Rules for late Romans

[Erik]

With all the beautiful new late romans marching out of the Vixtrix barracks, I am very close to giving in and hurling myself into a new project. When Moesgaard Museum opens their new exhibition “Out of Chaos” about Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire I will be all in for sure.

In preparation of my coming new project I have started looking for a decent set of rules to use for combat set in the shadow of the Roman Empire and early dark ages. I would like something less generic than say Hail Caesar and Lions Rampant or some of the other ancient to late medieval rulesets. More like Age of Arthur from WAB, Dux Britanniarum or Dux Bellorum.

Do anyone have any good suggestion?


Cheers
Erik

[WorkShy]

I sort of asked the same question earlier this year. I wanted something that could handle from 400AD to 600Ad, scaleable enough to handle hundreds of minis, good unit differentiation across factions, and ideally would have characters for a campaign.

I've come to conclusion the WAB Age of Arthur is still probably the best ruleset to start from. In our house rules, we've added in some components from other WAB supplements such as Fall of the West so that it's not too Britain focussed. I've also bought Dux Britanniarum, Dux Bellorum and Comitatus. They are all good but WAB still seems more flavoursome! We're currently in the early stages so typically only have a few hundred minis per side but it seem to work fine with units typically of 24 minis for infantry and 12 for cavalry. 

The Midgard rules from James Morris seem like they also might fit the bill but aren't out yet as far as I know.

[Atheling]

For massed battles in Sub Roman Britain I would go with Age of Arthur or Dux Bellorum by Osprey.

Both are fantastic and have a real period feel.

I would avoid more generic rulesets that tend to cover too much of a timescale as you lose the period feel

I know WAB is a generic set but having been involved in the playtesting of Age of Arthur I know how much work James put into it to get things as balanced as was humanly possible. It is easily the most balanced of all the WAB supplements.

Dux Bellorum is just as good a ruleset, is easy to play and a lot of fun with a good period feel too.

Dux Britanniarum for skirmish type games.

[OB]

I think Comitatus works very well.  It was written for the period. You can check it out on the Legio blog.

[Erik]

Seems I am already on the right track. I have ordered a copy of Comitatus

[Erik]

and Beyond the Golden Gates of course!

[Atheling]

and Beyond the Golden Gates of course!

Beyond the Golden Gate really starts with Justinian sending Belisarius into North Africa and Italy so The Eastern Roman Empire from about 533 onwards up to the Komnenian dynasty.

Out of all the WAB supplements, although one of the most interesting, it was widely considered to have the most broken lists. It earned the sobriquet, Beyond the Broken Gate in many camps of WAB players  . Still, a very interesting book.

[Erik]

Out of all the WAB supplements, although one of the most interesting, it was widely considered to have the most broken lists. It earned the sobriquet, Beyond the Broken Gate in many camps of WAB players  . Still, a very interesting book.