The "Myth" of the "Dacian Falx" as a super weapon

[Matthew Amt]

Easiest solution then is to tempt the volley out of the Romans and then hit them with the falxmen.

In other words, to assemble a full-time force of soldiers and train them on a daily basis in a tactic which is obviously very tricky and relies on practically split-second timing. You can't have any UNtrained men in your first few ranks when you try this, because they'll simply charge and ruin the whole thing. (Or break and run, ditto.) If your training isn't REALLY good, the attempt will fail with catastrophic results. Basically, you need your own version of a Roman army, at least as far as training and organization go.

But if you are able to instill this sort of training in your army, then you can face the Romans on an equal footing and have no need of superweapons to defeat them.

Second problem: "tempt" how? They aren't going to throw until your troops are in range, and you'll have about 3 seconds between the arrival of the pila and the arrival of the legionaries. That's about enough time for the victims to hit the ground. And most likely there are Romans in the rear ranks who still have pila, either to throw over their buddies' heads, or to unleash point-blank if they have to move up to relieve men in the front ranks.

I will say that this is partly what I was saying: Falx-men need to be protected by men with shields. But you seem to be thinking that the shieldmen can block, deflect, absorb, or otherwise neutralize those pila, then masses of falxmen can leap forward as one, smashing devastating blows on static or cowering Romans. What I see is a very functional mix of spearmen, swordsmen, and falxmen, all thrown into a screaming chaotic mass by thousands of deadly pila, suddenly slammed into by thousands of screaming trained armored killers. The brave and determined falxman who survives those volleys may find it hard to strike well, either trying to leap over a skewered friend, or being forced to halt or back up into his other friends by this carnage, only to have 8 square feet of plywood smashed into his chin. It's really hard to swing at a guy who's doing that to you.

The Dacian campaigns were not pushovers. It took the Romans several hard years to finally win. But from what we know, we simply can not state categorically that it was specifically the falx that made this so.

Valete,

Matthew