This represents the Italian armies who fought the Romans during the Social War. For those not familiar with this conflict, Rome's Italian allies revolted against her because they felt with justification that they were getting little out of their support for Rome in its wars. This lead to battles between legionary armies almost identical in equipment and tactics, which presaged the great civil wars of the late Republic. Rome won as much by shrewd diplomacy as by fighting. The Roman franchise was extended to those allies who stayed loyal, or even gave up quickly. So long as the Senate was allowed to save its face by representing this as a generous reward for years of loyal support (rather than caving in to just demands) the substance of the allies' demands was thus granted, and the war petered out (just in time for Sulla's civil war to start, but that's another story……).

Compared to Marian Romans, initiative and commands have been downgraded because the Romans monopolised senior positions, leaving the Italians with no experienced senior commanders of their own. The Italians have no access to auxiliaries from the provinces and so have to improvise support troops as best they can. (The extraordinarii are a throwback to the Polybian legions which had them as a picked elite force from their allied contingents – I've assumed that in this case they are legionary types doing their best to be light infantry. Plus I liked the name ! ) The SI and LC are meant to be as poor as the list makes them. The heavy infantry are a mix of legionary equivalents, second rate legion, and recruits equipped similarly but not trained to that standard. I've assumed any ally that rebelled would have at least a hard core of troops at Roman standard, but after that the quality might well be more mixed – the list is intended to allow anything from near Roman quality to a lot of relatively dubious troops.

In wargame terms this army has the benefit of a mix of heavy infantry types that might offset its lack of support troops. The cohorts are flexible enough to support the supports, so to speak.

Era: Age of Empires		Social War Italian (90-88 B.C.)	CR: H: 5 L: 2			BP: 2	Init: 5
Core
Number	Type	Description	Key	FV	PROT	Weapon
4	FT	Trained Legionary Infantry	Key	7(2)2	+2	Pila/swords	11
1	FT	Trained FT	Key	6(2)1	+2	Pila/swords	9
1	FT	Recruits	Key	5(2)1	+2	Pila/swords	7
Bonus:
2	COH	Legionaries	Key	7(2)2	+2	Pila/swords	13
5	FT	Trained troops	Key	6(2)1	+2	Pila/swords	9
5	FT	Recruits	Key	5(2)1	+2	Pila/swords	7
1	HC	Equites	Key	4(0)0	+1	Various	10
3	LHI	Extraordinarii	Key	4(1)2	+1	Javelins	7
2	LC	Scouts		1(0)0	+1	Various	5
2	SI			3(1)2	+2	Slings	2

Terrain:

Core: 1 GR

Bonus: (Max: 2 ) 2 Gr, 1 Sh, 1 RG, 1 W

Notes:

Ordo Link: Social War Italian

Last Edited: 29 january 2005

List Author: Mithradates