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A quick query for you all. My local gaming club manly plays WFB, WAB is rarely if ever played. However I've recently become a fan of Rome and Romans (damn you Simon Scarrow!!) and ive been so impressed by the detail and affordability of the new Warlord Games Romans that im thinking of collecting an army of them. Of course to get any games in im going to need to base these on an existing WFB list.

Now the most obvious one I can think of is the Empire list. Spearmen being nice and cheap and thus perfect to represent the roman legions. The Roman veteran models can be swordsmen and the auxiliaries can be use the militia entry. Roman Cavalry can be Knights and auxiliary cavalry pistoliers. Obviously there will be a bit of unit rep involved but my club has never objected to such things.

I was just wondering if anyone had ever tried anything similar before and had any advice. I'm the first to admit that the empire list isn't ideal as the infantry is painfully average and doesn’t represent the Iron displine the Romans are famed for, but like I say beggars can be choosers and I cant think of any other lists that are appropriate.

Now due to the roman theme there will of course be a few restrictions. No black power, no magic, no steam tanks or engineers. This will most certainly be an infantry heavy force. Now before any of you point out that im hamstringing myself and this army cant possibly be competitive, I can't emphisie enough that this is not a concern of mine. I want a visually impressive army full of character. I'm a casual fun/gamer and this is not going to any tournaments.

Any thoughts/advice?

what about High Elves i think they would convey the roman idea alot more than the Empire which is based on 17th Century Prussia, High Elves have a more classical feel and you get the iron discipline and damn good troops to boot?

just a thought anyway

How about Skaven?

(Kidding of course. High Elves might not be too off, I think they're more roman or greek inspired. Of course, empire could still work too.)

Roman Empire is a fun idea. I think the Dwarves' rule set would be great with the Romans--marching steadfastly across the board, they are the strongest, toughest infantry in the game. Run away? Never. Magic? Forget it. Siege? Only if you want it. With the self-imposed restrictions that you mention, this could be the most competitive list.

Also check out GW's Dogs of War units, especially the Alcanti Pikemen:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat1200011&prodId=prod1140038&rootCatGameStyle=

Actually Dwarves were one of my first thoughts. The Iron Disipline seemed rather Roman to me. However that idea was soon defeated as:

A) I already have a Dwarf army.

B) I want an army that can march forward and take battle to the enemy without the use of magical items (runes).

Actually the Empire list sounds about right. The force you're wanting is a Tilean one which would not be too different from one from the Empire.

I'd say if you're looking to stay away from "painfully average", and want a nice solid force consisting of mostly spearmen, definetly take High Elves. Sure, they're a bit more expensive than Empire troops, but their stats are far better (Better Weapon Skill, far better initiative, and better leadership between a High Elf Spearman and an Empire Spearman). If you want to limit your magic, it's possible to have a High Elf army that doesn't rely on magic at all and is still a viable build, since their basic troops are fairly good.

If he is trying to field a EIR or Middle Roman Army as a fantasy I would not recommend High Elves as most roman infantry didn't use spears. Tilea is wrong too because they did not have pikes or crossbows.

I would just use the WAB Roman list it is compatible to fantasy with a little tweaking.

It has actually already been done by one Empire player.

Just look at his site: http://www.remanlegions.com/

There you'll find pics, armylists, playing tactics etc.

If that doesn't give you any inspiration than I don't know what will!

BAWTRM wrote:It has actually already been done by one Empire player.

Just look at his site: http://www.remanlegions.com/

There you'll find pics, armylists, playing tactics etc.

If that doesn't give you any inspiration than I don't know what will!

Awesome

Hey, that's nice. And a lot of cake toppers.

Evil Eli wrote:Tilea is wrong too because they did not have pikes or crossbows.

Half of the Dogs of War units with pikes or crossbows are Tileans.

If you go dwarfs, Black Tree Design have roman legionairre style dwarfs in their fantasy line.
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