Roman Civil Wars – Sept, 6 2017

A couple of weeks ago I tried to recreate in my club a battle between two Late Imperial Roman armies. Considering my fascination for Imperial Roman history I decided to prepare two armies: one with a left wing composed by Palmyran catafractatii and the second-one with regular legionary unit and barbarians allies.

All miniatures are 28mm, a mix of Gripping Beast, Armour & Aquila, Fireforge Foundry and they are all painted by me.

A detail of the army on the left of the previous photo. The army is composed by regular legionaries (Menapii and Petulantes Seniores) with a second line of auxiliary archers

The left wing of this army includes heavy cavalry with some Numidian cavalrymen to support them

The second army sees regular legionaries on the left with Goths on the center and Huns to support them

The battle starts with the cataphractarii assault. In the photos below the sequence of the attack with the knights in the typical cuneo formation

A group of Huns tries to stop the heavy cavalry attack without success ... so the knights destroy the line of Lanciarii Gallicani Honoriani

Also on the centre the battle begins

An image of the battle trend

A detail of the two HQ's 

On the left, the Roman-barbarian army suffers casualties but ...

... the heavy knights have created an hole into the enemy army that it is impossible to close so ...

... the false Imperator escape while a unit of Herculiani Seniores surrounds rebellious legionaries

Roman Emperors - Dec 2016

Last year I painted a Roman command group that I bought from A&A Miniatures but I remembered only today to post some pictures of them.

This is the miniature of a Roman Emperor that could be Lucius Domitius Aurelianus Augustus (ie Aurelian).

He was Emperor for a brief period (from 270 to 275) but during these years, he restored the Empire conquering the Palmyrene and the Gallic Empire. For this reason, he earned the title of Restitutor Orbis (Restorer of the world) even if during his military career he was known as manum ad ferrum  for his severity.

Below Aurelian that is reviewing his troops

The command group includes also another Emperor

I was inspired to paint him by Richard Hood’s illustration that shows the Emperor Maxentius …

(Copyright Richard Hood)

… and by the collection of symbols used by Roman Emperors to indicate their rank that I found in internet

http://www.romanoimpero.com/2009/10/i-simboli-di-roma.html

Even if the real Maxentius’ insignia imperii (the imperial insignia) were discovered in 2005 in Rome and it was a bit different. Below the link to a good article that gives information about them.

https://biatec.wordpress.com/2015/07/23/le-insegne-di-massenzio

Also Maxentius was Emperor for a short period (from 306 to 312) but I was known for the defeat of Milvian Bridge and his not very glorious dead in the Tiber river.

Below some images with his troops.

To the Strongest! Feb, 11 2017

Last Saturday thanks to Ezio’s help (and his patience considering that he was the only that have read the rulebook!) we played to "To the Strongest!" the wargame system wrote by Simon Miller.

It was the second battle for me and I've already explained quickly in another post the main differences respect other wargame systems.

We didn't play an historical battle because the armies that fought were: a list of Crusaders (around XI century) against a late Roman empire legion (around VI -VII century). Romans were painted by me while the Crusaders were not a work of mine. Unfortunately we didn't finish the battle because, during the day, we hosted a person in our club and so we spent  more time than in a normal struggle.

I tried to write a kind of battle report. 

For the record we played the scenario in four: Ezio and another person in a side (Crusaders), me and Maurizio in the second one (Romans)

Creation of the "terrains" using the system rules

Initial deployment

A look to the armies

The Romans advance

In the centre the knights attack but the Roman legion stop them

On the Roman left wing cavalry and auxiliaries try to outflank the enemy while on the center the fight continues

Now it is time of the Roman right wing

On the left wing Crusaders move back but they remain strong 

The front becomes fluid with the legion that immobilizes the Christian knights

The final positions