Legions of Doom!

I've had this blog for a year now and haven't really talked about my ancient armies yet.

For quite a long time I was a very serious ancients gamer. But not your usual "I have a 1500 pt tournament winning army" sort of ancients gamer. For one thing my collection of Penguin Classics ancient primary sources is pretty extensive.

OG15mm legion L faces Essex legion R

I hate tournament games. I've also never been able to get into the WRG or DBx rules. The whole power-gaming tournament mindset leaves me cold. Plus there are too many acronyms and arcane rule clauses. The generic vanilla flavouring of DBA just took all the fun out things too. (Although I have to admit than when I've played DBA as part of the battle resolution in a campaign game it was pretty brilliant.)

I tried Tactica when it came out but it was unplayable if you didn't build the exact Tactica orders of battle. Which takes all the fun out of planning your army. Those rules did at least break the WRG/DBx strangle hold.

15mm Goths. OG and Chariot minis.

15mm Late Imperial Infantry. Essex and Viking Forge minis.

15mm Late Imperial Limitani. Chariot minis.

15mm Late Imperial cavalry wing. Chariot, Essex and Viking Forge minis.

Then Warhammer Ancient Battles came along. Very pretty. Seemed fun. But the rules broke down in the way that all the other Warhammer games did; you won or lost your game in the army list design. And there were too many gimmicky troop types and special rules. I do still get out the WAB source books I bought, mostly just to peruse the pictures though.

So I wrote my own; Legion & Empire. Miniature Wargaming in the Roman Era. Playtested it to death until all my regular gaming buddies were sick of ancients and had two different publishers fold under me.

Army command stand. Corvus Belli, Essex and OG figures.

Division commander. Corvus Belli, Essex and OG figures.

Cavalry command stand. Corvus Belli figures.

Around this time I was influenced by Simon McDowell's book Romans, Goths and Huns. My armies are based in the way he outlines in his book. He has fleshed out his rules on his Comitatus website.

Now the wargaming community is set buzzing about Hail Caesar!, the ancient version of Black Powder which is due to be released by Warlord Games sometime this year. Articles by Rick Priestly discussing the rules (here and more here) sound very promising. A fast moving game with big armies that don't require a slavish adherence to a set basing scheme. Emphasizing scenarios and having fun? Sounds perfect. I think I've changed a lot as a gamer and ironicaly no longer have the time, energy or patience for a detailed game like Legion and Empire.

15mm OG Spanish light infantry javelinmen

15mm OG Balearic slingers.

I've got quite a myriad of ancient figures that haven't seen a game in a few years now. All my armies are 15mm and a mix of Old Glory, Essex, Corvus Belli, Chariot and Viking Forge miniatures. The VF minis are some of my oldest. The sculpts are crude and the legionaries are in the muscled leather cuirass that reconstructions had them in before Simon McDowell made  his convincing arguments for chain armour.

For armies I have Spanish, Late Republican/Caesarean Romans, Late Imperial Romans, Goths, Huns and Sassanid Persians. The Spanish either fight the Republican legions in their own defence or become auxiliaries when my legions have a civil war amongst themselves. The Goths and Huns perform the same functions for my Later Imperial legions. Plus I've tried to build baggage and terrain elements as well.

Rubber Temple from Miniature Worldmaker

Resin cast house.

Scratch built Middle eastern house.

OG Numidian LC escort Essex minis baggage train.


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Herd of goats. Falcon minis. 

Sheep with shepherd and helpful dog. Corvus Belli.

Cattle. More Corvus Belli.

Corvus Belli wagon.

Sassanid pack camels. Essex mins.

Essex Roman artillery.

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Another legion. OG 15mm.



Huns. Chariot minis.

Hopefully Hail Caesar! will inspire me to paint up some of the several more Republican legions I have in the box. I've always wanted to do a big battle between Caesar and Pompey.