That depends. Typically barbarian tribes in western europe used intimidation as a primary tactic, yelling, rushing forward swinging a sword with wild abandon, and melees tended toward masses of both sides standing apart with little actions going on here and there as the barbarians surged forward again when the braver souls decided to go for it. The Romans of course would try to maintain formation and silence.
As such, an intent to 'break' the enemy formation wasn't the point. Breaking his morale certainly was. The barbarians wanted you to run away for your lives. I doubt they actually preferred a slaughter - that wasn't the way they thought.
Eastern tribes, whether mounted or on foot, preferred to wither their opponent down to size before making any confrontation face to face. That is of course a general observation and you will find exceptions in behaviour.
How successful was this intimidation tactic?I assume it was more successful than ho wmovies portray.
This is how Movies portray the intimidation:
1)Barbarians yell, wear fierce clothes, etc.
2)It doesn't Work on Romans because of their "Iron Discipline"
3)Barbarians lose patience and decide to attack.
4)Barbarians get slaughtereed by "Disciplined" Roman units in formation
Of course we on UNRV know it probably didn't go that way as Romans were not as "Professional" and "Disciplined" as Modern Military tends to hype them out to be(trust me on many other forunms I got to poeple LITERALLY THINK Romans had Retirement benefits,great pay, basically stuff that would motivate a modern professional army to be disciplined) and the Barbarians were not as stupid and ill-disciplined as the way movie portray them,where they are always shown stupidly rushing at "Roman Perfect Formations" and getting slaughtered easily.Nor are they even remotely reckless enough to risk their lives(afterall Barbarians are just as human as we are even with their "Warrior Cultures" and fear death just as much as the Roman Legions did).
How did these intimidation tactics do in Real Life, not in Cinema and flawed and inaccurate General History Books and "Modernized" but very flawed and superficial Military History?Trust me, so many American Military Personnel go as far as stating that Modern Armies Directly Copy of the Roman Legions.
I must say, the Roman's iron discipline only stretched as far as a general could inspire it (Roman Soldiers DID get pensions: Examples: Pompey's Eastern Settlement and Marius's Numidian Settlement: Indeed, Suetonius does mention that Caesar's father was involved in settling veterans in Numidia. Many of the Roman territories had Roman Veteran Colonies.) For example, men like Caesar and Marius could inspire their soldiers to great bravery, but men like Titus (the Emperor) were less talented and could exploit bravery only in some men: An entire legion routed according to Josephus at the siege of Jerusalem. The imperator was extremely important.
In addition, I am shocked by claims of people here that Roman soldiers were "pretty naff" at hand-to-hand combat; especially claims that hoplites were better (???). I mean look at casualty figures from Pydna and Cynoscephalae (spelling?). In addition, at the Siege of New Carthage and other Sieges, one could see that they were plainly good at hand-to-hand in narrow places. Moreover, city-stormings, very dangerous occasions in the ancient world due to the narrow streets. However, the Romans were very successful at city combat. In the streets, one could not form heavy infantry formations and so had to rely on skills of individual infantry.
Also, Roman soldiers (Post-Marian) were habitually submitted to gladiator training. Marius's army sent to confront the Cimbri and Teutones had received Gladiator training both to build up strength and be skillful with weapons.
[/rant]