Javalyn was also very common as a initial weapon.

Again, another good post.

Looking forward to the brawl

I believe that was in Vegetius “Epitome of Military science”

Good book on the Roman strategy if you’ve not read it

Excellent and accurate description!

Curiosity channel has great kid history/science programs, well worth the subscription.

They are so well done my children in gradeschool has even sat with me through entire episodes of evolution :P

Thanks, I think I have it in my library, one of those books that keeps getting buried and not read lol Not sure though my library has been shoved into boxes as my kids books replace them lol.

Collapse; how societies choose to fail or succeed" was good as well : )

Makes sense, with drought comes all the other ramifications. I suspect things like this influenced war more often than we know

Peasants were used as shock troops as were slaves by pretty much every civilization, they were used to wear down the other side, life had little meaning for most of history.

It still does not in much of the world.

Overall you cannot view history from our lens, it's not realistic.

You cannot say "Well labor was cheap" skill was not so common and they simply did not have the time and the resources to do what you and many historians claim.
Moreover it belies the fact that propaganda and exaggeration served to better the Empire. "Look, they have this many fully armored men" no probably a fraction at best. Writings were also used to pump up their nobility, think of basically most of history filled with Ego's larger than life.

The Tapestry are as much propaganda as it is history, chainmail is time consuming to make, up to a YEAR for a single suit. Hides, padded armor, wooden and even layered clothing were the most common.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw2UDtU2SgM

I had to respond to your nonsense about Knights being impossible to kill as well, Maces/Morning stars changed that game immensely while ropes wold be used as well. Yes you have decent mobility however it's still limited. Yes I've fought in it.

Estimates are incredibly high even at 40k, no where near that would have been fully armored, mass production simply did not exist.
The Teutonic were the better armored and probably about 10-15k .

People forget that life was generally meaningless to the common man and cannon fodder was common.

That coupled with a inhospitable climate making winter warfare almost impossible and the mountain passes impassible.