Mid Republican Roman

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Historical Overview Section


During this era, Rome, and others of the Latin League, clashed with foreign powers, and not always successfully. In 390 BC Gallic tribes from Gallia Cisalpina (modern Po Valley) under the leadership of Brennus defeated the Roman legions and sacked Rome itself requiring a huge ransom to be paid out to avoid completely destroying the city. The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and the Early Carthaginians and Later Carthaginians between 264 and 146 BC. They are known as the Punic Wars because the Latin term for Carthaginian was Punici. By the end of the third war, after more than a hundred years and the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides, Rome had conquered Carthage's empire and razed the city, becoming the most powerful state of the Western Mediterranean.

With the end of the Macedonian Wars against the Later Macedonians - which ran concurrently with the Punic wars — and the defeat of the Later Seleucid King Antiochus III the Great, Rome emerged as the dominant Mediterranean power having occupied many of the Hellenistic Greek states and Rome had become the most powerful city in the classical world.

Why is there no Roman line replacement in FoG?

The gradual replacement of the three lines / triple Acies of Principes, Hastatii and Triarii during battle is one of the defining features of Roman warfare of this era, and is often regarded as a key part of the success of Roman armies against contemporary foes. However, the replacement of lines or roman troops in battle is not possible in FoG - even though some armies (notably 100-yrs War English -Continental and 100-yrs War English -Britain are allowed to do this.

The rationale for this has been expounded by the authors on several occasions. During developmen of FoG the line replacement was modelled, but the resulting interpenetration and line replacement mechanisms were found to add considerable complexity to the rules without fundamentally changing the outcomes - Romans are already better than most of their opponents. Given that no detailed information is available in any historical source as to how it worked in combat, a decision was taken to assume that the replacement works (at the game scale) WITHIN each combined Roman Hastati/Principes BG deployed on table. So, when the front rank bases are killed and rear rank bases replace them, or when the unit survives a cohesion test due to being superior and keep fighting even with 2 of its 4 bases killed - thats line replacement happening before your very eyes.

The other reason it need not be represented on table is to do with troop / figure ratios and scales. The usual format in FoG is to model a legion as 4 Hastati bases, 4 Principe bases, 2 Triarii and 4 Velites. In this case each base of troops is equivalent to 2 and a bit maniples, or 350-odd men. For a BG of Hastati to replace a BG of Principes (the smallest independently commandable group - battle group - of each) woudl be simulating the entire amount Principes in a legion being replaced by the entire amount of Hastati - which no-one would see as a credible simulation of how this worked in practice. To make a simulation which allowed each maniples to be individually commandable and hence be replaced visually on table would necessitate modelling one legion, in FoG terms, at 40 bases of Hastati, 40 bases of Principes, 20 bases of Triarii and 40 bases of Velites. Which would be cool, but not that practicable. So, in essence, it takes place within the BG, and thats why they are superior armoured impact foot skilled swordsmen!

If you are really, really still obsessed about representing this on table despite the above compelling rationale, one suggestion would be to allow a 2nd line BG nominated as representing Hastatii (or Triarii) to charge "through" a unit of Principes (or Hastatii) who are already in combat, replacing them in the front line and fighting a new impact combat that bound. In this case the unit "charged through" probably should be removed from the table and counted as either 1 or 2 attrition point lost, on the basis that a/ it simulates that the unit replaced was unlikley to be in a fit state to return to the fray later and so its removal/ replacement should have some effect on the army morale, and b/ it would get really messy if you wanted to start thinking about feeding them back in again later lol

Republican Roman Shield Patterns...?

"How do I paint the shields?" "Is there a Pattern" "Did it differ by Legion, or did the different grades have different colours and patterns...?"
Unfortunately the answer to all these questions is that almost literally no-one knows. There are almost no historical sources showing any specific colours, patterns, plans nor any shield designs. The only consistent historical evidence is that the backs of the shields were a sort of red-brown. So, paint them as you like, or get some shield transfers from Little Big Men or Veni Vidi Vici. wink

note Author Jeff Champion sent me this picture from a mosaic in a villa in ancient Praeneste near Rome, that is often dated as "second century BC" or "c150 . It's not attached to any soldiers unfortunately, so could represent anything however maybe a white shield with brown/ochre rim and silver centrepiece is OK?

Image

Notes on using the Army

The strength of this army - fairly obviously - lies in the powerful legions. But at 800 ap or less there is a finite limit to how many you can deploy anyway, which makes even more important not to fall into the trap of selecting too many ancilliary troops and not enough legions. The army lacks enough ancilliary troops to achiecve much better than a stalemate in terrain against likely in-period opponents anyway, so far better to create a battle plan where the enemy is forced, either through terrain or simply by your own deployment, to fight the legions with rear support from the Triarii. A sure sign your plan is failing is if the Triarii end up fighting!

The other big choice with this army is whether to field the legions in units of 4 or 8. 8's have the advantage of solidity, and adding in a general can make a large, superior armoured unit incredibly resilient. However it limits tactical flexibility, and greatly reduces army size - both of which are optimized by going for legions in 4's. The choice of unis of 4 allows you to create an Early Roman "Swarm" tactic, where lots of small units operate independantly and try to engineer flank atacks on their enemies.

Possible Enemies

Classical Greek, Hellenistic Greek, Syracusan, Early Successor, Later Seleucid, Galatian, Gallic, Pyrrhic, Later Carthaginian, Attalid Pergamene, Later Macedonian, Ancient Spanish, Numidian or Early Moorish, Spartacus Slave Revolt, Illyrian,

Tournament Performance

9 / 12 Mid Republican Roman Attack 2008 doubles (RoR, IF)
6 / 10 Middle Republican Roman Britcon 2008 25mm (open)
12 / 41 Middle Republican Roman BHGS Challenge 2008 (open)
33 / 62 Middle Republican Roman Britcon 2008 15mm (open)
4 / 14 Mid-Republican Roman Roll Call 2008 25mm (open)
5 / 10 Mid-Republican Roman BHGS Challenge 2008 25mm (open)
5 / 17 Mid-Republican Roman Warfare 2008 25mm (RoR, LT, IF)
9 / 17 Mid-Republican Roman Warfare 2008 25mm (RoR, LT, IF)
16 / 17 Mid-Republican Roman Warfare 2008 25mm (RoR, LT, IF)
5 / 14 RR01 Mid Republican Roman Northern League 2008 R4 (open)

Allies

  • Aitolian Greek - Hellenistic Greek : Date restrictions None Book: Immortal Fire Page: 53 - Aitolian javelinmen are a sideshow - the MF Theurophoroi are where this ally is at, and can dominate any Rgo in period. 4 Lh is always useful too
  • Spanish, Ancient : Date restrictions None Book: Rise of Rome Page: 30 - Just check on the factors - you may be better taking your legions into RgO rather than having this lot imploding on your flanks. Its still better to stick even more legions in the open
  • Pergamene - Attalid Pergamene : Date restrictions None Book: Rise of Rome Page: 36 - Cheeky! Sneak some lancers into your Roman list to surprise enemies in period. The Theurophoroi are tasty in Rgo as well.
  • Numidian - Numidian or Early Moorish : Date restrictions None Book: Rise of Rome Page: 38 - The LH arent that good, but the LF being allowed to be in BGs of 4 makes this ally quite compelling as at 16 points per unit they can boost your unit count and replace your own LF in the battle line

User-contributed links about this army:


15mm Manufacturers supplying figures for this army


You can see some of the figures in the Mid Republican Roman Photo Gallery also on this site

velites
velites

Army Lists

Sample army lists for this army
Monster 800 AP list

  • 1 - 4 Principes & hastatii HF Armoured Superior Drilled - Impact Foot Skilled swordmen
  • 2 - 4 Principes & hastatii HF Armoured Superior Drilled - Impact Foot Skilled swordmen
  • 3 - 2 Triarii HF Armoured Elite Drilled - Offensive spearmen - -
  • 4 - 4 Velites LF Unprotected Average Undrilled Javelins Light spear - -
  • 5 - 4 Principes & hastatii HF Armoured Superior Drilled - Impact Foot Skilled swordmen
  • 6 - 4 Principes & hastatii HF Armoured Superior Drilled - Impact Foot Skilled swordmen
  • 7 - 2 Triarii HF Armoured Elite Drilled - Offensive spearmen
  • 8 - 4 Velites LF Unprotected Average Undrilled Javelins Light spear
  • 9 - 4 Principes & hastatii HF Armoured Superior Drilled - Impact Foot Skilled swordmen
  • 10 - 4 Principes & hastatii HF Armoured Superior Drilled - Impact Foot Skilled swordmen
  • 11 - 2 Triarii HF Armoured Elite Drilled - Offensive spearmen
  • 12 - 4 Velites LF Unprotected Average Undrilled Javelins Light spear -
  • 13 - 4 Cretan archers lf Unprotected Superior Drilled bow - -
  • 14 - 4 Slingers lf Unprotected Superior Drilled sling - -
  • 15 - 4 Principes & hastatii HF Armoured Average Drilled - Impact Foot Skilled swordmen
  • 15 - 4 Principes & hastatii HF Armoured Average Drilled - Impact Foot Skilled swordmen
  • 16 - 2 Triarii HF Armoured Superior Drilled - Offensive spearmen
  • 17 - 4 Velites LF Unprotected poor Undrilled Javelins Light spear -
  • 18 Cavalry Cv Armoured Average Undrilled - Light spear Swordmen -
  • TC TC - - - - - - - 3


Name of Army / Date

  • Using asterisks inthe edit mode creates a bulleted list in the actual site
  • This is a lot easier to do than easier than setting up tables
  • For FoG I suggest listing your army in order or march
  • with troop desctiptions on each line, for example
  • 4 HF Armoured Average Drilled Impact Foot Swordsmen
  • 8 LG Undrilled Unarmoured Poor Bowen
  • Dont forget to include your Generals !!!

Include any notes you want here, including comments on how to use - or play against - the army.

Remember to leave a line before you copy the above section as a template for your own list

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