Review of “Roman Conquests–Italy” by Ross Cowan

Well… if you’ve by judging the frequency of new posts on this blog came to the conclusion that wargaming hobby has fallen on hard times at Casa Marcus, you'd be absolutely correct. Between rather intensive period at work, summer vacation and rekindled interest in building airplane kits for the sake of pure pleasure, not much time is left over for painting minis or making terrain.

However, I am regarding current state as a temporary lull on the battlefield that most wargamers experience from time to time. The interest is still there and hardly a day passes by without me thinking about this or that wargaming project. Also, the hobby still dictates my choice of books I pick up from the shelf, which brings me to the real topic of this post.

During my vacation I had time to read 'Roman Conquests - Italy' by Ross Cowan. Early history of Rome has always fascinated me; after all, how the heck did they transform from a backwater village in the middle of nowhere into an empire spanning over three continents?

'Roman Conquests - Italy' won't give you the answer to this question, but it does provide a very nice albeit brief and compact introduction to the very earliest period in Roman road to the giant it eventually became. Its narrative spans from Celtic sack of Rome in 390BC to conquest of Calabria in 266BC. In a space of little more than 240 pages, author retells the story of almost petty squabbles between Rome and its immediate neighbour city-states, its slow expansion into central Italy, clashes with Etruscans and Celts in the north and monumental struggle against Samnites in the south. The story is rounded off with the story of Rome's encounter with Pyrrhus during the campaigns of conquest of Greco-Italian city-states in southern parts of Italian peninsula.

As already mentioned, this is a small book and out of necessity the writer confines himself to bare essentials in his narrative. Large sections of the book are almost lexicon-like and can feel like a long list of names of consuls for a given year and short description of the path they (probably) took in that particular annual excursion of the legions. Also, you won't find much information about the legions, strategy, tactics or soldiers who participated in that gigantic struggle; that information needs to be found in other places. Key events such as decisive battles or important political events are given more space, but don't expect detailed orders of battle, exciting battle descriptions or in depth analysis of political situations. Thus, it is safe to say that 'Roman Conquests; Italy' is a bit of a dry read.
Nonetheless, it is a fascinating little book that gives the reader a seed of an answer to the question how Rome became Rome. Out of the seemingly endless litany of yearly campaigns, battles lost and won, sieges that sometimes took a city and on other occasions ended in spectacular disasters for the Romans, treaties and alliances broken as often as they were held, one can clearly see the huge ambition, relentless drive and boundless aggression of both the individuals and the city itself. It also shows that Rome's ascendancy was far from certain and could indeed be regarded as a 'freak of nature'.

From historical wargamer's perspective this book is a bit of a mixed bag of goodies. It will not provide you with army lists or detailed orders of battle. Also, if you're unfamiliar with organization of early Roman legions or the opposition they faced during their initial expansion, you'll have to find that information somewhere else. However, it works very well as a sourcebook for scenarios and perhaps especially for that wargamer Holy Grail - the campaigns. Considering that the book is available for £5 in electronic format from Pen&Sword's website, it is really a bargain and if you've got even the slightest interest in this period, I'd say that picking up this book is a no-brainer.

Bits and pieces for my Romano-British army

It’s a bit ironic – just as I’m starting to be convinced that  our Warhamer campaign has reached its premature grave after a single game (probably together with our interest in Warhammer Historical), I’ve also completed painting final figures for my Romano-British army. Since there wasn’t much activity on this blogg during last month, I decided to have a bit of fun with my camera and grab some pictures of those late-comers.

Mounted figures are from the RB01-blister from West Wind Productions, while the priest is from Gripping Beast. The cross that the priest is equipped were made by yours truly. I’ve cut it out of thick cardboard, added the endings made of green stuff and stiffened everything up with couple of layers of undiluted white glue. Once dry (took it about a week or so), the entire contraption was hard enough to be painted and glued into place. In retrospect, it may be over dimensioned, but I’m quite pleased with the end result nonetheless.

The walking stick is just a roll of green stuff.

WAB is dead, long live WAB

Well, it finally happened – if one is to draw any conclusions from the somber message at the website, yesterday Forge World decided to pull the plug on Warhammer Historical. To be perfectly honest, nobody should be surprised by the decision. The surprise lies rather in the fact that the entire process took so long. After all, the writing was on the wall the second Games Workshop closed down "real" Warhammer Historical and gave the custody of its rulesets to Forge World. Lukewarm reception of WAB2 and appearance of trinity consisting of "Hail Ceasar", "War and Conquest" and "Clash of Empires" (let's face it, Warhammer Ancients was what Warhammer Historical was always about) sealed the company’s fate.

Quick glance at the news boards seems to confirm my opinion - even the usually reactionary crowd at TMP seems to be receiving the news in same manner one would when hearing that a beloved relative who suffered from long and life-threatening health condition has finally passed away. Sad but expected, may WAB and all its siblings rest in peace.

How will demise of Warhammer Historical affect me personally? Only to the degree I will allow it to influence my gaming. The publications are still on my bookshelf, the miniatures are still standing in my display cabinet, Saxons in ongoing campaign will still make another attempt to cross the river as soon as I paint the buildings for the village... As far as I can see, there is really no reason for me to care about Games Workshop's decision to put Warhammer Historical to its grave.

At the same time, I can't help but feel that the whole thing really stinks. It's one thing to shut down a company you are for whatever reasons no longer interested in running. It's something completely different to shut it down without any warning and pulling down all the supporting materials (often produced by fans themselves) at the same time. The FAQ:s are gone. The erratas are gone. One can only hope that the guys at Forge World will make them available again on their own site, but at the moment there is plenty of reasons to be upset as a former WH customer.

Return of Derfel's Wolftails

As already mentioned (on several occasions), my main inspiration for starting Romano-British WAB army was "Winter King" trilogy by Bernard Cornwell. It would therefore be rather strange if I didn't have Derfel's Wolftails among my units. However, the heroic status of Derfel's warriors in the book didn't matter much on wargaming table - H. demonstrated that fact to me in rather painful manner by wiping them out to the last man in their first and so far their last battle.

I could of course have blamed the disaster that befell Derfel's warriors on the fact that they were brand new. After all, it is widely known fact that newly painted units always get their butt kicked. But the real reason for their untimely demise was rather more prosaic - a unit of twelve figures has no staying power in WAB. Naturally, the solution to the problem was to paint more miniatures. Well, it took me a while, but after finding some time during last weekend I was finally done with my "recruiting" efforts. Now, the new and improved Derfel's Wolftails can finally be presented to the public. I must admit that I am rather pleased with the end result. I still suck at painting realistically looking spears and as it turns out it is physically impossible for me to draw a decent looking five-pointed star. But the fact remains that this could very well be my best painting work so far.

WAB raiding season - game 1

What better way to start 2012 than with a game. And since I was finally ready with the terrain required for the first scenario of our long planned WAB campaign, it was the logical choice for today's entertainment.
Couple of words about the campaign itself. It's taken from "Age of Arthur" supplement for Warhammer and consists of a series of battles that, depending on results in last engagement, are selected from a batch of fifteen scenarios in the book. The resulting campaign is linear, but varied and the fact that scenarios are connected gives much better "feeling" than one-off games we run until now.

The scenario

Initial scenario in the campaign is an opposed river crossing. A slight twist in deployment is provided by period-typical single combat between champions of the opposing sides. In our case it didn't make much difference (except for the quite enjoyable fact that H. had to witness his champion being butchered by my hero :-), but if finished quickly, it can make things little more difficult for the attacking side.

In any case, by the time preliminary pleasantries were finished, Saxons had their army ready for a push across the river. The bridge allowed only for passage of units with single figure width, so he choose to ignore it. River itself was difficult terrain (movement reduced by 50 percent), except in the middle where a ford was located and provided normal passage.

Setup

Neither H. nor I spent any time on painting... eh, I mean recruiting since our last game, so it was the gathering of usual suspects all over again. H. placed his chief and his merry band of butchers in the middle with clear intention of punching a hole straight through the middle of my line. He was supported by his light cavalry unit from behind. On both sides of the cavalry he deployed his three units of warriors. His archers opposed mine near the bridge.

My deployment was anything but innovative. My milites got their orders to oppose initial Saxon cavalry charge and beat back any incursions by Saxon warbands. My pedes were deployed near the bridge - I intended to get them into position near the river, form shieldwall and hope for the best. Mounted commanipulares were kept in second line as reserve. The only sneakiness in my initial setup was the fact that I placed my light cavalry on the road leading to the bridge. My intention was from the start to deploy them into march column as soon as possible and thereby threat H. with a move across the bridge and against his flank.

The battle

Since my champion won the single combat, I had the advantage of moving first. My infantry moved toward the river, light cavalry deployed into march column and some innefective shooting was done by skirmishers. H. followed his apparent plan and released his cavalry, with infantry moving in support. One of his warbands was placed to counter my light cavalry, which was just fine with me, as long as they weren't participating in the assault across the river.

Single combat… ending with victory for defenders of civilization. :-P

Both armies march toward each other.

In second turn we had the expected clash of Saxon cavalry and my milites. The results were both expected and a little surprising. The expected part was that my infantry held (those extra points for ranks will decide the result as long as casualties among infantry are kept at reasonable level). What surprised both me and H. was that his chief not only failed to cause any casualties, but also broke and drew the other cavalry unit into ignominious flight. Even though he rallied two turns later, he was out of the picture for the rest of the game, while the light cavalry unit unceremoniously left the field of battle altogether.

One can only wonder what his followers among infantry thought of this display of dubious behavior, but all warbands continued with their advance regardless of their leader's cowardly behavior (hey, my blogg, my prerogative for slander of the enemy:-). The foremost warband smashed into my victorious milites, routed them in two turns and managed not only to stop my subsequent cavalry charge, but were winning the melee that followed. Remaining unit of Saxon warriors moved in support and were met by my peasants with shields and crudely fashioned spears. The result of that fight was another surprise - my peasants pretty much bitch-slapped Saxon warriors and stopped them in their tracks.

Saxon warbands try to save the day…

…but get stuck.

By then we reached the end of sixth and final turn of the game and it was all over but the weeping for the Saxons. Their victory condition was to have two or more units (not engaged in combat) on the other side of the river by the end of the game; they had none. Their king was however still breathing, which meant that my success was only of minor nature. In next game, the Saxons will try at it again, but at a different ford.

Musings after the battle

The one thing of interest is that this was our first game with Warhammer 2.0 rules. I can't say that I am very happy with that "newish" second edition.

First of all, the language used in the rulebook is quite infuriating - I don't need a narrative and motivation of the rules in the rulebook itself, just give me the rules in clear and unambiguous manner.

Second, the new edition is incompatible with "Age of Arthur" supplement on at least one count - rules for warbands are formatted differently and we had to double-check with the original version for which rules were applicable to Saxons. No biggie, but a bit confusing.

Also, since H. didn't have time to read the second edition yet, we skipped most of the "novelities", such as giving up ground and disengagements. The only new rule I insisted on applying (for egoistic reasons ) was the fact that marching columns don't have to stop when they are within 8'' from the enemy. To be honest though, I really can't see how this rule can be used effectively when units, especially cavalry units, are in march columns. Even with movement rate of 24'' my light cavalry wouldn't even have cleared the bridge, if I decided to move it.

In any case, it was quite enjoyable game, finished in little over four hours including the setup and after game-cleanup. Nice start of 2012, hopefully I will have more to write about really soon.

Not Dead Yet…

When I look at the date of my latest entry in the blog, I can't help but wonder about how fast time passes these days. Also, I wonder about how often the phrase 'Not dead yet!' has been used on half-abandoned blogs, followed by explanations and excuses. In this case, my long silence was caused by several different factors,but first and foremost - I moved to a new place. The bad thing here is that fixing the new place is taking ten times longer than I expected. The good thing is that I finally have both a nice painting area and plenty of space for a decent gaming table.

Returning to the age of Arthur
This blog is supposed to be about miniature wargaming, so enough about my new flat and let's move over to last Sunday’s event. On that day H. came over with his Saxons and we gave Warhammer Ancient Battles another go. It was our third game, so we were finally starting to get a grip of the ruleset. Nevertheless, I was a bit anxious, because our previous games ended in a rather inglorious whooping of yours truly. Now, I don't mind having my behind being handed over to me every once in a while. In case of H.'s Saxons however, the single reason for my defeats was the monstrous special character of his king, who so far managed to vaporize anybody who dared to stand in his way. Romano-British army list doesn't really offer any direct antidote to that monster, something that I admittedly started to find tad unfair and frustrating.

Same, same, but different
Since we are both still fumbling our way through WAB ruleset, we decided to run yet another set piecebattle with few pieces of terrain for sake of variety.

Our deployments were rather unimaginative. I placed a huge swarm of skirmishers in the rough ground to my right, while the rest of my infantry - two units of milites and one of peasant rabble were placed in the centre. My mounted mounted milites in skirmish order were placed on my right flank, while mounted commanipulares were held in reserve.
H.'s dispositions were pretty much a mirror of mine - his skirmishers, although heavily outnumbered by mine, intended apparently to meet mine in a straightout shootout contest. Three units of Saxon warriors were placed to the left of the skirmisher, while his cavalry concentrated on the Saxon left flank.

H's intention was apparently to repeat the events from our second game - smash with his cavalry through my rightmost milites unit and then take care of my cavalry. With that suspicion in my mind, I choose a purely defensive strategy - infantry would take the charge and hopefully hold. In the meantime, my light troops would try to annoy the crap out of the Saxons with missile fire.

Birds view before battle

Romano-British deployment

Initial deployment of Saxons

When events actually follow the plan
The battle that followed can be described in very few words. H moved his entire army forward, while I awaited the onslaught. My foot skirmishers on right flank exchange missile fire with H's archers and mass of Saxon infantry. The results were inconclusive, the only source of real excitement being caused by an uncontrolled charge of some of his infantry, which my skirmishers avoided by a hair's breath.

Main action was once again initiated by H:s cavalry. His light cavalry unit charged bravely into my rightmost milites as soon as it was in range... and was promptly sent back with a bloody nose. I must admit it caused me no small pleasure, because similar charges in our two previous games started disastrous chains of events that led to catastrophic defeats of poor Romans. Not this time though; it's nice to know that WAB is capable to handle cavalry charges into formed infantry in proper manner. It’s even nicer to know that my army doesn’t always trip over its own legs at slightest push.

First Saxon charge bounces against Roman shieldwall

His initial setback failed however to disturb Saxon king's retinue, who in following round managed to completely mangle mounted milites on my left flank. Poor buggers came a tad too close to Saxons in open formation and were caught while trying to evade the predictable chagre that followed. This success placed Saxons in perfect position for a clash of arms with my mounted commanipulares, a contest which on both previous occasions proved to be catastrophic for my general’s retinue.

Sure enough, the Saxon king charged and to everybody’s suprise failed to make any impression whatsoever on my cavalry. The fact that I cunningly equiped them with heavy armour for this battle did help. To be fair though, H:s hopeless luck with dices helped even more. My retinue also managed to cause enough Saxon casualties to make them flee. This rout would have once again been been a decisive one, but for the fact that in this battle Saxons were as skilled at running away as they were in close combat on previous occasions.

Decisive moment

Inconclusive infantry engagement in the center

Situation at the end of the game

By that time we were both satisfied with the outcome and decided to call it a day. It turned out to be yet another Saxon victory, although this time it was a mariginal one. Personally, I was mostly relieved that my Romano-British army didn't (once again) crumble like a paper mug. H. was probably a tad relieved over and certainly very entertained by happy escape of his king's retinue. Overall, a pretty decent Sunday afternoon.

What was that about?

OK, I had my fun with yet another narrative writeup, but what was it all about? Well... after more than a year and a half of painting and preparations, H. and I decided that we had enough painted figures to have a decent 1500 points Warhammer contest. I fielded a Romano-British force consisting of one unit of mounted commanipulares, another rather small force of commanipulares on foot, two units of milites and a largish unit of pedes. The difference was made up by a horde of skirmishers. H. countered with a mounted unit of Gedrihts and three of Duguths, one of them mounted. He also fielded a small force of skirmishers.

The game developed as described in the narrative - inital clash between best cavalry ended in disaster for me, mainly because of superior strength of H.'s leader and my lousy dice rolls. Then our infantry clashed together, with me loosing by a single point and failing morale test for three units (only one of which was actually in combat). Next round saw my cavalry being overrun and my commanipulares on foot being annihilated. The fact that all of three routing units managed to rally was a small consolation and we decided it was a rather overwhelming Saxon victory.

And what did we think about 'Warhammer'? Here's the thing - we are using the original edition. That's right, not 2.0, not even 1.5, but the original, that by now gives a different meaning to 'Ancient' in the title of the rules than was originally intended. I've understood from the comments on the net, that there are some ambivalences in the original ruleset and yes, now I can confirm that. For example, how the heck do leaders fight? And how does one fight against them, especially with thrusting spears? The way we finally decided on handling the leaders was to deal with them separately, before proceeding with the rest of combat, but I don't have a clue if we are doing it 'right'. Another thing - counter-charges by cavalry. Once more, I know that they were added to the ruleset, because I've seen them mentioned on the net. But they are certainly not described in Warhammer 'the original edition'.

Nevertheless, we both had a blast and really enjoyed the game. Even though it was a bit one-sided, I hope to smack those pesky Saxons back to Denmark as soon as I'll get the opportunity. And of course, me and H. are already discussing the next army. :)

Saxons Are Coming!

It was at the end of last year's autumn that first rumors about yet another huge Saxon host causing all sorts of mayhem and destruction reached the court of our lord, Severius Borus. News like that have become more and more common over last couple of years - ever since the Saxon revolt that took place almost a decade ago, everybody in our domain was worried about growing numbers of the invaders. We knew that sooner or later we would have to fight those barbarians. As more news about burned villages and overrun strongholds reached us from the east, or Lord decided that this time has now come upon us. It was better not to wait for same fate to befall on our domain, but rather to meet the Saxons on a field of battle and smash them before they could cause us great harm.

During the winter, messengers with a call to arms were sent to all corners of our lands. Trusted men were sent to our neighbors, urging them to join us and oppose the Saxons. As winter slowly turned into spring, our lord had huge force at his command. Foremost among all troops were commanipulares of our lord - experienced warriors with many battle scars proving their veteran status. All of them were equipped with best armor and weapons, their horses the best in the realm. Enough men gathered to the call of our lord to form two companies of milites. While not of the same status as commanipulares, they were good soldiers, some of them serving as youths in Roman legions, before those disapeared from Britannia for good. Last but not least, a huge mass of peasants, some with spear and shield, some with bows and arrows or simple slings, obeyed the orders of Borus. Our lord, in his wisdom, trained those who had proper equipment to stand and fight in a shield wall formation. The rest was instructed to act as scouts and cause whatever harm they could to the Saxon foe.

Finally the day of departure came and our splendid army moved out to meet the Saxon threat. News about their destructive deeds reached us with alarming regularity during the winter. Those who survived their encounter with the barbarians told us about a host as numerous in horsemen as it was in warriors on foot. They were lead by a man who was called 'Bear' - apparently a horrifying, huge man who possessed almost unnatural strength and who could drive a spear through three men with a single thrust. We all discarded those stories as something to scare children with, but our lord valued the information about the location of the Saxon host.

Apparently, the Saxons had their spies in our midst, for the news that reached us told us they were moving rapidly in our direction, leaving a track of destruction in their wake. It took us less than six days of march to find the Saxons, or maybe for them to find us.

On the day of the battle our footmen were formed in three battles consisting of milites and pedes. Foot commanipulares acted as a reserve to the rear. Peasant skirmishers were sent to our right flank, where rough going would protect them against Saxon hordes. After making sure that our battle line was formed to his satisfaction, our lord took personal command of mounted commanipulares and rode round the right flank, with intention of smashing Saxon hordes once they were softened by our footmen.

Saxon army

One of Saxon cavalry units

Roman battle line

It was a sound plan, yet somehow everything went horribly wrong. As our heavy cavalry maneuvered to hit the flank of barbarians, it was swiftly met by the best cavalry of the Saxons. While far from being as splendid as our warriors, it was numerous and acted confident, even as it met our best warriors head to head. Bear was leading them and all who could see the clash of horsemen quickly understood that the tales about that man were all true. Using his huge sword almost as a club, he stroke down everyone who dared stand in his path. His men rode into the holes he ripped in our formation and just like that, our warriors panicked and turned around. With Saxon horsemen slashing at their backs, few managed to keep their lives. Fortunately, our lord was one of those who managed to retreat to safety.

Clash of cavalry…

…and the aftermatch

Meanwhile more Saxon cavalry appeared at our other flank, forcing one of our battles to turn to the left and face that threat. Even as our milites scrambled to form a new shieldwall, Saxon infantry smashed into the middle of our battle line. I was there and witnessed as Saxons charged our men and barely made contact before our troops, terrified by the savage onslaught broke ranks and run away. Panic spread like plague and the rest of our men followed the cowards who started the flight!

Initial contact between infantry

The only men who stood their ground were the foot commanipulares. Those valiant med didn't hesitate for a moment and rushed forward in an attempt to stem the Saxon flood. They managed to stop the Saxons for a couple of valuable moments, thereby buying valuable time for our troops to recover from the initial shock. The price was however heartbreaking - commanipulares died to a man, some being slain where they stood, the rest was simply swept away by the Saxon horde.

Last stand of foot commanipulares

By that time it was apparent that our lot lost their heart and could not stand up to the Saxons. Our lord gave signal for a retreat and from then on it was 'every man for himself'. Saxons pursued us half-heartedly, scattering our once mighty host into all directions.

Bear victorious

Twelve days have now passed since the great disaster and remains of our army have gathered at the stronghold of our lord. There are few of us, but we will stand our ground and defend our land to the last. Pray for us, for Saxons are coming...

The legacy of Alexander by A.B. Bosworth

Considering the vast popularity of both the Greek city states and Macedonian expansion in our hobby, it was a small surprise to me how little is written about the period after death of Alexander the Great. I know of a few publications by Montvert that are almost mystical because of their rarity and even the ubiquitous Osprey Publications hardly covers the period.

It was for that reason that I ordered ‘The Legacy of Alexander – Politics, Warfare and Propaganda under the Successors’ by A.B. Bosworth as soon as I discovered its existence. I bought it in hope that it would give me an overall coverage and detailed information about the military history of the period.

Sadly I must say that those hopes were grievously disappointed. ‘The Legacy of Alexander’ is a strictly academic book and its primary intended audience is clearly the historical academic community which already possesses previous knowledge of not only the primary sources, but also previously published articles and books that analyzed materials that survived to our times. I don’t shrink from plowing through detailed dissections of individual sentences in ancient scripts, but I consider myself an enthusiastic amateur in my studies of history. That is perhaps why I frequently found myself both overwhelmed and loosing interest in Mr. Bosworth’s musings regarding possible translations of ancient Greek or personal motives of ancient authors.

Topics covered by ‘Legacy of Alexander’ were also something of a letdown. Far from being encompassing history of the Successors, it is split in separate chapters that focus on few very significant events of that period. Two chapters are of direct interest to wargamers – first of them deals with Antigonus The One-Eyed Iranian campaign against Eumenes and the other tells the story of Seleucus and his struggle against hegemony of Antigonus. Both of those chapters contain very valuable information for campaign designers and for setups of battles of Paraetacene and Gabiene.

Another chapter deals with the Babylonian Settlement, which took place immediately after Alexander’s death and decided who would be primary actors of initial phases of the unfolding drama. A separate chapter is dedicated to a discussion regarding available Macedonian manpower during the reign of Alexander and that of Successors. Finally, A.B Bosworth discusses legitimacy of Macedonian dynasties that crystallized out of the Successor period and provides extremely detailed analysis regarding validity of texts written by Hieronymus, one of our principal sources for the period.

Chapters regarding Babylonian Settlement and Macedonian manpower resources are fascinating and contain both data that should be of interest to every campaign designer for this period. I also suspect that some of the conclusions of the author will wreak havoc with many army lists.

‘Legacy of Alexander’ was sadly not what I wanted it to be. That being said, it’s still a very valuable book, both for those interested in the period in general and also for wargamers. While it’s not the primer I was looking for, it should be picked up for deeper study of this fascinating period once such primer can be found.

Overeager, overambitious and underprepared

So… more than a year after the decision to start our ‘Age of Arthur’-project, H. and I decided it was time to run our first trial game. The fact that H. had only three finished units against five of mine didn’t bother us – we wanted to get those miniatures out, give them a workout, roll some dices and have a few laughs.

Perhaps a little more serious problem was the fact that last time I had the opportunity to read the rules was… oh, a year ago or something like that. As for the army lists and pre-game preparation – since number of units was so uneven, neither of us bothered with those small details. That’s what the supplements are for!

It will come hardly as a suprise to most of you that our first game was something of a fiasco. Most of the time was spent on trying to find relevant rules, checking stats and similar ‘fun’ activities. By the time we had to start packing up (game took place at local game shop, after opening hours), we did manage to kill one skirmisher and have a successful Saxon cavalry charge, which ended in a draw. This “high watermark” was rather suitable finale of the game.

It has to be said, despite equal fumbling on both sides, we still somehow managed to have a blast. At the same time I think it will be best if we try to avoid games like that and for that reason I have this checklist to complete before next meeting.

• Read the rulebook
• Put together an army list
• Prepare movement trays
• Ensure that both players have their own set of rulesets for the game

On a side note, even the pictures from the game didn’t work out all that great (starting to be annoyed by my point and shoot, it’s time to get a simple DSL kit). Not that it’s stopping me from posting some pictures anyway. :-)

Saxons on the far edge, Romano-British on the near edge

Saxon army – two units of foot Duguth,
Duguth on ponies and some skirmishers

Anglo-British – two units of milites, one of pedes, mounted commitates
and small ‘special unit’ of foot comitates (Dervel’s Wolftails)

Milites brace for impact of Saxon cavalry

Commitates try a sneaky flank manover that led to nowhere

Saxons smash into milites and get stuck

A peasant shieldwall

There really isn’t much space for variation in WAB list for Romano-Bristish. Basic unit is either formed from plain milites or even plainer pedes. Still, pedes are good, sturdy peasants that hopefully will stand long enough in their shieldwall for the more flashy commanipulares to hack their way through whoever is on the opposite side. Also, they are cheap and that’s never a bad thing.

For my pedes I stuck with the miniatures from Gripping Beast. Unit in pictures below consists of a unit pack that is being sold at slightly reduced price. To be honest, I’m pretty sure, I will stuck with Gripping Beast for most of this project – I like the sculpts and the range covers all my needs.

The look I was going for was that of poor peasants, so no flashy garments or elaborate shield designs. Plain, drab colors and mostly handpainted shields, although I did try to get some more variation with shield decals from Little Big Men Studio. Unfortunately, all of the decals that I've got from them, were to small by at least 5 milimeters for the huge shields these minis are equiped with.

Britannia is still a part of the empire.

After a brief interlude over the French skies, let's now return to my WAB project. Or rather, let's go back to the start of it. As I mentioned before, a buddy of mine and I - under the inspiration of Cornwell's 'Warlord' trilogy - decided to start collecting armies from 'Age of Arthur'. My friend choose the Saxons, while I (once again succumbing to my strange love to anything called 'imperial'), choose to defend the civilization and set my heart on a Romano-British army.

As a starting point for my army I selected a milites unit from Gripping Beast's extensive selection of miniatures from this period. I must say that I am very happy with my choice - figures are very nicely sculpted, don't require a lot of cleaning up and are a joy to paint.

I had some difficulty in deciding about how I would paint my milites. In the end I've reasoned that it would be highly improbable that any regular units would be available on the Isles during that period and painted each figure differently. I tried however to give the unit a 'Byzantine' look. Also, I've limited my mix of shield transfers to just a couple of schemes. All in all I am quite pleased with my first foray into 28mm 'scale'.