Roman Auxiliaries - JJ's Dacian Wars

Roman Auxiliary Soldiers

The second unit in my Dacian Wars collection is this Auxiliary Cohort. The Auxiliary Infantry in the Imperial Roman Army were the workhorse units and formed a valuable part of its combat effectiveness. These chaps will be the first into combat when they come up against the Dacian horde.

The animation in these Warlord plastics really bring the unit alive with just enough variation to give the impression of aggressive action.

The downside with all that animation is trying to squeeze four figures onto a 40mm square base, however with a bit of trial and error it is possible to get them working alongside each other in a compact mass of spears and swords.

I'm really enjoying the challenge of capturing the expressions on my little warriors faces. As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have always felt obliged to honour the work of the sculptor by bringing alive the detail he or she has managed to create.

The other key challenge I haven't enjoyed is the task of working with plastic spears. The detail is great but their fragility when being handled is exasperating and I am now committed to moving on to brass rod spears, and at some time this unit will need a re-bore of all those hand grips as I replace them with a sturdy wargame handling option. Oh well I am on the learning curve here!

The really pleasurable side to producing these two units is that my eldest lad Tom has felt inspired to declare he wants to get back into his painting by doing some 28mm Romans. So this blog is doing it's bit to bring new generations into the hobby.

Next up Hesse Darmstadt Artillery.

Roman Legionaries - JJ's Dacian Wars

Back in February I announced that JJ's Wargames would be branching out into a new period and new scale of figures.

Hail Caesar coming soon to JJ's

Regular readers of the blog will have noticed the occasional post in between the Peninsular War project posts of references to adding figures to my Dacian War collection using the Warlord Games and Wargames Foundry ranges. Over the recent months I have been doing a lot of reading around the subject together with looking at rule systems, basing norms and looking at related blogs to educate myself in the unfamiliar world of Ancient Wargaming.

In addition I have been practising painting techniques for using on my new 28mm collection and working out how I want my new forces to look, also thinking about extending the forces to include other enemies in time.

Early Imperial Roman cavalry

I did promise this new collection would get going in the second half of this year and so started putting the first of the plastic ranges of Roman infantry together whilst on holiday this summer.

So it gives me great pleasure to introduce the first Legionary cohort, the first of many, to kick off the new collection.

At the moment, this is a Hail Caesar Roman unit straight out of the box. I am thinking of increasing the unit to 6 x 4 thus modelling the cohort at 1:20 with the six sub sections or centuries replicated per base. The first cohort (veterans) will then have ten bases to up-strength it to 800 men.

I have learnt quite a bit, with putting this unit together, not just the how too's but the "oh I'm not doing it that way again!" stuff as well. As a "newbie" to painting 28mm Ancients, I am planning to put together a how to, or how not too set of notes, more anon.

I am learning a lot about flesh painting and shading and that will only increase as I move on to the Dacian's. All great fun, and my collection of YouTube references is growing. There are some very talented painters out there who are only too willing to share their techniques

I aim to put in the odd "Dacian Wars" unit in between the Napoleonics over the next few months and so the plan is to turn to the artillery units of the German Division as I wait for my Baden Fusiliers to arrive from Spain (there in the post to Warmodelling before they get to me) and I will do a unit of Auxiliaries next. Once I have several units of Romans done I will get stuck into the Dacian's.

As part of my reading up on the Dacian Wars, I thought I would also highlight an excellent book on the subject that I picked up direct from the author Radu Oltean. The artwork that heads up this post is from Radu's book and shows the quality of the illustrations throughout the text. At the time of writing the book is not available from the usual channels and I dropped Radu an email and arranged for a signed copy to be delivered. Radu's email can be found on his web site below.

I have only speed read my way through and have started to read it through in more detail, so will post a more considered review later, but there are other very positive comments elsewhere and the book was referenced in Ancient Warfare which is where I got the "heads up" originally. I am also thoroughly enjoying the exploits of Macro and Cato in the first of Simon Scarrow's series of Eagle books, "Under the Eagle", egged on by Tom and Will to get reading them.

Radu Oltean - Dacia, The Roman Wars Vol 1

So the Dacian Wars are up and running at JJ's Wargames and as part of the launch I thought I would put together a new banner that will accompany any updates to the collection and eventually some battle reports and rule reviews

Next up, Kingdom of Holland Horse Artillery.

Early Imperial Roman Cavalry - Based, Hail Caesar

As promised, a few shots of the Roman cavalry based up. These few figures were a test group for me to work out what could work when painting these figures and to get use to doing something new en mass, such as shield decals.

The next time I do 28mm Ancients I will be working with complete units. More to come.

Early Imperial Roman Auxiliary Cavalry - Hail Caesar

As promised, I said I'd put some pictures up of some Roman cavalry I started doing last weekend, amongst other things.

These will be part of a unit of twelve figures, but I just wanted to play with the colours and couldn't resist starting with a few figures. I really like these sculpts, with lots of character, especially the chap thrusting the spear overhand.

I'll get a couple of them based up and show you the final result. Needles to say, I am having to get my Russell Crowe impersonation ready for the first game.

First Game of Hail Caesar Played - First Impressions

Courtesy of friends and fellow members at the Devon Wargames Group, I got to play my first game of Hail Caesar in my journey of discovery to decide on a preferred set of rules to play my collection of 28mm ancients. See the Devon Wargames Group Blog for a game report on the action yesterday. I thought I would post my first impressions.

First thing to say is I really enjoyed this set of rules, in spite of my reservations. As part of a generation of players that was brought up on rules from the Pre-Games Workshop era I have come to view a lot of the works that have come out of that stable as leaning more towards the game side of the spectrum rather than the simulation. I was not a fan of WAB and its amazing horses that seemed to kill more enemy soldiers than the riders on their backs. So it was with some reservation that I approached my first game having bought the rule book and Dacian supplement on taking soundings from far more experienced ancient enthusiasts than me.

I can see why some former WRG players might have reservations on this particular set of rules and the Black Powder ethos of being able to have a pre-curry game with your mates is obvious to see in the relaxed style they are written in with an obvious invitation to adopt, adapt and improve with house rules. The movement capabilities for instance are very imprecise, deliberately so, and in my mind to no great detriment to the game. That being said there are some clever mechanisms that seem to capture the remorseless slog of an ancient hand to hand melee where it gets up close and personal and the ability to tailor rule additions to model specific characteristics of a particular army are there and seem to work very well.

Hail Caesar game played yesterday at the Devon Wargames Group

The sequence of play is very logical with play alternating from side A to side B starting with commands to divisions and units, ranged attacks and lastly hand to hand combat. All very easy to get into after a few moves. A level of friction is built into this process by not being sure exactly what your force will be able to do in its turn and with an optional extra of blunder moves being possible with extreme die rolls producing unforeseen effects to a force in its attempt to move.

Casualties are recorded using markers or small dice in our game, with no requirement to remove figures. This facilitates multiple figure bases to be used, both two key factors that are a preference of mine.

The game play is simple and straight forward, not simplistic and there do not seem to be any strange fantasy factors that I mentioned previously, which was very reassuring.

On the downside for me is the use of an IgoUgo sequence that seems to me to be a rather tired mechanistic process. I think the case for moving away from this approach to a more initiative driven sequence which can change from move to move as one side gains the upper hand is a more intuitive way of simulating the ebb and flow of how battles seem to work in reality. 

The other issue for me that affects a lot of rules, not just these, is the lack of fatigue effects on the units over time. This probably comes from my computer rules usage, but I really do miss the effects of movement and combat wearing down the will and ability of units to keep fighting. This is not easy to model in paper based rule sets without, it seems, rather cumbersome recording methods.

If there was something that I would really want to change, it is the roll to hit, roll to save methodology of the combat process. I do think it is tiresome to have to roll multiple dice to establish casualties from hits and saves. Why couldn't you just have a casualty table that had the save effects already built in to the roll to hit calculation? If you included a morale result with the casualty result as well the game would move along at a much better pace. That is probably the "Lardy" in me coming to the fore.

With the Lardies rules in mind the straightforward structure of Hail Caesar does allow you to focus on the period rather than the rules and as the Roman commander I was quickly able to concentrate on using my Legionaries to their best in the face of wild barbarian attacks without having to spend too much time thinking about the special rules involved and the die roll factors were quickly mastered.

My final small point is, and I know this has been mentioned by other commentators but still merits a comment, please, please, pretty please can all rule sets have an index included for quick reference. It really does wind one up when you have to resort to flicking through pages to find the reference you need, grrrr!

I very much enjoyed playing Hail Caesar and would definitely play them again. Whether they turn out to be my turn to Ancient Rule set remains to be seen. I intend to have another play through of Crusader Ancient rules Crusader Miniatures . I have also printed out a copy of The Die is Cast Ancient Rules to try out,  and to test the Computer option I have ordered up a copy of "Macedon, Rome and Hellas" from Computer Strategies, courtesy of Magister Militum

We were playing in 15mm yesterday and I found myself picturing the 28mm Warlord figures on the table battling among the trees in desperation. Resist, resist, one project at a time!

Next up progess on the Oporto table build and Portuguese Line Infantry.

Hail Caesar - Painting Practice

All the first purchases have now arrived and I am resisting the temptation to dive straight in and start painting, but only just. What is it about wargamers and new toys?

I did find myself spending a few days researching the Dacian Wars and Germanicus in Germania, not to mention thinking about other rule sets and bases. I think I will get a German starter army and work on them before the Dacians, but that might change. The Ancient Brits look great and I fancy doing some chariots at some stage.

I have also spent some time looking at various painting techniques and have discovered some very talented people in the world of 28mm Ancients. Warpainter shade dipping seems to be a fashion in some quarters and I have also looked at the effects from the new washes from Games Workshops ranges.

I am a confirmed three coat painter myself and though more time consuming than shading seems to give a brighter look to the figures. I note that some even combine both getting depth from the shading and then highlighting over. Unable to resist a little "messing about" whilst focusing on the Napoleonic project I played around with this Hanibal figure that was given away as a freebie at Salute 2004. I make no claims on colours for this model, it was simply an exercise in using various colour shade options.

If I am honest, it kept me away from diving in to those Romans!

Hail Caesar - Coming Soon to JJ's

I have taken the plunge and initiated a journey into the world of spear chucking and shield humping that is Ancient Wargaming.

The rule set I have decided to work with

I should make my credentials clear right from the word go, and those who know me will know, that I have only ever dabbled in ancient/medieval wargames and it has always taken a back seat to WWII and Napoloeonics. That said I have owned 15mm Punics and a few 28mm Wars of the Roses, but haven't really got into any period. In addition I do enjoy the occasional sortie into painting figures from the ancient-medieval periods as the work I have done for friends with their collections will illustrate. There is a different palette of colours to work with and the variety needed to present the less uniformed appearance of units requires working up combinations from the colour wheel that are less familiar when working in horse and musket.

My start point for my Imperial Roman Collection

The other revolutionary change that is about to happen on JJ's Wargames is that I will be featuring 28mm figures in my collections, where I have spent the last few years consolidating my collections around 15/18mm to allow me to streamline my terrain around a common scale. So why go into 28mm now I hear you say? Well the answer is based on a lot of thought by yours truly in terms of having a collection that shows off the undoubted visual appeal of a larger figure scale with a period that will require a minimal amount of terrain inclusion. Lets face it most ancient battles were in open ground, so that means a few larger trees and the odd bit of 28mm river and road material. If I want to go for field works and the odd temple building later that might be something else to add in time, but other than that the terrain mat and underlying hill arrangements should suffice.

I wanted to paint some horses so a few Roman cavalry to start things rolling

Well that's all very interesting, but why now and why Imperial Romans?

Simple, I have two driving factors influencing this project, firstly my enjoyment in working my way through the Mike Duncan, History of Rome pod cast over the last 18 months which has been a real joy to listen to and has worked up the creative juices to start putting paint to models. Any wargamer understands the need to scratch an itch when it develops, and Mr Duncan has really fired up the imagination with his highly entertaining and often amusing recounting of the story of Rome. 

The pleasure has only heightened by discovering a like mind in my younger son Will who has carried on his Latin studies to A level and in the process developed a passion for classical history that in turn has inspired his old man to learn more. I  introduced Will to the delight of listening to Mr Duncan and we both take turns in chatting about the pros and cons of various Roman Emperors and the way the empire developed over time together with the military implications. This usually ends with a plea from Will, "you've got to do Romans Dad".

All the guidance for putting the first armies together - looking forward to the read

I am a passionate enthusiast for wargaming and think our hobby is a fantastic way for young people to get into history as well as art, reading, travel and learning about why the world is the way it is. As a parent I am keen to encourage my lads to think about the hobby as something they might want to do as a past time, if not now, certainly later when creative leisure time will become a bigger part of their lives. So as a big believer of don't put off to tomorrow what you can do today I have ordered the figures to start the new collection and kindle Will's love of the classics. In fact the last thing he said this morning on his way to work was "When are the Romans coming Dad?"

The first of my Enemies of Rome

Well it's not just the Romans, I've also included a few Dacians to start the Barbarian collection to stick it to the Roman invaders. As you can see I have taken the Warlord "Hail Caesar" figures and rules as the foundation for the collection, based on the fact that Will and I want to get going sooner rather than later. Unlike Napoleonics where my own ideas are clearly defined on what I want to do with that period, this collection has to be more "off the peg" and so I can produce units quickly from their great range of figures. In addition the ability to use a large amount of plastics and the cost savings that implies means that the collection should grow quicker than otherwise. The painted illustrations from their associated painters are also a great inspiration and I am looking forward to trying to match the styles on show. One other factor that influenced me towards the Hail Caesar rules is the preference towards not removing figures as casualties but instead maintaining the look of the game by keeping the units on table with casualty markers. This is a start point, I'm sure I will make changes as we proceed and I have my eye on a computer rules option as well.

So there we are, something new to go with my Peninsular War project for 2014. The Oporto/Talavera project takes precedence and I have discussed the terrain build with Will's older brother Tom for Oporto which should be our Easter project this year. Next up will be the 4th Legere with a correction coming later to my previous 2nd Legere unit as I missed an important distinction that I had the information for but overlooked - thanks Ray, good shout.