SinoDefence Forum

IDonT

Who would win?

The Roman Testudo and manipular infantry tactic vs the Han Dynasty crossbow and missile warfare.

FriedRiceNSpice

The Romans had weak cavalry. On the other hand, the Han had very strong cavalry armed with spears and bows. Han infantry was weak though, but they did have very powerful crossbows. The Romans also equipped their soldiers with better armor.

ger_mark

romans

stronger in swordbattles

FriedRiceNSpice

However, as proven in the Battle of Canae (aka the battle where Hanibal slaughtered 60,000 Romans), Roman legionaires had a weakness to cavalry. The Han had very strong cavalry, similiar to the Hunnish cavalry that defeated the Legions in the 5th century AD.

BKulan

it's a question that is very hard to answer.

first of all the romans was in constant expansion until they split into two empires, also they had a lot of training considering that they had extremely long military duty, if i remember correctly it was as much as 20 years (not sure on this one).

On the other hand the Chinese had crossbows that easily could penetrate the armor given to roman soldiers but range was still a major problem considering that the romans still could pepper them with bows which have both superior range and rate of fire.

on the whole it is extremely hard to predict what would have happened if the romans and the Chinese would have warred against each other

MIGleader

han china would own rome because they had 600,000 soldiers and actual horse troopers, while rome had 100,000 and only used horseman as patrol.

Liberator

Well best Han China will be the Songs .

Roman are disciplane. China can use rocketries and fire carts to blow at the Romans, first time for Romans to see such fire work! Therefore, away they flee! And Roman cavalries charge and the Hans will charge with Cavalries too (Hans infantries has ordinary armour you can say, but lot other higher rank soldiers got iron breastplates that covers the whole body, and the Romans only got legion armours or even leather. China has an big army in the Medieval times too.

I would say Romans will lose . Just cuz they got nice formations does not mean they got better weapons. We all never seen Romans fighting Han China. So it must be called a match.

But for saying, I vote for China.

IDonT

Actually, the better battle that illustrates Roman Cavalry weakness is Carrae.
40,000 Roma Legions vs 10,000 Parthia Horse Archers and 1,000 Cataphract (heavy cavalry). Romans were routed. Point could be said that the Roman commander, Crassus was inept.

FriedRiceNSpice

Both the Romans and Chinese had very good artillery (catapults and ballistas). Romans had superior infantry, especiall heavy infantry, though the Chinese had better missile troops (are you sure that Roman bows outranged Chinese crossbows? Also, Chinese crossbows had a faster rate of fire than European ones of the Middle Ages). I still think the decisive factor here is cavalry, for cavlary have proved for centuries to be the bane of heavy infantry. Also, the Chinese could field armies of a million troops, while the Romans at their height had 250,000 legionaires and a equal number of auxiliaries.

IDonT

I don't think gun powder has been invented in that era yet.

Liberator

Cataphracts are heavy armoured knights of Byzantine empire (Eastern Roman empire)...

FriedRiceNSpice

The Hans didn't have gunpoweder weapons yet. Gunpowder wasn't invented until the Song dynasty. Also, only Chinese officers and commanders wore iron breastplates. The Roman army actually had 500,000 at its height, although during the 3 Kingdoms period China has raised armies of over a million multiple times.

Liberator

At the Roman times, China are beating huns with little bit of helps with rockets.

FriedRiceNSpice

Someone plays far too much AOK.
Historically, cataphracts were first used by the Parthians and Armenians. They would be adopted by the Byzantines later on, and Eastern European nations (Poland, Hungary) after that.

Liberator

People say Romans are the strongest empire in the Ancient era. Well, they sure earn a great empire but.. The countries Roman fought has troops that wore no armour, undisciplane men but brave and fierce. Romans often outnumber soldiers from Britannia. Africa you say? Carthage could have captured Roma. But they lost. Why? Cuz Hannibal must return to protect Carthage.