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I have made the point that all these
armies are basically interchangeable.A good starting
point is Patrician Roman. First start off with some Hairy
Warband, the more generic the better, and add in some
archers to boot......these are the core of most of the
Dark Age armies, serving as Warband, Spearmen and even
cowering Hordes. |
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Everyone needs 6 Alans! Alans &
Sarmatians tend to be in all armies in this period (and
many others - these are mine, and operate in my Dark Age
Europeans, Steppe armies and also in my Hellenistic
armies. |
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Next, add some declining Patrician
Romans - these late "regulars" can serve as
Romans, Sub Roman Gauls & British, or as later Gallo-Roman
forces in a Gothic or Frankish army, as well as Early
Byzantine troops. One joy of the
Late and Patrician Romans is that the units are all
readily identifiable from the shield patterns recorded in
the Notitia Dignitatum - the only Ancient army that has
this level of detail. In the foreground are Auxilia of
the regional army, followed by the Legiones. In the rear
are Limitanei, local border troops.
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A sunnier view of the Roman troops -
all these are usable in the Sub Roman & Early
Byzantine armies, and the Legiones in Gothic, Frankish
and Sub Roman armies |
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Roman Light Horse - the Equites
Scutarii Seniores supports the Equites Sagitarii Parthi
Iuniores. If you plan to use Byzantines, a dodge is to
build one of the Equites Mauri (Moorish) units as it is
not clear if the Moors in Byzantine service were
uniformed, but if they were you're there. |
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Roman or Early Byzantine heavy
horsemen....in the front are Clibanarii of the Equites
Persae Clibanarii, in the rear are charging Taifal
lancers of the Equites Honoriani Taifali Iuniores and
Germanic cavalry of the Equites Batavi Iuniores. In the
Byzantine army the front regiment would be the Sassanians
used in Italy, the rear units are Phoideratoi |
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Now you can go in 2 directions - if
its a Walk on the Wild Side, then, add some good old hard
charging dark age Knights, raring to get their teeth into
that enemy. Add a few character commanders for different
armies - Goths, Lombard, Merovingians, Carolingians (Franks)
etc - Donnington make some really good ones. |
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The other direction is Byzantium - you
need a lot of Byzantine heavy horse archers, these are of
the Comites Iuniores. Its not clear if the late Roman
units survived, but is likely as many of them are named
in Byzantine sources. Note that
the very late Patrician Roman, and the Early Byzantines,
can field their heavy horse archers as Light Horse. I
disagree with the interpretation but it does increase
morphability, as fielding them as shown here is a
Byzantine-only troop type
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You also need to build the Boukelarii...such
as these Byzantine heavy lancers of the Equites Leones
Clibanarii and behind the Comites Alani. The Equites
Leones is mentioned in Byzantine sources. |
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Byzantine armies used steppe nomads as
allies, and they do add flexibility to the army.. |
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Now its time to take the next Steppe.....paint
up some Steppe heavies (right), those Alans &
Sarmatian become Kavars, all those hairy warbands now
appear as Slavs, your Hairy Horse mutates into Slav and
Magyar gentry , then add 21 hairy horse archers, and
voila! The Magyar terror emerges..... (...you can do Avar or Bulgar too, but I read
that the raiding Magyars looked very similar to their
Frankish foes, so used this as a justification to field
large numbers of my Germanic hairies as Slavs, Gentry etc.)
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| The Lazy bugger hasn't taken a pic of the Khazars yet! |
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......and now one steppe further -
some Khorasanian Ghulams, a few mercenary heavy spearmen
(mine are Rus), and a man in wagon with a great big gong,
and the Khazars are yours! |