Caesars Legion for SAGA

Why not try Saga around 200 B.C. – 200 A.D.?

The basic idea for a warband in this time were the plastic boxes by Warlord Games for Hail Caesar, the Caesar’s Legions to be precise. As this range currently receives a lot of love, last but not least due to the latest Hail Caesar Supplemet Age of Caesar, it was a good time to pick this idea up again.

Supported was this idea by the current SAGA campaign of the Weiß-Blauen Strategen, „Ist das Karthago oder kann das Weg?“, (Is this Carthago or may i throw it away?) based upon the SAGA rule set along with the Age of the Wolves supplement.

But why not wait for the the latest SAGA supplement Aetius & Arthur? Well, yes, it has Romans, along with Goths (both Visigoths and Ostrogoths), Huns, Britons, Picts and Saxons. The romans might fit, even they don't fit age-wise that good, but until the rules are here, I'll go with the most used alternative.

In the SAGA community the Scots from the Northern Fury supplement are often used as a frame for the Romans. But why Scots as Romans? The warband covers a defensive gameplay and has tactical options, that could be compared with the organisation of a roman legion. With the units of the Scots, a caesarian legion has mostly spears as weapons - with the exception of Levies, who carry bows or javelins. Beside that Warlord and Hearthguard may be mounted. Legionaries are a good match and fit with pillum and gladius pretty good, as the warrior units with spears. Velites with their javelins are a perfect match of the levies with the same weaponry. Optional you could use auxilaries or mercenaries for this unit, like numidian skirmishers with javelins or celtic archers. Depending on your time frame, after the social war, it might be a better choice to field mercenaries instead of velites. SAGA doesn't take itself (historic) so seriously, so this project is nothing for fact lawyers. I'm trying to build a atmospheric warband, without the claim for 100% historic accuracy.

And the scottish list covers two „Heroes of the Viking Age“ with Kenneth Mac Alpin, King of D’Alba and Macbeth, the last Celtic King of Scotland. By those, you have the rules to field the lovely miniatures of Julius Caesar, Marc Antony, Pompey and Marcus Crassus. At Wargames Illustrated they have another nice interpretation of Julius Caesar in their Giants in Miniature range.

How will this small warband of 4 to 6 points look like? For the Warlord I went with Pullo and Vorenus, a nice fit of the old writings of Caesar, but the miniatures by Warlord Games cover the feel of the HBO series "Rome".

0 P – Warlord Titus Pullo & Lucius Vorenus
1 P – 4 Hearthguard
1 P – 4 Hearthguard
1 P – 8 Warrior
1 P – 8 Warrior
1 P – 8 Warrior
1 P – 12 Levies

There is the consideration of swapping one of the hearthguard or warrior units against a second unit of levies / mercenaries. But that depends on the miniatures. The velites of Aegemea are a better fit for the Victrix republican romans, for that reason I'm not yet set how to set up the levies in this warband.

As I'm covered with the plastic boxes by Warlord Games, others might prefer metal. For those - among others - Wargames Foundry might be the way to go. Little Big Men Studios has the matching decals for the shields. And as I still have some books from Field of Glory around, I have some basic information and links to the proper sources. Rome is a thankful topic, you find a lot on Wikipedia and such, but of course there are the Osprey books, among others the Men-at-Arms 46, 283 and 291 (available as a Caesar's Legions bundle). In july the topic was covered in Wargames Illustrated, Issue 345, as well.

Next step is preparing the miniatures, cleaning mold lines, doing smaller conversions to cover the unit choices. And of course, such a (small) roman legion needs suiting enemies, but more on that later as well. This is it for today, and remember, tomorrow opens another door at the calendar.