Crises, what Crises

 All my preparation for the new army figure wise has been done, bases and movement trays are ordered to be picked up at Vapnartak in York, where I hope to also get tufts and flock. I have no patience and while waiting on Victrix to start selling the LBMS transfers I ordered up a set for my first vexillation from A&A Miniatures, I may have to go down this route again.

I have been through the Army of Maximinus Thrax book and elsewhere only to find out most of what I look up is the usual might, possibly, may etc. when it comes to what the legionaries actually wore in the 3rd Century. This is of course only to be expected when putting together finds from all across the empire and trying to make sense of them all. So as a wargamer you have to make a decision and stick to it, for example cataphracts are heavily armoured but did not always ride barded horses, clibinari on the other hand usually did, hence most peoples idea of a cataphract. The lamelar hoods worn by quite a few wargame figures for this middle period seemingly are not really a thing and if they were they would have been worse than useless at fending off a blow to the head. There is also no real proof of heavily decorated shields a la Dura Europos style, despite the lovely art in the book, of course there is also no real proof they weren't. And don't get me started on Lanciarii, were they light or heavy troops, did they form up as close order or did they skirmish, did the legionaries use pilum, spiculum, spear or long spear and on it goes.

I have made some decisions, helped by the range of figures I can use, my army will consist of five close order vexillations from four Rhine legions, I Minerva, XXX Ulpia Victrix, VIII Augusta and XXII Primigenia along with a detachment of Praetorians, for identification I should be able to add the Legion's emblem i.e. bull, capricorn or scorpion etc. to a Vexilum standard. Other Roman troops will be Lanciarii, ballista and two or maybe three cavalry units. These will be supported by four infantry and three cavalry Auxilia. Nearly all the army is well armoured and it will have a lot of missile power. I have read a lot on the Roman army, mainly from Augustus until the Fall of the West and the more I read the more impressed I become.

I am very happy with the figure range from A&A Miniatures, they require very little in the way of cleaning up, and once primed the detail is very easy to paint. My boys will not have a uniform look, the figures contain several different armour styles and can have a mix of rectangle and oval shields, also tunic colours will not be regular red but a mixture, officers will be red. I have bought a bundle of Army Painters new Fanatic Metallic colours, I got a good deal from Wayland Games and free postage. Some of the colours will be of little use to me but overall I will stick with them as they are impressive and cover well. I had a wargamers moment about the colour of bronze armour, the Weapon Bronze didn't seem to cut it and did not look like the colour you see in most illustrations, the kind of bronze you see on re-enactment armour looks like gold or brass most of the time. I therefore chose to go with Greedy Gold which seems to suit my needs but I am not completely convinced so I am going to give Tainted Gold a try, but you don't get that in the box of 10, so I had to make another order. 

I Minerva work in progress.

 I got into another game of Midgard at the club and I won again, the rules are just not for me. My main reason is I do not need another set of rules, the ones I have work fine for me, so why jump on the latest bandwagon. This seems to be an old-fashioned attitude these days.

Strathclyde and Saxons vs Vikings and Mercians.

 

 

My troops cut their way to victory.

I almost forgot, before starting the Romans I found the need to sort out some of my Italian Wars spares and was lucky enough to manage a small pike block from the pile. These guys are mercenaries under Ludovico de Medici and fighters in Papal service.

  There was another large clash at the Gin Pig in Grange last Sunday, I had my son and his family staying and although given the green light to attend I thought it more prudent for my welfare to forgo and instead help out with breakfast etc. Talking of big games, mates Billy and Robert north of Hadrian's Wall are re-fighting Fuentes de Onoro on their own with over 60 battalions on the table, they are averaging one move every three hours!

One flank of Billy and Robert's game.

Club night this week was very different, I have been refusing to play with Julian or Ryan for years and at a loose end I decided to take them on their word. Could they sort out a Warhammer 30K Horus Heresy game for me. So I found myself up against Ryan's Emperor's Children with my or rather Julian's Yellow Fists. I caused quite a stir when people realised what I was up to. This game was another win for me as I managed to secure more objectives than Ryan. It was sheer luck helped with some timely advice from my opponent. We only scratched the surface of the rules and it seemed to me to be fairly easy to hit something but quite another thing to kill it. It was a bit of fun and the figures and the lore behind it all is enticing but I will not be donning my power armour again any time soon.

The good guys.

The bad guys.

Despite the desperate weather I had an away game today in Penrith in The Dungeon with Matt Crump, the drive back was horrendous in the torrential rain. I managed to survive passing the woman texting in her 4x4 and the beer can swigging lunatic on Penrith's large roundabout and got home in one piece. Of the game more anon.

Parthian Shot: The miserable SNP is thinking of banning birthday cakes from child nurseries in order to look after the weans' health. Surely a nice day with friends, being the centre of attention and tucking into a big cream sponge for one day a year is better for your health than forcing a stale bannock down your throat. And this one cracked me up, crowds waiting for hours in queues for tickets or the latest hair dryer now wear adult nappies so they do not lose their place!