Counts as armies Good? Bad? or just Ugly?

[Admiral-Badruck]

^Sez hee hoo mist att leest harfa duzzin kapitalz ann apostrofy orr too az welll az yuzin weigh 2 menny sentins fraggments.

Luk mike da pyk can bark orcy bark..

[Primarch]

http://store.warlordgames.co.uk/testudo-6311-p.asp

Its called a Testudo, as the page clearly tells you. .

It's a 6 part model (I believe Ash has one?) So you would have real difficulty with removing casualties.

Roman Armour looked like this:

Bands of iron over a woolen tunic with nothing to protect the lower half of the body or arms.

WFB Heavy armour is more along these lines:

Solid pieces of steel with extra pieces over the joints to protect them, usually with chain mail underneath to cover the areas the plate doesn't. As you can see, it is also a lot sexier.

[Admiral-Badruck]

fair enough but the big bad shield should count for something...

[Colonel Voss]

Tetsudos was used when approaching a fortified wall. In the open field it would be a poor formation as it is very slow moving and once the first guy dies the formation would collapse in on itself.

In fantasy, sword plus shield confer a 6+ ward save in addition to the normal armor save.

[job]

Are you sure that "Testudo" is the proper term for the scaled armor used by legionnaires during the 2nd century? I believe, like Voss, it just refers the turtle-like formation used by Romans during some operations.

I got "squamae" or squama" on wikipedia. Oh, yes, this was the term I read so many times as a kid. (lorica squamata)


And, yes, Voss, the plate armors is sexy, but does she also try on the scaled armor?

[Admiral-Badruck]

Its called a Testudo, as the page clearly tells you. .

It's a 6 part model (I believe Ash has one?) So you would have real difficulty with removing casualties.

Roman Armour looked like this:

Bands of iron over a woolen tunic with nothing to protect the lower half of the body or arms.
Tetsudos was used when approaching a fortified wall. In the open field it would be a poor formation as it is very slow moving and once the first guy dies the formation would collapse in on itself.

Are you sure that "Testudo" is the proper term for the scaled armor used by legionnaires during the 2nd century? I believe, like Voss, it just refers the turtle-like formation used by Romans during some operations.

I got "squamae" or squama" on wikipedia. Oh, yes, this was the term I read so many times as a kid. (lorica squamata)


And, yes, Voss, the plate armors is sexy, but does she also try on the scaled armor?

This is why I do not play historical...

[Mike the Pike]

prim was talking about the formation too (if you follow his link) which Badruck wanted to use for Skaven (WTF!!!!). The picture of armour was to illustrate a point about, well, Roman armour. The picture of the beautiful woman wearing plate armour was just to make us all feel bad

[Primarch]

Are you sure that "Testudo" is the proper term for the scaled armor used by legionnaires during the 2nd century? I believe, like Voss, it just refers the turtle-like formation used by Romans during some operations.

Er....
The formation that Badruck posted a link to, that says Testudo in the link, has Testudo written all over the page and is a model of the classic Roman 'tortoise' assault style is called a Testudo. The armour pictured is lōrīca segmentāta, similar to banded mail. Lorica squamata is more like scale mail.

prim was talking about the formation too (if you follow his link) which Badruck wanted to use for Skaven (WTF!!!!). The picture of armour was to illustrate a point about, well, Roman armour. The picture of the beautiful woman wearing plate armour was just to make us all feel bad

Thanks.

This is why I do not play historical...

You dont actually need to know any of this stuff to play historical games. Its not like you read any of the Warhammer novels before you play 40K or WFB right? Has it ever come up in a game exactly how many implants a Space Marine has, or which ones the Space Wolves dont have? Did it ever become relevant that you didnt know the name of one of the Elector Count's Runefangs? Historical stuff is the same. So long as stuff looks roughly about right, you're ok.
You do know that GW does Historical games based on an earlier version of WFB (4th or 5th I think) dont you? Given that you dont really play any non-GW games, they may be a good introduction.

fair enough but the big bad shield should count for something...

In a Testudo formation, the men could move forward without being shot at, though they couldnt move that fast as they had to remain in formation. Perhaps a 2+ armour save against shooting would be accurate, but no marching or charging. As Voss says, they couldnt fight in that formation, as they had no room to swing their swords. In combat they'd be back to their 5+ save with their 6+ parry.

[Colonel Voss]

Tetsudo was used after the Marius reform. Before hand, there were different types of shields used by different level of soldier, velites, hastati, principes, triarii being the order of battle.

Basically I would put it like this for the empire,

Velites: archer skirmishers (though technically javelins)
Hastati and principes; swordsmen
Triarii; spearmen

after Marius, I would go with

Legionarie (based on the principes); swordsmen
Auxilia; spearmen

About the stormvermin, remember that they use halberds, something the legions never had. That long stick was a javelin designed for one throw (if you tried to pick it up and use again, it would break). Also, the legions were if anything, super reliable whereas the skaven are anything but.

[AndrewGPaul]

You want to use Roman Legion models in a Warhammer army?

Dwarfs.

The "popular" depiction of an Imperial Roman army is solid, dependable and built like a brick ... outhouse. You use Legionaries as Warriors, auxiliary archers as crossbowmen, Praetorian Guard (or something obviously "elite"-looking) as Ironbreakers and then you've got stone throwers and bolt throwers. Use what you like for the various "fantasy" elements such as Runesmiths, Anvils of Doom and the like. You can even have Slayers, if you add in a unit of allied Celts/Germans.

The current Skaven armour has a bit of an Oriental look to it, if you squint a bit, although the actual performance of the army is obviously different.