Friday 19 November 2010

And now, both together; a 1:1 Quingenary Cohort

Long ago it occurred to me that 2 x 240 man 1:20 "legions", added together, would give me the same number of figures (480) as in a maximum strength quingenary Roman cohort.


I don't think we know, for sure, how many ranks this would have formed up in; presumably 4, 6 or 8.  These are draw up 8 deep.  The photo does give some impression as to how much space a cohort must have taken up on the battlefield, and how imposing it must have looked to a tribesman from the backwoods!

Now if I just had another 4,320 miniatures...  oddly, I could just about fit an entire 1:1 legion on my table, as the legion would be around 4 metres wide (assuming that there were decent intervals between the cohorts).  There's a thought... 

13 comments:

Chicago Terrain Factory said...

Most impressive.

You just need 1000+ Gauls for it to fight!

DeanM said...

That is incredible! Dean

BigRedBat said...

Thanks. I hate painting celts, they are so scruffy and such hard work! Give me a Roman, any day.

Sigmar said...

Now that is what I call a unit !

You might need more than 1000 Gauls ! They should be quick to paint though... half of them can be covered in blood red and left lying prone - so you don't need to paint their back, or their front if they're lying face down :)

Superb blog btw, thanks for sharing. I'll be back (I'm researching the next next war game I'm going to delve into - I'm tempted by WWII but Ancients are definitely in the frame).

Keep sharing these inspirational pics.

Sigmar
my Gallery
my Battle Reports
my WFB blog

Will Scarvie said...

Nice!

I wonder if you could get a photo of an entire legion using a wide-angled shot of your terrain board and liberal application of cut-and-paste in photoshop to add all the needed cohorts...

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Is that all?Where's the rest..

Seriously though that's one impressive collection of troops!Congratulations!

Cheers
Christopher

BigLee said...

Made of Awesome!

Scullmeister said...

Wow! Looks fantastic. Seeing a Cohort 1:1 is great and it would be amazing to see an entire Legion!

Do you have an opponent who could field a force big enough to take on your Cohort?

saxon dog said...

Wow! I want one :)

BigRedBat said...

Thanks chaps!

No I don't have a suitable opponent for these. I have around half as many Celts, and half as many Numidians. But I am thinking more in Civil War terms so this doesn't matter too much.

I may end up with around 720 Caesarian legionaries but don't expect to go much further (except that I want to raise perhaps 500 EIRS).

I like the photoshopping idea...

Wargame News and Terrain Blog said...

Awesome amount of nice painted figures!

Secundus said...

WOW!!!! I see Romans!!

BigRedBat said...

Thanks Simon!