Patrician Roman

Book 2, List 83

This is of course essentially a morph of the Late Imperial Roman army, covering the period of history when regular Roman forces were in severe, in the west terminal, decline and the empire relied on barbarian foederati for a significant proportion of its troops. The reliability of these troops was at times suspect and the list ends at the point that the empire in the east expelled the Goths from its territory and recreated a "regular" army. By this time it was too late for the west which had ceased to exist as a Roman state.

One of the main attraction of this army in wargaming terms is the combination of Regular generals, a core of good regular troops if you want them and a powerful barbarian strike force of Kn(F) and Wb(S). However, the most successful version of the army is with the foederati upgraded to regular with the Wb becoming more Ps supported Ax(S).

As with the Late Imperial army the list is very flexible with very few minimums and the option to convert the foederati into Regular troops - Ax(S) for the infantry and Kn(F) for the cavalry. In the east half to all the foederati foot are replaced by Isaurians, Irr Ps(S), post 466AD. Also, in another added flexibility the supporting Ps are now 0 - 1 and not 0 or 1 as in the Late Imperial Roman list. The western army has an impressive list of allies, but these really don't add anything that the army doesn't already have in abundance. The east is slightly better served with Arab allies which could give you Cm(O) as a cheap alternative to Kn(F); again the Ostrogothic ally adds nothing. The main reason for the unimpressive nature of the allies is the inclusion of Kn and Wb in the main list. The only really worthwhile ally is the Hunnic ally to add lots of LH(S), although as you can change all the Roman mounted to Reg LH(S) after 454AD this is less useful that it first appears.

Tactics for the irregular version of the army revolve around keeping control of the two sorts of impetuous troops long enough to get them into position to deliver an attack. The regulars are good enough to look after themselves as the Bd and Ax have the same supporting Ps as in the earlier list, and the Ax are excellent bad going troops. As with the Mithridatic the really paranoid can make use of up to 20 TF not restricted to the camp, although I personally dislike such a rigidly static posture for my armies. The usual deployment puts the Kn(F) under the command of the C-in-C to exert maximum control as they have a longer move than the Wb, so having to advance the latter is not so much of a problem. I have also found that the Kn(F) are quite able to manoeuvre as long as it is not too close to the enemy and so are a plausible reserve if you need to hold back from all out attack.

The wholly regular army is very much a finesse army that takes a lot of practice and skill to use. The large numbers of LH dictate the pace of the battle whilst the Kn and Ax manoeuvre into position to deliver the decisive attacks. The army obviously needs terrain to manoeuvre around, but with low aggression this is not usually a problem.

reigatepatrician.txt - a very sucessful version of the army as used by a number of Reigate players.

400appatsyvarient.txt - a new Patrician, is it any good?

400appatsyvarientv2.txt - a different veersion of the above.

patricianv2.txt - yet another new version.

srp2003.txt - the latest Reigate version. It's a goody.