Showing posts with label Early Imperial Romans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Early Imperial Romans. Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Coh. I et II Gallorum Eq.

I've finished Cohort I Gallorum, and the repaint/rebase of Cohort II and the Equites (mounted contingents) of both cohorts.  I scruffed the shields up a bit, too.  All pics clickable!


Below is a view of the cohorts from the rear.  These are cohorts of Gauls, and accordingly I've tried to give each a mild gallic flavour with boar and cockerel standards, and chequered cloaks.


Below is a closeup of the cloaks, I gave around 1/3 chequers.  I also went with different shades of metal in the helmets and muddy cloaks.


All the minis at Black Tree, and are not too shabby, given a little careful painting.

These are part of my continuing auxilia project- I'm now up to 10 auxiliary cohorts, more than half of what I need to re-fight some of the larger battles of 69/70AD.  Hopefully I'll have these and a few more cohorts to parade on Bastille Day (for Greg's Big Parade).  I'm currently working on an ala of cavalry.

Thursday, 26 April 2012

A Pwodigy!

A very rough WIP shot of the first ancients minis that have actually made it onto the painting tray in 6 months!


I'm planning to depict a crowd of lightly armed civilians with a few vigiles and urbana mixed in, either as rioters or perhaps the Vitellian defenders of Rome in 67AD.  Strictly street fighters.  I'm currently thinking about how to base them, if anyone has any ideas for base dressing etc., please bung them my way!

28 of these were painted very nicely by mon ami Greg who very kindly gave them to me at Salute.  The ugly woman front right and a few other dodgy minis are spares from the painting box, anything good is from Greg.  Some of the minis are Foundry, others Aventine, some god knows!  I'm doing just a little highlighting and detailing, maybe some tunic stripes and suchforth.

Monday, 9 April 2012

Barracks

I've recently picked up some excellent buildings from Touching History's Paul Darnell, which will sit in a Roman camp I intend to build a little later on (perhaps in the summer).  


The buildings are simple but very effectively made from foam-board and Will's tiling (and some plastic doors); nice and light, and well detailed.  I may need some more at some stage... I gather Paul is making an entire fortress for Dug, which I very much look forward to seeing!

Friday, 16 December 2011

I Aduitrix; Finished at Last!


I've finally completed my I Adiutrix (assistant, supportive or rescuer depending on who you read) legion.  This force was hurriedly recruited in 69AD from the marines sailors of the Roman fleet at Misenum, and fought bravely at Bedriacum, and later in Germany.  I’ve read that many of the sailors may have been of Egyptian origin.   Do, please, have a click!


This is the first of my new, smaller legions, of 80 figures in 10 x 8 man cohorts, although it can also be deployed as three 24-man cohorts, for smaller engagements.  I’m going to split my 240 man legion down in much the same way, and next spring hopefully paint another 80 man legion (perhaps even XXI Rapax, that gave Adiutrix so much trouble).  Once I have 6 or so legions, I’ll be able to start to think about re -fighting the larger battles of the civil war, or my long-threatened Roman campaign.

The Legate, Orfidius Benignus, was killed in the fighting at first Bedriacum, in 69AD.  I like the expression this mini (Below) has; it says arrogant patrician, to me.


I’ve used as many Black Tree Miniatures as possible, but ran out of command figures and so used some Crusader and Foundry to add a little variety; they fitted in surprisingly well. For the same reason, I did some head-swaps and a little light conversion work on the legionaries. I’ve given them a varied selection of legionary and auxiliary gear, shields and weapons, as befits a legion newly raised in time of civil war.  There are 3 optios in the rear ranks.


I have developed quite an affection for BTD; they paint up nicely.  They are relatively cheap, too (but alas, not nearly as cheap as they used to be).

Saturday, 19 November 2011

Palmyran Archer Command


I've never been entirely happy with the command stand of my cohort of Palmyran auxilary archers, and recently decided to replace their centurion (who has transferred to my Naval Legion) with an A&A command figure, from an eBay purchase, who has a much more Eastern flavour.  At the same time I also took the opportunity to upgrade the pre-Silflor base.  I'm very pleased with the outcome; although somewhat anachronistic, the new mini fits in very well (although, with hindsight, I might perhaps have given him a longer tunic).

Fabius Valens

This command stand depicts Fabius Valens, one of the short-lived Emperor Vitellius' two principal sub-commanders (the other being Aulus Caecina Alienus).


Fabius Valens declared for Vitellius in 69 AD, and led the contingent of the latter's army that marched through Gaul, eventually rejoining with the German contingent under Caecina, to win the battle of Bedriacum.  Valens missed the subsequent Vitellian defeat at Cremona, due to illness, and was later captured and executed whilst trying to open a "second front" in Gaul. 

The best place to read about this campaign, which I believe is one of theancient campaigns most suitable for wargaming, is Tacitus Histories (which can be downloaded for free on Amazon. I have it on my tablet phone, for reading on the Tube!).

The general figure is one of Aventine's lovely models- they do no less than six different mounted Roman generals!  The standard bearer is by Mike of Relic Miniatures, but I used a Foundry horse with it, as I wanted a horse in a standing position.  Very conveniently, the vexilla is that of the V Alaudae, which formed part of Valens' army.  I'm pleased to have managed to paint something by each of Relic and Aventine, as I don't get enough of their stuff finished.


This is the first of a small series, in which I plan to depict several more of the major protagonists in the "Year of the Four Emperors", for a campaign I hope to run next year. 

Tuesday, 18 October 2011

Per Mare, Per Terram

(The motto is of our Royal Marines; seems appropriate!)

20 more recruits for my rapidly-mustering ex-marine legion, I Adiutrix.  This time I've gone with a pale (almost duck-egg) blue tunic.   These are 20 more almost total repaints of an eBay purchase.  I replaced all the original pila with new pila I made by cutting the heads off old pila, and drilling metal pins into them, so as to get nice, thin shafts.  Bonkers, I know, but I shall do the same with all my pila in future!  Only 40 minis to go, now... and 80 shields, still on order.

I'll now take a little while off this force, to finish the Middle Imperial Cohort that has been on my painting tray for a month.   After that I may have a crack at the new Marcommanic-war Romans*, that I've just bought off Keith at Aventine.

*Very Late Early Imperial, one might call them.  Or Very Early Middle Imperial, I suppose...

Thursday, 13 October 2011

Rumble by the Rhine


On Tuesday we played another Hail Caesar game, another battle between revolting Batavian and German auxiliaries, and their savage German allies, and a regular Roman/auxiliary force who were trying to relieve a small fort (one of Paul Darnell's lovely models, above, with some great buildings by John Smillie).


Above are my loyal auxiliaries; Britons, Gauls and Raetians, with some Praetorian cavalry.  The legionary cohorts were deployed (below) off to my right, just beyond a small wood that turned out to be a terrific PITA.



Ianicus commanded the Germans.  Above are some of the savage German warbands; mostly Dr Simon's minis.  Below are his German and Batavian mutineers.


The battle started with Dr Simon seizing the vicus, just outside the fort, with his auxiliary archers, and (imaginatively) with dismounted legionary cavalry (you can just make them out in the photo at the top of the post).  Ianicus countered by seizing the central wood (below) with his javelinmen. 


This was an issue for us, because in Hail Caesar close order troops cannot enter a wood; we had nothing to pry the skirmishers out with.  Moreover the HC proximity rule (of which more in a later post) required our legionaries to face the LI, even though they had no missile weapons that could harm them and could not even melee them.  So the better half our army was useless!

I decided that the only thing I could do was move forward my auxilia to throw javelins at them.  Meanwhile Ianicus was trying to manoeuvre around my left flank... click on the map, below, to see the situation at this stage.


After this I'm afraid it all went a bit pear shaped for the Empire.  Dr Simon laboriously manoeuvred his legionaries around behind the wood on our baseline, and then behind my lines, to face the outflanking mutineers approaching from my left.  Ianicus attacked with his Germans, and these, after a very tough fight, my surviving troops were pushed back onto Simon's columns and destroyed (a photo of the traffic jam is below).  The legions might have still have recovered it, I suppose, but it was late and we called the game.


We found the rules very frustrating; the proximity rule, in particular, is badly worded, and we struggled with various other rules, plus the poor layout of the rule set.  It is safe to say that Hail Caesar's "more friendly style of gaming" came under considerable strain, on Tuesday; it got competitive, and these rules just cannot cope with competitive! 

Still, on the plus side it looked good, and played fast.  The combat system is good, and I like the way that ordering works.  We are starting to get a reasonable grasp of the core mechanics.  Will have another crack in a week or so...

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

In the Navy...

The next EIR Project I'm taking on, will be the first of the "small" 80 figure legions that I plan to use in my EIR campaign.  This lot are the first recruits for I Adiutrix (auxiliary, or assistant) Legion, which was raised in 67/68AD from marines from the Classis Misenensis fleet, based in the Bay of Naples.  Most of the marines would have been Egyptians, and very pleased with the opportuniity, as legionary salaries were rather more generous, than marine!  Presumably there was a citizenship in it, for them, too, and possibly a patch of land on retirement.  Highly motivated, they fought very bravely at Bedriacum, capturing the eagle of XXI Rapax.


These 20 BTD minis are a major repaint of an eBay purchase.  They painted up really easily in 3 evenings, and I'll rebase when the other 60 minis are ready, in a month or so.  Shields and transfers are on order...

My intention is to give this legion a very mixed look, as befits a newly raised legion in time of war, with tunics in white, beige and two shades of pale blue.  I'll mix in the oval shields and javelins that recent ex-marines might have used*, with rectangular scuta and pila, and hamata with segmentata. 

*The Mainz Principia reliefs depict what appears to be an unarmoured legionary light infantryman of Adiutrix I, with oval shield and javelins. 

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Somewhere along the Rhine...

We played a Hail Caesar game tonight, using my Early Imperial Romans, and some of Dr Simon's Germans.  It was a battle  between revolting Batavian auxiliaries led by Civilis, and loyal auxiliaries and legionaries.  I won't cover it in much depth, because it was a trial run and we plan to run it again next week, after which I'll do a write up.  Pic's courtesy of Dr Simon's camera phone.


Above; concerned legionaries watch the advance of therevolting Germans, from the relatve safety of their watchtower (one of Paul Darnell's).


Some of Dr Simon's freshly rebased Germans.


A veritable phalanx of auxiliaries advance towards a single line of auxiliaries.  The support rules are very important, and supported units had a big edge, winning almost all the combats.  We debated removing the extra dice for supporting units, in favour of a bonus on the dice roll for units losing combats.  May try that next week...


Above, a whole phalanx of German bodybuilders, hits the thin red line.  A unit led by the war leader broke through the central legionary cohort, and disordered their second line. 

Finally, below, a somewhat blown alae of Praetorian cavalry charged a Batavian Cohort in the rear, but the stalwart Dutchmen still managed to drive them off!


It was an entertaining, friendly game; HC worked out well.  I think the rules will work well for my projected campaign.

Sunday, 2 October 2011

More Praetorian Preparations

I finished a few of the other minor conversions for my Praetorian cohorts; 2 optios on the left, and an aquilifer and a cornicer for a Praetorian prefect stand I plan make up (Sejanus, anyone?  I'm a huge I Claudivs fan).

The two optios are lightly converted BTD figures, with brass hastile and spines added to their shields using a green stuff stamp.  I've simply added manes onto the two Aventines on the right.

An aquila, I hear you say, but surely the Praetorians weren't a legion?  This is true, they were 12 separate cohorts, but one does often see an aquila in the background behind Praetorians.  My guess is that there was a Praetorian aquila that was brought forth when the cohorts were gathered together.  If anyone has any info on this, I'd be very interested to hear it.  This aquila is cut from one of the A&A Praetorians, it is quite like the ones one depicted in the relief (left).

I envisage raising a small Praetorian corps consisting of a couple of units of guards, a cohort of  Vigiles Urbanes,  the cavalry I finished earlier, and a turma or two of German Bodyguards.

Wednesday, 14 September 2011

Coh. I et Coh. II Thingummyjigum


I've finished basing the two auxiliary Cohorts from yesterday.  Unfortunately I've misplaced my copy of the SOA publication about the Year of the Four Emperors, which is a pain as I have been naming all my units, from that august work.  When I find this, they will likely become some  flavour of German or Belgian auxilia. 


Both cohorts are BTDs, painted by Dr. Simon's mate, who did great work.  I highlighted extensively, overpainted the shields around the nicely hand-painted designs, and washed with ink in a matt acrylic varnish.  Basing for the two units took around 3 evenings.  All pics are clickable.


Above, you can just make out the space where the unit's name will eventually go, at the rear of the command stand.

This brings me to 9 finished auxiliary cohorts, with 2 more with the painter, and one remaining here to be painted.  Once all 12 are finished I'll focus on the auxiliary cavalry; I need lots of those, too!

Sunday, 28 August 2011

Equites Gallorum

Here are the mounted contingents for my two Gallic auxiliary cohorts, one of which is shown here.   The models are Black Tree.  I like the riders, but the horses are a bit meh; very badly cast, and soft metal.


They were painted for me by Dr. Simon's painter mate.  I then highlighted, stained, varnished and based.  I lavished a lot of Silflor on them; 8 or so different varieties.  I think more variety gives a more naturalistic look.
I am very pleased with the final look.  I think that they will fit in very well with my other EIRs, but they have taken me about half as much time to get on the table, as if I had painted them from scratch.  The same painter has a 24 man Ala of cavalry from me, at the moment, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does with them.

Friday, 22 July 2011

Hail Caesar; First Blood part le Deux


So here is a quick recap after last night's post; the Flavians are advancing from the top of the page (mostly free moves because they are in columns on a road; they struggled to make any command rolls).  The Villellian right wing has rushed forward and left wing is edging out of the olive grove; intending to hop over that ridge and rout the unwitting column of enemy legionaries.  The Vitellian right can just be seen at the top of the photo; it has rushed forward in a right hook, flanking the Flavians.

So all the Vitellian left needs is a decent command roll; instead they get a double 6 (fumble!).  Rolling a further 1, Ianicus consults the fumble table and... (below)


...rather more than half of his army routs off the table.  Did we laugh?  Did we hell!

Still Ianicus had three his remaining units on the right, and these tore into the Flavians, wth their cavalry catching a cohort still in March column (below, at rear).  With a 9 dice to 1 advantage, could they rout it?  Nope.  Couldn't even beat it.  The dice were taking a distinctly Flavian turn.  However, they did manage to destroy a cohort of Flavian auxiliaries, and a numerus of skirmishers.  Meanwhile, half of the Flavian army were still advancing in their original direction, toward the fleeing, unseen ambushers (failed command rolls).
  

In the following turn, however, the Flavians rolled a very low dice and were able to make a triple move to counterattack.  Their legionary cavalry were able to hit the exposed flank of Ianicus left-most cohort, at the same time as a cohort of legionaries piled into its front.  The very large pile of white skull casualty markers behind it, did not bode well for the reaction test; predictably they fled, and we called the game.


The rules worked well, in part because we are very familiar with Black Powder.  I think the game would best be first played with someone who has played before.  I umpired, and had to rush back and forth forward through the rulebook a fair bit, and had some difficulty finding things.  There was also one point where we couldn't find what to do and had to make it up; I think this will happen a lot and an umpire would be no bad thing.  But we did love the rules, and I am sure will get a great deal of use out of them.  In particular, they are perfect for the Early Imperial Roman campaign I've always wanted to run, and will encourage me to finish the rest of the troops I have planned.

Tuesday, 19 July 2011

Equites Legiones

Legions in the Principate era had 120 cavalry attached who acted as messengers, scouts and who provide an escort for the Legate.  In my 1:20 scale legion this equates to 6 miniatures, give 'em a click! 

 

Equites legiones probably weren't terribly effective cavalry, perhaps not of the same high quality of the Auxiliary Alae, but the jobs must have been sought after as they were rather better paid than legionaries.  Like the original Equites Legiones, my Equites will be brigaded with similar cavalry, such as the integral cavalry from the Auxiliary Infanty cohorts, to form bigger formations for use on the battlefield.

These are all Black Tree Design Miniatures, who make the best larger EIR cavalry (although beware, their horse moulds are shot, loads of flash).  They were very nicely painted for me by a painter friend of Dr. Simon's, who is currently churning out a lot of EIRs for me.  I added a little highlighting, an army painter wash, varnish, basing and the writing on the standard.  Job done...

Big Men

Here are some of the command figures from my recently completed XIIIIth Gemina Martia Victrix legion; the Aquilifer, Primus Pilus Centurion and Imagifer.


The Aquilfer (below) carries the legion's Aquila, or eagle.  He is a heavily converted Aventine figure (some of the Aventine Republican figures are very suitable for later periods); the eagle is Foundry and I added the mane on the lionskin, not bad, eh?


The Primus Pilus Centurion (or first spear centurion, for "Rome" fans), below, is an unconverted Gorgon Studios figure by Steve Saleh, one of his nicest, I think.  He has featured here before, but this is a marginally better photo than my last effort.


And finally, the Imagifer (below) carries the image of the reigning Emperor; in this case, Nero.  Another Aventine conversion with a Foundry Imago kindly donated by Mr Allen Curtis.


I've still got to finish the mounted legate and tribunes, and have various lictors and other supernumaries to paint.  But first I need to finish the effing French on my other blog... they really are doing my head in.

Tomorrow, I'll post a pic of the legionary cavalry....

Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Simon's Big Parade

My friend “Gloarmy” Greg Privat has been organising a “Big Parade” online event on 14th July, coinciding, I believe, with Bastille day.  For this reason, tonight (I can't post tomorrow) seems like a great time to post pics of my Early Imperial Roman legion, all together on the table for the very first time (all pictures click-able).


I started work on my EIR Legion when I first got back into historical gaming around 2005.  The first cohort was originally a mix of Perry and Saleh minis, from an on-the-spur-of-the-moment eBay purchase.  Comparing the two types, I found that I slightly preferred the taller Saleh minis, even though the number of poses was extremely limited, and there were no available cavalry.  The Perry's were ruthlessly purged.  I put together a 16 man cohort, decided that they would look better as 24 man cohort, and then that I needed 9 more of the same!  I’ve added a couple of cohorts, and some supporting troops, each year.  Around half the minis I pained from scratch, and the balance are repainted from eBay purchases.

So the 10 Cohorts; the 1st Cohort (above, left front, and below, in closeup) are BTD, with Foundry shields, and the other 9 are Foundry figures, with some Crusader (and Games Workshop!) officers.  The Foundry Caesarian range provided most of the signifiers and cornicers for the legion.   All the shield designs are LBMS.  


I recently added a couple of heavily converted Aventine minis as the Aquilifer and Cornicer (not quite finished, more anon), and the excellent Gorgon Miniatures Primis Pilus.  The 1st Cohort is only a standard size cohort at the moment, and I will ultimately replace it with a 40-man Foundry Cohort, to represent the larger Trajanic formations.  I'll re-use the BTDs in another legion that I’m planning.


The Black Tree Roman cavalry are half decent sculpts.  I recently had the 6 cavalry of the legion (above) painted for me by a mate of Dr. Simons, and he did a fine job on them, too.  I merely gave them some highlights and a wash.  The basing is not yet finished, so I'll post a proper picture in a few days time.  The legion is very generously provided with artillery support (5 various ballistae), because I’ve always wanted to do the siege of Jerusalem.  Maybe next year... 

The legion represents Legio XIV Gemina Martia Victrix, that defeated Boudicca.  Unfortunately my Tribunes and Legate aren’t quite finished; they have missed the parade.  But I’ll post pics of them soon.  Also none of my Auxilia are posted; they will be parading separately, at a later date, after I've based some reinforcements.  Then I'll need to look at painting the Praetorians and some more riff-raff supporting troops, like these gladiators...  I eventually aspire to a couple more legions and a similar number of supporting troops.

Saturday, 19 March 2011

Quattor Ballistae Magnae

Here are the rump of my Roman artillery pieces; 4 large scorpions (all pictures are clickable).

The first 2 are my favourites, 20mm scale Zvezda plastics with BTD and Foundry crew.

The bases are coffee stirrers of varied thicknesses, stuck onto thin metal plates, scribed with lines, painted and magnabased.  My concept with the planking is that I can use them in towers, or in siege fortifications.  The yellow shield is the design I've picked for my second legion.


The second pair (below) are from Black Tree Design; rather simpler, but serviceable.

I like their loaders with the long bolts (below).


I have got quite a lot more Ballistae of various sizes (mostly smaller), but I want to press on with my legion command figures, and paint a few Napoleonics.