late roman cavalry army?

[marcus]

greetings all. I am new to the 10mm gaming scene, having until recently been playing GW games mostly.
Now having seen the light am awaiting the warmaster ancients rules to arrive. Have decided on first going for late roman army just because always wanted roman army and the models are really nice.
sorry to the point also really like cavalry armies, how possible is this with late romans in warmaster? and would love to hear your thoughts on composition. cheers

[jchaos79]

warmaster ancient rules are superb. If you like cavalry armies then you should go for romes enemies ones.

Enjoy, and lets see what other people says, because I never play with late roman army

[FierceKitty]

I have to disagree about Warmaster rules. I find the dice-rolling excessive (roll to hit, then to wound, then to survive....How many rolls do you really need to generate a single result?). Play what seems best to you, of course, but I'd advise that you keep your eyes open to see what other possibilities are out there.

[sunjester]

I have to disagree about Warmaster rules. I find the dice-rolling excessive (roll to hit, then to wound, then to survive....How many rolls do you really need to generate a single result?). Play what seems best to you, of course, but I'd advise that you keep your eyes open to see what other possibilities are out there.

I think you are thinking of Warhammer Ancients there! In Warmaster you just roll to hit and then better armoured units roll to save.

[Last Hussar]

It is important never to let your opponent use Irish peasant mercanaries.

[Leon]

It is important never to let your opponent use Irish peasant mercanaries.

Potatoes can be very effective when thrown accurately...

[DanJ]

Hi,

Warmaster Ancients are a great set of rules and sunjester's right, in WMA you just roll to hit and the defender gets to roll saves depending on their armour, it's a nice interactive mechanis which works well.

As for the Late Roman Army it's very nice I haven't played it due to lack of time but for 1500 points (a good evenings game) I'd go for

1 x General
2 x Tribunes
1 x Veteran Infantry
2 x Archers
4 x Militia
1 x Skirmish Infantry
1 x Cataphract
3 x Heavy Cavalry
2 x Mounter Skirmishers
1 x Portents

This gives yopu a nice ballance between strong infantry and a very strong cavalry strike force.

Dan

[DanJ]

Oops, I missed out 5 units of Spearmen, rather fundamental.

[jchaos79]

Yep ... 5 units ... a little bit fundamental 

Wouldn't be better more skirmisher than archers?  -just a thought-

[DanJ]

Wouldn't be better more skirmisher than archers?  -just a thought-

You could get rid of 1 archer unit and the portents and have two extra skirmish infantry depends on you prefured style of play.

I generally would go for the extra range and the portents.

This army is from the orginal book and isn't the best that can be done, Rick Priestly has a couple of alternative Late Roman Armies posted on his web site which are more interesting

[Dragoon]

I'm just about to pick an army for DBA.
The rules are free on the DBA yahoo Group

12 Element (bases ) is a full army

great for a start.

[Grenadier]

Argh! The points system is what drives me nuts with ancients, with the OB perversions of historical armies and the "what if" matchups. "I'll use my 1000 points for 2 Roman cohorts. Well, I'll use my 1000 points for one guy with an M60 machinegun".  Please.  If you're going to use Warmaster or any other points rules, please do so with historical OB's, or better yet, just use Tactica by Arty Conliffe. Also, Polemos is coming out very soon with an ancients set focused on Rome and it's enemies-should be nice.
Now back to your regular programming.

[Blaker]

Howdy Marcus,

Welcome to the wonderful world of 10mm scale wargaming.  Ancients is a big topic and there are many different rules loved by many different players. Personally, I have played just about all of them starting waaay back with WRG 3rd Ed right up to DBM, tried the DBMM and just not my style. All the others (ie, FoG, Tactica, etc) that may be posted here just didnt give me the feel I liked.  I have really enjoyed playing the DBA game and if I want to go for a bigger battle I use Big Battle DBA and if I really want to just spend an evening playing a huge ancients wargame with good friends, we pull out Warmaster Ancients. Yes it does have a points system to build your army, it does allow for "what if" type of games and you could roll a lot of dice at times, but for me it is enjoyable. And no offense to those of you that use other rules, you enjoy them and that is the key. Play rules that you enjoy playing - I do 

However, I would suggest that you check out what ancient rules are being played in your gaming area and look at those. Warmaster Ancients (WMA) will allow you to field large armies of lots of 10mm minis and the battlefield will look great 

FierceKitty I am sure was referring to WAB which is GW 25mm ancient rules (which I do not like but many people do), DanJ had a very good list for the Late Romans and the suggestion to check out Rick Priestly's webpage is a good resource. I have not looked at the Roman armies for WMA, I usually build their enemies to put the Romans in there rightful place - under foot!!! 

Whichever route you decide to go, "WE" want to see your painted 10mm armies and many photos of your games 

Just have fun and "buy Pendraken"   

cya

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

As a start WMA is good, has it's faults but no glaring ones. FOG is more complex, but also gives a good game, although most people use 15's. I'm intending to do Rennaisance in 10mm using some of the stuff I already have.

However all decisons, on both rules and armies, are very much a matter of your personal choice.

IanS

[Blaker]

Very cool Ian, are you using Warmaster Medieval or another rules set for your Rennys?