1000pt Roman army for WAB

I've just quickly costed up a 1000pt (well, 998 to be exact) Roman army using the WAB rules. It looks something like this (but will ultimately change at some point because I'm not too sure that i've done it correctly and I have two Tribunes leading my Legionaries!)

General - 138 points

Marcus Fulvius Flaccus earnt his place in history after defeating the Salluvii, a Gallic people occupying the plain South of the Durentia between the Rhone River and the Alps, and claiming their rich and fertile lands in the name of Rome.

Aquilifer - 65 points

Teutomalius, the captured leader of the Salluvii, swore his life to Flaccus in return for sparing the lives of his family and himself. He was awarded a Lion pelt by General Flaccus for saving his life on a number of occasions and as a thank you, was also given the great honour and responsibility of looking after the legion standard, despite not being able to speak a word of Latin!

16 Legionaries w/Standard, Musician and Tribune - 305 points

This unit is led by Gaius Sempronius, a man with senatorial ambitions, who has been elected to serve as a Tribune of the Soldiers. Gaius is a little impatient and reckless, eager to resume his chosen career path and return to Rome (and continue indulging in wine and women!)

16 Legionaries w/Standard, Musician and Tribune - 305 points

This unit is led by an as yet unnamed Tribune.

16 Batavian Auxiliaries w/Standard, Musician and Centurion - 185 points

This unit is led by an as yet unnamed Centurion.

That totals 998 points. I have a couple of other units which will be added later such as Legionary skirmishers raised from Germania, the Spanish allies including infantry and cavalry and the General's Praetorian body guard.

After i've completed the 1000pt Roman Army and before I paint the other units I have left, i'm going to work on my Macedonians along with two very small Crusader and Islamic skirmish armies.

Basing fiasco

I've been packing up my stuff to take to University and I thought i'd experiment with basing a figure. So I covered his base in some PVA I found and covered it in sand. I waited for it to dry for a day and then painted it a dark brown. I then used Foundry's base painting system and used the three colours to dry brush on the highlights. It looked great! But then I had it in my head that dry-brushing brown onto it again would look good. It didn't. It just looked brown. So I repeated the process and then thought it a good idea to highlight with white which then made it look like the figure was fighting in the snow! So I repeated the process and finally left it at that. After 16 coats of paint, the result is shown above! I'm just waiting for my grass tufts to arrive and then his base will be finished! I might leave the overlap of colour on the brown part of the base as it hides the harshness of the corners which adds to the realism!

Spanish Shields

I've finally finished painting the shields for my Spanish infantry and managed to glue them onto the figures. The colour scheme is a rather striking (and rather dangerous looking!) red and black which I had done some research into for the basic design. I am aware that Spanish troops of this era would have had different shield designs but I wanted these to look more unified as they are supposed to have been drafted into the Roman army to fight for the armies of Rome! I've just purchased some basing sand and am waiting for some grass tufts to arrive before I can finally finish my first full unit!

The Romans are coming along slowly at the minute. I've spent the last few days re-arranging them into different sized units (either 24 or 16) and seeing which command figures go best with which unit. I go back to University next weekend so I shall be spraying a whole load of figures and taking them up with me so the blog (and the painting) can continue!

Campaign Map

I'm currently working on the rules for my Roman campaign and the screenshot above shows the campaign map as a work in progress (taken from Photoshop CS). As you may notice, I've used the province boundaries that were in use at the height of the empire and added a few here and there to fit the campaign I have in mind. I thought that the two players could have one of the two provinces in Northern Italy each to start with and are tasked with expansion to the East or West (depending on which side you received), much like the PC game Rome Total War, eventually culminating in some kind of civil war. Like I said, I'm still trying to get to grips with the whole scenario. I don't particularly like the idea i've just mentioned and i'm not sure there's enough interest or excitement in the campaign to stop it getting boring. Also, it doesn't have a definite conclusion or ending which doesn't help! Any suggestions?

Roman Command Unit

I've just returned from the Partizan wargames show at Kelham Hall, Newark and managed to purchase this Roman command unit fairly cheaply. I'm considering splitting them up so I can base them differently. There are currently four figures on a rectangular base. Having seen some of the troops on display at Partizan, I'm also considering rebasing my un-based Roman legionaries shown in the previous post so there are more troops to a base so they look a little too uniform using the Games Workshop/Warhammer bases and not very realistic. The only problem I have with converting to say, two or three per base is the lack of flexibility it gives with changing formations, etc. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

On the painting table.

These are the Spanish troops I've been working on for the last week and I'm rather pleased with them! The shields are being painted at the minute and after that they need properly basing, but I will need to get some sort of sand/grit before I do that.

I've finally found time to get back to painting my Romans since my 3 months working away from home. I've undercoated the rest of the unit, of which i'd previously only painted 8 of the figures as a test run. This particular unit is led by a tribunes militium (Tribune of the Soldiers) by the name of Gaius Sempronius (the white figure in the middle of the front rank). Each year, 24 young men in their late twenties with senatorial ambitions were elected to serve as Tribunes of the Soldiers. Gaius is a little reckless, wanting to get his time serving with the army over with so he can continue on with his career path (and get back to the abundance of wine and women in Rome!)

Keep checking back for regular updates.