Six more auxiliary cavalry

Well, I finished off my second group of six equites for my cohors equitata, and the rain held off long enough for me to varnish them. My DIY augury (would I see sparrows or magpies first if I looked out of the kitchen window?) worked for me. I shall continue to put out food for the sparrows.

I don't really need a tubicen but seeing as arms with a tuba (the Latin word for a trumpet) are included on the Victrix sprues, it seemed a shame to just ignore them. Similarly, I used an optio head for one of the equites, just for variety. I don't need an optio equitum either, but he looks nice in the group.

For a bit more variety, I have chosen a sword arm for one of these equites, and you will note that the middle one of these is wearing scale armour rather than mail. This is because each sprue in the set has one body in scale lorica, so it has to be used for ordinary troopers as well as leaders to make the most of the available models.

I have also chosen to give this group blue neckerchiefs, for variety. The first group I did have red ones. 

I have seven more horses and riders left (because I bought an extra pair of sprues on ebay to give me 20 equites in total), so I'll get them made up at some point, but I have no urgent need for them. When they are done, I'll have a second leader and one more group of six equites.

Auxiliary cavalry

Wow, this was a rush job! I was worried that they wouldn't be finished ready for this afternoon. I couldn't varnish them until this morning because of rain and humidity.

First, we have a group of three Equites and a Decurio, the commander of a turma, that is to say, a group of 30 cavalry.

Here are the remaining three men in my group of six, as required for Infamy, Infamy, including a vexillarius. The standard isn't necessary for the rules, but it makes the unit stand out nicely.

These are intended as the cavalry component of my cohors equitata, the Cohors Primus Syldaviorum Equitata Luperci.

You will notice that their shields don't match those of the cohort's pedites, and that is because LBMS don't make the same design for the slightly smaller Victrix Roman cavalry shields. I suppose I could have cut the edges a bit smaller on some infantry shields, but I decided that the equites of the cohort were distinguished by a separate shield design. In actual fact, we don't know whether all members of a cohort would have carried identical shields anyway. It seems a reasonable assumption, but in the absence of any firm evidence, I think it gives us the opportunity to do what we see fit.

So, for the Cohors Primus Syldaviorum Equitata Luperci, I have decided that the turmae of equites would carry a separate design, which I shall justify by reference to the entirely invented Annales Syldaviorum of the little-known 2nd century writer Lucius Porcus Crustum, himself of Goganian origins, who lived in Istriodunum during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. 

In Book XIV of the Annales, he writes that "the turmae of the cohort of the Brothers of the Wolf were distinguished by their red shields which were decorated with entwined vines in flower, honouring the god Bacchus, Father of the Vines, known as Dionysos Eleutherios by the Greeks and Illyrians".

So, there we have it. Who could possibly disagree with L. Porcus Crustum?

Anyway, I have more cavalry to finish, which I will work on in groups of six, and eventually there will be two more groups and another separate character figure.

The last group of auxiliary infantry (for the moment)

The last group? Well, yes, because I need to get on with the cavalry for my cohors equitata.

Here they are, pretty much looking the same as their comrades I've already posted;

I don't really have anything new to say about them, because everything has already been said.

I am currently working on some auxiliary cavalry, once again Victrix plastic ones, and I need to get at least one group of six plus their Decurio finished before Sunday, because the Lincombe Barn Wargames Society is back in action and I have a game planned for the 26th. I want some hooves on the table as well as caligae.

Eight more auxiliaries

The strength of the Cohors Primus Syldaviorum Equitata Luperci grows as eight more recruits are mustered before their Praefectus.

As you can see, I am now able to put these on their movement sabots from Warbases. I decided to do all of these carrying their javelins, mainly because it means I don't have to take a scalpel to their scabbards!

Once again, these are all Victrix plastic auxilia and the shield transfers are made by LBMS, and can be purchased from the Victrix website too. 

I now only have  one more group of eight auxiliaries to finish off and then I can start on my cavalry, who are all primed ready for painting.

Three more characters for my auxiliaries

These were a bit of an experiment, but I think they have worked OK.

Of course, when I say experiment, I mean a bit of very minor kitbashing. From left to right, they are a Capsarius, a sort of battlefield medic, an officer of some kind and another Optio, this one doing some kind of twirling thing with his staff.

The officer type and the Optio were made using two unwanted bodies from the command sprue in the Victrix EIR Auxilia set, and I rather like them because they are wearing the kind of lorica hamata with reinforced shoulders that we might associate more with legionary troops rather than auxiliaries. 

Because the figures are supposed to be a signifer and a cornicen, ordinary arms have to be selected carefully, hence the odd way the Optio is holding his staff.

I am thinking that the officer in the nice green cloak might come in handy as a tribunus angusticlavius, a junior military tribune from the Equestrian Order, who would make a nice Tribunus in the Infamy, Infamy campaign rules. I am sure that he will be a welcome addition to the Cohors Primus Syldaviorum Equitata Luperci. Anyway, he already has a name. He is Antonius Crispus Cerialis, from a prominent equestrian family with large estates to the west of Colonia Klovinus. The family is known for their wealth, their staunch support for Rome (whoever happens to be emperor) and their family motto, MAGNIS SUNT. The family has grown in wealth and social standing ever since the then paterfamilias Grabus Iantaculum Cerialis, a client of the gens Julia, was granted equestrian status for his support for Octavian in his wars against Mark Antony.

The Capsarius is a standard auxiliary figure with the addition of a pack from a Warlord Late War German Heer sprue that I trimmed a bit to remove most of the detail, adding a strap made from thin plastic card. I kept the water canteen, but trimmed off most of the detail to make it look like a pottery flask.

I have also received my movement sabots, so my next sets of figures will be based up ready for use.

More auxila leave the painting table

Well, they left the varnish spray booth (a large cardboard box with one side side removed) actually.

I really like these Victrix figures a lot. They have lots of detail, are fairly simply to assemble and the finished items paint up nicely, and it is easy to cut the tops off the scabbards on the figures holding gladii.

I have a couple more groups that I am working on at the moment, plus a couple more individual figures and I have also glued all my horses together, ready for undercoating. I will undercoat the riders separately, as soon as I have assembled them. I have enough mounted models to make up two groups of six, plus a decurio, which leaves me with three spares. To stop them going to waste, I have bought sprues of four more riders and horses from ebay, which will give me enough mounted auxiliaries for three groups plus two leaders. That will be a lot for Infamy, Infamy, but why not? There could be a scenario in future where I might need three groups of riders.

I've also got more infantry figures to assemble, including the spare command sprue figures. I don't need more signiferi etc, so I will experiment with these, to see if I can use the bodies to make up extra auxiliaries with different pattern lorica hamata (i.e mail shirts). The models with the muscle cuirasses will probably be surplus to requirements, but I will find a use for them somewhere.

Two more characters for Infamy, Infamy

Here are two more figures for my cohors equitata, a Signifer and a Cornicen.

These figures aren't really necessary to play the game, a Musician (i.e. the cornicen) is a Support option and standard bearers (signiferi) aren't mentioned at all, but I intend to put him to use because, when it comes down to it, why wouldn't I?  I could put him in one of my infantry groups, perhaps or maybe I could even use him as a Status I or II leader support choice

These chaps are wearing bear pelts over their lorica hamata, which was a mark of their status in the century and cohort. 

In real terms, each century had a signifer, but this looks like a far more important piece of kit, maybe the signum of the first century or possibly the signum for the whole cohort, which was carried by the vexillarius, one of the principales, the name used collectively for junior leaders below the rank of centurion.

There were various types of signa. There was the manus, a hand representing the soldier's oath of loyalty, the imago, a representation of the emperor, the vexillum, a rectangular cloth banner, the draco, a kind of windsock with a dragon head, used by cavalry units from the 2nd century onwards and the famous aquila, the sacred symbol of a legion, although auxiliary cohorts didn't have eagles.

The small round shields, a kind of buckler called a parmula, were associated with signiferi and others, like musicians who were carrying something that was cumbersome and which made a larger shield impractical. I have no idea how commonly-used they were in reality, but they look nice on the models. They were also used by the sort of gladiators known as Thraeces, i.e. "Thracians" and were the same kind of shields as were used by  the Velites of the Middle Republican period.

Annoyingly, having photographed them, I now notice the mould line across the mouth of the Cornu. I shall have to deal with that and probably paint the area a darker shade too.

More recruits for the cohors equitata

As it has stayed relatively dry, I have finished basing and varnished another group of auxiliaries.

As I wrote earlier, the (imaginary) Cohors Primus Syldaviorum Equitata had the additional cognomen Luperci ( i.e. the “Brothers of the Wolf”) because the Goganii were associated with a cult that venerated a wolf deity sometimes identified as Lykas, and this was reflected in the occasional wearing of wolf pelts as cloaks by some of the troops (actually a nice excuse to give a few of my Victrix minis the wolf pelts on  the sprues).

I have given these the shield arms with the short throwing javelins, because I like the way this looks, and I have all of these guys posed with their main javelins ready to throw. I can use these as skirmishers with Flexible Drill, and I can also mix in the slingers which I have already finished to create two groups with mixed weaponry, as shown below;

I think that this looks quite effective as a group too, but I'll be interested to hear what others think.

Auxilia with slings

Now, in the Infamy, Infamy rules, the only slingers that are listed for the Early Imperial Romans are "Tribal Slingers", but because some of us were discussing Roman slingers on the Infamy Facebook page, I cobbled a group of eight together. I used arms with swords from my Victrix Auxilia sprues, cut the hands off and glued on slinger hands from the Gripping Beast "Dark Age Warriors" set, and here they are;

I think that slingers can be justified because the rules state that Roman Auxilia are equipped with Mixed Weapons, which are described as "The weapons of most Foot and Mounted Warriors and include swords, spears and javelins". I am thinking that "include" doesn't preclude the use of other weapons here. However, the rules also talk about Skirmish Troops, saying "These are named depending on the troop type and include slings, bows and javelins. This is their primary weapon". Now, I don't want to have any of my auxilia as "Skirmishing Troops", because that fundamentally goes against how the auxiliary cohorts operated. I just want an opportunity to give some of them the ability to use slings rather than javelins as ranged weapons, taking advantage of their Flexible Drill characteristic.

Of course, the next question is how can these guys be accommodated within the rules? Well one suggestion (made by David Hunter) is to define them as;

Auxilia with slings          Warriors                8 men. 

Medium Armour             Mixed Weapons    Slings

Aggressive Attack 2       Step Out 1             Drilled, Supra Numerum, Flexible Drill

and field them with the following proviso; 

They may only use slings when skirmishing and only half the men fire, because  loading their slings is hampered by the shields they carry.

That seems reasonable to me, but the alternative might just be to mix them in with a group of auxiliaries with javelins and ignore the fact that they have slings. Personally, I prefer the first idea, but I suppose that it is up to my opponents if they are happy to play against auxiliary slingers.

Infamy, Infamy - the Auxilia have got it in for me!

Well, I have been painting away frantically all week to try and get some of my Victrix Romans completed, and now, as we have a dry day, I have managed to varnish the first few completed figures.

I have done two small vignettes to serve as Deployment and Ambush points, and also two Leaders.

First up, here is my Centurio, Julius Magnus Gallus, and his faithful Optio, Lucius Esox.

Note that their plumes are black. This is to represent the famous feathers of the Syldavian Black Pelican, noted by Herodotus as being sought after for helmet plumes, as mentioned in an earlier post.

Next, giving me an opportunity to use the arms with severed heads, flaming torches and heads on spears, I have done a deployment point and an ambush point marker.

The large dog is actually a Warbases 28mm wolf. I see the figures on these bases as being Exploratores returning from a mission into enemy territory, and coming back with trophies to prove that they contacted some barbarian foes.

These are the start of my Cohors Equitata force, the Cohors Primus Syldaviorum Equitata Luperci, raised from the Illyrian Goganii of north-western Syldavia during the imperium of Augustus Caesar. It is believed that this cohort was raised by Tiberius sometime after his campaigns in Pannonia, known as the Bellum Batonianum. 

Bad Squiddo Athena

I finished off this lovely Bad Squiddo sculpt yesterday and spray-varnished her last night. Luckily, no fogging at all.

I can see here that I didn't manage to straighten her spear out perfectly, although it looks OK on the actual mini. 

                       

 

Here is the obligatory rear view. Nice cloak!

I love her shield with the Medusa's Head on it. This was a common design on hoplite shields, apparently. 

I think that she is a spectacular figures and I hope that I have done her justice. I'm not sure what else I could have done, to be honest.

She will be my Goddess for my Of Gods And Mortals Greek warband, which will be an all-Amazon one.