I recently found this figure half finished.....

.... and left in the bottom of a box. So, I thought I'd finish him off.

I started him off ages ago, when I was working on my Roman auxiliary cohort for Infamy, Infamy. I intended to use him as a character who could feature in certain scenarios, maybe as the cohort's Prefect being escorted by his troops or in some other context. You can just see the dark red vertical stripes on his tunic under his armour. Known as a tunica angusticlavia, this signifies his equestrian rank. The stripes on a senatorial tunic would have been wider. The roles of praefectus cohors was the first step on the tres militae, which was the career progression available to members of the equestrian class in imperial Roman society. To be honest here, I think that I have painted his red stripes a little too wide, but it is too late to change them now.

My Romans are the only figures that I have based on coins. The original reason for that was because during the 2020 lockdown I ran out of 2cm round MDF bases and used pennies instead. For some reason, this guy ended up on a 2.5cm MDF base, so I've glued him to a 2p coin under the MDF base, which makes him stand out if nothing else! I don't really like basing on coins, but I might as well be consistent for these Romans.

He needed basing properly and having various details picked out. His cloak also needed highlights. So, now he's finished and I can put him away with the rest of my Romans, who haven't been used for anything since 2021. One day, I'll get them out again, I hope.

 

Hopefully, the end of wargaming painter's block

 Well, I finally finished off the last of my Roman auxiliary cavalry. There are seven figures in total.

Two groups of equites.

And to lead them, a second decurio.

To distinguish these riders from the other two groups, who have red or blue neckerchiefs, I have given these green ones. I have also used one of the heads on the sprue which is supposed to be for praetorian cavalry for the decurio, and why shouldn't I? I am sure that there was plenty of variation amongst the different cohorts and we know that there wasn't really as much standardisation as Hollywood, and many wargamers too, would have us believe.

Once again, these are all Victrix plastics, on Warbases oval bases and movement trays and the excellent tufts are from Gamer's Grass, which is stocked by Bad Squiddo Games.

I still have a few auxilia bodies left, and I'll probably use some to make up another deployment/ambush point, but I really need a break from Romans for the moment. I might do some recreational 15mm figures for a change. I have some 18th century impact cavalry to do for Syldavia and Borduria, or I might finally start doing something about my essentially pointless Volkssturm project for Germany in  late 1944 and 1945. At best, they will be a minor irritation to any British, American or, more likely Soviet opponents.

First thoughts on Infamy, Infamy

I have played around ten or so games of Infamy, Infamy, the TooFatLardies ancients skirmish rules to date, so I have had time to gather a few thoughts, although I cannot pretend to be in the position to really write a definitive review. All of the photos were taken at two days of (socially-distanced and Covid-safe) Infamy, Infamy games at BIG in Bristol recently. I shall intersperse my comments in between the pictures, but they won't necessarily relate to the images.

Now, I am a big fan of Lardie rules. I would say that Chain of Command and Sharp Practice are the two rulesets that I like more than anything else, from any rule publisher. Therefore, I was overjoyed when the news broke that Richard Clarke was working on rules for Ancients, specifically for Romans. It gave me a reason to buy the delightful Victrix plastic Romans that until now I'd never had a need to own.

I had a chance to play a couple of games at Crusade in Penarth back in January, before the plague descended upon the world, and I'd enjoyed the experience, but I wouldn't say that I really understood the rules, because I had found it hard to stop thinking about it as Sharp Practice with swords and spears. This, I have to stress is a big mistake. The rules are really very different.

I always wanted to build a Roman force. I wasn't interested in building a Gallic or Germanic force, and I am still not. Dacians, one of the subjects of a future rule supplement are a different matter. I like the Dacians a lot, but they are as yet an unknown quantity in Infamy, Infamy terms.

When it came to a force, I specifically wanted an auxiliary force. After all, those were the guys who did pretty much all the heavy lifting when it came to cross-border raids and punitive counter attacks. The legions were never stationed along the limes. They were held back for those situations when a larger force were required. To be honest, I don't see the legions as being the skirmishing types, certainly not in the Early to Middle Principate periods.

So, what do I think about the rules? 

Well, to be honest, I think they are something of a Curate's Egg. There are definitely good things here, but equally, there are other aspects of the rules that I find problematic. I shall go into some of these later. My aim here is really to try and gather my thoughts in one place, and then go back in a few months once I have hopefully properly got to grips with the nuances and quirks.

As a Roman player, one thing I like is the way that to prosper, one has to play to the Roman strengths, things like formal drill and flexibility, two things which benefit the auxilia and which I suggest you really have to understand to have any chance of winning in scenarios set in bandit country. From my experience, winning in bandit country is very difficult indeed and I am not sure that it really reflects the historical record, something that I will return to below.

The legionaries are very tough cookies indeed. They are classed as having Heavy Armour, which gives them a 50% chance of surviving hits in combat, whereas the auxilia only have a one-in-three chance, being classed as having Medium Armour. To be honest, I personally think that this is historically incorrect. Early Imperial auxilia are pretty much wearing the same defensive kit as Late Republican legionaries, and also as many Imperial legions too, because we know that legionaries in reality weren't always equipped with the classic lorica segmentata (a modern coinage, we don't actually know what the Romans called their segmented cuirasses made of strips of metal). Legionaries also wore mail and scale armour, as can be seen on many surviving monuments, the Tropaeum Traiani being a prime example. Also, in pitched battles auxiliary cohorts fought alongside the legions, and were trained to fight in the same way as their citizen colleagues. We also have accounts of battles where the legions were held back as a reserve and the auxilia took the brunt of the action. Tacitus mentions this in his "Life of Agricola". However, I can understand why the rules would seek to make a distinction. Without a legionary/auxiliary difference the rules would lose some variety for the Roman player. 

Auxiliaries are also distinguished by having flexible drill, which means that they can skirmish as well as fight as drilled troops in hand to hand combat. Inexplicably, perhaps, they are only allowed bows as ranged skirmish weapons, plus javelins, which are shorter ranged. There isn't an option for them to have slings, despite the huge number of Roman sling shot we find in archaeological digs. The only slingers allowed to the Early Imperial Romans are tribal ones. I see this as a shortcoming in the force rosters.

Now, on to cavalry. The Romans didn't really do effective cavalry. They did have citizen cavalry a long time before the period of the rules, that was the origin of the Equestrian Order, after all. However, by the period under discussion, cavalry were recruited from outside the citizenry, from the peregrini, the non-citizen inhabitants of the Empire or from allies. The cavalry were therefore part of the auxilia, mostly, and were of two types. They were either in specific cavalry units, known as Alae, and were clearly thought of as excellent troops because they were paid even more than the legionaries, or they were integral parts of mixed auxiliary units known as Cohortes Equitatae. 

A Roman player can have either type of these cavalry in their force. However, and this seems odd to me, they do not count a being drilled troops. I do not understand why this is the case. We know that the Roman cavalry spent a lot of time training in complex movements and in fighting and other drills. The 2nd century author, historian and military commander Lucius Flavius Arrianus, better known as Arrian actually wrote a military drill manual, the Ars Tactica (Techne Taktike in Arrian's original Greek), which was devoted, in part to cavalry drill and the Hippika Gymnasia, those ritual parade ground exercises which were designed to show off the proficiency of Roman cavalry in their combat and manoeuvre drills. It seems to me that Roman cavalry should be drilled and have the flexible characteristic too.

There are significant differences between the Romans and their barbarian opponents, which seems to me to be the right way of approaching what was, in many respects asymmetrical warfare. Where the Romans have Drill, which stiffens their defensive capabilities, the trouser-wearers have Fervour, which boosts their attacking qualities. They can also Ambush from predefined points and they have access to Fanatics, the kind of frothing lunatics beloved of both Hollywood and classical writers, for different reasons.

Now, as concepts, Fervour, Fanatics and the ability to ambush when the Romans are in bandit country are all fine concepts, but, and this is a big but, I have issues with how these things work.

Firstly, Ambush Points (henceforth APs). In bandit country, the barbarians get a standard six APs. OK, the Romans can, if they have cavalry and also take a pair of Exploratores as support options scout these and potentially either remove them or convert them into normal deployment points, but they will never remove the threat of ambush. Personally, I see six APs being too generous. I have no problem with the concept, I would just prefer to see the number decided on the roll of 1D6 to see how many APs were available, possibly allowing the barbarian player to spend signa cards (i.e. bonus cards for specific purposes) to buy one or two extra APs if their dice roll is a 1 or a 2.

Secondly, Fervour. Again, great concept. Fire up the lads before they hit the Roman line. Sounds reasonable, except that fervour isn't just for fighting. Fervid troops can increase their movement depending on the amount of fervour they have. They can move an extra 6" if they are fully-charged with 6pts of fervour, without having their fervour reduced. Fervid Mobs can also still move in a controlled way. Now, I have problems with this. I don't think that fervid troops should be capable of operating in a controlled way. I would say that a Mob charging towards the enemy should always be treated as an uncontrollable force and risks splitting apart and therefore each group in the Mob should roll separately for movement. I also think that choosing to add 1" of movement per point of fervour should come at a cost. It seems to me that for each extra inch, a point of fervour should be removed from each group in the Mob when moving in a controlled way, or from each group separately when uncontrolled.

It is only when fervour has been completely removed in combat that barbarians start accumulating shock. Fine, that seems reasonable. The problem is getting them to start taking shock. Not until they have shock and lose a combat will they get pushed back.

Also, they can build up fervour again just as easily once they are out of combat and have all their shock removed. I would say that a Mob defeated in combat and which has taken losses should find it harder to use or build fervour up again. Think about it. They were all fired-up, went in and were defeated. They don't actually even get pushed back until they start accumulating shock. I would say that a Mob in combat should lose a point of fervour for every two casualties they take, and also when trying to rebuild fervour afterwards.

Finally, Fanatics. These guys can be killers. They can ambush from out of a Mob (a sort of ad hoc formation) of barbarians or from an AP and will attack with a guaranteed six points of Fervour. Also, in their first round of combat in the game, they get given Elite status. This means that they get to roll a lot of combat dice. The Roman player cannot even use any drill or signa cards if they are ambushed in this way. A good round of combat by fanatics can severely weaken the Romans, even to the extent of making the rest of the game an exercise in damage limitation. A sneaky barbarian player can even buy Fanatics as support options. I don't have an issue with the concept. I just think that they unbalance the game, even making the whole exercise a fruitless one for the Roman player in some cases. I would prefer to see Fanatics dealt with in a more random way. A few ideas are;

Removing the "elite" status for the initial combat. These guys aren't elites. They are nutters, the kind of guys who would start a war in an empty roundhouse or kill you if you looked at them in a funny way.

Instead of getting a guaranteed 6pts of fervour, rolling 1D6 to see how wound up they are when you declare their charge.

Fanatics should not be given a named leader. They should only have a Supra Numerum one.

Fanatics who ambush from inside a Mob should reduce the size of the Mob by six figures. 

When a group of Fanatics is wiped out, the Mob from which it emerged should take a point of shock on each group.

One group of Fanatics should be the norm. 

I know that these ideas are going to make barbarian players unhappy, but as things stand, even by using all the possible drill choices, the Roman player is likely to be disadvantaged most of the time. My defence is this though; in the historical record, most of the time, the Romans won. Whenever someone points to the Teutoburger Wald, and the subsequent clashes between Arminius and the Romans, it is worth saying that this episode was remembered because it was an anomaly. In any case, Arminius was a Roman-trained military commander, not a hairy barbarian from the dank woods.

I don't want to make it easy for the Roman player, I just want to bring a bit more balance to the game.

Wagon loads using Bad Squiddo scenic items

A while ago, I posted about a pair of wagons I put together, initially for Infamy, Infamy, one being an open cart that could carry various loads.

I also posted about the Bad Squiddo resin cargo items I had painted. So, I thought that I should put the two things together and put some cargo in the wagon.

I think that these look pretty good and suit pretty much any period, maybe even up to WW2, although in reality they will work best with Ancients, Mediaeval and Horse and Musket games.

A wagonload of barrels and other containers would be a terrific objective for an Escort scenario.

At last! The sun is shining, Pt. One - resin cargo items.

These are from Bad Squiddo Scenics, sculpted by the incomparable Ristul.

Everything that Ristul sculpts for the Bad Squiddo range is wonderful; detailed, crisp and full of possibilities. 

These items have lots of opportunities to appear on all manner of tabletops, from ancient games right through to fantasy and pulp ones. I was delighted to discover that the smaller pieces actually fit in my open-topped Roman cart, so that is a huge bonus. There will be nice things in the cart for the Romans to escort around, and also be nice objectives for the Romans to loot while out foraging for supplies. I can see these pieces being incredibly useful for 28mm Peninsular War games of Sharp Practice too.

I have had these sitting around since last Saturday, but the weather has been so wet, I didn't want to risk them getting fogged while varnishing them. This morning was perfect for the job.

Another group of auxilia

I did a group without javelins, for variation, and I added in a couple of figures from the command sprue, based on the Cornicen and Signifer bodies.

I used the Imaginifer arm from the auxiliary cavalry set, because I thought it would make a nice variation to have an Imago for my cohort. I also gave the other body from the command sprue a gladius and a small parma shield (this is actually because I am running out of oval shields).

I have enough bodies left to make up another group and also another deployment point vignette. I shall have to stick these together and get them underoated.

Another cart for the Romans

This one is more of a strongbox on wheels, ideal for transporting valuables, such as the salarium paid to the cohort.

This is another 4Ground MDF kit, that I bought from North Star, and it is another nice model. The draught oxen is, once again by Front Rank. 

I decided that this cart should be finished in a more impressive colour, befitting its importance and therefore I used Windsor and Newton Deep Red drawing ink.

This particular model is probably somewhat anachronistic in style, but it has a certain style about it. It is certainly going to see action in other settings too.

A cart for my Romans

This is something that is required for one of the Infamy, Infamy scenarios (Scenario Four: A Foraging Party).

You will immediately recognise the auxiliary accompanying the cart. 

The cart is by 4Ground, but I bought it from North Star, as part of a larger purchase. The draught oxen are by Front Rank. 

The cart can be constructed with an open top, as I have done, but also with a hooped top that can be given a canvas or animal hide cover.

I can see this cart appearing in other settings, namely Sharp Practice, but there are bound to be other uses for it. 

A pair of pack mules for my cohors equitata

There are many support options available to a Roman player in Infamy, Infamy, and I have decided that I really need to start collecting a few. The first one I have completed is a mule train.

To accompany the mules, I have used a spare Victrix auxiliary figure as the mule wrangler. I decided that he should have a wolfskin cloak, basically because there are loads of them on the sprues but that he wouldn't be carrying a shield, which is obviously wrapped up in one of the bundles on the backs of the mules.

I looked around quite a bit for suitable mule models. There are lots around but many of them have loads that contain things which aren't at all suitable for the Roman period. These seemed suitable innocuous in that respect. I bought them from Wayland Games and they are made by Wizkids. They come pre-undercoated in pale grey and they are plastic. 

I am pretty pleased with how they came out and they will also be useful for other sets of rules, particularly Sharp Practice.

Now, I need to get on with other odds and ends I have bought.

Auxiliary archers

Another rush job! I need these for Sunday and only had them undercoated this morning.

These are from Aventine Miniatures, a company that I haven't bought anything from until now, but who are definitely on my radar now. The best thing about these figures is that they scale up well against the Victrix plastics that form the rest of my cohors equitata. They are also really nice sculpts and clean castings too. They were a joy to paint.

There is a decent amount of variation in the figures, some are in mail and others in scale armour and there are little details that make them all look a bit different from the next one along.

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 Ientaculum 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.