Thracians and Rhompaia

A place to talk about MESHWESH army lists
Post Reply
User avatar
greedo
Squire
Posts: 128
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:24 pm

Thracians and Rhompaia

Post by greedo » Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:46 pm

So I've seen in other sets that Thracians carrying the dreaded rhompaia are rated as beefier than the standard Peltasts that Thrace is known for.
I didn't see them mentioned in the High or Low Hill Thracian lists. Are they expected to be Light Spear, if they aren't Light Foot?

Would 0-1 element be worth making them Raiders or maybe Warband to incorporate their heavier weaponry/effect?
Dacians have an element (0-4) of Raiders using the Falx, which I understand is a similar weapon with similar psychological and armor smashing effects.
I know the point is to not to worry about weapons so much as effect for a unit, but is their effect sufficient to warrant a change?
User avatar
David Kuijt
Grand Master WGC
Posts: 1449
Joined: Wed Dec 07, 2016 4:44 pm
Location: MD suburbs of Washington DC

Re: Thracians and Rhompaia

Post by David Kuijt » Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:21 pm

greedo wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:46 pm
So I've seen in other sets that Thracians carrying the dreaded rhompaia are rated as beefier than the standard Peltasts that Thrace is known for.
I didn't see them mentioned in the High or Low Hill Thracian lists. Are they expected to be Light Spear, if they aren't Light Foot?

Would 0-1 element be worth making them Raiders or maybe Warband to incorporate their heavier weaponry/effect?
Dacians have an element (0-4) of Raiders using the Falx, which I understand is a similar weapon with similar psychological and armor smashing effects.
I know the point is to not to worry about weapons so much as effect for a unit, but is their effect sufficient to warrant a change?
I suppose it depends if they fought together as a unit, or if Rhomphia-wielders were distributed as a small admixture in a larger group of more normal open-order peltasts with shield and pelte. It's a long time since I looked at them; I don't recall what went through our discussions back then.

Rhomphia and falx are essentially the same weapon; they would be rated as Raiders, I believe.
DK
User avatar
greedo
Squire
Posts: 128
Joined: Wed Feb 03, 2021 11:24 pm

Re: Thracians and Rhompaia

Post by greedo » Thu Oct 21, 2021 12:48 am

David Kuijt wrote:
Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:21 pm
I suppose it depends if they fought together as a unit, or if Rhomphia-wielders were distributed as a small admixture in a larger group of more normal open-order peltasts with shield and pelte. It's a long time since I looked at them; I don't recall what went through our discussions back then.

Rhomphia and falx are essentially the same weapon; they would be rated as Raiders, I believe.
Exactly my point! Although as you say, difficult to prove whether Rhomphia was intermingled in a standard Light Foot unit, or if they grouped them together. Since we do it for Dacians, and they are called out as a specific weapon in histories (i.e. we know about them), I would say they must have been effective enough to be written about. So I could see an argument for them being a single element of Raiders.

I guess the next question would be how many elements would the Thracians get, and which list (high or low high Thracians). I would suggest 0-1 Elements, and maybe only include in Low, but that's based purely on conjecture and allowing the lists to be very distinct from one another.
Post Reply