Late Roman Cataphracti and Clibinari

Trench_Raider · Post by **Trench_Raider** » Sun May 04, 2008 11:01 pm

My barbarian army has not been performing as well as I hoped under FoG, so I'm feaverishly painting up a civilized army to unleash on the guys in the local gaming club. I'm close to the completion of a Later Imperial Roman army. No doubt I will eventually use the official "Dominate Roman" list, but until then I'm using the Warrior list as a guide and pointing out the troops using the points in the core rules.

Anyway, I'm unable to finish the army because I'm not sure how to base and classify the lance armed heavy cavalry units of the army. The equipment and grading of Cataphracti and Clibinari have always been debated and indeed WRG 67h/7th, DBM, and Warrior all had different ways of depicting these troops.

So how will these troops be based and graded in the Dominate Roman list? I'd love to have this army done for this weekend's gaming.

Thanks loads.

TR

ars_belli · Post by **ars_belli** » Mon May 05, 2008 12:18 am

According to the main FoG rule book, cataphracts may have either 3 or 4 figures per base.

In Rise of Rome, Attalid, Seleucid, Armenian, and Parthian cataphracti are all rated as heavily armoured, undrilled or drilled, lancers, swordsmen. I would guess that Dominate Roman cataphracti, which were derived from some of those, would be rated similarly.

Cheers,
Scott

willb · Post by **willb** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:47 am

nik gaukroger has several sample dominate roman army lists on his site with the clibinari included on lists 2 and 3
http://www.endoftime.pwp.blueyonder.co. ... ylists.htm

rbodleyscott · Post by **rbodleyscott** » Mon May 05, 2008 8:25 am

We are pretty much at the "there was no practical difference between catafractarii and clibanarii (in the 4th/5th centuries)" end of the debate. I wrote an article for Slingshot many years ago to that effect.

Hence they are all Cataphracts, Heavily Armoured, Lancers, Swordsmen.

3 or 4 to a base as you choose.

Trench_Raider · Post by **Trench_Raider** » Mon May 05, 2008 1:18 pm

And there we have the answer straight out of the horses mouth so to speak!
Thank you sir. I really do apreciate the way you can get an asnwer from the author of the rule on this forum. That's great customer service and a selling point for FoG.

I'll probably wind up basing mine three to a base because they are graded as "Extra Heavy Cavalry" in Warrior, and I still do play that game from time to time.
TR