4th Century BC Republican Romans (Conquest of Italy)

[guitarheroandy]

I've been wanting to do something set in the 4th Century BC in Italy for a while and with the upcoming Midgard rules for battles and with a home-written variant of Too Fat Lardies' Dux Britanniarum for raiding scenarios, I finally have some rules I think I'll be able to play it with.

So I've started painting Romans. My views on warfare in this era fly in the face of most of the accepted classic information and are firmly welded to the views of current/recent authors/historians such as Jeremy Armstrong (book - Early Roman Warfare), Alistair Lumsden (articles - Ante Bella Punica and Roman Military Development in the 4th Century BC), Nathan Rosenstein (article - Phalanges in Early Rome) and Fernando Quesada Sanz (Article - Not so different: individual fighting techniques and battle tactics of Roman and Iberian armies within the framework of warfare in the Hellenistic Age.) The articles are all available on Academia.edu if you're interested.

That being said then, here are the first two units of Antepilani. In this case, the less wealthy and/or youngest warriors recruited from urban and rural areas of Rome and her immediate neighbouring colonies. They are armed with a range of javelins/proto-pila, dual-purpose throwing/thrusting spears (hastae) and a variety of cut and thrust swords based on Greek and Celtic La Tene models.

Their maniples fight in 'cloud' formations, expanding and contracting, showering the enemy with missiles, with perhaps localised charges to close combat by small groups to relieve the pressure from enemy missiles or to exert pressure on wavering enemy, before withdrawing to rally on the heavy spearmen to the rear. In 150-200 years, these will be the Hastati of the Polybian legion that we all know and love.

The state does not equip its armies at this point, so they provide their own gear and thus are not uniformly armed or equipped and are equipped according to their status, so the cheapest helmets (Montefortino types recently introduced by the Celts - ideally there would have been a load of Negau helmets on these as well but Victrix don't make those) and limited armour of the bronze pectoral variety. Ideally, I'd have a range of different style scuta on them but due to the high cost of metal and the desire for making conversions, decided to go solely with Victrix plastics, minor shortcomings on the historical front not withstanding (Victrx models are designed for the 2nd Punic War which is almost 150 years in the future. They are perfect for that but not quite so on the money for this earlier era in some small details; notably the range of helmets, armour styles - simply that there are no linothorax-equipped models - and shields which are definitely of a later variety. But that's not a massive issue, cos they are lovely models and paint up very easily.)

Anyway, regardless of whether or not you agree with the current theories about the development of the manipular legion as in the texts noted above, I hope you enjoy the pics. Models painted using my now standard 'dip and highlight' methodology with LBM shield transfers. The first three pics are of the models on their Midgard bases with the second set on the Dux bases.

[has.been]

Very pretty. I will follow this with interest.

[brunei35]

Cracking painting as always

Cheers

[SJWi]

Very nice.  I have a metal Samnite army in my unpainted stash ( A&A and Crusader figures)  which you might have inspired me to paint.  I too am waiting for Midgard but plan to use my old Foundry "European Bronze Age" figures as they have never been on a table.  Can you say more about your "dip and highlight" methodology" as it looks really effective.

Thanks for posting.     

[Pattus Magnus]

They look quite good to me. I’m not well read on the pre-Punic wars Roman military, but the assumptions you’re using seem plausible. And will make a very nice looking army, if the first units are any indication!

[OSHIROmodels]

They look great 

[Axebreaker]

Very, very nice work Andy!

Christopher

[guitarheroandy]

Can you say more about your "dip and highlight" methodology" as it looks really effective.   

Of course. White undercoat then base-coat everything as neatly as possible. I use mostly Foundry paints so the mid-tones or equivalent shades. Brush on Army Painter Quickshade dip - the Strong Tone. Wait at least 72 hours for it to fully cure then brush on AK Ultra Matt Varnish over everything.
When dry, apply one or two highlights where necessary usually using the original base-coat and one shade lighter, but occasionally the 'light' tone then another lighter similar colour depending on how well the Quickshade shades the base coat and depending on the contrast that you need. This last bit has been a tad 'trial and error' with some shades I've used here, e.g. Foundry Terracotta where the mid tone is the perfect base, but highlights need to be applied using the 'light' tone then Brick Red light in order to get the contrast right.
I use GW metallics - Retributor Armour highlighted with Auric Armour Gold for the bronze helmets and armour.
Shields are colour-matched as closely as possible to my paints so I can filll in the bits missed by the transfers such as the spines and the edges. Bosses and rims are painted GW Leadbelcher. The rear of the shields are done with Foundry Bay Brown. I then wash the bosses and rims with GW Agrax Earthshade ink. The shields are also coated in AK varnish before the metalwork is highlighted with GW Ironbreaker.

It's quicker than using a black undercoat and three layers. It's not quite as tidy, but my eyes aren't as good as they used to be so I struggle with black undercoat and it gives a good result. Won't win prizes but works well on the tabletop! The trick is to be very neat with the base coats.

Hope that helps! 

[Rochejaquelein]

Nice to see someone else's 4th century/Camilian Romans. I think you could use pilos helmet and smooth out the point to create a negau helmet. The Republican Roman cavalry also comes with negau helmets too.

[Mesh]

They look really nice. Great to see some variation from the usual Romans you tend to see here and elsewhere on the tables and the internet.

[guitarheroandy]

Nice to see someone else's 4th century/Camilian Romans. I think you could use pilos helmet and smooth out the point to create a negau helmet. The Republican Roman cavalry also comes with negau helmets too.

Ah, yes! Good shout on the cavalry set! I haven't bought that set as I don't want any mail armoured models in the army.
I've put a 'wanted' ad on the Bazaar here and on a couple of groups on Facebook, as I still have 8 more 'hastati' to paint and could include some Negau helmets on my 'principes' and cavalry if I can get a dozen or so...

[Corso]

Nice project 

The models turned out pretty good!

[Easy E]

I am so glad to read someone else who is a proponent of the "cloud" theory. I find that many of our games are really rooted in older perspectives on how Manipular legions worked.


That said, the important thing is that you have a cracking set of minis!   

[guitarheroandy]

I am so glad to read someone else who is a proponent of the "cloud" theory. I find that many of our games are really rooted in older perspectives on how Manipular legions worked.   

Yeah you're absolutely right - wargame stereotypes do stick around! It's really difficult to wargame the 'cloud' theory though, as so much of the battle is small groups lobbing javelins and a lot of everybody hanging around doing very little, with actual hand-to-hand combat relatively limited. Plus the difficulty of representing 'clouds' expanding and contracting. Would be a good challenge for a skilled rules writer (hint! )