Rome in this period is still a Republic, but she teeters on the verge of becoming a Principality. Power is slowly be wrested away from the Senate and the people and is falling more under the spell of one great family, The Familia Prope Fraxinum.
At the start of the campaign the family led by Pulcher, has its claws deep within the Senate and the military. Popular with the mob and with equestrian (noble) families alike, the position looks favourable for the Prope Fraxinum. As Rome, is pushed further into military commitments in the East, so the family will tighten its grip on the Republic through clever manipulation of the legions and nepotist promotions within the military and the senate. When the time is right, they will declare the head of the family as Principal of Rome, Emperor of the Roman Empire.
The Roman army at this time is based round the legions which were mostly heavy infantry organised into cohorts (see the following link for a detailed account: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marian_reforms). The legionaries fought in close order with shield, pilum, and gladius. The Romans themselves had very little cavalry and few light troops. The majority of these were supplied by auxilliary troops supplied by annexed nations and mostly fighting in their native style.
In DBMM game terms, the Marian Roman army is fairly flexible. It has a Regular command structure and a strong core of Regular Blades (legionaries). The blades are good in open terrain and hold their own in rough or even difficult terrain. The optional troops add to this flexibility. The option to field Cavalry, Light Horse, Auxilliaries, Psiloi, Artillery, and even an African Elephant gives the Romans an almost 'swiss-army-knife' feel to them. They pretty much have something for every occasion. This makes them a fairly easy army to use and a difficult one to play against. The downside is that sometimes there are too many bits and pieces and not enough of any given troop type other than blades.
The Roman player, Nash, is from the UK (born in Wales and brought up in Staffordshire). He has lived in S.E.Asia for 15 years or more. His gaming background included a period of competitive DBM play, and attending tournaments was a regular pastime - his claim to fame being 3rd place in The World's at Derby one year! Unfortunately, this DBM heritage sometimes gets in the way of DBMM play (rules and combat factor changes ) as occurred in the first campaign game much to his chagrin. He rather fancies his chances in the campaign for two reasons:
1. he is using the Romans
2. losing last year's campaign taught him some valuable lessons
Should anyone be interested in playing DBMM or other games in Bangkok, or would like to comment he can be contacted here or at monkey.nash@gmail.com
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