Finally finished:
Gallic auxiliaries for Caesar's legions. These are by Companion Miniatures, and are supposed to be Caesarean legionaries in winter gear, with cloaks and breeches.
How they look from behind. Those patterns probably added half as much again to the painting time. I wanted something different from the usual to male them visually distinct from the legions. The officers are Romans.
Add in an eagle cohort and a legate, and they magically turn into the Alaudae, Caesar's Gallic legion. Here they are in
triplex acies, from the viewpoint of the opposition. I deliberately composed these units of men with swords so that they could do double duty. As auxiliaries, they would have spears and javelins, while as legionaries they would have pila. I also left the shields blank. This way I can use them for both troop types.
A close-up of the legate and eagle cohort. The mounted legate is by Crusader Miniatures, and there is a senior officer on foot in there somewhere by 1st Corps. I want to have command types by different manufacturers to vary the look.
A final close-up of some cloaks. The rank and file swordsmen come in two basic poses, with some variations on the cloaks and helmets. I painted some of the helmets and some the metal on the scuta as iron, to mix things up a bit more. I also staggered the figures on the bases somewhat, with the guys thrusting slightly forward of the others. The overall look is supposed to be men on campaign. The Gauls have been issued with basic Roman gear, but I still wanted them to have some local flavour.
Each legion will have eighty figures, and I reckon I have enough for a dozen. Four more will be added to the Alaudae to give me a decent Caesarean force. Two legions will have red cloaks, to represent elite legions such as the Ninth and Tenth, and the other two won't. All will have red shields and white tunics, and will be based like this for more northern climes. The others will face them in dire combat with red tunics, white shields and sandy-type bases. I'll be painting Romans for a while...
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Inspirational! I adore your Scutarii but these fellows just might nudge them from the "favorite" slot. Your cloakwork is outstanding. I don't know how you kept at it over so many figures.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but think, "Stay away from the Danube!"
Cheers, Monty! I think you might be right about those big frontier rivers...
DeleteBeautiful work on these. Amazing to see the rear with their cloaks - considering the look head on. Best, Dean
ReplyDeleteThanks Dean, you guys were quick! Must have been passing through or something...
DeleteThe patterns on your cloaks are outstanding! Quite a spectacle when arrayed for battle.
ReplyDeleteWell done!
Some really great looking troops!
ReplyDeleteLove the plaid!
ReplyDeleteFMB
Fantastic paint job, love the cloaks especially!
ReplyDeleteLook great - the idea really works well
ReplyDeleteThanks for looking, everyone.
ReplyDeleteAs I've said elsewhere, I really like the cloaks. I also think the idea of the 80-figure legion is a really good one. I decided to re-organise my behemoth 240-mini legions into 120 figure ones, last year, for the same reason. But I doubt I'll ever have a dozen of them! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Simon, eighty figs for a legion is the number specified in the rules we use, and you can increase to eighty-eight if you double the first cohort. These legions are tough under Tactica 2!
ReplyDeleteVery nice, Paul!
ReplyDeleteOnce again Paul you have produced a superb result. It totally puts my Plastics in the shade. And I'm certainly not going to be able to produce 12 legions.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding is that it was only during the Principate after Augustus' reforms that the double strength first cohort came into existence (when the period of service was extended to 20 years with 5 years veteran service). This means I have an extra cohort for my own legion.
Here is a difficult question. If Marius instituted his reforms during his Numidian campaign it implies that legions elsewhere would still be organised along the old militia lines (velites, Hastati, Principes and Triarii). When was the transformation completed and can we justify using the two types of legion together (or in opposition at any point?
Hi Graham, that was my understanding about the double-size 1st Cohort too. However, there has been a little bit of discussion on the SoA forum (I think) recently about Caesar's propensity to detach 1,000 men for minor operations from a legion. This could be two standard cohorts as an early vexillation, or it could perhaps be a tantalising sign that even as early as this, the 1st cohort might have been larger than usually thought. Anyway, Caesarean/Marian figures would probably work for the early Principate, so if you want a large cohort using figures in lorica hamate, why not...
ReplyDeleteInteresting question about Marius. I have a book entitled 'Swords against the Senate' by Erik Hildinger that looks at the Marian transition in a bit of detail. I'll bring it with me on Tuesday, in case you make it into the club. At one point he seems to suggest that Marius' reforms only applied to the legions under his own direct command during the German crisis, and that it may well have been this structure that enabled him to use some cohorts under Metellus to flank and/or ambush the Teutones. He also suggests that at Vercellae, where his legions formed the wings against the Cimbri, Marius was able to envelop at least one flank of the German army while the centre of the Roman army was slogging away in the same old Later Republican manner and not getting anywhere.
The right wing movement against the Teutones is really interesting, because in a sense this is exactly what Caesar does with some of his 3rd line at Pharsalus. Since Marius was his uncle, it is rather tempting to think that Caesar remembered this manoeuvre and reused it to such great effect. Also, I've just seen a short piece that Duncan Head has written for Slingshot in which he talks about very late references to the Velites from around the time of the Mithridatic and Social Wars.
I suppose the upshot for us is that in campaign terms, there's no reason why we couldn't have both types of legion in existence at the same time, at least for a short while. I'd be tempted to specify that any armies on the map before 104 BC keep their Republican organisation until they have taken part in at least one more battle.
Food for thought!
There's quite a bit of controversy about the double cohort, which I tend to think of as rather later than Augustan (Trajanic?). The gist of what I've read is that only some, and not all, legions may have had a larger first cohort, and the 5 double century cohort organisation is not as definite as we one thought it was.
ReplyDeleteThere are references to cohorts of recalled veterans, though, and one of these would be a lovely modelling challenge... how would one make the legionaries look older?
Hi Simon, that's interesting about the recalled veterans. I seem to remember that Pompey had quite a few of these stationed on his right at Pharsalus (the Evocati). I'm giving each legion a distinct shield design - maybe one way to distinguish these guys would be to give them a real mixture of shields? That might make them stand out a little on the field. Another possibillity, for other periods, would be to give them slightly archaic armour and shield shapes. So for Early Imperials, say, of the Boudicca revolt, recalled veterans might have more of an early Principate look about them - Gripping Beast makes those, I think. Something like that!?
ReplyDeleteI think it needs figures of older men; bald heads, stubble, bent over, perhaps even the odd wooden leg! ;-) Much the same problem applies with the Silver Shields.
ReplyDeleteI use Saleh minis for my Romans, and they all look around 25 years old; no use for veterans! Some of the BTDs, on the other hand, have bad posture, and could well be geriatrics...
Goldsworthy's "The Complete Roman Army" is rather sceptical about seperate veteran cohorts, especially since they were excused many routine duties. If you do the arithmetic they would not look geriatric. If a man joined the legions at 18 he would only be 43 on his discharge, not ancient. When the period of service was 16 years he would be positively youthful!
ReplyDeleteThe Marians would certainly be correct for early first century although I believe some segmentata armour has been discovered in excavations of the Teutoberger Wald.
I will try and bring in the Agema figures on Tuesday as well.
Hi Graham, I know what you mean. There were occasions, however, in which some cohorts were made up entirely of re-enlisted veterans. I think Simon is right in saying that it would be quite difficult to model them as individuals, although there might be ways to do it for a unit or two. Depends on the period, I suppose...
ReplyDeleteReally nice looking. I've been thinking of doing something similar and building some Auxilia Legions that are organized like the Regular Legions but not quite as good. Have seen some info that says the Auxilia were armed and fought similar to the Legions but T2 doesn't reflect that. Would be armed with Spears and fight like Pontic or Armenian Imitation Legions at 4-6 instead of 5-6.
ReplyDeleteHi Mitch, that sounds really good. Our campaign is nowhere near the Imperial period yet, but it is only a matter of time. We have been thinking a little bit ahead, and one possibility would be for something very similar to what you are suggesting - 'brigaded' cohorts of auxiliary infantry units. We were thinking of 24-figure units, FV 4-6, who move and fight as LI in the rough stuff - sort of like the old WRG LHI class. We are also thinking of allowing them to throw javelins, as they seem to have done, for example, at Mons Graupius. The reason for thinking along these lines is that we are doing the same sort of thing for Thureophoroi in the period we are currently playing.
ReplyDeleteGreat minds think alike, or something!
Paul, great blog and conversation about the legions! I have 3 legions, each has 10 cohorts each! I like to do 1 more but the clown that owns Companion WILL not even answer my e-mails and owns me a figure or 2! Mike Adams
ReplyDeleteHi Mike, thanks for looking! I have heard that the guy who currently owns Companion Miniatures has some sort of health issue. I was going to contact him directly to see if I could get hold of more of the Numidians, but it looks as though it won't happen. Once the paint dries on my legions, I'll maybe have some Companion Romans left over, though, and it sounds as though you might find them useful.
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