Roman Foederate list Alani now downgraded to a contingent?

[Robin]

Why are Alani now a contingent instead of an Ally? We’re they never formally allied as per the other so called Allies in the Roman Foederate list ?

[lionheartrjc]

The numbers of Alans were always relatively small. The were settled as foederates, and as the Roman Empire collapsed they gained a degree of independence. Having them as an ally allows a Roman army with 4 TuGs of lancers.  This is not historically justified.

Should never have really been an ally in the first place.

Richard

[nikgaukroger]

They are still an ally, just dealt with as an internal one rather than an external one. Defined contingents are used where the usual ally approach would not give the right troops or too many options - but they are still allies (unless defined as subbies which does happen occasionally where it is the necessary approach).

The reason the Alans are a contingent in this list (and the Gallic Foederate list) is that the Alans were a scattered bunch of relatively small bands in the west and none would (probably) be big enough to justify a normal allied command. The last "big" grouping in the west would have been that which joined the Vandals and merged with them; that is in the Early Vandal list.

[Robin]

Thankyou for the response