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Miniatures Adventure => Age of Myths, Gods and Empires => Topic started by: Colonel Tubby on 28 December 2012, 02:05:29 PM

Title: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Colonel Tubby on 28 December 2012, 02:05:29 PM
Not sure if this has been flagged up before, but just saw these previewed in their latest newsletter:

http://www.warlordgames.com/30574/preview-plastic-caesarian-romans/?utm_source=Warlord%20Games%20Newsletter&utm_campaign=92ba55e1c5-Warlord_Games_Newsletter_28_December_2012&utm_medium=email

Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Gibby on 28 December 2012, 03:10:29 PM
Still can't get on with the extreme facial expressions they give their figures these days.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Calimero on 28 December 2012, 04:23:25 PM

Hope they will be bigger figures than the first roman set they released :?
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: bigredbat on 28 December 2012, 04:25:05 PM
As well as the expressions, they are, perhaps, a bit too animated for me.  And the standard bearer has a touch of "celtic arm".

Simon
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Prof.Witchheimer on 28 December 2012, 04:26:53 PM
Hope they will be bigger figures than the first roman set they released :?

This.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Mad Doc Morris on 28 December 2012, 05:53:12 PM
First reaction after Salute: Finally an alternative to Wargames Factory regarding plastic Caesarian Romans!
After some thought: Let's hope they aren't in Warlord Games' usual style of over-animated and somewhat cheapish looking sculpts.
Having seen the final greens: Decent enough for backrankers, but nothing I would build an entire army from. Too bad Mr Hicks seems to have left the WG building. :'(

Anyway, if you're on a budget these might come in handy. And I'm thankful for that.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Dr. The Viking on 28 December 2012, 08:30:42 PM
Which ones are the wrong small ones!?! The legionnaires?
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Mad Doc Morris on 28 December 2012, 08:42:20 PM
The Imperial legionaries are indeed quite small, though likely made to be in scale with the Perry ones at Foundry's. If WG is going down that route again, those Caesarians might be a bit taller to fit in with Copplestone's work.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Hildred Castaigne on 28 December 2012, 10:14:39 PM
But it is good that the whole box is plastic this time!
It seems like a daft move to give us less figures in a box and drive the price right up by making the command in metal.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Sangennaru on 28 December 2012, 11:19:06 PM
Hope they will be bigger figures than the first roman set they released :?

True. Pigmy Romans. I would love to use some for ANY kind of skirmish, but i'm having some problem using them other than with WG pieces...
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Gibby on 29 December 2012, 12:17:09 AM
Looking at them again I actually quite like them. The faces aren't over the top like the WW2 stuff.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: n815e on 29 December 2012, 12:20:37 AM
What justification do they use for legionaries with slings?
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Sangennaru on 29 December 2012, 12:34:08 AM
What justification do they use for legionaries with slings?

Probably They are Rome: Total War legionaries. After they realized how much OP are the slings... they converted! lol
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: WuZhuiQiu on 29 December 2012, 01:05:19 AM
Actually, some secondary sources such as Connolly mention that legionaries were trained to use slings. I suppose that they might have been useful when defending a fort.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: jamesmanto on 29 December 2012, 03:08:59 AM
Actually, some secondary sources such as Connolly mention that legionaries were trained to use slings. I suppose that they might have been useful when defending a fort.

Yes. Legionaries of every century were trained to use slings etc. Terribly useful when employed in foraging, scouting, defending the camp, laying siege to someone else's....

Although given the space needed to employ a sling it wouldn't be very useful in formed ranks.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Notts Gamer on 29 December 2012, 07:48:17 AM
Yes. Legionaries of every century were trained to use slings etc. Terribly useful when employed in foraging, scouting, defending the camp, laying siege to someone else's....

Although given the space needed to employ a sling it wouldn't be very useful in formed ranks.

OMG does this mean that Romans where capable of changing order and not so rigid as rule writers would have us believe...... ;)

Just out of interest how easy would it have been to throw a pilum (with any momentum - e.g. enough to go 20 yards or so) in wargames 'close' order?

Whilst I welcome the 'new' idea of Romans using sling (though I believe that Auxilia were allowed a proportion in ye olde WRG rules) - I would love to see the figures loading the sling replete with scutum and pilum.....
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Smithy on 29 December 2012, 09:59:12 AM
Good to see a decent sized shield!   Adam
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: jamesmanto on 29 December 2012, 11:38:50 AM
OMG does this mean that Romans where capable of changing order and not so rigid as rule writers would have us believe...... ;)

Just out of interest how easy would it have been to throw a pilum (with any momentum - e.g. enough to go 20 yards or so) in wargames 'close' order?

Whilst I welcome the 'new' idea of Romans using sling (though I believe that Auxilia were allowed a proportion in ye olde WRG rules) - I would love to see the figures loading the sling replete with scutum and pilum.....

Now whether they were particularly adept at fighting in an open order is another thing. And could they go into skirmish order and then reform while on the battlefield like a Napoleonic Rifle battalion? Probably not.

Although Caesar notes that the Pompeian legions in Spain had adopted a 'looser' style of fighting from the local tribes. What that means is open to heated debate. It was considered unique, interesting and comment worthy however.

Legionaries being sent out in light order to scout/forage would be a different game from cohorts being sent out to break German heads.

James
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Notts Gamer on 29 December 2012, 11:55:14 AM
I once got into quite a long debate (with a very knowledgeable sparring partner) during the writing of Warhammer Spartacus, as to whether the Roman player should be allowed to opt to have a unit ditch its armour and pila and for a ‘task specific purpose’ and be turned into ‘light’ infantry.

Apparently, there is some example (in the back of my mind) about the Romans assaulting a Numidian Hill fort and the centurion, standard and trumpeter ditched the armour & shields and snuck up to the back door. Now whether these three fellows really mean three individuals or are interpreted as a cohort, is debatable.

I have always been concerned about the lack of light troops (and to some degree cavalry) between the Velites going and Auxilia being formed.

My sparring partner, first argued (conventionally) that the only light troops would be allies/mercenaries, then insisted that the Roman (xenophobic) mentality would not allow foreigners to be brought into Italy during the Third Servile War.

When fighting overseas, it makes more sense to use locals as light troops, but the problem with the Spartacus revolt was that the Romans were the home team

I do not believe the Caesarean Romans (or any other nation) were as tactically inflexible as we gamers seem to think.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: axabrax on 29 December 2012, 05:47:05 PM
I like these. It would be great if they were larger to fit with my Foundry stuff, but why would they do that? If they do, they will be too big in comparison to all the barbarians they make. Probably makes more sense from a seller's perspective to keep them small and in scale with the rest of their ranges, so they are internally consistent and mixable. They alos want us to ditch our old figs to buy theirs, which is why they were so small in the first place... :?
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: commissarmoody on 31 December 2012, 11:44:11 AM
There are many cases of the Romans fighting in looser formations, look at Marcomannic wars. Aurelius (His commanders more likely) fielded troops in looser formations to help combat the smaller raiding parties of Germans in the dense woods.
We tend to only look at the major battles and leaders, but you history is any guide, you don't have an Empire with out some kind of bleeding low intensity conflict going on at least some were.
Now yes the late Republic and Early to mid Imperial straight was its Heavy infantry. I say that with the amount of enemy's and cultures and fighting styles they had to deal with, more often then not. Combat would have been light skirmishes, and I could see Legionarys ditching some of there kit to be lighter in these cases. 
But of course if you have units of Auxilia, that specialize in light infantry warfare I would totally use them instead. :D
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: jamesmanto on 31 December 2012, 10:54:43 PM
As we can see from the Napoleonic Wars and the 19th cent. skirmish lines work best if supported closely by some formed infantry for them to rally on/hide behind. I can see in such a low intensity war you'd still need a cohort of close order legionaries to support your tribal allies/ auxiliaries even during raiding or outpost type skirmishes.

But I can also see the legionaries ditching their armour and doing some of that skirmishing too.

So the guys with slings I'd be happier if they were unarmoured. Or just used for defending/attacking a fort.

Meh. It's just one piece on a sprue too. No one says you have to use 'em!

James
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Calimero on 23 March 2013, 12:47:58 PM

Does anyone know if there’s a comparison pic of these figures somewhere on the net? I can’t find any… :-[
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye on 23 March 2013, 01:08:30 PM
Last night I compared the photo in Hail Caesar of the Imp Scorpian to that of the new Caesarian version and though the angle is slightly different the new figures do seem a bit better sized.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Aventine on 23 March 2013, 01:34:20 PM
There is one shot at the bottom of this entry.


http://www.sdean-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33857 (http://www.sdean-forum.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=33857)
Cheers

Keith
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Prof.Witchheimer on 24 March 2013, 07:40:30 AM
Great painting there.

I'm still unsure if I like how they turned out. They did look quite  good being big pre-cast sculpts, now after down scaling I see a sort of a clumsiness on the movement of the figures there. Especially on this guy:

(http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m146/CiaphasCain_album/Caesarian%20Romans/Picture1841_zpsfc2c525a.jpg)

Though the centurion is a very cool figure. And a great set of bits, very useful for conversions. Sooner or later will have to buy one.

Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Calimero on 24 March 2013, 02:00:54 PM

Glad to see that these are 28mm rather than 25mm… thanks for the link 8)
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: einarolafson on 24 March 2013, 04:35:51 PM
Sorry about the quality. I've just token these to show a fast comparison pic.

(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-5ePcwPUIgCY/UU8p8iZT38I/AAAAAAAADpU/Jur4G2rCSzA/s912/R0012700.JPG)
Left to right: Aventine, Warlord Games, Foundry, Wargames Factory.
(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-E3t4Ly70Qx8/UU8p8yR3i8I/AAAAAAAADpY/LbendU2TZUk/s912/R0012704.JPG)
Left to right: Aventine, Warlord Games, Foundry, Wargames Factory.

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Dr. Kevin Moon III esq. on 01 April 2013, 05:49:41 PM
Thats really helpful, thankyou.

These look like a great set.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: ahc56 on 09 February 2014, 07:32:15 PM
Just found this thread.

Does anyone have any ideas what you should do with the Warlord Caesarian legionaries who are armed with swords "in hand" - yet the models have them still in their scabbards? I contemplated hacking the hilts off but I cannot see how this can be done neatly (I am not that skilled). Do I just turn a blind eye to the fact that Caesar has given his men two swords! Any ideas welcome please.

Thanks
PS Celts need not reply!
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: mikeygees on 09 February 2014, 08:57:55 PM
It can be done, and quite neatly with an exacto knife. The plastics soft enough.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: Mad Doc Morris on 09 February 2014, 09:27:01 PM
It can be done, but it's pretty annyoing. Neatly removing the hilt still leaves a flat area on the model's waist. Mentioned this in my review, if you care to take a look, here it is (http://mountainsoflead.com/2013/04/19/review_lrromans/).
For sure, no big deal if you're aiming for massed formations.
Title: Re: Warlord Plastic Caesarian Romans Preview
Post by: ahc56 on 10 February 2014, 02:05:42 PM
Thanks to both the above responses. I can see that a neat job can be done with a sharp blade but I am not sure I have the confidence to attempt it. I should have gone for the pila option! Basically, a lazy design fault on the models which otherwise look good.