1st Cohort Done

I've gotten my first installment of 28mm Romans done. 1 cohort, 2 scorpions and 1 Tribune. I think that counts as a Division in Hail Caesar.

First up the artillery. I'm really happy with the scorpion boxed set. Although I am envious of the nice wicker ammunition baskets that come in the metal scorpion set.

I haven't done anything with the sudes though, I'm saving those to do some sections of entrenchments. I think an entire sprue of sudes would be a popular accessory. Every Roman army needs a marching camp.

Next, Cohors I Gallia Victrix.

Detail of command stand

These figures are very animated. Almost too animated. I found it very hard to rank them up on a 40x40mm base.  The auxiliary thrusting forward with his spear is the biggest troublemaker. The figure stabbing overhand and the figure with the spear tucked underarm are the easiest figures to fit. I suppose if I were better with the greenstuff I could modify the pose to make the spacing tighter. For anyone using adaptations of Lord of the Rings or some other rules using 25mm circular bases these figures will be just fine.

You will notice that I've put my signifer and tubicen in the back rank, which is where they ought to be, safely out of harms way. The Optio is off on the left flank where he can keep people in line (although I think historically he should be bringing up the rear). My other criticism is that the transfer sheet doesn't have a circular transfer for the signifer. I had to cut a wreath from the center of one of the extra transfers on the sheet. But making the transfers clear so you can put the design over your choice of background colour is a nice way to save on some production costs.

Finally a group shot:

Reinforcements Already! Warlord Legionaries: Review

These chaps arrived in the mail last week for me to review:

Warlord Game's new boxed set of legionaries. You now get 20 legionaries and a scorpion. (The old 30 legionary box is still avaiable however from the webstore.) The box contents are:

• 1 sprue of 10 legionaries
• 1 sprue of 7 legionaries and 3 command figures (centurion, cornicen and signifer)
• 1 sprue of 1 scorpion and 2 screw
• 1 sheet of shield transfers.

Some sprue shots:



Legionary sprue front

 

Legionary sprue back

 

Command sprue front

 

Command sprue back

For a shot of the scorpion sprue go to my review of the Scoprion Battery here and pictures of my painting a pair of them here.


The details are all nicely executed. There is a little bit of flash that will need to be trimmed. Most of the figures are pretty simple; body, one arm (choose either pilum or gladius armed) to glue on, add shield and head. There are some nice extras on the sprues, extra empty helmets, extra pila and a few extra small shields which will be handy for making casualty markers or adding to vignettes.

For extra fun, they also included this blister pack of beauties:

The Roman slave girls. Nice sculpts. Reasonable proportions. Good detail. They look nice without going too far into male fantasy land. I have no idea right now what I'm going to do with them, but I'm sure once I have a camp or fort they'll look lovely attending to the Prefect.


Stay tuned for how I get on with painting the legionaries up.

1st Cohort update

In between work and doing a Distance Learning course for my Basic Officer Training I've been beavering away at the painting table. I've pretty much done the 1st cohort of auxiliaries, which I've aptly named 'Cohores I Gallia Victrix' (at least I hope they'll be victorious, might be a tad premature). 16 figures. I tried just the basic block painting and dip approach I've seen advocated. It was a bit frustrating actually. The plastic figures have a lot more undercuts and recesses that are hard to get at and still be tidy. I'm going to go back to giving everyone a brown base coat first, so any missed bits are brown 'shading' instead of glaring white primer!

The one ranker popped off his nail while I was removing the excess dip, but at least I didn't loose him into the can! After a bit of knocking against the rim of the can I use a brush to brush away the excess and keep it flowing. I also learned I needed to shut off my task lighting (I have a work light on a tripod that I position just beside me to shine on my work area) since I think the heat from the bulb was causing the dip to dry quicker. I just need to touch up a few spots where the Army Painter puddled, add the shield transfers and base.

I also did those scorpions I assembled:

As you can see the Tribune has been removed from his old base and I gave him some shading in a few spots. All in all I'm pretty pleased. I think some legionaries next.

Instant Army! Just Add Paint!

I hadn't meant to build an Early Imperial army this year. Honest. I've got Caesarian/Late Republican and Late Imperial armies in 15mm already. An army for the Early Empire/Principate had it's appeal obviously, but if and when I built an army of the Principate logically it should be in 15mm, right? Yeah well, Opportunity knocked, so I thought it behooved me to answer the door.

So obviously I've been fondling my new found Legions a lot lately and mentally sorting them. I've got a very good start on a decent sized army. The Warlord Starter Army contains:

• 60 Legionaries
• 24 Auxiliaries
• 20 'Veteran' Legionaries
• 20 Praetorian Guards

Add to that the 24 Auxiliaries from the boxed set and the 3 Scorpions. Plus there is the very nice Centurion that came with my copy of Hail Caesar.

I also discovered in my unpainted stash that my thoughtful friends have brought back from assorted conventions 16 of the Warlord sample Legionaries. That's a decent sized unit! While working on some WW2 Russians the other night I also remembered that on my book shelf, guarding my copies of Caesar's Gallic Wars and Goldsworthy's The Roman Army was a sample figure I got from Navigator Miniatures years back and painted up for fun. He's a nice Tribune from the Punic Wars who probably never thought he'd be commanding anything, let alone Imperial Legionaries! But here he has become the first painted figure for my new project! I want to rebase him (I'm thinking all my command will go on round bases) and do some shading on the cloak but otherwise he looks not-that-bad:

Currently I'm thinking 16-20 figure standard units. 4 figures on a 40mm x 40mm base (50x50 for cavalry and artillery). This would give me:

• 3x 16 figure cohorts of Auxiliaries
• 4x 20 figure cohorts of Legionaries (including the veterans)
• 1x 16 figure cohort of Legionaries
• 1x 20 figure cohort of Praetorians
• 3x Scorpions
• 2x Commanders

I am of the opinion that one should have at least 50% Auxiliaries in an Imperial army, so obviously I need more, at least 3 cohorts. I need more shooty bits too, so some cohorts of Sagitarri (archers) are a must. Especially some Eastern ones, just because their uniforms are different. Also a cohort of Funditores (slingers) would be very useful against just about anyone.

Obviously I need cavalry. 3 or 4 8-10 figure alae of your basic javelin armed Auxiliary cavalry. Cataphracts are very nifty but they didn't enter the Imperial Order of Battle until the reign of Hadrian. Of course I'm probably going to want to use this army for battles from the reign of Augustus right up to Marcus Aurelius, so maybe some cataphracts and eastern horse archers wouldn't be wrong.

I also need more commanders. A mounted Legate or two, with some other staff types to add to their bases would be nice.  In 15mm I have some nice command stands with the mounted legate surrounded by trumpeters, a standard, and a few junior officers. I'd like to repeat that in 28mm. The cohorts will also need more command groups so that every unit has at least a signum and a centurion. I also need an Eagle! I mean what self-respecting Roman army doesn't have an Eagle?

Baggage too. As readers of this blog are aware I'm quite partial to having a supply echelon for all of my miniature armies. I do have some 25mm baggage mules and wagons in my Medieval collection that I could co-opt if I can come up with some suitably Roman looking drivers.

To fight them I am fortunate in that two of my friends are also building 25mm Romans. There were certainly lots of civil wars to inspire scenarios until somebody can build a German or Persian army.

Plastic Legions of Doom!

My doom marches upon me with the tread of tiny plastic hobnailed caligulae.

It looks like I'm going to be busy for a while!

Warlord Roman Auxilia Cohort: A Review

Another new set from Warlord is their box of Roman Auxiliaries. This is a very nice set as well. The boxed set contains 5 sprues of plastic rank and file, a sheet of shield transfers and a metal comand group of Centurion, Trumpeter, Signifer and a very serious Optio.

All 5 sprues are identical. Each sprue has everything you need to make four soldiers.



Front view

 

Back view

 The metal command group is fairly standard, but nicely animated. Flash was minimal but there were lots of little vent stems to trim off. These little bits of pewter are annoying, but they are a neccessary evil to get all that detail in the casting.

The trumpeter is blowing the charge on a straight tuba (or it could be the shorter salpinx) and is one piece. The Centurion is charging with his gladius ready to thrust into the face of an enemy. He comes with a separate shield. The Signifer comes with a choice of two standards; a signa and a imago (bust of the Emperor). The Optio is a big Celt with long moustaches and a braid. He has a separate shield and his spear arm is separate as well to allow for the more animated gesturing as he encourages his troops to get stuck in.

Assembling the troops too a bit longer than the artillery. There is not as much option for the builds either. The arms go with particular torsos, which I found fairly logical and figured out by matching the flat surfaces for joining, but when I was onto my third sprue I noticed on the back each torso was numbered and the arms also had corresponding numbers. (You can just make these numbers out on the Back View above, located on the sprue stems near the pieces.) Because of the construction of the mail sleeves there isn't as much scope for varying the pose without getting into cutting and green stuff. One figure is thrusting with his gladius, another is thrusting with his hasta, a third is throwing overhand and the fourth has his hasta tucked under arm for some more forceful poking. There are five heads to choose from though, giving some variety. Care must be taken when gluing the hasta in the hands to give room for figures behind to rank up.

This unit is definitely attacking though! No standing about with their spears up for these fellows.

Ironically the metal command group were harder to assemble than the plastics. The super glue I was using was total rubbish and didn't bond. The parts were too small to use 5 minute epoxy and clamping. After a bit of searching I found my 'Gorilla Glue' brand superglue and that did the trick. Although I reinforced around joins with some epoxy wherever I could. The biggest disappoinment  was the staff on the nicely detail signum breaking in two places on me! So you'll see in the picture above my Signifer is now waving a vexilla pinched from a sprue of Wargames Factory figures. But that's OK. I've always maintained that any Roman army should have loads of Auxilia and different standards with each unit is nice.

Definitely a worthwhile purchase for any aspiring legate.

So What's the Point?

With all the excitement building over the imminent release of Hail Caesar! the Yahoo Group (less than two months old and the rules aren't even out, yet and they have more members than Legion and Empire ever got! No I'm not bitter.) and Forums are already a buzz about supplements.

That was before Rick Priestly even asked what people would like.

This has kicked off another debate about points and army lists. For many decades we have had the WRG/DBx/FoG approach, with Chinese restaurant menus of troops and building an army to a certain amount of points. Some like them since it gives them a handy guide to what they can include in their army and limits on how many. There are some highly subjective and very tenuous quantifiers as well, although I think any mook should be able to figure out that a heavily armoured cavalryman is just a bit more valuable and useful than a guy in rags with a pointed stick. I wanted to take the high road and make Legion and Empire 'pointless' but I was pushed into it by the parties interested in publishing the rules.

I think this illustrates one of the fundamental problems with ancient wargaming.  Many of these lists are based on some very sketchy textual and epigraphical evidence. We cannot even agree on the colour of a legionaries tunic and yet we are to come up with an official and binding army list when all we have are literally some scratches on a rock? This of course creates endless arguing and spilling of ink in the gaming media as people bring out new research to challenge the old lists. Games set after 1700 can get away from points and army lists because there are more historical sources, including actual orders of battle upon which one can build one's army.

Plus the whole idea of selecting your order of battle off a menu like you're ordering a meal just doesn't work for me. The lying awake at night wondering if it is worth the points expenditure to go for the armour and long spear upgrade is extremely silly. (And I lost a Warhammer Ancient Battles game because I did not spend the extra points to get the long thrusting spear option!) I doubt Caesar had these issues. He had the troops he had on hand and did what he could with them.

So I'm thinking some sort of card or dice driven random selection process might not be better. One could start with the scenario and some basic core troops and then dice or draw cards for the extras to flesh out your order of battle. The possible selections could be varied by the scenario, the army or even the results of the last game giving a simple campaign mechanic. Peter Pig's Wars of the Roses and Samurai rules use some opposed die rolling to modify the orders of battle and generate a scenario. I'm trying to incorporate these ideas into the revision of Blood & Chivalry I was working on. I also have vague thoughts of doing the same for Legion and Empire, but going back and dismantling it to rebuild seems like a lot of work right now.

Many, like myself, have been turned off by the tournament style army lists and welcomed Hail Caesar's scenario driven approach as a breath of fresh air. Let's hope Rick is listening and resists the pressure to turn his game into a Chinese dinner.

Ancient pictures of ancient battles

I realized the other day that I had some old pictures saved in the Albums section of the Legion & Empire Yahoo Group. The resolution and lighting arent' the greatest, but I'll post some of the better ones here to give you an idea of what my friends and I got up to back when we played a lot more often.



Roman infantry fend off Persian cavalry.



Cavalry wings clash.

Perry Gray of Ottawa and I got together at a MIGSCON one year to put our Roman and Sassanid Persian armies together for a rather big battle with Scott and Don helping. 

This was a game at John's house; Republican Romans vs. Seleucids. We made up the Seleucid army using Scott's Alexandrian pikes supported by Persian cataphracts. I think we had to use blank bases for the scythed chariots. No one had any model that could proxy for those.

Here's a game from Hotlead 2007 that I put on. Sertorius with some Spanish auxiliaries fights Pompey.

Another game at John's house. Spanish tribes ambush a Roman column.

Patrick made a city. So we had to lay siege to it. Legions advance with some siege towers. For the siege towers we used some resin city towers.

A nice view of the city itself.

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.