the Romans...against who??

[Argand]

Hitites, or other africaans (Parthian warrior, Persian ...)

[Justindo]

For you Roman history experts, what historic Roman enemy civilization or tribe could the Palace Guard 4595, Indian Bowman 4527, Arab Warrior 4521, Royal Family 3835, and 3 Wise Kings in the Christmas sets represent?  They appear to be Arabian in origin, but could they also work as another culture?  Could they be Assyrians or Parthians or are the klickies too lightly armored?  Thanks in advance.

[GaiusIulius]

well Justindo, as u already said all kinds of warriors from the middle east/africa, like Selucidan (ancestors from alexander the Great), Aegyptians of course and also for Carthage Berbian soldiers fought.  Argand the chariot looks very well. I hope we will see more roman enemies in the future.

[Leblanc d. II.]

I hope to.

[Pyrrhus]

Hi all!

Hi all!!
I am also wondering what to fight the Romans against. There are some few Gauls, but I prefer to fight them against the then more "civilized" Greek-Hellenistic world.
As my name suggests (Pyrrhus was an Hellenistic "Greek" fighting Rome in the times of the Roman Republic - counterintuitively, the times when Rome conquered most of its territory and fought most of its enemies), I would like very much a Greek-Hellenistic line, with hoplites, Macedonic long-speared phalanges, Cathaginian war elephants, and Greek "giant crossbow-like" spear-shooting catapults, with they typical helmets, armors, shields and weapons. I would also love an Athenian "Peloponnesus war" war trireme ship, shooting "Greek fire".

It would seem too good to get such a line, it has not to be very large, as the pirate or Knight lines, not even as the Roman or viking. Perhaps, for the not so bellic-prone as me, some Greek mithological creatures may be added, as well as the Parthenon and some buildings.

I will ask this to Playmobil, with some drawings of the catapults and Macedonian and Greek war customes. I expect they to get interested.

[Pyrrhus]

Well, Vikings are also very similarly dressed to the Germanic tribes attacking the Roman empire at its end, overall those ravaging from the seas, such as Angles and Saxons.

They also used the longships, at least the Saxons according to Wikipedia.

[Justindo]

A Greek Hellenistic theme would quite spectacular, although I'm not sure I see Playmobil doing this.  They are, however, introducing an Ancient Egyptian theme which should offer some great possible opponents to the Romans.  Although the Romans didn’t really fight the Egyptians, at least of the non-Hellenistic type, the Playmobil Egyptians, with some weapon changes, could double as Meroitic warriors from the Sudan who the Romans did fight.  Indeed, even the upcoming Playmobil pyramid and temple could be used as Meroitic structures, as they modeled their buildings on those of Ancient Egypt.  That’s my plan for some future Roman enemies.

Currently, for enemies I’ve been building up an army of about 100 generic barbarians (the Playmobil Vikings and new Gauls) to fight the Romans as Celts, Gauls, Dacians, Germans, etc. and have been buying up some Palace Guards on e-bay who could be Mauretanian warriors.  Also, I may use the blue special warriors as Praetorians to fight the legionnaries in a civil war.  With some imagination, there should be plenty of enemies for the Romans!

[Pyrrhus]

Hi Justindo, your idea of fighting Egyptians and Africans against Romans is so good; I didn't realized that.

However, Egyptians of the time of Cleopatra were Hellenistic (they were ruled by Greeks, that wrote in Greek, and many of their ways were "Greek-ized", including their army.

I send an e-mail to Playmobil asking for an Hellenistic line, and their response was warm, they even asked me details of my direction... I expect this to mean something with respect to the prospect of getting some Greek and Hellenistic warriors...

[Pyrrhus]

Oops, sorry, I didn't read where you said that Romans did not fight non-Hellenistic Egyptians.

[Pyrrhus]

I also read that Hannibal's troops in Italy fought using Roman uniforms, due to the lack of supply from Cathage. So, with the Gaul mercenaries (that the Hannibal's army had already included) and some elephants, you probably have a good set to oppose Romans at the Second Punic War.

[Pyrrhus]

Hi all.

It is just to say that I now think the Barbarian line is not quite historically accurate, and more likely resemble the customes and helmets in the movie "Conan the Barbarian"than the actual German barbarian dresses.

I think German barbarians are better depicted by the Viking line. After all, the area of origin of the Germanic peoples was Denmark and the tip of Scandinavia, and not Germany itself.

Only a helmet of the Barbarian line is beautifully similar to those used by huns, as depicted by Harold Foster in Prince Valiant: