Foliage

Loads and loads of it, and nice and cheap and nasty it is too:

Take one large artificial topiary ball from Homebase. Cost me a whole £19.99, this did.

Pull out the plastic bits, like this. They come out with little rounded bases that you then chop.

There's loads of them. Enough to do a swamp and a river and then some.

Celtiberian Cavalry

By Companion Miniatures, courtesy of Mike Adams in the US:

Well armoured and brightly coloured, these are the aristocracy of the Celtiberian tribes that gave Rome such a hard time for centuries.

They are the armoured versions of the figures I used for my Iberian cavalry. I mixed and matched the various types of shields depending on what I had left over in the way of LBMS transfers. I gave the standard bearer a captured Roman shield.

They will see action as part of the hordes of auxiliary horse that were present at the Battle of Philippi, when I run it at the Society of Ancients conference next weekend.

An overhead shot to show the basing. This completes the figures - now I need to get on with more of the scenery and terrain!

Palisade Fencing

The conspirators threw up a copious amount of woodwork at Philippi. Not only did they have two hilltop camps, they also built a connecting covered walkway of some sort between them. Also, when Cassius finally realised that Antonius was trying to put a causeway through the marsh, he then built another palisade to intercept the Caesarean's efforts.

Almost none of this actually mattered when it came to the battle itself, but it does present something of a logistical challenge when constructing the battlefield. I have a whole load of Renedra plastic palisade fencing, so it's time to get gluing...

...and painting...

...and highlighting. This isn't going to look like the quality one expects from Roman legions, but on the day it didn't seem to present much of a problem to Antonius' troops. Therefore, rough and ready is the name of the game. Besides, building almost four metres of good quality work will cost a fortune! The good thing about all of this effort is that it will make the battlefield into something much more interesting than the usual billiard table. If I ever do this again I'll add in little camp vignettes and random scenes behind the lines, but this will do for now.