"Ideas for Roman skirmish games?" Topic

When looking for miniature games featuring Romans, I always see mass combat games of legions fighting the barbarian hordes. Books also seem to focus on these battles.

Now, I was wondering under what circumstances did Roman foot soldiers fight smaller actions against barbarians, other Romans such as during the civil wars, and so on?

Did legionaries and other Roman soldiers fight small skirmishes that we could game with maybe a few to several dozen figures a side? Maybe toss in some cavalry.

Bottom line, I'd love to paint some figures but don't feel like painting entire armies. Any ideas for such engagements? Rule sets?

How many figures do you feel like painting?

You could paint up a few Auxilia for patrol type games or a group of soldiers escorting the tax collector.

I'd go with Warhammer Ancient Battles as a ruleset and maybe two contubernium of Legionaries as a starting point.

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Do some naval battles, then you can have a dozen or so figs a side fighting each other from ship to ship.

I'm fairly sure that on some of the borders there was continuous low level warfare – that's why Hadrian's Wall was built, for example.

Pretty much the same as any other era…ambush a supply column, burn the valley farms, raid the village, etc.

I was actually planning to do a Roman vs. Zombie game:

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I know, it sounds silly but it's a hoot! Miniatures are easy to get in 15mm (my preferred scale):

Roman:
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Zombies:
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Celts:
thewarstore.com/Celts.html

And Rules:

Swordplay link

I usually take about 10-20 legionaries with a commander up against 20+ zombies or celts. Heck, I've even taken celts against zombies! It's a lot of fun really and is worth doing. And if you don't like zombies then there's still plenty of skirmishing fun to be had with recce teams scouting out ruins along a marching path. ambushes in the forest like Teutoberger Wald, raids on enemy villages, and other possibilities.

A small river runs through a a portion of a Gallic farm. A thick woods populates the earth on the far side of the river. A bridge lays across this river. Roman soldiers and work detail are repairing the bridge when indigenists attack Romans.

Jay

There was a picture in WI that showed a Roman skirmish game. It said that it was a game in development – any know anything?

Warhammer skirmish could work well as it has same game structure as Warhammer Ancient Battles .
Sounds like it could be fun as you can personalise the legions rank and file grunts and give them characters of there own.

The era of Romans would determine their enemies, and give you some period specific scenarios. If first Punic war, it could be a three way fight between Romans, Carthaginians & Syracuse with Gauls & Spaniards added to the mix. If early empire, it could be against British tribes in the south, or later over hadrians wall. Read the Simon Scarrow books for early empire, Centurion is a good film for ideas on low level fights a bit later in northern britain.

The Late Roman army often sent small groups of specially trained men on -amphibious- raids against enemy settlements and/or rebel groups.

In any period of history you could have some soldiers on patrol, etc, encountering some enemies. Take any scenario from another period and adapt it :-)

Speculatari-experienced scouts/special forces, at most 120 of them. Read that somewhere, they were the 'go to' guys for delicate missions.
The Engineers(fabrii?) were in a group ahead of the Legio to establish where they would camp.
Honor Guards for visiting VIP's.
Cut off and lost contingents after a defeat.
Advance scouts encountering Han Chinese from Kam Yings' expedition.
Alesia-your own private little corner of THAT siege.
A Bridge Too Far At Xanten. Security patrols alone…
Legionary mutinies…rip off Apocalypse Now.

You could always ambush SG1 at a odd version of StoneHenge, I got first bid on the blonde babe.:)

You could try a few historical/fantasy novels for some ideas:-
Wallace Breem's "The Legate's Daughter" & "Eagle in the Snow"
Gillian Bradshaw's "Island of Ghosts"
John Gloag's "The Narrow Seas", "The Eagles Depart" & "Artorius Rex"
Rosemary Sutcliff's "Frontier Wolf" & "Eagle of the NInth", etc
Simon Scarrow's Roman series
Alfred Duggan's "Winter Quarters" & "Three's Company"
David Drake "Vettius & Friends"
David Wishart's "The Horse Coin"
Ralph Graves "The Lost Eagles"
Some of the Roman crime novels include some skirmishes, action behind enemy lines & the like, try Lindsey Davis or Steven Saylor.

Harry Sidebottom's 'Warrior of Rome' has skirmishes. Anthony Riches Empire series also.
Asterix also has low level action!

Thanks much. This helps!

EIR + Parthians = good punch up!

There is a pretty good conversion of the LOTR SBG rules in the yahoo LOTR Rule Variants group, which has EIR, Celts, Dacians, and Germans.

I agree with Whitwort…

LOTRvariants