[Suggest] Manuballista New Roman Human Distance Unit

[Pablinski2]

A friend of mine who is a historian specialized in militar history and fellow player of this game, and me, we want to create a new distance unit for the Roman civilization because Roman have only 2 distance human units (velites and italic cavalry) in comparison to the rest of the civilizations that have at least 3 human distance units.

So we propose the Manuballistas.

We could take care of the documentation and the 3D modelling (ofc with the feedback and the approval of the community)

This unit was used from the year 100 A.C to the 500 A.C by the Roman Empire in some great campaings such as the Danubian/Dacian Campaign by Trajan Emperor.

This weapon is the upgrade of the greek "gastraphete" both in technology and power. The main troops carrying this weapon were auxiliary troops marching aside the Scorpions (light ballista, already implemented in the game). This was a very effective weapon because of its piercing power against shields and armours, it was also very economic due to the low price of the process of manufacturing its ammunition (wood darts with iron tip) It could also shoot  3-4cm of diameter metal balls.

The body armor soldiers carrying this weapon used was the Lorica Hamata (they could use the Lorica Segmentata, but the Hamata was mainly used because it was more comfortable).

It took just a little of training for a solier to almost master this weapon, making him as dangerous as an experimented archer who has been training for years. This weapon was designe by Heor from Alejandria.

We also found this book, but it is in German and we couldn't find any translation, so if anyone who speaks German wants to do a little research... I'll just leave it here Die frühkaiserzeitliche Manuballista aus Xanten-Wardt (Xantener Berichte) it is supossed to talk about this specific weapon so it could be a very good source.

[Lion.Kanzen]

Actual Romans are based in  Polybian era (Middle republic) 

[Nescio]

Extra assets like this are certainly welcome. There is a gastraphetes in 0 A.D., though it's not trainable. Moreover, @Alexandermb updated all artillery recently, so there are probably things you could reuse for your manuballista. Development version (A24), mind, not the latest stable (A23).