"Early Vs Late Romans?" Topic

Hey everyone, my plan for sometime this next year is to do some sort of ancients project. I'll probably end up using Hail Caesar though I'm always open to new suggestions. Does anyone have a pro or con list of Early vs Late Romans? I did some searching but without doing hours of research its hard to pick one to start with. All of the people I've had the chance to ask say they do both.
Thanks

I believe Phil Bsrker always reckoned that Late Romans were the Ancient army par excellence.

I have Marian/Caesarian Romans for the bulk of my Impetus army. I've also started on some Imperial Romans I inherited from Warlord.

There's also a Late Roman (5th Century ish) army that's cleaned and primed and awaiting paint.

Annnnnnnnddddddd……. At some point I plan on an early Republican army too. I've got some ideas on it.

If you like infantry, EIR, if you want more cavalry, Late Roman.

I like the Late Roman army circa 370-410 as they good, but they are not world beaters.

Republican/Late Republican Romans have a great variety historical adversaries … Hannibal, Pyrrhus, the Gauls, the Macedonians, Egyptians and Seleucids, the Parthians – a great panorama …

Phil
Ancients on the Move

And the nice thing about Romans is that, no matter the period you choose, they can always fight each other.

I guess the only other deciding factor is the availability of plastics in 28mm. For enemies of Rome who makes what?

If it's plastics you're after in 28mm then EIR or late republic is your choice along with a decent number of plastic opponents from Warlord games.

link

Also, if you prefer the plastics, there are already some enemies for the later republic on into the early empire: Gauls, Germans and Dacians.

Thanks guys. I ordered some infantry, Im sure you'll hear from me again in a month or so

I'vve just started collecting Caesarian Romans from Wargames Factory. I'm also working on some Germans and Celts to go with them.

And the nice thing about Romans is that, no matter the period you choose, they can always fight each other.

Don't think so, whats about Early and Mid Republican ones

In 460 BC there was a roman civil war when a faction took the Campidoglio and the consular army had to fight them out. The consul was killed in the fighting.
By the way the civil wars started to be an usual problem from Mario and Sulla confrontation.

I know that, but neither the ERR classically associated with the army of the Camilian System nor the MRR after the Polybian until the Marian Reform fought in a civil war ! 360 years without civil war (if not without unrest) in about 1200 years of (West)Roman history is quite a period of time.

That doesn't mean you can't devise one. I rarely play actual historical battles with my troops. Instead, I play with scenarios designed around "what if", but plausible, scenarios. I find that actual historical refights are incredibly boring affairs, since everyone involved knows how they turned out, what the keys to victory are, etc.

Instead, I prefer to explore other scenarios based upon what was happening in the Empire & on it's fringes, as well as extrapolating on what MIGHT have occurred had this or that taken place, etc.

So Romans against Romans is always a valid scenario, regardless of the time period involved.

The acme was the Trajanic period. Quality of the legion went down after him across the board. Like others have said, late if you want more cavalry. Late is a lot more colorful too as you can paint fabrics instead of all that armor and the shield designs become more interesting.

Late.
Defending a failing Empire against a very long list of peoples and characters has always attracted me.

Or not

I started with LRR then picked up EIR, MRR, and now starting Late Romans. You can never have enough Romans. The LRR by far are by far my favorite era. I have enough paintes troops for multiple armies.

I like Early Imperials, as you can play a Mid Imperial force also with just a few adjustments. And they are as tough as nails…

Delbruck,

I like the furnishings you have for your "camp", especially the foot stool.

Well done.
Cheers,

Depends what you mean by 'late' really. Belisarius?

For me, early and late Republican and EIR is where it is all at, a diverse bunch of interesting and potentially very tough opponents. After that they just seem to be an anonymous bunch of hairy barbarians, no doubt revealing the depth of my ignorance:)

Whoever said earlier that it depends upon your preferred fighting style made a very good point. If you like a crushing steamroller of infantry then its early imperial, if yo prefer a mixed force with all the flexibility of different troop types its Late Romans. Republican Romans are only a good choice if they suit your opponents armies in a campaign around 50 or 200 BC for example.

I assumed that it was pretty much just the two periods, early and late. I have almost no knowledge of roman history. I just bought a book though i havent opened it yet. I don't have any opponents, Id be collecting both sides.

The following Roman periods are included in the HC army list books:

Camillan Rome (Early Republic): 4th – early 3rd century B.C.
Republican Rome (Middle Republic): early 3rd – late 2nd century B.C.
Marian Roman (Late Republic): late 2nd – late 1st century B.C.
Imperial Roman (Early Imperial): late 1st century B.C – late 2nd century A.D.
Middle Imperial Roman: late 2nd – early 4th century A.D.
Late Imperial Roman: early 4th – 5th century A.D. Further divided into "Eastern" and "Western" regional sub-lists.

I hope that this helps a bit!

Cheers,
Scott

That helps tremendously. Thank you

You just made it easy, choose the opponents first if you are building both sides, then fit the Romans to the opponents.

Opponents
Warband
Pikes
Carthaginians,
Spanish
Cataphracts and horse archers
cataphracts and Elephants
charging heavy cavalry

Pick your favourite opponents and we can say which Roman army fought those types

I don't think any army says "Romans" more than Caesarian romans.

Lots of good opponents too.

Carthaginians
Cataphracts and elephants

Warband would be barbarian tribe type stuff, right?

Late Romans have a lot of variety in troop choices, a lot of foes, and are very morphable – into Earkly Byzantine and the various Post Roman lots, especially if you build a nice big hairy German contingent

Cataphracts and elephants (Sassanian Persian) = mid Imperial, Late Imperial/early Byzantine
Carthaginians = mid Republican
Warband (Celts, Germans, Franks, etc) = any Roman army depending on choice of warband. Celts fought Early Republican through Late Republican and even early Imperial in Britain.

With Romans. You will end up doing them all. Long live the legions!

Middle Republicans have perhaps the widest array of different enemies.

Late Imperials have perhaps the widest array of troop types, and a more combined armies feel than the Republicans who are heavy on heavy foot.

I ended up with Late Republicans (AKA Marians), though, mostly based on locally available opposition. I've since added some extra troops to allow them to serve as slightly earlier "late Polybians" of the 2nd century BC.