Dux Bellorum in 10mm — Romano-British

[Richard in Sachsen]

Ok, Byrthnoth, I took the plunge. The ghosts of 10mm have been haunting me as I fall to sleep ever since I first looked at this thread (curse you Byrthnoth! Now I definitely can't follow this rule:

the novel concept of actually finishing something before flitting on to the next set of miniatures.

).

I just ordered a Pendraken Late Roman army pack with some extra cavalry for the general's comitatus, command figures, and casualty figures.

So, since 10mm is brand new to me, a couple of questions regarding your 10's.

• How long does it take you to paint up a stand/army?
• Who are the best manufacturers for opposing army minis which would fit in and mix well with Pendraken (since Pendraken currently only offers Late Romans and Sassinids)? i.e. if I wish to mix some Goth cavalry figures in with the Pendraken cavalry figures, for example?
• How's the market offerings for buildings & terrain items? Any suggestions
• I found with my 6's, identification labels on the bases really helps although it tends to break the illusion. You don't do that here. Would you find labels helpful and necessary for unit ID, or are shields and colour palette enough?
• Shields: decals or hand-painted? I know that is personal preference but on this small of a scale I'm particularly interested in not only what looks nice, but also ease and how fast I can get these Jungs on the tabletop.
• How large will your army be? How many stands are you using, for instance, for a comitantenses or auxiliary?

Thanks for any advice and/or suggestions you may have.

[Byrthnoth]

Hi Richard, I'm not sure how helpful I can be with some of these questions, but I'll do my best.

• How long does it take you to paint up a stand/army?

I don't usually track how long it takes me to paint anything and I'm generally pretty slow, but I'd say it takes me as much time to paint 5-6 10mm figures as one 28mm guy.

• Who are the best manufacturers for opposing army minis which would fit in and mix well with Pendraken (since Pendraken currently only offers Late Romans and Sassinids)? i.e. if I wish to mix some Goth cavalry figures in with the Pendraken cavalry figures, for example?

I haven't tried mixing manufacturers, but I'd say Magister Militum seem closest in style to the Pendraken Late Romans in that they prioritize having easily 'readable' details such as faces, weapons and equipment. I get the sense that the Pendraken Late Roman horses don't necessarily match well with other ranges, so it might not work to have a mix of manufacturers on a single stand, though I haven't tried it myself.

• How's the market offerings for buildings & terrain items? Any suggestions

I have no idea. I was planning on scratch building a few small buildings somewhere down the line, but sticking to natural features for the time being.

• I found with my 6's, identification labels on the bases really helps although it tends to break the illusion. You don't do that here. Would you find labels helpful and necessary for unit ID, or are shields and colour palette enough?

I think the visual cues I've chosen should be enough without adding labels. Each army will have a main colour (with matching cohesion dice) to tell them apart, and superior/elite units will be armoured while ordinary units will be unarmoured. Skirmishers will have fewer figures per base than close order troops. My armies will be fairly small and just one stand per unit, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep things clear.

• Shields: decals or hand-painted? I know that is personal preference but on this small of a scale I'm particularly interested in not only what looks nice, but also ease and how fast I can get these Jungs on the tabletop.

I haven't tried decals or transfers, but I would probably use them if I was building units that had some of the more complex designs from the Notitia Dignitatum. I imagine decals that small would be quite finicky to apply, so for simpler designs it might not be too much of a time savings.

• How large will your army be? How many stands are you using, for instance, for a comitantenses or auxiliary?

Pretty small. Dux Bellorum armies are typically 5-10 units, and I'm doing 1 stand per unit. My Romano-British will be the 4 stands of spearmen in the first post of this thread, a stand of archers, 2 stands of skirmishing slingers, and 3 stands of armoured cavalry. I wanted a game that was quick to set up, and could be played in on a small surface, so 1 stand per unit made sense. If I wanted a more impressive and immersive experience I would probably do 4 stands per unit.

[Richard in Sachsen]

Thanks Byrth,

I'm getting more and more stoked about these figures all the time. I briefly thought how good they would look with 6mm frontages for 28mm figures: briefly, because that would defeat my entire purpose for buying 10mm. We just sold the house and moved into a much smaller but cosier apartment and like you, I wanted much smaller armies on a much smaller space. I like my 6's - when they're done. I find them easy but tedious to paint. Right now I am stuck on my Dacians (a starter army plus a boatload I found on Col. Bill's used mini site) because I don't know how to "factory paint" all their shields, at such a small scale, and also give them an individual look. So they're sitting in a box.

Thanks for posting your army organisation as well, I'll steal it if you don't mind. Comitatus uses the same frontages and sizes as Dux Bellorum. While there are no rules regarding scale, it is suggested that one stand equals one unit of about 500 men. The late Roman Comentatensis actually takes up two stands while an auxiliary unit is still one stand. I imagine the scale is the same for the smaller Romano-British armies of one unit per stand.

I think I'll stick with this organisation for right now. I was just thinking that these would also be great for Impetus which has an 80mm frontage, or two stands put together. That basically doubles the size of the army. So the question to myself was whether to paint a double-sized army for Impetus now or paint the additional units later risking the paint job looking different like the second batch? I'll stick with DB unit sizes for now and worry about the additional stands later while hoping that I can keep the paint job consistent.

Great idea about the cohesion dice, I'll steal that too, if you don't mind.

Looks like painting shields is the way to go. I looked at LBMS and it seems there are only 3-4 designs available in 10mm and I don't want the entire army looking like Secunda Britannica.

Once these guys are painted up, I'll look into some Goths from MM.

Please keep updating us on your progress, I'm looking forward to seeing and learning more as 10mm is brand new to me.