Imperial Romans: Legionaries II

So right before all the holidays I got another unit of my legionaries done. They are done with all the new spiffy sprues I got form Warlord so now they have a proper command unit!

Other than that I wanted to create a unit that was all using their pila, so that I did, all the swords will go towards another unit.

Other than that, they are painted with mostly Vallejo colours, one layer, Army Painters dark wash and some highlights with the base colour on some parts and then they are done. Looks good enough on the table, but it's not the minis I would take to a painting competition ;)

As this is now completed I thought it was time for a small "army" picture, with what has been done so far. It's not much, but it's a start,

With this I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I'll do my best to have something new when the new year isn't that old.

Imperial Romans: Legionaries I

And my first unit of legionaries is completed. In true Asterix style they have green clothes and blue shields with no decoration. Well I have chosen not to have any decorations, depending on what album you read or movie you see there is some instances where they have some decoration, but I'm not going to freehand any such nonsense on what will probably turn out to be at least a hundred+ shields.

The command in this unit is the centurion you get with the Hail Caesar rules if you buy them direct form Warlord, and I have to say it was a joy to paint him. His base is made up of rocks, broken shields and equipment, it's really cool so I recommend that you get this miniature if you don't already own the rules, even if you end up with some other army it's just plain fun to paint.

Other than that here is what you came for, the pictures!

Imperial Romans: Commanders

I had some commanders laying around, I think I got them at the same time as I bought my copy of Hail Caesar quite some time ago. Anyway, I have them so I paint them =)

The miniatures are Warlords Julius Caesar model and Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
They are quite nice minis, not too much flash on them, but Marcus and his horse are very small, there isn't any problem when compared with the other Roman miniatures but he looks a bit funny next to some of my Napoleonic British miniatures I have on my painting table at the same time.

Other than that there isn't much to say, I painted them kind of the same way I paint most of my minis now, base colour, wash and highlight with the base colour again. But since this is commanders after all, they got another highlight or two depending on what colour I used. So they look a bit nicer than my regular troops.

I'll soon have my first units of legionaries done and ready for display, just need to get the bases done.

Imperial Romans: Auxilia

So I've finished painting up my first unit of the auxilia that I reviewed last week.
I've based them on 40x40mm bases, just as my napolionics, but as we have limited space on our club, and we'd like to be able to play on a standard 4'x6' table each unit is only 3 bases wide.

When it comes to painting I took my inspiration from Asterix and I clad them in green with blue shields, I really like that look and it's a nice little break from the mostly red legion troops you see around.

But here is some more pictures

Next up is some legionaries, I have some in basing, and then I have some command minis in the works as well

Review: Warlord Games Early Imperial Romans Auxiliaries

I recently got sucked into wanting to get me a Hail Caesar army, I have had thoughts about getting myself a Greek army, but to do that I wanted some Victrix miniature, and for some reason they are more or less impossible to get hold off in the stores I frequent.

So I found myself surfing around and the Black Friday sales was up on Warlord Games and well.. I got me some Romans =)

While I wait for the order with plastic sprue goodness to arrive to me I visited a local store and found a box of Auxiliaries to take home.

In the box you find 5 sprues of 4 soldiers each, for some reason each sprue was in its own little plastic bag, don't know why, but there you have it. To this you get a little zip-lock bag containing 4 metal command models. You get the choice of 2 different standards for the standard bearer, either you get the nice one with discs and leaves you see here, or you get a standard with the emperors face.

For myself I used them both to create 2 units and get some sort of command in the other one.

The metals are quite good, but there is a lot of flash, you get two shields for your command and each of them had at least 8 points with flash, on each side... It wasn't hard to remove, but boy was there a lot.

To this you also get a sheet with transfers to add to your shields, they are transparent, so you still need to paint the shield underneath, something I understand you don't have to do with their legioneer transfers.

The plastic figures then, well they are nice, hardly any moldlines at all, they fit together without any problems and there are not many pieces to handle

Front of sprue

Back of sprue

In this simplicity I myself kind of find a problem, you can't really do anything to the miniatures, the only option you have is heads, and from more than a few inches away they kind of look al the same so without some extensive cutting and converting you will have five of each model and they will look the same. And you don't get any extra pieces so any conversions will have to come from some place else.

They are also a bit "wild" in that they are a bit of a challenge to get to rank up, I'm going to place mine on 4 by 4 on 40mm by 40mm bases, I would not like to be the person that bases them individualy and then try to rank them all up to play.

In they end though, they are nice miniatures, they are well made, they are easy to paint and looks good when you get them ranked up in a unit. I have the first 12 of them in the works and will soon show them so that you can form your own opinion of how they look when arranged in a unit.

I'll give this box 6 out of 10 pilums. 

Battle Report: Black Powder - Coa 1810

On the 24 of june 1810 General Crauford got caught with a light division between a river and Marshals Ney's corps, he had to find a way to cross the river before Ney's forces got to him and destroyed his forces.

Crauford had found a old bridge, but would he have time to check the condition of the bridge and get over before the French could destroy all his forces, he needed time to check the bridge, and get his forces over.

I commanded the French forces, and my clubmate would take on the British hat.

The forces this time around was a small light division for the British with 2 line battalions, 2 small battalions of 95th rifles, 2 Concadores, a light dragoon squadron and a horse artillery battery.

The French forces was quite a bit larger consisting of a total of 9 regular line battalions, 1 elite line battalion and 2 light battalions and finally a elite dragoon squadron.

For the scenario the British would have to send the cavalry to the bridge, spend a move there to check the bridge and report back to Crauford before any unit under his command could move from the deployment zone. After this the British would get a point for each unit that left over the bridge, and the French would loose one. The French started the game with 5 points.

The British deployment

The French deployment (half the force is of board)

The first turn saw the first French division line up facing of the British line, firing all that they could to get them to break.

The second division moved up to flank the line.

A hard shoot out in the middle

The britts sends the cavalry to check the bridge as fast as possible

After the first turn

The second turn saw the return of the cavalry to the British lines, and a continued fire fight between the two forces

After this the lines stood still for a few turns, pouring fire into each other, both sides taking some casualties but generally the French started to take the britts down, so Crauford signalled for a general retreat, staying back with the last line battalion to hold the line, but got himself cut down by French bayonets as the line started to charge.

The British line is being beaten back in disorder, but still getting to the bridge

The line battalion along with Crauford is destroyed

In the end enough units from the British side got over to give them a draw, but only the lightest units got over, so the French could claim a minor win.

The game was really close in the end, quite a lot of more or less failed orders got the French second division of to a slow and in the end - bad pursuit, I should have concentrated them to take the bridge and not tried to push them towards it. Also my cavalry didn't do much, they charged in once, got a unit quite beaten up, but as they got into square I could not destroy them and they themselves got quite beaten up by it and stood around doing next to nothing for the rest of the game.

But it was an excellent game, and I really like Black Powder, even though we forget half of the rules ;)

British Napoleonic Hussars

I've finally completed a unit of British hussars that I have had in the works for a long time. The back bases was actually completed a few months ago. But the front rank has been almost done for weeks now, only missing that little last thing, and then basing.

Well the struggle is finally over and they can now ride into battle at the head of my British columns.

After this I have another line regiment to do, but somehow I've lost the heads and backpacks for about half the miniatures in that unit, I have to find them... wherever they might be.

Ah well I also have some commanders to and some cannons, so I'll keep busy =)

The miniatures then, they are from the Perrys and their British hussars set, mighty fine miniature they are, you get the choice of either arms at rest as the back line, or charging as the front and a whole lot of different heads as well. The information leaflet they send with you in the box is very nice as well and gives you the uniform of a lot of different regiments.
Can't recommend them enough.

But here are some pictures of them as they line up to take to the field.