From Migration to Kingdom – an introduction

The Severan Dynasty was my first major ancients’ project following the publication of DBA 3.0; this not only involved the painting of 3rd century Roman armies but many of the enemies spanning the frontier from Britain to the Middle East and Africa. The project also involved the construction of period related structures and brought a standardization of terrain for all the DBA geographical categories. My interest for the ancient period steadily grew and I began afresh with a new project focusing on the post second Punic War period, titled the Consular army.

This second project did not reach the same scale as the first but did add some exotic armies to my collection to include the Carthaginian, Seleucid and the Greco-Bactrian. I took also the time to begin developing a campaign rule set which eventually focused on the conquest of Hispania following the end of the second Punic War. This version served well for players wishing to explore the two Celtiberian wars and the campaign against the Lusitanian but unfortunately this was not a system that could be played in a short period of time, a second version could.

The revised set brought our usual evening of three games in a campaign setting which added an extra level of tension and enjoyment and two such campaigns have been posted here involving the Hunnic incursions into the empire of the Sassanid and Anatolia of Later Imperial Rome. Using the framework of a historical setting, our battles no longer became isolated engagements but could and did involve forces of unequal size, necessitating the use of allied contingents and were at times fought over ground not normally associated as “home” terrain.

Further, readers could follow a series of historical match ups which  brought both Severan and Consular period armies to fight against a long list of enemies. Blunders were made during the series and readers were quick to comment and on the whole the series demonstrated what deployments work well, terrain placement and tactical use of troops.  

This brings me in a long about way to a third ancient project titled “From Migration to Kingdom”. This does touch on the Western Empire of the Later Imperial and Patrician era but focuses on the barbarian nations and those which evolved into kingdoms. New armies are being added to the collection and a special campaign scenario will allow players to simulate after a fashion the migration of barbarian tribes and for some the establishment of a kingdom. 

In the coming weeks future posts will look at an overview of the Roman army, the administrative structure and the historical events that changed the face of Western Europe. 

Cheers,