PSC Early Romans

[PaulW]

Hi All ,

In PSC box of Early imperial romans auxiliery infantry have swords , when in rules they should have short spears.  To make it more accurate i made my models as legio VII Germina becouse i found some notes that spanish legions used lorica segmentata even in 3 and begining of 4th century (probably not 100% but it can work ) and play them as Rome imperium period. Are there any other ways to play with those model accourding to rules ?

[nikgaukroger]

Auxilia had swords and used them just like the legionarii - description of Mons Graupius is (IIRC) a good descriptive source for that. A figure with just a sword would be depicting the auxiliary after his spear has been otherwise used.

[PaulW]

HI
thanks for you comment i was aware they had swords just thinking about the models for gaming purpses.
ok than just for modeling i will need to buy some auxielia with spears , dont like the idea of informing player that im against that they have spears for counting what dice should we roll.

[nikgaukroger]

Fair enough but it is not, IMO, an issue in games. There are a number of characteristics that are not specifically represented visually such as Devastating Charger, Shove, etc. and as it is usual to define your troops when deployed it causes no problems.

[Plantagenet]

Personally I wouldn't bother about it, what's important IMO is that the models accurately represent the troop type they represent from which the arms and armour can be gleaned from the rules rules.  WYSIWYG thankfully is not so much of an issue as you not only have the weapon they may be using at that particular moment of the battle but also the fact that many troops carried more than one type of weapon and many of them, especially Gallic types (some of which may also fight in non-warband configuration) where even troops on the same stand will be armed differently.  A similar issue is where many roman legionaries are depicted with the pilum whereas their classification will nearly always be some kind of sword / impact foot, albeit some rules will cater for a pila throwing range. The other thing is that rules often use a term other than in a literal sense merely to denote a fighting style and combat result, Spanish Scutarii being a prime example, often described as sword infantry or something similar.  Try finding Scutarii modelled with swords, you may get a few in a pack but not 8 or 24.  Nothing to stop people from depicting troops as they wish of course, just my thoughts having spent way too much time in years gone by trying to match a troop type to the rule description rather than just using a figure that accurately represents the troop type.