Warband (Angons and Swords)
Light Infantry(0.6.7)Side / Back
Short description
A superior warband armed with swords and armor-piercing angons.
Description
Continuous warfare against Romans and other Germanics gave rise to a new type of warrior organization: The warband. It appears the warband emerged as a military unit in the first century AD. And by the time of Tacitus, the warbands were an integral part of Germanic warfare. These warbands consisted of professional soldiers who did not work, but solely fought – and feasted. Somewhat paradoxically, these full-time soldiers seems to have been less coordinated than the traditional freemen formations. Instead they prioritized individual martial prowess and battlefield heroics. Still, man for man, they were better fighters than the average freeman, even if their armaments initially differed little from that of the freemen armies. Yet, later warbands were much better armed than the ones Tacitus described and had begun resembling small armies. These men represent a later form of warband and therefore armed with swords and angons. According to Agathias, Germanic soldiers used their armor-piercing angons in a similar way to how the Romans had once used their pila: To pierce and disable shields (Agathias, Histories, II.v.2-8).