Thursday, 16 February 2023

From PeterD: Roman Infantry for Under Construction (80 points)

Next up for me is a unit of 12 Late Roman Infantry for the Under Construction theme. I had a good burst of painting activity on mid to late October and got these figures partly painted during that time. Then my wife came home from visiting her mother and suddenly there was a lot of other stuff to get done.....

Anyway they are finished now, 12 28mm figures all of them Gripping Beast.  Ten of the figures are stock from the Plastic Late Roman box kit while the standard bearer and one of the officers are metals from the Arthurian range. 



I have painted them as members of the Legionis Secundae Augustae based at Rutupiae near Sandwich in Kent, now known as Richborough Castle, under the command of the Comes litoris Saxonici per Britanniam. This is one of the units based in Brittania which are the descendents of Legio II Augusta who had been part of the original Claudian Invasion force and never left the island. Rutupiae is where a lot of the action in Rosemary Sutcliffe's novel The Silver Branch takes place.



So far I have painted several units based on Legio II Augusta including some Lanciari and a ballista earlier in the Challenge. I'll treat this as a standard unit of Auxiliary, neither Verean or Raw, under the To the Strongest ruleset we've been using. The GB plastics give a nice regular look to the unit with a couple of archers in the back ranks for a bit of long range fire power. The vexillum has a rough impression of the Capricorn (a sort of goat/mermaid hybrid) emblem of Legio II Augusta.





I also thought I'd share some photos from a recent game played with my Barbarian Conspiracy period armies, which I began work on during Challenge XII. It's at Curt Clubhouse using his terrain mat and river, but you can see my British Village, Dark Age fort and a lot of my troops on table.  Also visible are JeremyM from prior challenges, SylvainR (with beer) and Curt's legs.

The Scots Irish deeply so as to give the ballistae in the fort a wide berth.



Roman battle line

The bases I used are a little wide for the fort's ramparts so we used MDF bases to prop up the missile troops

Typical late antiquity scrumming the background, with Roman Cavalry in the foreground.

I make it 60 points for the figures plus 20 for the Under Construction theme.  The base points count toward both the SPQR and Carausius Emperor of Britain Side duels.

From TeemuL: Good looking Romans and they don't even have too-complex shields with them. There has been some different minion decisions regarding Under Construction Studio, some have rewarded full points for minis, which were partly started before, others have rewarded only the Studio bonus. Personally I think both are bit extreme and there is clearly room for confusion. So far I have awarded the full points and I will continue like that until whipped.

Your games look nice, having a friendly Snowlord nearby with a nice garage is a benefit.

24 comments:

  1. Thanks Teemu, especially for the favourable bounce on the points. Case law showed precedent for both interpretations but I would accept either. I hadn't realized it would cause an issue!

    Yes the Snowlord's cave does make a great games den, and he keeps it nice and toasty warm in winter too.

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    1. Yeah, I noticed there were some confusion in the past and wanted to clarify it. Unfortunately you were the test piece, but it all ended well. :)

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  2. Excellent work, Peter. Another unit for us to play with! Great to see shots of that game we had.

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    1. Thanks Curt, sorry the photos cut you off at the waist.

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  3. Cool looking 'Romans,' they'll soon see those barbarians off.

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  4. I enjoyed that game in the picture, although the first two turns I drew a "1" and could not move. It's nice to see you Ancient armies grow with great looking minis.

    SylvainR

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    1. Perhaps your warriors lost confidence given your fear of ballista bolts.
      Thanks

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  5. Excellent looking late Romans!
    Best Iain

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  6. Dear Peter - thanks for the detailed post. Really liked your Romans and battle report.
    Cheers JezT

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  7. Those Romans are very nice, Peter. I have visited Richborough several times, great site.

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    1. Cheers Martijn. Glad that you like them. I’ve not been to Richborough but I’ve been to Porchester Castle several times.

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  8. They look great Peter, big fan of the Sutcliffe books, they started my late Roman addiction

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