Early Germans?

[Trench_Raider]

Hullo Everyone! First forum post here..

Our local Ancient's Community has taken to FoG in a big way. Everyone seems pretty excited about it, including the die-hard DBM and Warmaster players. As a proponent of Warrior/7th edition there is much here that is familiar ground and so far I like what I see. Like many others, I am feaverishly painting up new miniatures specificly with the intention of playing FoG.

Seeing how shock foot armies seem as if they will be more effective under this system than those of it's competitors, I'm working on painting up an Early German barbarian army I've been sitting on for years. But the Imperial Rome book in which the Germsn will feature is not scheduled for release until this summer.

At this point I have two choices. I can proxy the Germans using the Gaul list from Rise of Rome. This has it's advantages, but also it's week points as well. While the superior protected cavalry are a decent stand in for German cavalry, I can't see their rank and file infantry being classified as "swordsmen" given the rarity of swords in early German armies. On the other hand, I can try to translate the Warrior or DBM army list using the points values in the core rules. I was thinking that German warbands should probably be something like "heavy foot, protected, average, impact foot, light spear". Chatti tribesmen should probably be rated as superior. Thoughts?

On the otherhand, I would greatly apreciate some guidance as to what a sample Early German army would look like.

Thanks loads.

TR

[nikgaukroger]

You will indeed find that German infantry are Heavy Foot, Protected, Undrilled, Impact Foot, Swordsman - don't get hung up on terminology, the Swordsmen represents the effect of a mixture of weapons used at close quarters after the charge "Swordsmen" is just a label.

Using the Gallic list as aproxy for the time being would work quite well IMO - the Germans, however, will not have as much cavalry as the Gauls are allowed, but I'n sure you guessed that anyway

[richnz]

You'll find that the Early German foot are indeed impact foot/swordsmen. Note that the term "swordsmen" is a functional description, it doesn't necessarily mean that they all have swords- it covers spears etc.

The list is likely to be a few cavalry, a few skirmishers and bucketloads of shock foot!

It's probably one of the more straight forward lists, so you should easily be able to start playing in advance of the official list coming out.

[hazelbark]

Note that the term "swordsmen" is a functional description, it doesn't necessarily mean that they all have swords- it covers spears etc.

Yep this is a point that will need to be made often.

[Trench_Raider]

Thanks for the quick replies, guys.

Yes, I was taking the "swordsmen" trait too literally. Too much weapon type specific Warrior I suppose!
In any event this infomration will make the Germans as effective as their Celtic counterparts...

So was there any provision in the beta list for Germans who fought with long spears?

TR

[richnz]

All the warriors are graded as impact foot/swordsmen. There is no separate class for the long spear wielders.