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Assault Hexareme - Italian Swordsmen Lucania (Samnite Wars)Lucania (Samnite Wars) Melee Ship

Assault Hexareme - Italian Swordsmen

These magnificent ships are both intimidating and extremely dangerous.

Never underestimate an Italian in battle: he will smile even as he guts you.

As centuries passed, naval tactics and needs changed across the Mediterranean. There was a move towards larger ships, partly as an expression of national or dynastic power: the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt were particularly fond of large ships to show their wealth and influence in a physical way. These 'polyremes', a term meaning many oared, were not suitable for ramming work in battle. In practice many of them had no more oars than smaller ships; what they had were more rowers per oar than smaller ships. A Roman hexareme or Greek hexeres would have a couple of banks of oars with three men per oar, and appear to be an over-sized version of a smaller ship. Even so, thanks to being tremendously heavy and strongly constructed, they were slow moving, and hardly capable of the quick turns needed to take advantage of enemy mistakes. Instead the large ships made use of their wide decks and plentiful carrying capacities and became fighting platforms for infantry and artillery. Boarding or long-range bombardment were the methods to be used to defeat the enemy; naval warfare had come full circle in terms of fighting methods, even if ships had grown significantly.

(Italian Swordsmen)
Before Rome controlled the whole of Italy it shared the peninsula with others, such as the Etruscans and Samnites. These various petty kingdoms, cities and tribes often fought each other, but also united against common external threats. It was as the Etruscans waned and Greek influence fell away that the Romans began steadily accumulating land and power. After three wars against the Samnites, Rome finally became the dominant power in Italy, and extracted pledges of loyalty and military aid from the 'Socii Latini', its Latin allies. There were further rebellions against Rome’s dominance, the most significant being the Allied War of 90-88BC, when many of the Socii turned on Rome. Clearly, this gave the Romans pause, as the peace settlement after was surprisingly generous: it gave the Socii the right of full Roman citizenship, giving them a stake in Rome's continued survival and effectively uniting the whole of Italy under their rule.

Assault Hexareme - Italian Swordsmen

Unit Name

Assault Hexareme - Italian Swordsmen

Main Unit Key

Ita_Sword_Six

Land Unit Key

Ita_Sword

Naval Unit Key

roman_six

Soldiers

160

Category

Heavy Ship

Class

Melee Ship

Custom Battle Cost

980

Recruitment Cost

980

Upkeep Cost

196

Missile Damage

32

├ Missile Weapon

rome_javelin_precursor

├ Projectile

javelin_prec

├ Missile Damage

20

├ Missile Ap Damage

12

└ Base Reload Time

15

Accuracy

5

Range

40

Reload

0

Shots Per Minute

4

Ammunition

2

Ship Health

1206

└ Ship

roman_six

Ship Speed

5

Melee Attack

34

Weapon Damage

35

├ Melee Weapon

rome_gladius

├ Melee Damage Base

30

├ Melee Damage Ap

5

├ Armour Piercing

No

├ Bonus vs. Large

0

├ Bonus vs Elephants

0

└ Bonus vs Infantry

0

Charge Bonus

10

Melee Defence

45

├ Base Defence

20

├ Shield

thureos

└ Shield Defence

25

Armour

60

├ Armour

chest

├ Armour Defence

25

└ Shield Armour

35

Health

50

├ Man Entity

rome_infantry_heavy

├ Man Health

40

└ Bonus Hit Points

10

Base Morale

45

Abilities

Assault Hexareme
  • Row Hard 30
    Increases speed for 30 strokes.
    Ship speed

Attributes

  • Hide (forest)
    This unit can hide in forests until enemy units get too close.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Assault Hexareme
  • Very good hull strength
  • Heavy crew
  • Slow speed
  • Strong ramming
  • Very good boarding
Italian Swordsmen
  • Good attack
  • Average defence
  • Average damage but low armour penetration
  • Normal morale
Requires Buildings
Assault Hexareme - Italian Swordsmen Lv. 0 Drydock
Drydock
(rome_port_military_3)
Level 2
Portus Classis
Portus Classis
(rome_port_military_4)
Level 3
Garrison Buildings
Assault Hexareme - Italian Swordsmen x 2 Drydock
Drydock
(rome_port_military_3)
Level 2
Portus Classis
Portus Classis
(rome_port_military_4)
Level 3