Slitherine

Hi, New to Late Republican Romans and would appreciate some list suggestions for 800 & 900 pts armies.
I do like the look of Elephants and Numidian Ally.
Also would moving first be better than picking the Territory, in most cases, due to all the heavy foot ?
Thanks
Brian

As many legions as possible. 2 or 3 BG of lights to delay and superior cav.
The army wins through the legions, anything else waters it down.

Agreed -and the list works much better in 25mm. At 15mm it struggles.

petedalby wrote:Agreed -and the list works much better in 25mm. At 15mm it struggles.

Is that, in your view, because of the relative spatial dynamics of the two scales and the base sizes?

I rarely do FoG(AM )in 15mm ( mainly as my regular opponent enjoys 28mm far more) but in either scale I always play on a minimum 8 foot wide table sometimes wider and usually with 1000-1200 point armies , so I am not used to the "standard" widths and army sizes and can't compare. Plus we invariably stay broadly within era and/or region in the "A" period( well the Med ).


Consequently more expensive armies like this one can be swamped by cheaper more numerous ones and I find you need good and ideally placed terrain to be able to concentrate your quality troops and safeguard or refuse at least one flank, or an opponent foolish enough to take them on frontally or who fails to take advantage of space and time ( no longer happens ) . I increasingly find I prefer the bigger more " bog standard" armies, especially of infantry, when facing the high quality expensive ones as they give me much more scope for manoeuvre which I greatly enjoy. My regular prefers the high quality ones so.....

And being "friendlies" at my place ,where I have many more armies available , we always know what we are up against in advance .

That said this army ( which I have among many ) is about the infantry and they can be expensive with useless overkill for some situations and opponents - the skilled sword can be a waste of points as can Elites. I really made it to do the late Roman Civil Wars - Pompey GJ Caesar, the Assassins ( or Patriots take your pick ) and the Triumvirate which is where the other bits and bobs can of course be handy .

Consequently I find the Principate much the most flexible and I find Etruscans with either Italian Hill Tribe or Mid Republican allies (from Lost Scrolls) better than the latter - again plenty of bog standard infantry .

Is that, in your view, because of the relative spatial dynamics of the two scales and the base sizes?

Yes. And typically I see 800AP in 15mm and 650AP in 25 mm - both on a 6' x 4' table.

Warlord wrote:Hi, New to Late Republican Romans and would appreciate some list suggestions for 800 & 900 pts armies.
I do like the look of Elephants and Numidian Ally.
Also would moving first be better than picking the Territory, in most cases, due to all the heavy foot ?
Thanks
Brian

Hello Brian, A clubmate used 800 point LRR quite extensively under version 1 against all comers, and I think his approach would do well in version 2 as well. His strategy was to use a lot of difficult going with some light foot delaying in it. Quite heavy on the legions, with one or two 8 base units as well as 4s - the former are much tougher and make it worth committing generals to combat.

He used the elephant unit and also an arab ally (one unit of camels and one of LH). Elephants and camels were good for disordering Lance mounted, particularly knights as they tend to fight one deep hence all get disorder (as opposed to cataphract or cavalry lancers who are less impeded). The camel unit was also quite useful in being a cheap "proper unit" - so able to draw off more than it's own point value of enemy troops.

To be honest, the army, being HF, is a bit slow. So you can struggle to come to grips with the enemy.

Thanks for the hints and tips, never thought of the Arabs and camels Graham, thanks.

The only reason I can think to take Numidian allies is for the extra elephants--while they are better under 2.0 in terms of impact dice neither elephant can get the general bonus, so I'm not sure it's worth it. There are enough light horse on the main list such that you really don't gain from the Numidian allied light horse.

I have at 900 points 5X4 Superior legions and 2X8 Average. At least one FC is needed to help move the battleline for a double move, and it may be worth while to use a couple 2X6 superior legions for command purposes in case you have an ally general or need one to double move some skirmishers with one general.

Which is more useful
6 LF, Protected, Av, Jav/LtSp
or
8 LF, Unprotected, Av, Jav/LtSp

Warlord wrote:Which is more useful
6 LF, Protected, Av, Jav/LtSp
or
8 LF, Unprotected, Av, Jav/LtSp

How do you want to use the LF within the overall context of your army?
A. Hunter killer group to attack enemy LF - is this realistic?
B. Skirmishers line to delay the enemy's advance and buy you time to position your proper troops - in which case 2 BGs of 4 would be good so long as you scuttle them away at the right time.

zoltan wrote: How do you want to use the LF within the overall context of your army?
A. Hunter killer group to attack enemy LF - is this realistic?
B. Skirmishers line to delay the enemy's advance and buy you time to position your proper troops - in which case 2 BGs of 4 would be good so long as you scuttle them away at the right time.

List only allows 6 - 8 per BG.
As general purpose skirmishers; delay, screen and if enemy elephants or skirmishers around get in their face.

I thought that the 8's would withstand enemy shooting better than 6's.

As general purpose you could for either . If they're not there to do much more than screen and keep LF honest both are good enough. You could save some points and drop the the 6 to unprotected but then LF will get sassy. 8s are better if there's a lot of shooting.

It kind of depends how many units you plan to have too. If it's just one go for an 8 - often they'll face 2 enemy LF units and a 6 is then too small. But if you go for two BGs, two 6s of protected should be fine.

Of course the main line of thinking should be "how many points have i got left over having bought all the legions I need?"