"Roman Steam Cavalry" Topic

I've posted some additional picture from my upcoming Weird Science Roman game. This time, it's steam-powered mechanized cavalry:

link

Petilius Cerialis sounds like my kind of guy. It's always someone else's fault.
Since Roman history is all about surviving, he must have been VERY successful.

According to the 1911 Encyclopędia Britannica "Tacitus says that he was a bold soldier rather than a careful general, and preferred to stake everything on the issue of a single engagement.

From Wikipedia… Never having heard of him, after reading your blog, I had to do some "research".
Sounds like a true wargamer!

((His name also sounds like an … ahem… relationship ehhancement supplement.))

BTW, I wish I could make it to Historicon. Pwince Wupert would love to play with those toys.

The Year of the Four Emperors is full of great unknown characters. The main Flavian commander, Antonius Primus, was of Gallish descent and known by friends as "Beccus" or "Beaky" for his large hood ornament. One of Vitellius' chief Lieutenants, Caecina, like to wear plaid trousers and took his wife with him of troop inspections.

I am actually going to include as part of the Flavian cavalry force some Sarmatian allies, the Ruritanii, led by one of Wupwickt's ancestors, King Rheomitacles(Weomitacwes) and his pet aurochs.

Plaid trousers, eh? did he campaign north of Hadrian's Wall?

bogdanwaz, it's a very interesting idea about advanced "hi-tech" Romans wargame:), do you have any plans to release the game in the future? I did not find any information about it in your blog.

Caesars' Bicycles by John Barnes has a time traveler inventing crude bikes for Julius' Legions. Perhaps a Century of Roman's mounted on steam powered bikes?

Regarding Caecina's wardrobe choice, I don't think there's any evidence he ever served in Britain. He was legion commander on the Rhine at the start of the civil wars. He also switched sides and tried to get his army to go with him but they mutinied and locked him up. After the Vitellian army was defeated, his men released him to arrange their surrender. He ended up being executed 10 years later for conspiring against Vespasian.

Belousoff, the rules I am jusing are Astounding Tales!, a set of Pulp rules by Howard Whitehouse and a supplemental "big battle" rules, All God's Children Got Guns, that I wrote for it and were published in Astounding Adventures #3. Those rules are meant for the 20th century but the mechanics are simple enough to add modifications for other eras, e.g., heavy machine guns = repeating ballista and that sort of thing. Right now I don't have plans to publish these mods but I may try to post them at some point on my blog.

Really cool!

Bogdanwaz,

Any feedback on the suggestions I offered you here?

TMP link

Dan

I've read the Mitchell "Procurator" trilogy. It was pretty good, especially the second book that deals with the war between the Romans and Aztecs. The illustrations of the steam galleys are awesome and were a bit of the inspiration for the steam chariots.

I've read most of the Roma Eterna short stories by Robert Silverberg but I found those a bit dull and they really don't explore a lot of the details of what a surviving Rome would be like.

I have read the Agent of Byzantium. I really loathe most of Turtledoves alt-history series but his earlier works are OK, so I might give this a shot.

I've heard of Lest The Darkness Fall, the Belisarius series and the Romanitas series but never read it.

There's also the Aquiliad trilogy by S.P. Somtow, an alt-history about Romans using steam power to get to the Americas which are fun reads but more of a satire than serious alt-history.

Thanks for the links to the Rebus Bellicis translation and the Romantech sites, very useful.

I love this:

YouTube link

Dan

This Cerialis fellow does sound like a strong contender for a perch on the Flashman family tree…