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Greetings All,

You may know that I am the author of Osprey's Men of Bronze game in the Osprey Wargame Series of games.



After that experience, I have contracted with Osprey to write two new books for the series. One of those books will be an expansion of the Men of Bronze format into a different era of Ancient battle. This time, I am going to be looking at the Wars of the Roman Republic.

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2019/11/random-official-news-from-blood-and.html

I am particularly excited to cover these period for a variety of reasons. One of which is that this will allow me to expand into a variety of fighting styles in the Mediterranean region. Fighting styles from Roman legions, Macedonian Phalanxes, Greek Phalanxes, Cavalry armies, Warband combat, and more! This is even a broader range of fighting styles and combat than Men of Bronze could hold!

Here are some of the design goals:

1. Scale, mini and basing agnostic
2. Lot's of decision making
3. Big battles with small miniature counts
5. Expand and build on the Men of Bronze model
7. Somewhat accurate historical outcomes based on my fallible understanding of Ancient combat
8. Make it fun!

I need to have the rules to Osprey by June of 2020, and as such I have tentatively finished a draft and started playtesting. I will catalog the playtesting I complete in this thread to give you a feel for the rules, some of the lists involved, army sizes, and game play. This should give you a good feel for the game and see if it is something you are interested in.

Anyway, our first battle is a Polybian Legion vs. Gauls. A classic match-up.



Sadly, I do not have armies for all of the possible opponents, so my paper templates will have to do for now.

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2019/11/battle-report-wars-of-republic-romans.html

Thanks for your interest. More to come as it develops.

So, I managed to get another Playtest game in....

Hamilcar surveyed the dusty plains beyond. His army of Libyans, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians were at the edge of their fertile lands. The furthest their irrigation channels reached. Beyond was the wilder lands of the Numidians. They had dared to resist the will of Baal, and now he was sent to show them the error of their ways. From Libya he had brought his heavy chariots, each pulled by four powerful steads. He had also come with loyal North African tributary soldiers and his fellow citizens to act as the backbone of the force.

Across the dusty plains were the barbarous Numidians. He could see that they had brought their own
horseman to the fight. In addition, he could see the white of goose feathers on the backs of their
soldiers. That meant archers would be present, and they most likely out-numbered and out-ranged his own missile troops. Speed would be the key to closing the distance, but the Numidians lighter horseman could slow him up. Perhaps Baal had been watching over him when the dry air from the ocean blew across the fields and kicked up dust. It would help screen his troops from the enemy archers.

Today’s battle will be using my test Wars of the Republic rules and features a battle between the rising power of Carthage in North Africa versus the army of the neighboring kingdom of Numidia. In actuality, we have very little records that such a clash happened, but it only makes logical sense that as Carthage’s power grew, there would be tension before Numidia became a client state. No real documents survive from Carthage to discuss their early history and we are left mostly with speculation from archeology and what records the Romans left us.

The big decision is to determine which army lists to use for such a hypothetical clash. If we place the
battle earlier in time, we can use the Early Republic Carthage list that aligns with the wars in Sicily and the Numidian list there. If we want a later battle, closer to the time of the Punic Wars we could use the Pre-Xanthippus Reforms army list and the Jugartha list for the Numidians. The main difference between the lists is the use of Hoplites and Heavy Cavalry by the Carthaginians, and the access to Elephants for both sides.

I decide to place the battle in a very early time frame for Carthage and the Numidians, before Carthage’s interference in Sicily. This would put the battle early in Carthage’s rise to power and before it extensively used mercenaries. Essentially, it is a rising city-state against a rival regional tribal power.



https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2020/01/battle-report-wars-of-republic.html

For those interested, the Manuscript is due back to Osprey by November..... so I need to get moving on this!

Greetings.

I have been working away diligently on the manuscript for this, and have broken the period down into the following sub-categories for army list and unit organization. I would love to get your thoughts on if this is the right division or if I am missing something.

Early Republic- ER
This is mostly the time where Rome was still fighting wars to solidify control over Italy
- Kingdom of Rome
- Early Roman Republic
- Triplex Acies (Manipular Legion)
- Carthaginians
- Etruscans
- Syracusan/Sicilian Greek
- Numidians
- Samnites
- Magna Graecia
- Latin League
- Italic Tribes
- Rival City-States

Punic Wars
The name kind of says it all, the period of the Punic Wars and the initial expansions out of Italy.

- Triplex Acies
- Mamertines
- Syracuse/Sicilian Greek
- Pre-Xanthipuus Carthaginians
- Punic War Carthaginians
- Iberians
- Mercenary Revolt Army

Wars Against the Successors
Again, the Roman Republic is pushing out of their boundaries and facing off against the Successor States

- King Pyrrhus of Epirus
- Macedonia
- Ptolemaic Egypt
- Seleucids
- Satrapy/Minor State
- Jugartha

Slave Revolts
The famous Servile Wars as made popular in book and film.....

- Sicilian Slave Revolt
- Early Spartacus
- Gallic/Germanic Slave Army (Crixus, Gannicus, etc)
- Late Spartacus Army
- Praetor/Quaestor Army
- Italian Consular Army
- Crassus
- Garrison Force

End of the Republic
The time of the Civil Wars and the End of the Republic

- Roman Marian Legion
- Pompey Magnus
- Caesar
- Pontus
- Armenia
- Parthians

Edge of Civilization
The various barbarian tribes and factions around the edge of the Republic

- Gauls/Celts/Germans/Thracians
- Illyrians/Galatians/Thracians
- Cilician Pirates
- Scythians/Steppe Nomads
- Tribes of the Mediterranean (Sicels, Corsicans, etc)

I feel like there maybe way to many army lists and some overlap in design may exist. However, I turn to you, the experts on this subject to let me know if you think I am on the right track, am missing something obvious, or that I should consolidate this list as it is too long.

Your thoughts?

How are you getting on with this?

Been mulling it over since you posted and think that you should definitely consolidate it down and where applicable just have different options of units for theme. This, for me, is most obviously applicable for the Servile Wars and all flavours of Romans. Three Roman lists should cover all the bases (Pre-Marian, Marian, Early Empire) as there was little functional difference between armies of the same period bar moral and allies. Similarly just a generic "Slave Revolt" style list with options to add in a Gaulish/Germanic flair or gladiator etc. to make a list themed for a revolt (the bulk of all of them after all was made up of badly trained and badly equipped slaves).