More Late Romans

Some pictures of another unit of Late Roman Infantry, the Auxilia Palatina Batavi Iuniores.  This unit was one of the crack regiments in the Gallic Field Army and was sent to Britain under Count Theodosius to quell the Great Conspiracy.   

I chose to model them partly because of their role in 367 CE, partly because I like the shield design, partly because they have a cool reenactment group and partly because a lot of Batavian cohort served in Brittania over the years.  I did them up in lorica hamata chainmail, but there is debate about which if any infantry units wore armour at this time.  I have decided that this was a pretty crack unit and that they'd likely acquire armour themselves if it wasn't provided for them.

Figures are all Griping Beast plastics.  The GB Roman infantry box comes with 8 spurs each with five figures, 2 armoured with sword/spear, 2 unarmored with sword/spear and two unarmored archers.  There is also a command stand with officer and a second figure who can be a standard bearer or musician.  I think there are 8 o the armoured torsos, 2 of the unarmored spears and two command figures in the unit of 12.  Despite there only being one torso of a ranker in lorica hamata (chain mail), I found that by choosing different arms and helmets I could come up with a pretty good variety of poses.

The weapon hands in chainmail include one with sword, one with spear overhand and one with spear underhand.  There are also three variants on the shield hand and several helmets to choose from.  Mixing and matching along with slight variations in position mask the common torso on 8 of the 12 figures, although somehow I mangled to get guys in similar breeches lined up together.  I painted the spear shafts red, which looks cool and has some historical basis.  I'm not sure why I did  the vexillum shaft in blue!

I free handed the shields, so they look way better on table than they do close up  in the bright light box.  The shield in the ND is shown below, with the the helpful description that it contains a mammal!  I figured that I could paint an unspecified mammal, but it looks like a fox to me.  Certainly not a platypus, pachyderm or moose.

Late Romans

Some photographs of my recent Late Roman units which I completed earlier this summer.  The unit names and shield designs are taken from the Notitia Dignitatum (ND) of c395CE. 

First up is a heavy cavalry unit Equites Honoriani seniores which the ND assigns to the field army under the Comes Britanniae although it is also listed attached to the Magister Equitum's Gallic command as well.  The Honoriani title is a reference to the Emperor who had recently succeeded his father Theodosius the great.  I shouldn't really use the title, since I am really looking at gaming the campaign's of Theodosius' father after the Great Barbarian conspiracy of 367-9.  But never look a gift title in the eye!  The shields are most likely grey wolves on a red background and are shown below as they appear in the ND.  The nice thing about these medieval manuscripts is they set the sheild design artistry bart low enough that I can achieve similar results.

Figures are all Gripping Beast metals from a variety of packs depending on what MeepleMart had in stock on my visit to TO.

Gotta love a Draco!

Next up is an infantry unit from the field army of the Comes Britanniae.  The Secundani iuniores or Legio Secundae Britannicae is believed to be descended from the old school Legio II Augusta from the Early Imperial days.  In its earlier guise this unit appears in many histories and novels covering the Claudian, Flavian and Trajanic periods.  The shield is a stylized wagon wheel in red on yellow, and easy enough to paint up

Mostly Gripping Beast plastics with an odd metal figure from as a command presence.  I added some archers to the back rank for extra firepower. 

These guys have a hornist instead of a standard.  Should really do a Capricorn vexillum to do Legio II Augusta justice.

Let up is a light infantry auxiliary archer unit.  I'm representing these as part of a Cohors Lingonum, two of which were listed as limitanei under the Dux Britanniarum.  As these are limitanei units and not part of the field army under Comes, we don't have shield designs for these units.  I've free handed a Chi-Rho pattern in white on blue.  The blue tunics with white trim come from costumes worn by modern re-enactors and I now think that white with red or blue trim was more typical.   But they look nice.

All GB plastics, including an officer who I've attempted to show as following the arc of the arrows.

Barbarian Conspiracy AAR Pt 3

 Essentially things came down to the gods of battle but the key events were as follows.

• On the Roman right, Stacy wanted to use his three cavalry units to charge the Irish before they got a chance to close.  The Roman cavalry advanced to be next to the Irish but could not close home as a result of there TtS activation system.
• An Irish counter charge caught the cavalry and Stacy opted to stay and fight rather than evade and risk getting caught in the back.  This led to a long melee and eventually the loss of a Roman cavalry unit.
• On the other flank there was an exchange of missiles and then the infantry closed, with honours about even with both sides losing a unit.
• On the extreme Roman right, Curt winkled a unit of Irish javelin men through the woods and into the flank on the right most roman cavalry and eliminated it.
• This sealed the deal as the Romans were over their break point.  
  
  
  
  

  

  Stacy moves up to the Irish but did not manage to charge.  TtS uses a grid system, so  while the units are in adjacent gird boxes they did not close.  Curt's grid lines are very subtle FYI!

  
  

Close up of the melee once the Irish charged home.

Curt's flanking manouver!

The action from the other flank!

Everybody except the lights are engaged now.

The infantry melee with holes in both lines.  the Irish trying to swivel and attack.

The melee from behind the Irish lines.  One the left the first Roman LC unit has been eliminated

All in all we had a fun game, and the rules were easy to play.  There were things I forgot or got wrong and from to impose on both sides.

Barbarian Conspiracy AAR Pt 2

Continuing onwards.   My rough sketch map left the flanks pretty clogged with woods, so both sides advanced to have at the other side.  Stacy was hoping to catch the Irish in a cavalry charge, while the Irish looked to use their light infantry javelins to work around the flanks.

A unit of Roman light infantry archers. I was quite pleased with these GB plastics.

The Irish from the Roman side

Jeremy moves his skirmishers and warbands forward.

Closing in!

The view from the Roman right.  Note Curt's skirmishers in the woods.