Lucius Aemilius Barbula

Lucius Aemilius Barbula is a man whose best years are behind him, and he knows it. A great general in his youth, Barbula was awarded a triumph for his crushing victory over the Numidians and was elected Consul shortly after. Despite his initial popularity, Barbula quickly fell out of favour with the Senate and was given the task of governing one of the more dangerous frontier provinces, but he's not complaining. Taking advantage of his province's distance from Rome, Barbula has been able to hold back some of the taxes he collects each month for himself without anyone noticing. He hopes to buy his way back through the Gates of Rome, overthrow the aristocratic Senate and declare himself a Dictator. He'll need to make his move soon, though, as time is against him...

Note: he looks a bit like TV Chef Rick Stein doesn't he?!

Painting Table

This is how my desk/painting area is looking at the minute (it used to have a computer on it!)

As you can see, i've found a use for an Ikea pencil! It's currently supporting Governor Barbula's bum whilst he dries out a little (it rains a lot in the frontier provinces you know). Beside him are two Foundry figures which i'm painting as part of my Macedonian Army which you can see by clicking here.

As you can see from the photo, I have my pot of sky blue paint out. I'm desperate to use it somewhere! Hopefully when it comes to my Phalanx and Hypaspists I can use plenty of the stuff!

On the painting table

With my first Roman Cohort nearing completion, I thought i'd make a start on a couple of my command figures. The photo above (clickable) is of the tough old war dog General Quintus Pompeius Falco (centre) flanked by his Tribune and the Legion's standard. These figures will be mounted on a 50mm round base as a command stand. All figures are from Foundry's Caesarian range.

The figure above, I received in amongst some figures I bought off of eBay. I believe he is supposed to be the "Emperor Vespasian" from Foundry's Imperial Roman range but he will, for me, be representing the Governor Lucius Aemilius Barbula, a character you will hear a lot more about in the coming months.

NOTE: Someone has asked me how I come up with the names and history for the characters I've created for my army/campaign. Well, I spent a long time playing Europa Universalis: Rome last year on my computer and in truth, a lot of the names I use are the names of my best generals or other characters of interest from the game. For instance, General Flaccus (yet to make an appearance on the blog in figure form) virtually annexed all of Greece and conquered much of Gaul in the game for me so I decided to let him command my Romans on the tabletop. I have a list of names that I wrote down from the game with some of the things they did (great victory, rebelled, etc) which i'll try to incorporate into the characters. When I write the history I let my imagination run free but it's always interesting to find out what the real character from history did and try and incorporate some of that into the text. I hope that helps!

My Model Roman Army

As it stands, my Roman Army looks a little bit like this:

Command

- Marcus Fulvius Flaccus - General

- Quintus Pompeius Falco - General

Legionaries

- 16 Gallic Legionaries

- 16 Gallic Legionaries

- 20 Raw Recruits

Auxiliaries

Infantry

- 16 Batavian Auxiliaries

- 16 Numidian Auxiliaries

- 16 Germanic Auxiliaries

Cavalry

- 9 Auxiliary Cavalry

Misc. Units

- 20 Urban Cohort/Penal Legionaries (for use as Garrison troops/raw recruits in the campaign)

- 8 Praetorian Guard (for use as the General's body guard)

The figures are a mixture of Wargames Foundry, Warlord Games, Renegade Miniatures, 1st Corps and Crusader Miniatures

Gaius Sempronius

Born into a family with a strong tradition in the Senate and the governing of ancient Rome, Gaius naturally followed his father, Tiberius, into politics. His father was a very powerful man who commanded a lot of respect and as a result of his devotion to Rome and its citizens, had great influence in the Senate (or was it due to his vast wealth?). Impatient and frustrated at the speed at which his career progressed, Gaius took the post of Military Tribune at the age of 20 in the hope of quickly gaining fame and fortune. Failing winning a glorious victory in a distant land and returning to Rome a hero, Gaius could still progress on the cursus honorum (ladder of Senatorial offices in Roman politics) after completion of his post.

Unrest in the North

The Senate has just received word of an uprising just North of Italy. It seems the newly conquered Ligurians, fond of war and always quick to battle, want to break free of their new overlords and return to their savage way of life. In response, Rome has decided to send the newly elected Military Tribune Gaius Sempronius and a Cohort of Legionaries to reinforce General Flaccus in Liguria and to aid in putting down the rebellion.

Roman Cavalry

I've just received some Roman Cavalry I bought on eBay which will slot nicely into a 1000 point WAB army (I plan to remove the Aquilifer and make some other minor changes from the previous list posted). I plan on having a unit of 5 (see picture above) which will be 100 points using the WAB rules but I also have 3 other Auxiliaries, another standard bearer and some kind of Senator/Emperor. They all look like Foundry miniatures with Foundry horses except for two which are definitely from another time period/manufacturer.

The horses are glued to GW slotta bases and I may well keep them there and fill in the gaps with some kind of putty (is this a good idea?)

They didn't come with spears or shields but I have plenty of spare spears at home, just no shields! If anyone has any spare they could kindly donate, it would be muchly appreciated!

A weekend of painting

...and this is all I have to show for it! It's a Gripping Beast figure from either their Crusades, Norman or El Cid range (I forget which). As I mentioned in a comment on the previous post, I was ill pretty much all weekend and decided to paint this figure last night to show i'd done something!

I quite enjoyed painting him because he doesn't have too much detail/too many colours and only took about an hour to paint (including drying time) but I'm certainly not looking forward to painting all the different shields! If only they were like my Romans and they were merely sprayed white! As before, I've used the Army Painter which has nicely shaded the chain-mail and the cloth undergarment.

Below you can see the figure.

A weekend of painting to come

I'm aiming to have finished the 5 Roman Legionaries and 3 command figures I have on the painting table by Sunday (minus basing and shields) and then make a start on a few of my Crusaders (i'm having trouble finding shield designs and other colour references, so if you can help it'd be muchly appreciated!)

Pictures will follow, probably on Sunday!