Author Topic: Street Fightin’ Man (Read 1440 times)

Altius · « **on:** 24 March 2024, 06:38:55 PM »

When most of us think of Roman armies, we usually think of unstoppable iron legions crushing all barbarians in their path, but I had the silly idea that it might be fun to go the other way. I had the idea to do street fights between political gangs, Optimates and Populares, during the late republic period. It’s a slightly bigger scale than what’s covered by the Gangs of Rome rules, more like a straight-up skirmishes between semi-organized men in groups of 30 to 100.

A couple of these shots made it up to the Clash of Spears/Rise of Eagles rule book.

The local authorities. Yes, I know they’re not from the right period, but I had a few of them lying around and needed some muscle from the cohortes urbanae. Eventually, I’ll replace them with some more period-appropriate troops.

The bosses.

Ex-gladiators. Clodius of the Populares hired a bunch of these guys.

Army veterans hired by Titus Annius Milo to fight for the Optimates’ faction.

The bulk of the forces are made up of local street punks armed with a variety of weapons, some of which are improvised. Missile troops are common but not segregated by weapon types. They just pelt the enemy with a variety of arrows, javelins, sling stones and cobblestones.