This army list covers the forces of the Roman empire over the period from the consolidation of power by Emperor Diocletian until collapse of the western Roman empire at i.e. from about 285AD to 475AD. During this period the familiar heavy infantry of the Roman legion began rapidly surrendering centre stage to new cavalry units, and the army was re-organised into two very different forces: the limitanei, low grade static frontier forces, and the comitatenses, a better trained and more mobile field force. Initially the policy worked well, but as the fourth century wore on, the barbarian pressure on the Roman frontier grew into a migratory flood. Finally, in AD 476, a German mercenary named Odovacar deposed Emperor Romulus Augustus and proclaimed himself the king of Italy. The mighty Roman empire that had dominated Europe for over 500 years was gone.

ARMY COMPOSITION

Characters: The army may have a general and army standard bearer.
Cavalry: Up to three quarters of the pts value of the army
Infantry: Up to three quarters of the pts value of the army
Allies: Up to a half of the pts value of the army

The mimimum n size for a Regiment is five infantry models or three chariot models. There is no upper limit. One model in each unit *my be upgraded to Leader at +5 pts, Standard Bearer at +5 pts and Musician at +5 pts.

SPECIAL RULES

COMBINED FORMATIONS

The toe Roman army mixed bow armed troops and shock infantry together, generally with the missile troops forming the rear ranks of the unit. To represent this, heavy and auxiliary infantry may be combined with archers to form a single regiment, with the archers making up the rear ranks of the unit. When combined with heavy infantry the archers lose their light infantry status and are treated as normal infantry for the purposes of movement and rank bonuses. Not that any casualties must be taken against the infantry first, before any are applied to the archers.

THE STAFF SLING

The gaff sling consisted of a large sling attached to the end of a stout staff. It could throw larger missiles over greater distances compared to a normal sling, although its rate of fire was not nearly as high. In game terms it is treated as being identical to a crossbow.

DARTS

Darts am treated as javelins but with a strength of 2 and a range of 12".

CATAPHRACTS

Cataphracts were used by many armies in the ancient world. They generally appear to have fought in a deep formation, and to have 'trotted' into combat rather than charging, and to have then engaged their enemy by using thier long 'kontos' spears with an overarm 'thnisting' motion, rather than 'couching' them under-arm as knights did in the middle ages. In many ways it is easier to imagine them as a kind of mounted phalanx. To relect this the following special rules apply to cataphract cavalry.

Cataphract cavalry do count their rank bonus, up to a maximum bonus of +3 points.

Cataphract may not march.

SHIELD WALL

Units of late Roman heavy infantry may form a shield wall instead of moving. As long as the unit is in a shield wall then all enemy attacks from the front of the unit (shooting and hand to hand) suffer a -1 to hit modifier. The unit benefits from the shield wall as long as it doesn't move or lose a round of close combat.

CHARACTERS

0-1 ARMY GENERAL

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Pts
4	6	6	4	4	3	6	3	9	170

Equipment: Sword. May have light armour at +2 pts, shield or buckler at +1 pt, large shield at +2 pts. May ride a warhorse at + 3 pts or a barded warhorse at +7 pts.

Special Rules; Army general.

0-1 ARMY BATTLE STANDARD

M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Pts
4	4	4	4	4	2	4	2	8	90

Equipment: Sword. May have light armour at +2 pts, shield or buckler at +1 pt, large shield at +2 pts. May ride a warhorse at + 3 pts or a barded warhorse at +7 pts.

Special Rules: Army standard bearer.

CAVALRY

HEAVY CAVALRY

Type	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Pts
0-1 Guard	8	4	4	3	3	1	4	1	8	26
Cataphracts	5	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	24
Comitatenses	8	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	19

Equipment: Armed with sword, throwing spear, shield and light armour. Any may have javelins at +I pt, darts at +I pt, short bow at +1 pt. May replace throwing spear with kontos at +1 pt. May replace light armour with heavy armour at +2 pts. Cataphracts have barding and must take kontos (pts included above).

Special Rules: Cataphracts may not march, but always count rank bonus. Others count rank bonus of up to +1 when charging.

LIGHT CAVALRY

Type	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Pts
Comitatenses	8	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	16
Limitanei	8	2	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	12

Equipment: Armed with swords, javelins, and buckler. May have throwing spear at +2 pts. May replace buckler with shield at +1 pt or large shield at +3 pts. May replace javelins with kontos at +1 pt or bow at +2 pts.

Special Rules: Light Cavalry.

INFANTRY

HEAVY INFANTRY

Type	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Pts
Guard	4	4	4	3	3	1	3	1	8	11
Comitatenses	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	7
Limitanei	4	2	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	4

Equipment: Armed with sword, throwing spear, shield. May have light armour at +2 pts, javelins at +1 pt, darts at +1 pt. May replace shield with large shield at +1 pt.

Special Rules: May form shieldwall (see above) .

LIGHT INFANTRY

Type	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Pts
Auxilliaries	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	7
Archers	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	7

Equipment: Auxilliaries armed with sword.javelins, and shield; archers with bow. Auxilliaries may have throwing spears at +1 pt, darts +1 pt, and may replace shield with large shield at +1 pt. Any may have light armour at +2 pts.

Special Rules: Light Infantry. Archers may be combined with other light or heavy infantry units.

SKIRMISHERS

Type	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Pts
Lanciarii	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	6
Skimishers	4	2	3	3	3	1	3	1	5	3

Equipment: Armed with sword andjavelins. May have buckler or shield at +1 pt, throwing spear at +1 pt, darts at +1 pt. May replace javelins with sling for free, bow at +1 pt, or crossbow/staff sling at +2 pts.

Special Rules: Skimishers.

ARTILLERY

Type	M	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A	Ld	Pts
Bolt Thrower	-	-	-	-	6	2	-	-	-	50
Stone Thrower	-	-	-	-	7	3	-	-	-	75
Crew	4	3	3	3	3	1	3	1	7	free

Equipment: Each machine has a crew of 2-5 men armed with swords. The crew may have light armour at +2 pts per crewman.

Special Rules. No more than one artillery piece per infantry unit in army. Bolt Thrower: Range = 48", Strength = 51-1 per rank, no save, D4 wounds per hit. Stone Thrower: Range = 48". Strength = 7, no save, D3 wounds per hit.

BARBARIAN ALLIES

The Late Roman army included large numbers of Barbarian allies and mercenary units. Barbarian allies were known as Numeri, Symmachiarii or Foederatii, depending on how they were recruited, and may be purchased from the Barbarian and Nomad Horde army lists.