Roman Legionary Cohort

The three week break taken this summer to tour Spain and the Peninsular War battle sites, currently featuring in a series of posts, meant taking a break from the painting process, which is not a bad thing, but I was curious to see that the enforced leave of absence from the paint brush only left me feeling keen to feel a brush between the fingertips again, on arriving back in 'blighty'.

Cohort One
Cohort Two
Cohort Three

As followers of this blog will know I, like many others, like to plan out a painting schedule and then set too, working the plan. That process seems to give me a great deal of satisfaction and that sense of progress and achievement each time I take the pen and put a line through a completed unit on the planning list that is pinned to my painting desk.

Legionary cohort number four. Victrix loveliness of course and a break from the painting break

That said, variety is the spice of life, and although a regular diet of similar or the same type of unit seems to speed up the production process, as familiarity has enabled me to practically paint a Victrix legionary in my sleep, I prefer to come at each project with a sense of excitement that I get when painting a set of figures for the first time; and the sheer fun of finding the detail that a sculptor/designer has built into the figure that perhaps escaped the first examination, only to be revealed later, just screaming out for a paint job to bring it to the fore.

So on return from Spain I was keen to complete Roman Legionary Cohort number four to have the enjoyment of painting again after a long break, but the recent start of my AWI collection indicates the other aspect of recapturing the excitement of the new, and a Perry sculpt is a good way of getting that buzz going.

However as the Romans would tell you, nothing can be achieved without discipline and that includes writing a plan and seeing the plan through to completion, so the AWI excursion will be a relatively temporary excursion, before returning to the Romano Dacians to complete the outstanding third of the collection.

So my fourth cohort is using the charging legionary from Victrix complimented with LBM shield decals and I really love the dynamism in these figures which add greatly to the look of a game when seen pressed up to an equally expressive warband of Dacians.

Talking of Dacians, Victrix seem to be pressing on with their development of their new range and my short excursion also adds further method to my madness in that the slight delay might enable me to acquire some of the new Victrix range to mix in with my Warlord collection in time for when I come back to the project, adding yet more to the variety and look of the collection.

It may surprise some of my readers but I actually have friends, Mr Steve you know who you are, who sometimes express doubt that this collection is really growing with scurrilous suggestions that I am taking pictures of the same group of figures and needlessly filling the ether with 'fake news'.

I suppose this is representative of the times we are living in, so to refer back to a famous quote from the Falklands War, "I counted them all out and I counted them all back", to allay any fears of so called fake news, I present the first four cohorts of my Trajanic Legion destined to bring Pax Romana to Decebalus and his Dacian bandits.

The plan will see another three such cohorts added to these with the option to convert one into a double-strength first cohort and attached aquilla and primus pilus with all the added combat bonuses that would imply; thus my collection will represent a fighting legion of just under 3,500 soldiers, probably closer to average fighting strength.

Once the Romano Dacians are done I will produce a similar number of cohorts with red shields that will facilitate some civil war actions I have in mind as well as larger Roman versus the others encounters, with Germans and Sarmatians added to the Dacian collection to counter a larger Roman force.

If you are interested in reviewing the collection as a whole, that I have completed so far, together with other associated posts, you can check them out by following the tab, JJ's Dacian Wars on the top bar of collected links or in the link below.

JJ's Dacian Wars

So onwards and upwards with, next up, a look at my AWI Light Infantry, the Peninsular War history of Badajoz and the parts of the city we looked at this summer and I am in the process of basing some Iroquois Indians to add to the AWI collection, so will aim to put a post together on them as soon as I get my photography room back.

Oh and I have not forgotten the request I have had to put together a painting tutorial on how I do my horses, so I will do something about that once all the building works are finished here at Chez JJ with a PDF and YouTube look at the process.

More Anon
JJ

Roman Legionary Cohort

Roman Legionary cohort number three finishes the first six months of planned work on the Romano-Dacian collection.

Cohort One
Cohort Two

As with my previous two cohorts, these chaps are sporting black shields and will be part of a planned group of seven such cohorts to complete this legion, allowing for my plan to have my legions with seven full strength cohorts at around 3,000 men that allows for the fact that many legions would have struggled to turn out ten full strength cohorts and 5,000 men.

In addition my three base cohorts allow the flexibility to combine another three bases of legionaries with them to represent a double strength first cohort with which I plan to attach the eagle bearer and primus pilus, with all the added punch and raised morale that such an option would imply.

Alongside my seven legionary cohorts will be five auxiliary cohorts to complete my eventual legion, with the plan to build two such legions for civil war match ups.

The Victrix legionaries come with loads of options to create a really dynamic looking cohort and with a change of shield and additional helmet plumes can be transitioned into a Praetorian cohort, one of which I will be adding to my forces in the second half of this year.

The final touch when putting these units together is the addition of LBM shield decals which have revolutionised the way we model ancient and medieval collections and like adding colours to horse and musket units really helps to bring the whole look together.

The theme now moves distinctly Peninsular War Napoleonic, with the first part of our tour underway with the Corunna Retreat, Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo visited, so I will be aiming to get some posts up in between the driving.

Roman General Officers

Followers of the blog will know that during my trip to Salute earlier this year I picked up some Roman generals from Victrix which I have been eagerly looking to put together and so, to add in to my collection plans for the first six months, I decided to build and paint half the pack, leaving me another six generals to add a bit later on.

My inspiration for my Roman senior officers came from a Ronald Embleton set of picture cards illustrating Roman troops on Hadrian's Wall that I picked up on a visit to the wall way back in the mid eighties, and the one below in particular illustrating as it does, a Legionary Legate together with his Primus Pilus or chief centurion and a couple of tribunes.

The detail on these new Victrix commanders was a pleasure to take a brush to and they really compliment my growing collection of Victrix Roman troops and will work alongside my Aventine commanders as well.

However my Foundry Roman and Dacian commanders look a little diminutive next to these well fed chaps and so I look forward to Victrix producing a similar set of commanders for their planned Dacian collection of figures.

This chap is painted up to represent a Roman legate with his primus pilus ready to call forward his troops to administer a bit of 'Pax Romana' to the natives.

Next up I have a senior tribune in combination with another senior centurion, swords drawn and ready to lead the men into the fray.

And finally another potential legate in company with one of his tribunes, swords drawn and at the tilt, perhaps bringing forward the cavalry in a charge to end the barbarian resistance.

 Victrix are to be congratulated on producing some very fine figures and I really enjoyed putting these chaps together.

Next up Roman Legionary cohort number three

Roman Auxiliary Infantry

When working through units needed for a project I like to build to play as I go and I like to try and mix things up a bit to add some fun to the whole process.

So although four more units of Dacian Warbands are on the to-do list, I also have my Roman collection to work up as well and I have been really looking forward to working with the Victrix range of figures and in particular the Auxiliary Infantry which I have not built before.

My four units of Auxiliaries that have featured in the games run so far are the Warlord units that I converted over to my Augustus to Aurelian basing system.

The Victrix range compliments them quite well but in my opinion are very much superior in their look and I intend to replace the Warlord figures with these in time.

Auxiliary Infantry formed a significant component of Early Imperial Roman armies and with the plan to build two Roman armies for my collection will see a lot of these cohort type units being put together.

 
The design and look of these figures perfectly compliments the Victrix legionaries and together will really capture the look of a Principate army with serried ranks of both types.

The nice thing is that Victrix builds in plenty of options to allow you to vary the look of individual units with the inclusion of bearskins for the ordinary ranks to recreate the look of some of the auxiliary units pictured on Trajan's Column.

As you will see here I have stuck with a more traditional appearance, but plan to include the other look going forward.

One thing that really characterises the Auxiliaries on Trajan's Column is the depiction of these soldiers taking Dacian heads and in some scenes presenting their trophies to the Emperor himself.

Thus I have included a few of my soldiers with heads carried or impaled on sloped spear-point to emphasise their 'barbarian' heritage as any Roman commentator would note.

As well as a selection of trophies to adorn the unit with I was really taken with the character built into the faces of these soldiers which just seen to cry out for a bit of attention with the brush.

The shield decals are as usual from LBM and I have acquired a good mix of the many patterns they have available to allow easy identification when we get around to a bit of Roman vs Roman action.

Finally the painting of this unit saw me trying out one of a few new techniques that I have been planning to use, which in this case was working with a wet palette.

I have usually mixed my paint, which in the main is Vallejo, with water in a standard dry palette covered in foil to allow the occasional clean up and replacement with a new mixing surface.

For this project I decided to put together a wet palette, for which their are numerous suggestions on how to, all over the net, simply to say mine cost me £2.75 to put together.

I have to say, this has added another level of flexibility to my painting in terms of colour mixing, not to mention the cost saving in paint in finding colours still able to be used hours after they were mixed and still giving good coverage.

Having now got familiar with this way of painting I am surprised at myself for not doing this earlier, but I do know not all painters get on with this way of working, and perhaps I saw no real need to change.

Al I can say is that I am now a convert to this way of working with my colours and I am planning to use this method in conjuction with some added 'flow enhancers' to see what additional effects can be gained.

Finally, a big congratulations to my son Will and his friends who completed the Three Peaks Challenge this weekend which, with a traffic hold up on the Sunday travelling to Mount Snowden, meant that they had to run up stretches of the last peak to complete the twenty-four hour target with just over a minute to spare.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to his charity pot for Parkinson's UK and the Just Giving site remains open for those who might feel compelled to make a contribution to a very worthwhile appeal, by using the link under the banner at the top of the blog page.

Roman Infantry and Commanders

As I write this post I am sat in the centre of Roman Deva, now known as Chester and the former base of the XX Valeria Victrix, victors over Boudica at the Battle of Watling Street, so what better time than to introduce the latest additions to my Roman force.

With the core of my Dacian force put together it was time to look at adding some additional punch to my Roman force.

Roman punch doesn't come more emphatic than a cohort or two of legionaries and my force now has two with the addition of a second consisting of the Victrix attacking legionaries.

More animated than the standing cohort, these chaps are shown thrusting with gladius, punching with scutum and preparing to let fly with a volley of pila.

Roman Imperial Legionary Cohort

I really love putting these figures together which offer loads of options to vary the look of each unit and make them unique to your force, not to mention, buckets of detail to get a paint brush around.

In time the plan is to build fourteen of these cohort groups so we can do some big table games of Roman vs others or Roman v Roman.

These cohorts come in three flavours using Augustus to Aurelian (AtoA). If you want to compare them with the Light Dacian units you can see their stats in my previous post

 Dacian Light Infantry, Artillery and Commanders

The first option is the occasional 'untried' cohort, trained in which end of the gladius to use but not yet tested with looking down the 'nasty end' of a Dacian warband.

AtoA Combat Table used for shooting and hand to hand

As explained in the previous post the combat table in AtoA is used in both hand to hand and shooting calculations and works by finding the indicated combat or shooting factor across the top to find the column you are working with. Then simply read across the target's armour rating to find the basic score or less on a d10 needed to cause a casualty. Any additional factors simply move the column left or right.

As well as getting to lob their pila as part of the combat calculation, these chaps get to roll 2d10 on the combat table with a factor of 3 meaning before any additional factors have shifted columns right or left they cause a casualty on a 6 or less on each d10 rolled against unarmoured Dacians, which most of them are.

The pila are, as you would expect, nasty, effectively allowing the cohort to roll 4d10 on the first round of combat only and they ignore the target being shielded. If the combat should drag on into subsequent rounds, they then get to work with the gladius which adds a further d10 to their Combat Attack roll, bringing it up to 3d10 from then on.

With an outlook of 3 they can't afford to take three or more casualties themselves so rely on getting the combat won quickly or getting themselves replaced by a follow up cohort in the second line; and with a Rating of 7 they are pretty good at performing reaction tests when required needing 7 or less on a d10 before adjustments.

If you also note their 'Drilled' and Triplex Acies' qualities, it makes it much easier to pull these chaps in and out of a combat, replacing them with fresh cohorts as and when required.

The bulk standard trained cohort, with a modicum of combat experience among the centuries just adds to the concerns of any Dacian commander by improving the odds in terms of causing casualties on the enemy by another 10% on each combat and shooting attack, whilst also gaining a more robust reaction profile.

The hardened, probably veteran, cohorts are even better and if forming a first cohort with an additional 350 or so legionaries would add another d10 to those combat factors with a Rating that means they don't know when they are beaten.

As well as infantry reinforcements I needed some commanders to lead my troops in the upcoming game so put together another four command groups, with a mixture of Wargames Foundry and Warlord general officers.

With the Emperor Trajan foremost among Rome's warrior emperors I was keen to use the Foundry offering, here mixed in with figures from their Suetonius Paulinus group.

Paulinus ended up (centre) as a mounted Roman Legate accompanied by his Primus Pilus.

The two on foot general officers (left) were taken from the Trajan group and added to one from the Paulinus group to make a suitable mix of narrow and broad stripe tribunes as another command group.

Finally on the right I used the Warlord charging cavalry commander, another tribune, indicated by his purple helmet crest and saddle furniture accompanied by his fearless war-pooch.

These command groups will I hope, be soon added to with the forthcoming offerings from Victrix which I am eagerly anticipating.

Last but by no means least I have added a couple of Auxiliary units in the form of these skirmishing archers and slingers.

The western archers can be combined into two units of eight to form a sixteen figure formed unit rather than the smaller skirmish one seen here, allowing them to fire massed volleys of arrows and if necessary defend themselves with their armour and gladius short swords.

When used as skirmishers as here their added weaponry and armour makes them formidable against other skirmishers in combat should the opportunity arise.

The slingers are definitely a skirmish unit only as their lack of armour does not incline them to getting in, up close and personal, much preferring to bring their skill at arms with sling and bullet to bear and at range.

Slingers have the benefit of negating shields used by the target as the sling bullet was not easy to see in flight and thus known to cause casualties on first shots because of the target being unaware of the bullets until the first casualties went down.

Both these groups of figures are from the Warlord range and come with a nice amount of detail in their sculpts if very slightly diminutive to the Victrix legionaries, which may in time cause me to bolster their ranks with slightly bulkier offerings from Aventine and Black Tree.

To give these chaps a bit more of a Roman character I decided to give them a commander indicated by one of their number being clad in a suitably red tunic.

Next up travel reports from Mr Steve and myself, plus more Roman additions to the collection.