Late Roman Saga Vers. 2.0

After some feedback from the SAGA forum and a bit more thought I've tweaked the Late Roman battleboard that I was playing around with last year. Thanks again to Damian for altering the file.

The main changes are that the Plumbatae ability can now be used in any melee, using the new concept of a Step 0 during melee from Raven's Shadow. It is also a bit cheaper. Barritus is a bit more expensive, and the ability previously known as 'Switch!' has the much more respectable name 'Ad Frontem.'

Ludete!

Breton Banner

Last night I fiddled about making a banner for my new Breton warband, and here's the result. It is supposed to evoke the Miracle of Nantes, one of the 'abilities' of Alain Barbetorte in Northern Fury. I just painted it freehand, basing it it on the depiction of Mary in the Book of Kells. The face is a bit rubbish, especially on the left side. I'm thinking this will give the flag the name of 'Our Slightly Man-ish Lady of the Perpetual Five O'Clock Shadow'. Above all, don't look too closely at the knotwork border. I made a complete pig's ear of it, but from a distance it looks ok.

Late Roman Saga Warband

(As always, click on images to enlarge).

As you may have seen already on the blog, I've been fiddling around with a Late Roman version of Saga, set in Gaul in the fourth-fifth centuries AD. I've done a bit of playtesting of the battle boards that you'll find elsewhere on the blog, and will shortly fix up a version 2.0, but today I finished a unit of 8 spear armed warriors to complete a late Roman 'warband'. In Saga terms this is actually 5 points worth, but I'll add another point of barbarian foederati at some point. All the figures apart from the 'Warlord' are from Black Tree Design, and very nice they are too. The Warlord is from Westwind Productions. Here he is, looking suitably like a Frankish warrior in Roman service.

According to my Late Roman rules for Saga, Warriors (which I call comitatenses) can be armed with bows, as here:

...or with spear and shield. According to the Notitia Dignitatum, a late Roman administrative document that includes, amongst other things, the shield designs for different military units, these men carry the shields of the Romanenses. This was a 'pseudocomitatenses' unit, which probably meant they were frontier troops taken into the field army.

And here are the palatini (hearthguard) from the unit listed in the Notitia Dignitatum as the Bracchiati Seniores.

I'm looking forward to doing some more playtesting using these chaps. I bought enough Huns to make a warband from Colonel Bill's Wargames Depot. Colonel Bill's is a real find - they sell second hand and unused figures. My Huns are from Wargames Foundry, but at a price that makes buying them actually a realistic prospect. But before painting the Huns, the next task is to finish my Scots warband.

Late Romans for Saga

Black Tree Design have obviously annoyed a lot of people in the past with very poor customer service, judging by some vitriolic threads on the likes of TMP. However, I took the risk of ordering some of their lovely late Roman figures recently during a 25% off sale, and I'm pleased to say that they all arrived safely and in a reasonable time, although bizarrely some came from the US and some from the UK.

These figures are painted up to playtest the late Roman modification for Saga I've been working on. In Saga terms, the heavy infantry are three points of what I call palatini (hearthguards in Saga), and the 8 bow-armed warriors are called comitatenses. The shield design for the palatini show they belong to the Bracchiati Seniores. The figures painted up really well, and I particularly like the detail and character in the faces. Highly recommended, so long as Black Tree stay on top of their customer service and delivery.

Huns for Late Roman Saga

Here's another battleboard for SAGA in the late Roman period - the Huns! Huge thanks to damianlz from the SAGA forum for helping put this together.

This warband represents the Huns of the late fourth and fifth centuries, and particularly from the time of their incursions into western Europe under Attila. The only literary sources for the Huns in this period were written by their enemies; Roman (Ammianus Marcellinus) or Romano-Gothic (Jordanes) authors who didn’t really understand Hunnic social structure and who described their customs with a mixture of horror and disgust. The Hearthguard of the warband are Nobles, who may be armed with javelins or bows and who are always mounted. According to Ammianus, there was no rigid social hierarchy in Hunnic society, and the ‘leading men’ influenced others largely through persuasion. It is likely that prolonged contact with the Roman empire helped to create a noble class. The Warlord is also armed with bow or javelins. I have simply called the Warriors of the warband Hunni, representing the great mass of Huns. They may be armed with bows or javelins, and are always mounted. The army of Attila that was defeated at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in AD 451 contained many defeated Germanic peoples (Goths, Heruli, Sciri etc). The Levies of the Hunnic warband represent these, and are called Vassals. They are all on foot, and may be armed with bows or javelins. They may also be armed as spearmen without missile weapons, in which case they roll an Attack Die for each two figures in Melee. Their categorization as Levies reflects their lack of enthusiasm for serving the Huns rather than innate lack of military ability. All Hearthguard and Warriors are governed by the usual SAGA rules for mounted figures. In addition, mounted units armed with bows fire as Levies at ranges between M and L, but fire as normal at ranges up to M.

Late Roman Saga

I have been giving some thought to modifying Saga for the late Roman period (4th-5th centuries) and have come up with a draft battle board for western Roman troops. I have copied some abilities from existing boards, but added new ones to try to capture the greater command and control and interaction between units we might expect from drilled troops. Here's the draft battle board, with a huge thank you to damianlz from the Saga forum, who reformatted and improved the graphics of my original version:



This warband represents an ad hoc force of Roman troops in one of the western provinces during the later fourth or fifth centuries AD. They may be engaged in raiding barbarian territory, but are more likely to be responding to a barbarian raid or an uprising of disaffected peasants or regional separatists.
Palatini are the Hearthguard of the Late Romans. These are troops belonging to one of the elite units of the comitatus (Imperial field army). Palatini may be mounted, governed by the usual rules for mounted troops.

Comitatenses are drawn from one of the more typical units of the comitatus, and form the Warriors of the warband. Comitatenses may be armed with bows, and may be mounted. Mounted Comitatenses may be armed with javelins or bows. If armed with bows, they generate one Attack Die for each three figures at ranges between M and L, and one Attack Die for each two figures as normal up to M range.

The Levies of the warband are Foederati. These are Germanic troops (eg Franks, Burgundians or Goths) who were settled on Roman land from the fourth century and obliged to pay taxes and give military service. This they increasingly did without being assimilated into the Roman army, so should be represented as barbarian auxiliaries. They may be armed with bows or javelins.

Some explanations:
Barritus
This was a war cry, mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus, Germanic in origin but used by Roman units. The effect represents its intimidating effect on the enemy.
Plumbatae
Plumbatae were lead-weighted darts carried by late Roman troops. When this SAGA ability is used, the attacking unit suffers a javelin attack by the defending Roman unit as they move into contact with them. The effect of this is resolved before Step 1 of the Melee. This is not an Activation or a Shooting ability, so cannot be effected by any Shooting Reaction abilities.
Extend the Line
This is one of the Late Roman abilities that reflects the superior drill and training of the Roman troops. It may only be used by Palatini or Comitatenses. Up to half the figures in one of your units can be moved, so long as their final position conforms to the usual rules for unit cohesion.

I haven’t play tested these yet, but would be very interested in people’s reactions, especially if anyone wants to try them out.