I recently bought a copy of WaC, a bit late to the party I know but better late than never.
As I don't get many games of anything now, I decided to enter the tournament in Stockton in September, which is going to be for Dark Age armies, now I don't have a Dark Age army, so I perused the "WAC-Armies-Book-Dark Ages" and decided I would get myself a Nikephorian Byzantine army. This is not a big deal as I've been intending to start another army anyway, I was planning New Kingdom Egyptian or Seleucid but the Byzantines work as well as I can get the figures from Crusader one of my favorite manufacturers.
Today I've been picking an army come shopping list which has thrown up a few questions, so I would be grateful if someone could offer a bit of guidance.
First and most importantly is the Nikephorian Byzantine army from WAC-Armies-Book-Dark Ages still legal/current?
What's the deal with allies? The Nikephorian Byzantines can take 25% Allies and have a choice of Hamdanid Arabs, Bagratid Armenians or Georgians. I would like to add an allied contingent as the Crusader Byzantine range is a bit limited and it would give me the opportunity to add some Artizan Berbers which is an important factor as I like variety in my Armies. Do I pick a 625pt Allied army and add it to the Byzantines? Do I pick what I want from the allied list? Or is it something else?
Thanks in advance.
Steve

Hi Steve

must admit I am not too hot on some of the Byzantines sub categories! (Although I have a Byzantine army of sorts)

In answer -
I am currently updating all the lists, so probably the one you are looking at will get amended as many of the lists in the 'books' were introduced as stop gaps and really need expanding

Note there are a number of separate longer lists, so worth checking those as well

the best idea is send me a list of what you think should be in it, and I will add it to the list of 'priority' lists - which are popular ones that will get done first plus a few others that have been requested (Dacians & Samnites for example)

Usually adding allies is purely choosing units from the relevant army list - up to the maximum allowed - any restrictions would be listed in the 'parent' list (so in this case the Byzantine one)

Hope that helps with your shopping

Thanks for the reply Rob,
I'm not an expert on the Byzantines, I've picked them because I fancy painting them.
On the allies,
Byzantines can have up to 50% cavalry, at least 25% infantry and up to 25% allies.
Does that mean I can take 50% Byzantine cavalry and 25% allied cavalry for a total of 75% or do I just get 50% cavalry (Byzantine and allied)?
Hope that makes sense
Cheers
Steve

From the allied allowance, you can usually take whatever you like unless the parent (so in this case Byzantine) says otherwise

So, yes, you could take up to 505 Byz cav, and then 25% allied cavalry

However bear in mind, you will need some personalities, and definitely some infantry to make it easier to complete some of the battle objectives

I will try and take a proper look at the list over the next day or so, and compare it with some other Byzantine material I have to see if it will be easy to knock out a more extensive Byzantine list

EDIT I stand corrected we have a list online already written by John Oman heres a link viewtopic.php?f=46&t=904 this sounds a little different allies wise to what you were discussing but theres also a thematic list written by Ben in the same section of the forum

Edit 2 - not sure about those arabs as allies now having looked at the 2 extended lists although I am sure rthe Byzantines would have made use of them somewhere, I will have to find that reference material which isn't where I was expecting to find it so I will have to delve into the loft tomorrow