Dux Done!

Sound drums and trumpets. Farewell sour annoy! For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy!

My Late Romans for Dux Britanniarum have spent their final day upon the painting bench and henceforward they will trod the dour battlefield in search of glory!

Well, It's been a little while coming, but this weekend I got my Late Roman Levies based and completed the four slingers I needed to put the finishing touches to my first Dux Britanniarum army. There are only 48 figures in all, including the sidekicks I added to the bases of the nobles, but I think that is just about the level I can manage these days. 

The slingers were supposed to be youngsters, too young to take their place in the shieldwall, but they have turned out to be something more "Last of the Summer Wine". As it goes, I'm perfectly happy to have a bit of experience behind those nasty missiles to be honest. It's comforting to know that you can rely on experience out there in the skirmishing zone.

The Centre of the Levy, including Usainius, the Veteran Leader.

The Left Flank of the Levy.

The Right Flank of the Levy.

Building and painting the Levy was probably the most enjoyable part of creating this army. I wanted a unit with character, which looked as though many of them had fought with the Legions or the Auxilia in the past and were now picking up spear and shield again to defend their homes and farms from the dreaded Saxon invaders. The bodies are all from the Gripping Beast Dark Age Infantry box, but their heads come from a variety of sources. Many are straight from the box, while others are metal from the SHS range produced by West Wind and one or two are just randomly picked from sprues I have in my big box of spares.

So, onwards to glory for the Late Romans, or Romano-British forces and, just in case I can not find any opposition for them, I've already made a small and tentative start on an army of Early Saxons to keep them on their toes and ready for battle at a moment's notice.

Recycling for S.P.Q.R.

A while ago I posted on this blog asking the question, "Where are the Ancient Period Skirmish rules?" At the time there was nothing on the market, so I started painting my Soviet army for Bolt Action and followed that project up with my latest venture, a Romano-British army for the absolutely brilliant Dux Britanniarum rules by the Two Fat Lardies. While all this was going on, Warlord started putting out their teasers for a new set of Ancient Skirmish rules called S.P.Q.R. and my pre-order was sent in without any knowledge of how the mechanics of the game would work... after all, a set of skirmish rules is a set of skirmish rules!

My set of rules arrived and just a cursory glance made it obvious that they involved rolling huge numbers of dice and that an attempt to give each different army unique characteristics would make the mechanics of the game rather convoluted. In spite of this, I have decided that the minimal number of figures required to play the game makes it definitely worth while painting up a couple of armies and giving it a go.

Tucked away in the drawers where I keep all my spare plastic left over from previous projects, I have a couple of sprues of Victrix Iberians and some of their mail clad Roman Republicans. Game on! So, with just four Romano-British slingers left to paint to complete my first Dux Britanniarum army, I've started putting some paint on the re-cycled Victrix figures to build a couple of skirmish forces for S.P.Q.R. - Iberians versus Republican Romans at no extra cost and certainly no requirement to spend money on the somewhat over-priced box sets that Warlord have put on the market to support the release of their new rules.

Just a couple of experimental figures done so far, both of which will probably play the role of 'hero' in their respective army.