Showing posts with label Late Romans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Late Romans. Show all posts

Monday, 10 October 2011

Battle of Arelate, Part III

This third and final part of the After Action Review, focuses on the action in the centre.


Above is a view from behind the enemy's lines, showing their uphill attack against the Limitae and Bacaudae that formed our centre.  The attackers were very numerous, well trained and armoured.  Luckily our troops were uphill, and somewhat buoyed by the death of Majorian in his duel, so it was a relatively even struggle.  The shields of the enemy Italian Field army made a brave display (below); all beautifully hand painted.  I can make out V Makedonia in the second photo, below.



My immediate opponents, the Comitatus of the recently deceased, now divine Majorian, rolled a maximum 5 for combat on their average dice, so our Hero needed a good dice roll to break through them.  Luckily Venus provided this (below), and we were soon galloping past the left end of the enemy infantry line, in the direction of Mediolanum!


With the gap clear, another of my cavalry units was then able to charge the flank of the enemy infantry, and roll up troops that were already exhausted by their struggle for the hill (below), and the battle was decided!


Below is the only shot I took of the far wing of the battle, where the light cavalry fought each other to destruction.


The game was very enjoyable, and I found that I had a fair grasp of the rules by the end.  Simon was a great host, and out opponent, Dave, very sportsmanlike.  The figures looked splendid (loads of converted 15mm figures, beautifully painted, sheer madness!) and I really covet a large army of Perry 28mm Late Romans, now.  So it might prove to have been an expensive visit!

If you want to have a crack at the rules (which are well written, and beautifully illustrated with pictures of Simon's minis), you can download them for free, from here.

Sunday, 9 October 2011

Battle of Arelate, Part II

This is the second part of a three part write up of the game we played at Simon MacDowall's, yesterday.  Part I is here.  I'll apologise that it is rather Visigoth-centric; I had my work cut out and couldn't always follow what was going on in our centre and left (although there will be more shots of the action here, in Part III). 

So you'll recall that our brave Visigothic horse were drawn up on the far right of the line, facing no less than 6 units of well-hard Germanic shock horse ((background, below), who were poised to drive our less numerous (and if I am honest, rather less effective) horse,  from the field.

I had a cunning plan, though; use my foot to hold off the horse, and re-deploy all my mounted, behind their screen, to the centre, where they could hopefully hit the advancing enemy foot in their exposed flank.  Below you can see me part way through this manoeuvre; the foot are advancing, and inclining to their right, to fill the gap left by my horse, and my horse are scurrying along, behind them.


We were very surprised when most of the enemy cavalry ploughed frontally into our infantry,  (below)!


Luckily, they were driven back by our stalwart foot (the below view is taken from behind enemy lines).  The heaps of rocks indicate the discomfort of the recoiling enemy horse, who were badly knocked about.


Below, I turn up in the centre, with my Comitatus and horse.  The lines of infantry are on the point of clashing.  The small unit of enemy horse, riding hell-for-leather towards my cavalry units, are the Comitatus of the dead Emperor Marjorian; sworn to perish in combat.  The charging infantryman is a marker to show that I'm inspiring my own Comitatus, ready to charge.


And below the clash of impact.  The fighting was heavy and I suffered a serious wound; this would have been enough to slay a lesser man, but had little impact on my ability to command (as I'd luckily rolled a 5 for command at the outset).  Eventually we triumphed, and rode forwards over the bodies of the slain, into the gap between the enemy centre and their left...


Part III, tomorrow.

Saturday, 8 October 2011

Batte of Arelate, 458AD, After Action Report, Pt. I

Today I visited Simon MacDowall (rule writer and Osprey author) for a game of Comitatus, his rules written specifically for the period of the Decline, Fall, and Dark Ages.  Simon has a fantastic collection of Late Roman figures, which are beautifully painted and based; I'm afraid my photos don't do them justice (all are clickable).

The scenario was based on a fictional invasion of Gaul, by the Roman Emperor Majorian, in 458BC. Majorian was attempting to reimpose Roman authority over various rebellious Gallo-Roman nobles,  led by the would-be Emperor Marcellus and their brave Visigothic allies, led by Theodoric II, son of Theodoric I (of Chalons fame). 


Above, I played said Theodoric, noble descendant of Wotan. Aside from my comitatus of mead-pledged bodyguards, I commanded four Visigothic heavy cavalry units and a large wodge (a Germanic technical term) of infantry warband.  My troops are pictured above, and constituted the right wing of our army.  Although I stuck the cavalry on the extreme right, I had a cunning plan for them, that would mean they would not stay there for very long!  


Above are my Roman allies; that's Marcellus (played by Simon) at the rear, with his Comitatus, and my troops in the distance.  The Roman infantry weren't very good Romans, scruffy Limitae and Bacaudae, mostly, very few decent troops amongst them.  I was hoping that there would be rather fewer Romans, of both sides, by the end of the battle; lebebsraum, and all that.


Beyond the infantry, on our left, were some scruffy Alans, and other light horse types.  A bit effete, I thought.

Majorian's forces were drawn up in a long line, opposite us.  The scribes failed to record the details of the Imperial army (sorry no photo), but they were more numerous and of a rather better quality than our army (their general was a chap called Dave Allen).  Their infantry centre was formed from the Italian field army, including well-trained and armoured Palatinae, Comitatenses and some particularly aggressive-looking Suebi.  There were a host of shock cavalry opposite my wing; Ostrogoths, Rugians, Gepids and the dread Heruls.  Opposite the light horse on our left, were enemy light horse, including Huns.


That's me in the middle of the unit, above.  The game opened well, when I rolled a 5 on an average dice for my Command ability; I was nothing short of a military genius, and a great leader of men! 

Since it looked like my Roman allies were somewhat outclassed, and would lose in a stand-up fight, their leader Marcellus (at my suggestion), bravely rode forth to challenge the Emperor to single combat.  Surprisingly, the latter accepted and rode out, alone, before his lines.


First they threw javelins at each other, and missed.  As they closed, Marcellus (left above) gained first blood, wounding Majorian, but the Emperor fought back and wounded Marcellus, twice, in turn.  Marcellus recovered and wounded Majorian, again, and the two riders circled each other, bleeding from numerous wounds, fighting almost as bravely as if they were Gothic heroes.  Finally Marcellus stuck a fatal blow and the Emperor was dead!  This greatly encouraged Marcellus' command, and all the scruffy militia infantry in our centre gave a cheer (as their Morale rating climbed from average to high; this would be significant, later). 

Tomorrow, I'll describe our battle plan and the early stages of the battle.

Thursday, 26 May 2011

Sagittarii

These are the chums of Tuesday's slingers; I painted 4 to match an eBay purchase (from Solway Arts and Crafts IIRC), and based.  They were pretty quick to paint, using Army Painter.  Mine are the ones with blonde hair.


I usually double-depth base my light troops, but did these in single depth so that they can support a (projected future) unit of legionaries. 

Tuesday, 24 May 2011

250K Page Views! And some Slingers.

A kind thank you to all my visitors; my page count (since March '09) slipped past 250K this afternoon!  Please do keep dropping by here, and to my very new Horse'n'Musket blog, on which I next expect to post, tomorrow.


Here's a (clickable) unit of late Roman slingers I just finished.  I bought eight painted on Ebay, painted four more to match, gave them shields based on a Notitia design, and based.

I converted 2 figures to have staff slings, or fustibalii, and you should be able to make them out, below.  These started as spearmen.  I repositioned the arms and made the slings with twisted fine wire and a tiny bit of greenstuff.  They came out very well, I'll do more at some stage.


Ultimately, these will be in a separate army to my Late Roman Perrys, because they are rather larger minis, and I am nothing if not ruthlessly sizeist.  I aspire to a second army of mixed Black Tree, GB and Muskateer, like Jon's.

Saturday, 14 May 2011

Exercitus

Here's my small Late Roman Army, so far.  I've collected three Auxilia, one (understrength) unit of archers, and some heavy cavalry.


There is a new unit of Heavy Cavalry, below (well a very old unit, really, I've owned it at least 5 years).  Could someone remind me what the name of the unit below is?  I can't see it in the Notitia.  (Update: Terreblanche tells me they are the Schola Gentilium Seniores).


I still need at least one 48 man legio, and some light horse.  And some skirmisher types.

I'm very taken with the Perry's.  I would like another army in larger 28s, too, though.  I will very likely end up with two Late Roman armies.

Thursday, 12 May 2011

Leones Ivniores

I've finished the Leones Ivniores, the latest unit in my small Late Roman army.  I'm very pleased with how they came out; not the best photo, though (although clickable).


They are Auxilia Palatina, a cut above the first two units, the Martenses Seniores and the Armigeri Defensores Ivniores.  Every man fully armoured!  Hang the expense! 


Tomorrow I'll post the other units. 

Saturday, 7 May 2011

Young Lions

This is a clickable WIP shot of the Leones Iuniores, my latest Late Roman unit (Auxilia Palatina).  The painting is just about complete, although they still need assembling, varnishing and basing.  These have only taken six (albeit rather long) painting sessions; I only started painting them on Monday!  I must be getting faster!


After these, I hope to knock up a few quick supporting units based around some Black Tree figures I bought painted on eBay, a few years back...  and I'll need to pause to make up a big batch of bases, as I'm almost out. 

Tuesday, 3 May 2011

Arthur of the Votadini

These lovely minis were painted for me by Nick Speller (I merely based them).  I think they are some of Nick's finest work, especially the cloak and tunic on Arthur.  Fabulous.

This particular Arthur will be a warleader of some post-Roman celtic cavalry, that I'll be posting shortly (I started painting the units around 7 years ago, finished them last week!). 

 

Gotta love the hound, too.  The Arthur model is one of Gripping Beast's finest, super work I reckon.

Thursday, 21 April 2011

Martenses Seniores

And here is my second Auxilia unit, the Martenses Seniores, another Legiones Comitatenses shield design.   Again, lovely shield painting work from the anonymous eBayer.


Again I've based them so that I can deploy them in line (above) or cuneus (below).  Pics are clickable.


Inspired by the period, I've decided to paint up half a dozen huns that I prepped and undercoated around 2 years ago.  There is nothing sadder than a primed figure waiting to be painted, and gradually getting more and more chipped...  I'll be ready if the Society of Ancients pick Chalons for next year!

If anyone wants to swap some unpainted Foundry Late Romans, I'm after some... 

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

Armigeri Defensores Iuniores

Not my finest photo, but here is the first of my 2 new Late Roman Auxilia units.  The shield pattern is loosely based on the Armigeri Defensores Seniores, but I think of these as a unit of Auxilia.  Stunning work on the shields, which I bought on eBay along with the majority of the figures (I painted 8 figures to match).


I've based them so that the line curves back slightly at the ends, so that the unit is somewhat "bow" shaped.  The reason for this is that, when I take the middle two half depth elements and put them at the back, it gives the unit a wedge-shaped appearance, which I think of as a cuneus.  The idea for this came from reading Simon MacDowell's excellent Late Roman Osprey.


The original painter did a great job with the decorative patches, but I hope that I have had a fair crack at matching them on mine.  

I've now got 4 Perry Late Roman units; the start of a small army. I could do with a Legione, next, but have lost the remaining figures I have, somewhere in the Lead Mountain.

Friday, 8 April 2011

Very Late Romans

I bought 32 of these boys 4-5 years ago on eBay, and they have finally made it to the front of the queue.  The shields, in particular, are beautifully hand painted (have a click!).  I've painted 16 figures to match (at the back), and later will add spare shields that I had the presence of mind to buy, at the time, from the seller, to round out my first two 24-man Auxilia.  I'm also planning to rebase the 16 minis of the right, which look a little bit too regular (and my basing has improved).


They are all Foundry minis, sculpted by the Perrys.  A lovely range, just a tad on the small side for my tastes.  Some day I might replace them with bigger GB or perhaps the new Muskateer minis.