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[Squirrelloid]

This isn't quite true - the Romans designed a working steam engine, but they had no use for it.  (Slave) Labor was cheap, so what do they need an engine for - it cost more to fuel to the engine than to do the same work with slaves!

I never said it didn't work in Roman times (in fact I said exactly the opposite). What I said was that it was inefficient. Something which costs more than other available methods of doing the same thing is by definition inefficient. The reason why Romans didn't use steam engines was that their designs were inefficient. And yes, using anachronistic steam power is the definition of steam punk.

It wasn't that it was inefficient in power generation.  It was cost-inefficient relative to slave labor.  There's a huge difference between those two statements.

Now, since we don't have slave labor in DF...

[Zironic]

So if the romans didn't have slaves they would've had ridden Roman Saturns into battle?

[Schilcote]

So if the romans didn't have slaves they would've had ridden Roman Saturns into battle?

If they needed to, and they had a genius or two to design it, then yeah. But I think they used horses anyway.