I have been involved in a PBEM ECW campaign, where as King Charles I prematurely lost my head. Pop along to Mud Blood and Steel for an entertaining account of the campaign. The last tactical game I was involved in was a virtual Punic War campaign battle run by Jonathon Freitag of Palouse Wargames Journal fame. You see I’ve been teetering on the brink of building up Roman and Carthaginian armies (and maybe Macedonian and Syracusan). And it’s that subject that I want to briefly touch on. As part of my background preparation, I came across the article by Bret Devereaux below, which focuses on one of the Romans’ wars against the Macedonians in the early 2nd century BC.
Fascinating stuff, but it lead me on to looking further at Roman formations. All that fancy quincunx stuff must look great (as it did in the Spartacus film climactic battle- admittedly from the later Republican period). I’m pretty new to all this, and the debate around to what extent this was a pre-contact formation. This is all part of my decision-making process on what I want my models to look like. As I’m most likely to go for 6mm figures, I can afford to show such formations, at least stylistically. Not all 30 maniples in a legion.
A dozen or so 6mm figures in 2 ranks would fit on a base 30mm wide. A flexible, if fiddly, layout would be to have 4 30x15mm bases representing the Hastati, the same for the Principes, maybe just 2 bases for the Triarii. Plus an appropriate number of Velites and cavalry of course. All told, 175 infantry figures plus 10 cavalry, to represent the legion. So two legions could be built from 8 packs of H&R figures (50 inf or 20 cav per pack). £40 plus p&p. Not bad. But then there’s the Italian alae!
Postscript: Here’s the link for the start of JBM’s ECW campaign, as requested by Joseph in the comments. Apologies for not including it originally.
All thoughts eventually circle back to Rome. Good luck in your new project! You will be back in action at the gaming table next week.
ReplyDeleteI’m still in the exploratory phase. No firm commitment yet. Still got unfulfilled ambitions on the 18th C front.
DeleteChris
Sounds like an interesting and eminently affordable new project Chris - I look forward to seeing the figures painted in due course!
ReplyDeleteDon’t hold your breath Keith!
DeleteChris
PS that £40+ is just for half of one side. A typical consular army would be 2 Roman legions plus 2 of allies. I think.
DeleteI think one reason I've steered clear of the Roman period, is that I know sod all about it! I just don't have the inclination, time nor energy to even dip a toe into said period. Probably a wise and safe course of action;)
ReplyDeleteWhatever is ‘slightly more than sod all’, then that’s where I am.
DeleteChris
Tee hee…. I spy a rabbit hole. Good luck with it though. Half the fun is researching and planning!
ReplyDeleteIt’s a bloody warren!
DeleteChris
ooh, shiny! I agree the whole Hastati/Principes/Triari thing is pretty interesting, and 6mm looks to be the ideal scale ( maybe 2mm, but harder to make them look colourful?) to portray the massed formations. I look forward to seeing your progress!
ReplyDelete....to say nothing of all the exotic troop types that fought for Carthage. I partly blame you David, with your Macedonians and Persians. I've long had a hankering for the Persian Wars (ever since seeing The 300 Spartans as a kid) but the Greeks are pretty limited in what they can do tactically, and the Macedonians kept winning. The mid-Republic era of Rome gives plenty of variety of troop types and opponents (including Macedonians and late 'hoplite Greek successor states').
DeleteDavid, I think 28mm is a good scale too!
DeleteIt is that!
DeleteChris
Chris, I think 40 quid for two legions is a bargain. I am sure the Romans paid more than that! 😁
ReplyDelete6mm would give you the detail plus the mass so should look good on the table. And if each army cost similar it should be an OK project to keep bubbling along as you build the forces over a few years.
Yeah, it is. However, when you have 200 figures of this scale based up, they don’t take up much space! 200 of my SYW figures take up 12x12cm and they’re not up to the edges of the base.
DeleteChris
I'm very tempted by Republican Romans and Carthage, trouble is I've just started painting a late Roman army and I've got an unassembled early Imperial army but the pull of Hasta ,Principe and Triari is strong, I blame Jonathan Freitag's blog! Good luck with this!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain caveadsum1471
That man has a lot to answer for. He’s a sort of Wargaming Mephistopheles.
DeleteWould you consider going down to 10 or 6mm Iain to justify another lot of Romans?
Chris
Just curious but in your post you wrote: ' Pop along to Mud Blood and Steel for an entertaining account of the campaign.'
ReplyDeleteI can't find that and I would love to read about it. Got a url? Thanks!
Hi Joseph, I have added a link to Mud Blood and Steel above now.
DeleteChris