Thinking of starting a Roman army

[Miniman]

Greetings,
 I have wanted to play some ancients and the Roman army seems to appeal to me.
I have nothing yet except questions.

What scale 15mm or 28mm?
28mm  appeals to me because of the detail but 15mm, well more on the field I guess.
What is the most popular?

What set of rules to use?
I have been looking about and Field of Glory looks good is it?
Again is it popular? I want to play a system that I can find a game with.

Who can I play?
I live in IL northwest of chicago so is there any clubs or people to play?

[manic _miner]

 28mm ones would suit you well.With the release of the plastic set's you can build large forces quickly and a lot cheaper too.

 Not sure what rules you should use though.

[midismirnoff]

Hi,
it depends, of course. I'd say go with 28mm and stick to rules anyone can catch up quickly; this is how I managed to find someone to play against. I'm happy with Impetus. You can always base your models in an "elastic" way as Z did with his republican romans. See here

[Miniman]

Thats a nice post. Thanks
Impetus OK I will look into that.

Just wondering why base in groups?
Why not square bases as individuals?
Then use a move tray for units.

[midismirnoff]

Thats a nice post. Thanks
Impetus OK I will look into that.

Just wondering why base in groups?
Why not square bases as individuals?
Then use a move tray for units.

Indeed I'm doing as you say; I use individually based minis and put them in the appropriate tray. But for certain systems, like the De Bellis ... serie, and Field of Glory you normally need a 60 mm frontage base, and it's too small for trays, and too big for single basing. That's why (being that kind of game very pop) people tend to use the 60mm frontage and then use it in multiples to get the 120mm used for impetus. That's what Z is doing in the link I sent you. Other games use the 40x40mm stand, which is again another headache, but still perfectly stackable to get an Impetus frontage. This basing thing is a riddle actually, you should follow the game you like best.
I put my minis on 2eurocent (circa 20mm) coins, then bought a stock of impetus bases with round holes in it @ Warbases. It worked out perfectly!
http://www.warbases.co.uk/#/impetus/4543250990

[Miniman]

It sounds like a 20mm square base for each model would fit any of the systems mentioned.
Glue a magnetic sheet to the bottom and trim it to the 20mm square.
Then you just need differant size pieces of sheetmetal to put them on.
I use this with warhammer but glue the sheetmetal to a plastic move tray.
It works OK for warhammer but would that be good for ancients?

[janner]

This would also suit WAB (or WAB2).

I'd find some opponents near to home before sinking your pennies into lead though as they are bound to be in the other scale from the one you've just spent $200 on 

[War In 15MM]

I like 15s.  My Romans are Old Glory, Corvus Belli, and Essex with some Xyston conversions at www.warin15mm.com./Pax-Romana-Gallery.html

[Damien]

Hi War In 15MM, love your website, sheer wonder at the number of minis you have; just awesome 


Damien

[midismirnoff]

It sounds like a 20mm square base for each model would fit any of the systems mentioned.
Glue a magnetic sheet to the bottom and trim it to the 20mm square.
Then you just need differant size pieces of sheetmetal to put them on.
I use this with warhammer but glue the sheetmetal to a plastic move tray.
It works OK for warhammer but would that be good for ancients?

Sure enough it'll work. WAB is an option, and separate basing is its thing. Watch out for Warlord's Hail Caesar coming out soon. 15mm is cool for mass effect, storage, etc.

[AKULA]

I'd find some opponents near to home before sinking your pennies into lead though as they are bound to be in the other scale from the one you've just spent $200 on 

This.

Most gamers starting ancients for the first time, seem to gravitate towards Romans - find a gaming group first, but you'd probably get more opponents if you choose a barbarian army.

 

[midismirnoff]

This.

Most gamers starting ancients for the first time, seem to gravitate towards Romans - find a gaming group first, but you'd probably get more opponents if you choose a barbarian army.

 

Good point!
However with the many many civil wars that occurred it shouldn't be hard to justify a mirror match (except maybe for an "early republican" army). It might be very boring though.

[Miniman]

Thanks for all the help guys.

There is a Little wars convention comming up in April.
They have games using Impetus and Field of Glory rules.
But the time slots conflict so what do you recomend?

[matakishi]

Impetus, Field of Glory rules are horrible.

[midismirnoff]

Impetus, Field of Glory rules are horrible.

Horribly complicated more than horrible. Just something out time; I think game design developed into something more easy going and allusive.
Impetus is straight-forward and still rewards good tactics (and it's over in a couple of hours).