Roman in the Gloamin'...

Strewth it's been  long while!! Quite a few reasons.. kind of lost my mojo and there have been some pretty big family issues to deal with. I have been able to keep up a little with some rail modelling, painting the odd figure (finally got my fourth Italian Ala painted up).. but haven't had a game in months. Until this week...

The mounted Lusitanian flank apply pressure

James Morris was in touch recently and I've signed up for putting on a Romans in Spain game at the Hereward show in a couple of weeks, with Simon Miller (we'll be using his 'To The Strongest! rules) and Matt Moran.

Simon has tweaked the Roman infantry rules, or at least, provided an alternative, to try to counter the frailty of the small legion units, and to reflect some recent thinking in "Slingshot", the journal of the Society of Ancients. The Hastatii and Principes join to form a standard unit and have some special rules that allow them to swap places, bolstering the saves and re-arming the pila.

I was keen to try the new rules out, and just to have a refresher really, as I'd rather be fairly au fait once punters turn up at Hereward and ask what we're doing!

Anyhoo.. the other evening I drove over to James' house and we spent the evening playing a very enjoyable 155 point game with my Romans vs his Lusitanians, and of course, chatting generally about gaming, history, figures and basing, and ideas for the upcoming demo game.

James setting up the Lusitanians (Romans opposite) note the attractive cloth with subtle grid

I won't provide a battle report, as James has done a cracking job of that over on the Lead Adventure forum, along with some nice photos of the game in action.

See here:

Lusitanians vs Romans - TtS! Battle Report

Moving Pictures?

Something a little different this time. I do occasionally post videos relating to model rail stuff.. However,  this evening whilst I had my Romans out for a little box-shuffling, I thought I'd video them..

To The Strongest! Punic Wars game

Last night Scrivs and I had another game of the upcoming 'To The Strongest!' rules by Simon Miller. I fielded a Republican Roman army and Scrivs had a mixed Carthaginian force, not based on lists, but what felt right and representative. I am pretty sure that Scrivs will be posting a battle report, along with OOB shortly.. so just some pictures really and a brief overview...

These rules do treat the Romans slightly differently to some other sets I've played (not a bad thing!) They are not invincible war machines. In fact, the small units are quite fragile so I think there is definitely an art to learn in using their greater flexibility to effect. (Having said that, the two games I've played so far have seen me consistently draw terrible 'save' cards and lose a lot of units to single missile attacks).

I suspected that this battle was heading the same way as our first Punic battle, but managed to make some headway after early losses and turned a complete rout into a narrow defeat. (Only a couple of victory medals in it at the end). Scrivs and I mused on the fact that from our memory the Romans did lose a number of battles to the Carthaginians but were able to keep coming back for more! We played at 130 points and I wonder if perhaps I would be better to field just two legions with more support next time.

Enormous thanks to Simon who was able to respond to a rules query mid-game! 

 

The opening moves, Carthaginans (Blue) are made up of four commands; I Gallic, II African including Veterans and led by Hannibal!, III Numidian Light Horse, IV Spanish. The Romans had I and II Legions led by the Tibunes Marcus Corvinius and Gaius Flaminius, and III an allied contingent under  Lucius Anonius Opimius

Roman I Legion under Marcus Corvnius anticipate the Spanish attack

The Gauls in the Carthaginan centre struggle to rout the stubborn Velites

The Latin Allies on the Roman left were about to suffer the hardest fighting

from the Roman right flank

Hannibal, in the hour before he was slain!

Latin allied contingent advance, leaving their command in trouble behind them!

It was definitely time to send in the Triarii

Toward the end of the battle:

1. The Roman left saw some terrible setbacks, with the Numidian javelins causing all kinds of chaos, but the command just about held until it's general was caught in the last turn.
2. Stiff fighting in the centre. Losses on both sides and..
3. One unit of Principes failed to capitalise getting in on the flank of the Carthaginian Veterans.
4. The Spanish pretty much sweeping away any real resistance on this flank

One final thought was about my Agema Romans. I really like these figures, great poses and real character. However, as I suspected, the fine detail is unfortunately a little fragile and I need to do some repair work on a few helmet plumes and pila today. The Victrix figures are perhaps a little more static in pose, and the detail is heavier, but that gives them a robustness which I think will pay off.

More Romans!

Getting there with the Romans. I recently (ish)  ordered some of the new Aventine cavalry and they are really nice.. I was worried at first about how they would sit against the Victrix and Agema footsloggers that I've collected so far. No need to worry - they look just fine.

Just two units of Roman Equites are required for the army I'm building, next up I have around four units of Italian cavalry to complete. Or at least two, as I only have one Ala nearly ready.

Although Victrix and Agema figures both have lovely shield transfers available now, they didn't when I started painting the army, so I've decided to be consistent and avoid using them at all. If I get around to painting up a fourth (Italian) ala, I might use them, but for now the first ala have bleached shields and a more uniform (but still grotty) look.

Pictures follow of some random stuff recently completed today.. a game booked for tomorrow with Scrivs gave me the impetus to finish off a couple of bases!

The bases, by the way are mostly 120mm frontage, using 80mm for the 'small' units. I think that these will mostly be used for the upcoming 'To The Strongest!' rules from Simon Miller, but the bases all have 10mm dice holders in case I use them for Hail Caesar, or similar. I need to finish the edges off.

Some re-based allied light infantry (Greeks probably)

The veteran 'Pedites Extraordinarii' Victrix/Agema mutants

Some Allied Italian infantry. Victrix

The Allied Triarii

Roman Equites - Aventine cavalry

The second Roman Equites unit

The Generals.. 1st Corps figures

Heroes! An Aventine Cavalry officer and strangely stunted 1st Corps Centurion

All the Agema Velites are re-based from single bases onto 120mm frontages

Plus-size plastic plume problem

Much as I like the look of these Agema Romans.. and am loving the notion of playing with a Roman army again, but in 'proper' size.. I have my naggy fears about plastics. (In general.. not just Agema)

That is - the danger of breakage. Overall they are pretty robust, particularly on the unit bases.. you can be careful to position figures without protruding spears etc.. however, the sticky out bits are always at risk.

My fear with these particular figures is firstly the Triarii spears. One could replace them with brass or similar.. but to be honest, I want to make and paint these figure and get playing, not get too involved in a modelling project.. I have my trains stuff for that. 

The other is the gorgeous great big feather plumes on the helmets. Essential 'Republican Roman' adornment.

I was moving the units around in their storage box this morning when I spotted exactly that - one of the Principes had lost his plumage!

So - thoughts of green stuff, pins and wire were put to one side for now.. try the easy fix first. In the box thankfully there are lots of spare heads I selected one of the more fancy ones with more of a surface for fixing to the helmet - a quick snip.. bit of filing, gluing and repainting and hopefully he's back to his former glory!

Finally just a shot of the unit in which our newly repaired chappie lives..

Agema metal command figures

First Hastatii for second legion

Having completed my first legion of Agema Republican Romans, I've made a start on the second. I wanted these to look distinct from the first, but for the 'regulars' to somehow look part of the same army. I'm working on a belief that a limited shared palette is the key here.

I think when I get around to the Latin Alae, these will have a more irregular appearance, even if they share the organisation of the two legions.

Anyway, I took a bit of a punt and decided to have a go at basically swapping the tunic and shield colours from the first legion.. ie these are going to have red tunics and buff shields. 

First unit of Hastatii done today and I like the look of these, I think they'll stand very well next to the first.

First Legion of Agema Republican Romans

Not updated for a little while, but I have been doing some painting and basing (Also had an unexpected but very entertaining game of 6mm AWI last night)

I've decided to base the Roman infantry units ('Small' Hail Caesar units) on 80mm x 60mm bases, the extra depth just giving a little more wiggle room, whilst hopefully not affecting any aspect of play. The Velites look to be able to operate formed up as Light Infantry, so I've based them on single 20mm round bases, but provided 8 man unit bases too.

This is the first legion, based up and ready (apart from a tidy up of the base edges and a spray of clear matt varnish). The plan is to build a second legion to the same structure (figures already bought from Agema), and then to expand with Latin/Italian Allies.

All the figures are Agema, mostly plastic, with one of their metal 'maniple command' packs added to the Principes. Painting is dead simple.. block colours and army painter strong tone wash. I may go back and highlight here and there.. but overall I'm fairly happy with the slightly grungy look.

The first legion

Principes

Principes

Principes

Triari

Velites

Romans in Progress

Slowly making my way through the Agema Romans I bought at Salute.
Need to pick up some command figures and Agema have recently released those too, in metal.

Still a little unsure over basing these - I've tacked them to 80mm bases, in units of 8 figures. In Hail Caesar these will be 'small units'. I feel they lack some presence, but if I picture twice the number of units it starts to look better in the minds eye.

Painting so far has been simply block colours and a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. I may add highlights - another decision pending as yet.

The Velites are based on single 25mm bases

I am a little nervous of the fragility of those plastic spears

Agema Republican Romans

I went to Salute expecting to spend loads of cash on new toys. Actually, the only toys I came home with were the ones I had pre-ordered from Agema.. their brand new Republican Legion figures..
I've been looking forward to seeing 28mm Republican Romans in plastic for ages.. I had built up 15mm DBM Roman and Carthaginian armies years ago and always quite liked the idea of seeing these armies in the larger scale.

Victrix Romans are due in June, and will be interesting to see how they look alongside the Agema range.

Anyway - I won't do a review as such, just to say that I like these. In the box you get 40 figures, enough to make up 16 Hastatii, 16 Princeps and 8 Triarii. I also picked up a box of 16 Velites as part of their launch deal. If I use Hail Caesar rules (which I will probably), this will give me 5 small 8 figure units, plus the skirmishers. I've stuck together most of the figures, which didn't really present any problems. I'm not convinced about the longevity of the Triarii spears.. but more on that later perhaps. 

So, onto a bit of painting..

Here are 8 Hastatii.. I've done half with Pila and half with swords drawn. The 80 x 40 mm base is tiny and I have my reservations about this..so for now I'm just going to tack them down, until I'm happy with the unit base sizes.

I had intended to have the pilum throwers in the rear rank, but found that this way round all the figures fit better on the unit base.

Colours - I've gone for a fairly drab buff for the tunics, and brown plumes.. and then for contrast, a classic Roman red for the shields. I did consider other colours, but somehow, this seems like the right choice for the first unit. (I'll keep this for the first legion, and go for a more varied look for the second Allied legion, or 'Ala' ?) 

All just carefully block painted and then given a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone 'ink'. I may yet pick out some highlights to freshen up the look of them, but I'm aiming for quite a 'businesslike' look for these guys, so want to keep it muted.