A Quick Update

I am currently painting a few bits and bobs of Romans and Celts for Warlord Games.  I can't tell you what, just yet.  I'm also doing lots of thinking about 'what next'.  I produced a longish list of possible projects the other day, and then went through and thought of reasons why I couldn't or didn't want to do each one, which left me with three possibilities: Rome against Pyrrhus; post-Roman Britannia (Age of Arthur and all that); Wars of the Roses (using those lovely new figures by the Perrys).  I'm still spoilt for choice, but I am focussing down.  I'd like to do all of those - I perhaps just need to pick which to do first!  I've also got some small ideas I fancy doing sometime - gladiators for one, 'Old West' for another.

In the meantime though, I've ordered a few more third century bits from A&A Miniatures.  For the Sassanids, enough extra bits to allow me to field another unit of a dozen Savaran.  For the Romans: some more archers; a few cavalry so I can make a 'cohors equitata' (mixed cohort); a few camels.  That should make each army just pass the 3,000 WAB point milestone.  And it uses up most of the spare lead that's lying around, other than a few Roman infantry, of which more below...

I might, at some stage get a few more, more, Romans - in Herodian of Antioch's 'History of the Roman Empire', Book Four, chapter XV, there's an interesting passage about the deployment of a Roman army to fight the Parthians under Macrinus in AD217:

"The Romans had arranged their divisions carefully to insure a stable front; the cavalry and the Moroccan javelin men were stationed on the wings, and the open spaces were filled with light-armed and mobile troops that could move rapidly from one place to another."

The 'light-armed and mobile troops' in the gaps between the cohorts sound interesting - I might just do a few of those.  I've got a few spare A&A 'lanciarii', and I could get a few more.  Whether the troops mentioned in the passage are actually the mysterious lanciarii is a moot point - I don't suppose it really matters what I call them, just that some troops were skirmishing.  I might give them a mixture of weapons - slings, javelins, and maybe bows.

Copyright © Dr. P.C. Hendry, 2010