Late Roman unarmoured cavalry

Having completed the heavy cavalry, I went back and finished off the Late Roman light cavalry that I'd started a while ago. These are based on the Gripping Beast "Dark Age Cavalry" plastic box set, with a few head swaps to make them look a bit more Roman. Also, the majority have been given oval shields and all of them have Roman-style designs (from LBMS) on them.

The main thing that I wanted to do here was create some degree of standardisation in how the unit looks, but also keep some variation in their dress. I've discussed the lack of an absolute uniform appearance in Late Roman troops in a previous post, so I used a similar approach to the one I used on the infantry figures, i.e.using a range of fairly muted colours that suggest natural undyed wool or linen. However, I wanted to tie the troops together so I painted "Roman style" embellishments on the tunics in a mixture of red or light blue tunic edging and other designs such as the roundels and shoulder panels seen on Late Roman tunics.

I decided to use a standard red shield design with a yellow Chi Rho for eight of the riders, plus four riders with different shield designs. I did this so that I have a degree of flexibility in how I combine my various cavalry figures for tabletop deployment.

My main idea about these guys is that they can easily represent post-Roman British cavalry or also Germanic auxiliaries in the Roman army, such as those used in both the Eastern and Western halves of the empire from the late third century onwards.

Anyway, here are some more views of the latest recruits to my growing Late Roman army.

These last four figures, who I think of as the unit's "characters", really suggest post-Roman Britons to me. 

Late Roman armoured cavalry

I bought a box of the new Gripping Beast Late Roman armoured cavalry as soon as they were available. I was already working on a box of the Dark Ages cavalry to use as Roman light cavalry, but what I really wanted was some armoured riders to boost my Saga Late Roman warband, use as Romano-British "Arthurians" and also to enable me to field a warband as Last Romans as described in the Age of Vikings book for Saga 2. These guys would work as part of a warband from the 6th or 7th century, i.e. the period between Justinian the Great and Heraclius, but don't look right as troops from one of the Tagmata or Thematic units that made up later Roman armies from the 8th-10th centuries.

Anyway, although I'd started the light cavalry, these armoured riders jumped the queue and have been finished first. Here is the complete unit of 12 cavalrymen. Note that there is one rider with a different shield design (n.b. all the shield designs are LBMS transfers). More on him later.

There are six figures armed with spears;

And five with swords;

Now, here is the chap with the different shield design;

Notice that I've put him on a larger round base. This enables me to field him as the leader of my warband, as well as including him as just another member of a unit. Here he is from his open side;

I have to admit that when I was painting these I had a real crisis of confidence over how they would turn out, partly because I really do not like painting horses at all, but also because I was finding it hard to visualise how they would look once they were inked. This was because I wasn't sure that I'd picked the right colour scheme for them. However, I think that they have turned out fine.

Regarding the actual models, I am quite impressed with them. There are plenty of head variants, allowing you to create figures that are not all identical, plus the usual different weapons options. There is also a vexilla included, which I didn't use, but which would work fine, with a bit of cutting and glueing of one of the spear arms in the box. I did find, though, that once I'd assembled and undercoated the horses that the body halves hadn't gone together perfectly and needed a bit of Milliput to fill the rather visible gaps in the alignment. I expect that this was down to my assembly rather than any actual defects in the mouldings themselves. Anyway, I've already bought another box to paint up so that I have extra armoured cavalry for my Late Roman Sword and Spear army.

New purchases

Here are some recent purchases which are intended to fulfil two things. Firstly, to satisfy the standard wargamer magpie urge and secondly, to boost an existing project and start off another one.

First, here is the project boosting set. These are the new plastic Perry 28mm Zulus, which I shall be using for Congo to give me some African warriors who are a little different from the standard Congo ranges of African Kingdoms metal figures. I like that this box gives the option of making warriors with muskets ot rifles as well as traditional weapons. This means that I can have four warriors with rifles and five with muskets. I'll probably have to buy some metal character figures but for £20 this is a cheap way to bulk out my Congo collection.

The next two boxes were something that I'd wanted to get for some time, because I really wanted to paint some Late Romans, but really didn't have a reason to go out and spend the money on figures for which I didn't have a use. They are Gripping Beast plastics, again in 28mm. My idea is to use these to create a Romano-British warband for Saga, but they could easily be the basis of a Late Roman warband too. Again, I might need to get a few metal figures as characters later on.

The Dark Age cavalry (I really wish they were called Late Antiquity/Early Mediaeval Cavalry, but that is me being a pedantic historian) will work well as Auxiliary light cavalry, and the foot troops look perfect for my plans.

I'd never really considered Saga before, but my appetite was whetted by Annie Norman's Freyja's Wrath Kickstarter, to which I have pledged enough money to give me enough figures for a warband with extra troop options and some characters.

Of course, the Late Romans/Romano-British will also be ideal for Dux Britanniarum, assuming I want to buy another set of rules, which can never be ruled out!

So, lots more figures to paint in the coming months. It should be fun.