"Early Imperial Roman Era Gaming - Best 3 Books to Start" Topic

If one was interested in gaming this era, what would be the top three books to own for information on painting, organising, tactics and so forth. The list not to include rules books, unless said books had the required info. Basically, most bang for the buck to get started in the genre. Thanks. Oh, and I said early Imperial so I'm thinking 100 CE to maybe 150 CE. (?)

Phil Barker's Armies and Enemies of Imperial Rome (1981 edition.) would have to be up there for painting and equipment info.

Perhaps also the Keppie book on the Making of the Roman Army, but that has quite a bit on Caesar and Augustus so might not quite have the focus you're looking for.

Anything by Goldsworthy

John Warry: Warfare in the Classical World is still very good for Greek & Roman stuff – lots of pictures, too.
Goldsworthy: Complete Roman Army is very good.

Good bang for buck and conciseness could be Osprey's Elite series "Roman Battle Tactics 109BC-313AD" also because it includes formations, both infantry/cavalry tactics, and equipment.

Aside from the above, the Osprey Roman Legionary 58 BC-AD 69 by Ross Cowan is very good, also the Osprey Roman Auxiliary Cavalryman book by Simon MacDowall.

The Peter Connolly books on the Roman army are a great introduction:-

link

Although a little dated now, you could do worse than Webster's 'The Imperial Roman Army'

To reinforce what others have already said, Goldsworthy's The Complete Roman Army and Webster's The Imperial Roman Army (dated as it is, it is still pretty good, and has never really been replaced) would be my top two. Everything else mentioned so far is good too, though. To add a couple more suggestions: on equipment, Bishop & Coulston's Roman Military Equipment (2nd ed 2006) is a standard survey, which gives a good analysis of the various sources, albeit over a much longer period than you are interested in. Perhaps more pertinent for painting, Graham Sumner's Roman Military Dress (2009) is the place to look for discussion of colours of tunics and cloaks, and is relatively inexpensive in paperback.

Thank you all, great suggestions.