack.
"cramping" : move in as qucikly as possible if his opponent has great mid range, getting too close for them to be used effectively and thereby negating them.
X-factor a front line battle hardened soilder, a centurian had the most dangerious job in the legion but even backed down and he refuses to do so now.
Super Praetorian Gaurdsman
Short Range: Gladius and Scutum combo, pugio dagger
Mid Range : Spatha and Scutum , option to use pila as handheld
Long Range: two throwing pila, arcus, sling
Special: five Plumbata carried inside sheild, caltrops , Scutum sheild bash
Armor: Imperial gallic helmet, Lorica Segmentata with a small layer of padding underneath, manica(used in thrace over their left arms) , ocrea (bronze greaves), baeltus, sporran, caligae boots, scutum , focale
Martial Art: Pankration, some greek boxing+wrestling
X-Factor: Rome's emperor makers and Gaurdians, these guys would havebeen trained more intensively then any other Roman unit. As the regiment that acoompanied the emperor into battle, they would have needed to be the best of the best. They got paid more then any other military Roman reigiment, and would have been dedicated to ther job(but not always the object of their job). Praetorians were proffesional soldiesr and policemen as well as bodyguards, and they would have possessed the trademark Roman discipline,meaning that they would not be frightened as easily as other, lesser trained troops. Contary to popular belief, Roman soldiers were trained to function competently asboth a individual warrior and a formation fighter
Tactics: Throw Pilum then charge, "cramping" , blocking and countering
Like all Roman soldiers, they would have thrown their armor destroying Pilums in then charged, to take full advantage of the confusion/panick caused by disabled sheilds and unremovable Pila. Roman solider were masters of knowing when to block and when is the best time to counterattack.
"cramping" : move in as qucikly as possible if his opponent has great mid range, getting too close for them to be used effectively and thereby negating them.
Edges (written by someone else):
41 A.D.
Intro: The mad emperor Caligula had finally been assassinated and there was talk of bringing back an old form of government, the Republic. To eliminate all possible claimants to the imperial throne (the ordinary people of Rome did not want the senate put in charge again) assassins were sent to the Royal palace and had already killed the wife and daughter of the deceased emperor. They had taken significant causalities from the guards though, and only Marcus of the assassins still lived, fully dressed in his battle gear. Marcus was an old centurion from Capua, and a renowned veteran from years of fighting the barbarians in Germania. He also harbored a fierce hatred of the imperial throne, With the wife and child of the emperor wiped out there was only one possible claimant to the imperial line left; Caligula’s Uncle Claudius. Marcus decided to scout the courtyard, in case the old man was hiding in some bushes.
While the Praetorian Guard had certainly had a hand in Caligula’s death, they did not want the Imperial office to be destroyed, and they especially didn’t want it replaced by a bunch of snotty old fools on the Senate. What would happen to their grossly inflated income if there was no emperor to protect? For this reason alone Gratus was assigned to try and find the last known relative of the late emperor (basically the only one he hadn’t ordered killed), his uncle. He had split off from the rest of the Praetorians early on to scour the Imperial quarters for the old man, but had found no sign of him. Disappointed he left to meet with the rest of his cohorts at the assigned meeting place; the courtyard.
Marcus was busy poking his sword through a bush when he heard the telltale sound of a sling being wound up. With reaction speed born out of many years of serving on the dangerous Rhine, he immediately turned and crouched behind his shield. A loud bang was heard and the centurion felt the impact of the rock on the Scutum. Raising his head from out behind the shield, he saw a guardsman on the other side of the huge courtyard casting aside his sling and pulling out a bow. Pulling out his own Cretan bow, which he had picked up from one of the dead members of the assassin squad along with the hasta, the two Romans each fired an arrow at each other. The more experienced Marcus managed to get his shield up just in time, however the force of impact caused by the strength of the Arcus shook him. Looking down he found to his dismay that the point had actually gone through his shield, something he knew for a fact no arrow fired from the Cretan bow could do. Realizing that he would have get a neck shot to kill with this thing , he threw it aside and started advancing with his pila out.
Meanwhile Gratus had not managed to get his shield up in time and the arrow slammed into his chest. The praetorian was lucky that his opponent’s bow did not have enough power to punch through steel, although it still winded him. Gratus knew that the centurion was still advancing, with his shield wisely covering his body , so the praetorian shot at the one place visible; the legs. His arrow pierced through the bronze greaves and hit his foe just above the knees. The centurion gave a grunt of pain but did not stop; after all he had received far worse in Germania. The Guardsman dropped his bow and pulled out his own Pila. When the two warriors were within thirty feet of each other both let their pila fly.
Now neither warrior was stupid; both knew what would happen if you blocked one of these fat javelins. So both of them leapt out of the way as soon as they could, but the veteran Marcus was already pulling out his second pila as he was doing so. As soon as he made sure the incoming projectile would miss him he chucked his second pila at Gratus. The praetorian only just succeeded in dodging it but fell to the floor in the process of doing so. Marcus took this opportunity to charge, equipping his hasta to ensure that he could stab at his fellow Roman as soon as possible.
Gratus only barely managed to pick himself up in time, pulling out his second pila as he did so. He held his javelin turned spear aloft above his shield , as Marcus entered within stabbing range. In a scene reminiscent of the old days of Greek hoplites, both warriors stabbed each other’s shield almost at the same time. Neither spear did more than slightly penetrate the targeted shield, however that was just what Gratus wanted to accomplish. Releasing his grip on the pila, he was satisfied to see that it stayed entrenched in Marcus’s scutum. The would-be assassin of Claudius was livid.
Marcus pulled out the spear from the spear and thrust it towards the Guardsman’s eyes. Gratus had been preparing for the next spear thrust and moved him head out of the way just in time; instead of raising the shield. It was then made evident that there was some tactical incentive in not blocking the blow as Gratus sliced off the tip of the blade with his newly drawn spatha. With his enemy now weaponless Gratus seized the initiative and smashed his shield forward. Marcus quickly pulled out his own Spatha and blocked the Praetorian’s overhead stab. The two Romans trade blows for a couple more seconds , neither able to do more than slash at each other shields before the frustrated Gratus throws down his spatha and equips his gladius.
A quick glance to the belt of the centurion told Gratus that his opponent didn’t have a gladius, which scandalized him. “What kind of self-respecting Roman would eschew the gladius completely for such a barbarian weapon” the Praetorian thought, “Well now he’ll pay for that mistake”. Gratus then did something risky; he thrust out his right hand and pulled the enemy scutum downwards by grabbing the still entrenched Pilum. Once to the floor he stepped on it, causing the centurion to get knocked off his balance in the process of holding onto the thing. This was all the Praetorian needed to slash at the Centurion’s sword hand, causing him to drop the sword in pain, before following that up by sliding his gladius between the scales of the segmentata, stabbing him in the gut.
The tough old centurion would not die however, and Marcus angrily smashed his shield into the Guardsmen’s face, which resulted in the Praetorian losing his grip on the weapon. Taking out all of his plumbata and reluctantly dropping his shield (his sword hand was too badly mangled to be relied on to win this fight alone) he then proceeded to let loose a constant stream of darts while advancing on his downed and stunned enemy. Gratus managed to block all the darts with his shield but was not given enough time to pull out his own plumbata or even to touch the pugio before Marcus was on top of him. He grabbed the scutum, and a fierce tug of war ensued; which was only ended by Marcus kicking Gratus in the balls and wrenching it out of his grasp. The triumphant centurion maneuvered for a death blow with his own Pugio only for a blow to the chest to interrupt that action; Gratus had managed to extract two darts before having his shield torn out from his grasp. While the projectile did not kill the centurion despite puncturing his armor it did stun his long enough for his would-be prey to escape, running off towards his discarded bow.
Panicking at the thought of this, with a Herculaneum amount of strength Marcus managed to chuck the scutum that he had so recently jacked at the legs of Gratus, hitting the back of the right one and causing him to limp. Marcus once again charged forward, this time with his pugio. Realizing he wouldn’t be able to get to his Arcus in time, the Praetorian hatched one last grandiose plan, taking out the pouch that was on his waist as he waited for the appropriate time.
When Marcus had gotten within five feet of him Gratus put his plan into action. He threw the pouch behind Marcus’s feet, spreading its contents everywhere. This confused the assassin, and he took a brief glance backwards; just what Gratus wanted him to do. Remembering his Greek wrestling training he smashed into him and pushed him back, right into the caltrops! The thin blades pierced deep into both of his feet, crippling him. For the first time throughout the entire fight Marcus howled in pain but his opponent was not through. Remembering his Pankration sessions now Gratus reached behind the unsteady Centurion’s legs and threw him onto the ground, causing him to land on even more caltrops-which buried themselves deep into his back, legs and neck.
Now taking out his last remaining dart, the Praetorian threw it into his downed foe’s chest before bending down and slitting his throat with his own pugio. The exhausted Praetorian then stopped to take a breather for a few minutes before heading off to find Claudius, both to keep him safe and to demand a pay raise.
Winner Roman Praetorian: (conclusion is based off Shawn’s edges)
Both warriors were near equals at every range but the key word there is near. In every one of those categories the weapons of the Praetorian were just a little bit better; enough to ultimately counteract the superior training of the centurion, but it was still close. Every weapon that the two warriors shared had a distinct centurion edge due to training.
Praetorian:
Gladius: 232
Pugio: 18
Spatha: 59
Pila(both handheld and throwing variants): 64
Arcus: 87
Plumbata: 51
Sling: 1
Scutum shield beat down: 7
Caltrops: 14
Pankration: 5
=538
Centurion:
Spatha: 168
Hasta: 77
Cretan bow: 44
Pila: 76
Plumbata: 60
Pugio: 24
Scutum shield bash : 13
=462
Weapon Analysis:
Praetorian :
The fact that the gladius is a short blade made it ideal for the close combat fighting that Romans specialize in. The ability to be slid in between the plate segments of the centurion’s armor netted it 232 kills .
The Pugio got only 18 kills, reflecting its emergency weapon only function.
The Spatha was usually dropped in favor of the gladius, but it still managed to get 59 kills. Mostly from the hacking of unprotected limbs/ neck.
Pila served its purpose in disabling shields, although since both of these guys are Romans and knew the capabilities of this weapon it didn’t do as good as it could. Still it managed to impale the centurion 64 times. Also great assistor
The arcus is a great, powerful bow that could pierce the armor of the centurion-when he didn’t have his shield equipped. A lot of the 87 kills with this weapon can be attributed to the Praetorian shooting the Centurion once the pilum had disabled his shield.
Most of the 51 Plumbata kills naturally came as a result of the centurion first being disabled with the pilum, then being filled with lead (darts) .
While normally I rate slings better, in this case the pure amount of armor that the centurion had limited it to a single headshot. Still had a couple of assistors though.
While naturally this wasn’t done very often, at least 7 times the Praetorian was able to successfully bash his opponent’s brains in with the scutum.
Caltrops had almost as many assistors as the Pilum, being small and hard to see and easily able to take out your opponents feet. It got its 14 kills from when the Guardsman successfully disabled the centurion before running away, leaving him to bleed to death. Inglorious yes but why waste your time and safety finishing off a downed foe who is going to die anyway.
The brutal Greek sport of Pankration destroyed the centurion 5 times . Even more of a last resort weapon then the pugio.
Armor shield was a huge factor, as it was able to stop many potential deaths, particularly those of the hasta and spatha (slashing doesn’t usually work well against armor).
Martial Arts(other than Pankration) helped in getting some close combat kills.
Tactics was the same for both, that being said the gladius is better suited for Roman tactics then the Spatha.
X-factor hurt him a bit, as in Shawn’s words he was “either a exceptional legionnaire or a pansy rich boy”.
Centurion:
The main weapon of the Centurion, the Spatha, got 168 kills, mostly from attacks to the Praetorian’s neck. The pure amount of armor that his enemy had cost this weapon severely in kills, but the skill of the centurion helped make up for it.
Hasta got 77 fatal stabs in. Quoting Shawn again(cuz I am lazy ) “general rule of thumb for the Romans when fighting spearman smack the spear to destroy the head and push it out of the way and move forward.”
Cretan bow: I had serious doubts of whether this bow could bunch through segmentata, much less shield. The 44 kills you see are mostly neck/facial shots.
The Roman centurion was a little more skilled with the Pilum then the Praetorian was, and he got 76 kills with it, along with a helluva lot of assists.
Plumbata : like the Praetorian Plumbata, this was helped a lot by the Pilum . 60 kills with the darts.
Pugio: the centurion was a little more skilled at dagger range then his opponent, as he has had more active experience in this range. 24 Julius Caesar like stabs.
Scutum Sheild bash: Again greater skill of the centurion contributed towards him getting a few more kills with this weapon. 13 brutal execution, Gears of war style!
Martial Arts helped a lot in close range, just like the it did the Guardsmen.
Armor: helped prevent a lot of slashing kills, to bad Romans didn’t wear iron boots….
Tactics: same, although Spatha is less suited here.
X-factors: The pure amount of experience the centurion has is what made this fight close.
*note you will be seeing the winner of this again...
This was a short fight but still very fun. The fight scene was great the the plotline was inspired :D I just read a lot about Caligula and I could see this happening.
ReplyDeleteStill, I think i prefer your full lengh matches