Slitherine

I have tried to build an 800 points list for Principate Roman. I think this has been debated before but I have yet to see an 800 point list shared so thought I would do so.

I would appreciate comments on how I could improve this.

4 x TC's

Army BG's:

1. 4x Slingers - Poor
2. 4x Slingers - Poor
3. 4x LH Javelin, Light spear
4. 4x MF Protected lt spear Swordsman - Average also in the BG is included 2x supporting LF

5. 6x MF Armoured Lt Spear Swordsman - Average as well as an additional 3x supporting LF
6. 4x LH uprotected, Bow - Superior
7. 4x Cav protected, light spear swordsman - average

8. (Legionaries) 4x HF Armoured, impact foot skilled sword - superior as well as an additional 2x supporting LF
9. As above
10. As above

11. As above
12. 4x Cav Armoured, Lancers, Sword - Superior
13. (Lancarii) 6x MF armoured, light spear, skilled sword

The basic plan is to deploy the slingers out the way or where they cant get caught too badly, the light horse is there to skirmish and the Auxilia is used to either act as bait deployed in an open space or alternativly if there is allot of terrain they could be deployed ready to help secure the terrain. The second deployment is again about not giving much away - the cav is deployed to the rear (there main function will be to protect flanks). Then we begin to deploy the legionaries. Finally the last deployemnt includes the impact Cav and the Lancarii as the surprise. The Lancarii are held to the last - if there is an important piece of terrain they will take it alternativly they can be deployed in the front line alongside the Legionaries (away from any nasty cav/knights/chariots). The Shock cav can be placed either opposed to a vulnerable unit or again to protect the flanks. The main aim of the army is to get the Legionaries and Lancarii into combat (no surprise there). Any terrain in the vicinity will be easily cleared and hopefully there will be some opportunity for flank attacks once this has happened.

So some of the the thoughts that I have had in producing this army.

I would like Cats as well as providing armour for the auxiliary cav but cant seem to afford this with the troops I have. I thought of reducing the generals down to 3 and then upgrading some of the troops but I am not sure of this. I will be fighting on a fairly narrow frontage but 4 generals are always usefull.
I have discounted any need for either Field commanders or Inspired commanders - I think they are a bit of a waste with this army. Another option would be to remove the LF from the small BG of Auxilia leaving them with only 4x average protected medium foot - as they wont be fighting really only there to fill up the brigades and exploit any openings for flank attacks but by doing this they are next to useless even in rough terrain (doing this would free up some points to upgrade troops)

ANy thoughts would be much appreciated.

Hiya

Just pondering on this army myself for a comp. I wonder if you have gone for too many peripherals and not enough of the legionaries? I agree that 4 commanders is a good idea but so is an IC and 2 x TC...the IC covers more command area/distance and gives a +1 in many tests so can be more than worth 2 x tc on his own! I wonder is it worth the cost to have the supporting LI...it does increase the size of the BG but hardly ever brings a benefit in impact and thats 60 pts, enough for another BG which is usually more usefu, IMO.
I agree with you, I would definitely take the lanciarii and at least one other BG of MF But I woud max out on Legionaries after that...they seem to do fine in all terrain really and I think they are what you can win your battles with!

Martin

With 4 TCs this army is much more likely to get to move first which I suspect will be useful for it. With the important fighting troops Armoured it is much more resistant to missiles than if they were Protected and so the IC is less of an issue - BTW on this I'd try and avoid any Protected Auxilia or Legionarii and have them all Armoured. The supporting LF aid resistance to shooting as well as they make the -1 for 1Hp2B harder to get.

BTW is the Protected Cavalry a mistake? Did't think the list had any.

Apologies - yes the cavalry are armoured.

I agree that using a IC is a massive waste of points in a Principate roman army as the legionaries are pretty invincible to shooting anyway and as the IC only provides bonuses for shooting it does make them somewhat pointless - I would much rather have the extra general and throw him into combat if needed.

With regards to the LF mixed with Legionaries - the only thing that legionaries might fear are knights and this does give them some support but there are more important reasons to choose the LF - for shooting they provide a bonus, but they also provide the benefit in standard combat in case a normal legionary is killed the BG can continue to fight without any loss of dice. The other point that I like the most is their manueverability - when they do a 90degree turn they dont have to form a column - they can turn and be ready to fight immediatly. If you increase the BG size to 6 manuevarability becomes an issue and if you keep them as a straight 4 then they are a little to vulnerable.

I did like whiteknights point regarding more legionaries and this got me to thinking about removing the Cats and replacing them with an extra BG of Legionaries. I can then do something with uparmouring the Auxilia.