"28mm Late Roman army - how to build?" Topic

Not being an expert or scholar on the subject, I am finding the source materials heady and I slowly learning the Latin nomenclature. So right now I am relying on Ospery's Late Roman Infantryman, Late Roman Cavalryman, Roman Legionary AD 236-565, and the Illustrated Encyclopedia of The Uniforms of the Roman World.

So I have ordered what I hope is the core of my Late Roman army. What I've got coming are:
24 armored spearmen (Footsore Miniatures)
24 armored spearmen (Newline)
24 unarmored spearmen (Newline)
48 unarmored spearmen (Gripping Beast)
24 archers (Newline)
and one field scorpio (Gripping Beast)

Cavalry will come later and I'm not sure what to add.

So, that seemed pretty balanced as an infantry starter army, but have I the right mix of units?

Are the armored units "legionaries" and the unarmored "auxiliaries?"
If so, do they mix or do I need to build up the armored units into one unit or legion and the unarmored as a separate auxiliaries unit? I assume the archers are organic to both.

A second question: bronze helmets or iron? I've information that they were both, but would a unit have all bronze or all iron or a mix. Would it depend on geographic location of the legion on which metals were used?

Lastly, shield designs. Would the entire legion have the same shield design or would the separate cohorts have their own? In other words, should I use the same shield design on all the soldiers; different for the armored and unarmored, or different for the individual 24 figure units?

I've tried to locate decals for specific legions and where they were but have pretty much given that up. However, I'd like to have a versatile force that can defend my Hadrian's Wall in one game and fight my Goths in another without using a shield design that someone would say "oh, that is legion XYZ, they would never be fighting Goths."

I've given up on making them historically exact but I would like to have them historically viable without making to much of a faux pax.

Any advice with the right unit mix and painting is greatly appreciated.

Armour's difficult, we really don't know how widely it was worn. The manual of Vegetius claims that "the soldiers" gave up body-armour from the reign of Gratian (375-383), but that's probably an over-simplification, at the very least. It used to be thought that legionaries wore armour and auxiliaries didn't, but some writers now think that armour may have been common in auxilia units as well. The rules you use might lay down some requirements – all legionaries classed as "armoured infantry", for instance – but if they don't then it's up to you. Personally I'd probably use armour to distinguish legions from auxilia, but other gamers' mileage may vary.

All Late Imperial helmets are iron, except for some possible finds of metal fittings for leather helmets. But they could be covered in silver or gold, or perhaps in copper.

By this period, most legions seem to have been much smaller than they were in the early Empire (though the recently found Perge inscription suggests that some elite units may still have been as big as early legions) and it looks from the Notitia Dignitatum as if there was one shield pattern for each legion or each auxilia. Luke Ueda-Sarson's site at link is a good one for shield patterns. You could pick a field army – say link for the Magister Equitum in Gaul – and then at least you'd have shields for a bunch of units known to have served together. Of course the Notitia is only a snapshot of one stage in the development of the army, and what was true when it was compiled may not have been true 50 years earlier.

On the armor issue, some legions might have all armor throughout, some might have no armor whatsoever, and some would be a mix. The mixed units IIRC would have the armored guys upfront and in the last rank, with the unarmored guys in the middle. They may or may not have additionally had archers forming the rear rank and loosing over their heads.

For helmets, personally when I did my army I did them all in iron.

If you can get a copy of WRG Armies and Enemies of Ancient Rome, there are several pages of late roman shield designs taken from the Notitia Dignitatum. FREX, one of my legions is from the Italia Comitatenses. It's a pretty simple design (yellow bosses, blue shields) so easy to paint sans decals. But there are some out there, from Veni, Vidi, Vici decals and IIRC Little Big Men.

Damon.

If you can get hold of the old wab book "fall of the west" it really inspired me, lots of lovely pics of minis, and illustrations of shield designs and the composition of the Roman army in Gaul and Britain. An ideal starter even if you don't plan to use wab rules

Yes, another vote for getting a copy of Fall of The West. It has everything that you need to get started on your army. I organized mine around the order of battle for Strasburg:

link

The old Foundry figures made by the Perrys is a nice range of figures to consider as well.

Just another thought – there were units in mobile field armies (comitatenses) and static units (such as limitanei – frontier guards/garrisons). I use armour to differentiate these (and other) types. Limitanei could be "promoted" to the field army.

Thank you everyone for the helpful and insightful advice.

GurKhan: thanks, that website is one of the ones that is pretty heady, mostly because of my lack of Latin, but very good. Trying to find a shield design decal that matches the Notitia and the legion that I want geographically is difficult but I think I've settled on the VI out of Eburacum. They have, it appears, the wagon wheel design and Little Big Men carries those. Additionally, Ueda-Sarson wrote that Stlicho took some detachments of the VI and sent them to fight the Goths (which I have.) So, it seems the VI matches my needs of Britain and Hadrian's Wall as well as against the Goths and decals available. I like to detail my commanders, characters, and standard bearers/musicians but for the rank and file, the only way to get rid of the lead-rot for me is to paint base colors, decal and dip. So that is why finding the correct or as close as correct as possible decals were important for me.

I will do as you and gavandjosh02 suggested below: separate my comitatenses and auxilia palatina by armored and unarmored units. That makes practical and aesthetic sense for the gaming table.

I think I could probably use my existing Romano-British spearmen as proxy limitanei, certainly the archers.

Thanks for answering the question on helmets. Unfortunately, if bronze helmets were long phased out, then it seems that I need to change a few of my Romano-British as I gave them some bronze helmets for variety.

Garand: thanks, unfortunately it doesn't seem to be a copy available at this time (I'm in Germany and did a search on Amazon, nothing came up.)

But as Emperor Baz and Der alte Fritz suggested (thanks) I did find a copy of Fall of the West and it's on its way.

Lastly, Fritz, thank you for your suggestion as well. It was extremely helpful as I went to the Foundry site and they have a nice little introduction on Late Romans and how to build a balanced army – as well as painting suggestions. That helps as I use the Foundry painting system for my minis.

I think I will pick up a few of those Perry/Foundry minis, they look as if they will nicely blend in with GB/Footsore/New Line fairly well…and they are priced about the same. I like to mix and match lines if they blend together well, for the variety.

It seems in searching through the information suggested here so far and taking a second look at Hail Caesar army list for Late Romans, I will probably need one unit of scholae palatini and the Perry/ Foundry armored spearmen with crested helms look as if they would suit that purpose.

Thanks again every one, I'm a bit more informed and confident that I am on track to put together a well-balanced and realistic army for the table.

One last point if anyone would care to give their opinion: Sarmartians in Britain? Would there have really been sarmartian cataphracts assigned to the VI? I just came across something that said there is extant evidence of a small unit of Sarmartians relocated by Marcus Aurelius.

A small contingent would be fun to paint but if it doesn't match with the army I am trying to build then it can wait for later.

Thanks again everyone for your kind and informative suggestions

On Sarmatians, yes, a large Sarmatian force was deported to Britain in the 2nd century, we know they kept their distinctive equipment for a while as there's a grave monument showing a Sarmatian draco-bearer –

– and the Notitia still lists a cuneus Sarmatarum at Bremetenaccum (Ribchester in Lancs). So while there is no reason to think they are really "assigned to the VI Legion", they are under the same command as that legion (the Dux Britanniarum). Did they still keep Sarmatian equipment or fight as charging lancers after being in Britain for 200-250 years? Probably not, to be honest, but you never know.