AlanD - Terrifying Descending Blades Wielded by Big Hairy Men (60 points)

 Hello everyone, and ahoy, Cap'n Wednesday.

Despite the fact that any minute I'm about to become obsessed with the Russian Civil War, I've been chugging along painting up more Victrix Dacians for Infamy! Infamy! There are eight in this entry - an archer and seven armed with the murderous Dacian falx.

A lot has been written about the scary Dacian battle scythe. The falx probably evolved from what was originally an agricultural implement into a curved or hooked two-handed weapon, sharp on the inside of its curved blade. It has similarities with the Hellenistic Thracian rhomphaia, but seems to have really scared the heck out of the Romans at the beginning of the second century AD during Trajan's Dacian Wars. Indeed, it is interesting that the image of a single or double-handed curved weapon often appears in Roman art as a characteristic of the Dacians; on coins, on Trajan's Column, and on the Adamclisi Monument in modern Romania. The falx really seems to have lodged itself in Roman minds (geddit?), as well as forcing some changes to Roman armour design, such as extra reinforcement on the tops of helmets and the use of manicae, or arm protection. 

Perhaps cheekily, I also present these as my entry for the the Pit of the Pendulum in the Chambers of Challenge. I give you swishy descending blades that terrified the Romans. If the good Cap'n agrees, that should give me 40 points for the figures and another 20 for hacking my way through the challenge room.

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The Cap'n likes a good blade and while a cutlass or boarding pike is more my style, I can appreciate these dirty big choppers. Coming at you at speed would appear to be the pendulum of doom indeed! 60 points it is then.

Cap'n Wednesday