Jim Marshall
United Kingdom
York
North Yorkshire
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Each year's two new Roman Consuls must be placed with a Consular army (i.e. at least five combat units). Is there anything that says they must be given different armies to play with?
Picture the situation whereby Rome starts a turn with Marcellus (i.e. a good general) sacked with ten combat units in (say) Naples and no other Roman units in play. In the reinforcement phase, the Roman places 5 combat units in Rome, then after declaring Marcellus Proconsul draws two weak generals as Consuls.
Can the two Consuls both be played in Rome sharing the army there (with one nominated as lead general), sharing the Consular army and thus leaving Proconsul Marcellus with his ten combat units in Naples to get on with the turn's real business untroubled by incompetent Consuls? Or must one of the Consuls be placed in Naples, thus subordinating Marcellus who then kicks his heels in frustration?
I've always played the former (i.e. they can share an army if desired - there doesn't seem to be anything in the rules requiring them to hold different armies) but in a recent game (which I won as Rome) my opponent queried this, never having seen this tactic before.
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Peter White
United States
Belmont
California
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It is historically accurate for Consuls to share command of the same army, although this did not always happen.
The art of choosing a Proconsul in order to take advantage of good luck and hedge against bad luck in the Consul draw is part of the game.
Whether it is realistic for 2 Consuls to command of 5 CUs when there might be a pile of, say, 15 CUs a short march away is open to debate. But this is certainly legitimate within the rules of the game.
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