Thursday 7 November 2019

Imperial Roman Army Assembles part 2

For Part 1 head HERE


Since I left you last I have been steadily building and painting my Imperial Roman Legion. The good news is that several units are now beginning to take shape and a big push over the next couple of months should see the bulk of this army completed.

As a reminder my legion will consist of the following


10 cohorts of heavy armoured Imperial Roman infantry. With Warlord figures readily available at a cheap price on eBay these have been my go to range. For the best discounts check out the big army boxes. There will be some of you out there that will wax lyrical about the Victrix models and I can testify that they are beautiful but when building these big armies sometimes quality has to be sacrificed for cost.

Each cohort will consist of 20 figures with four to a base. The bases (warbases) are 5cm x 5cm giving the overall frontage of each unit 25cm. This is consistent with the basing used for the Britons. I understand from some simple research that the first cohort was numerically twice the size of the others so it will be double ranked with 10 stands (same facing). This means I need a total of 220 legionaries…..and guess what, the good news from the Shed is that aside from command, standards and musicians they are all painted. 

The bases still need painting and grass added






I also discovered that a typical legion would have 60 scorpions (light artillery) so it seems entirely reasonable to put one scorpion with each cohort as a separate base. I have 8 warlord scorpions available and two from black tree. These are yet to be assembled etc.

This infantry core is going to need some support so in the plans I have set out the following

Three units of Imperial Roman Cavalry (these are sourced from Victrix). Each pack delivers sixteen horse and riders and with my units 10 figures strong I can field the three units and have two riders spare for command stands. The figures have all been assembled and painted. Just waiting on their horses.



Five units of Auxiliary infantry  (Warlord Plastics) – to cater for the lack of command stands I will press into service some spares I have from the standard legionary boxes. These are all now painted and dipped. Just need to be based and shields added



Three units of archers, these are mix of warlord and black tree metals. There will be two western style and one eastern style unit. No progress on these yet

Finally there are a couple of extra units to be thrown into the mix

One unit of Praetorians (warlord) – a large cohort (40 figures/10 bases) has been assembled and primed. I appreciate the Praetorians rarely saw campaign action but they look nice and pretty. Status – assembled and painted - to be based and shields added





One unit of Marines (warlord) – this is a standard unit of 20 warlord legionnaires that will be given blue tunics and the spare hexagonal shield that came with the Roman cavalry. Status - assembled and Primed.

part 3 here

Finally there will of course be the usual rag tag of commanders and officers

More soon

Friday 1 November 2019

Escape from Mos Eisley


Earlier this week Alastair had the idea to run a Galactic Heroes scenario (a Fist Full of Lead supplement). The adventure would be based in the Star Wars universe.

For Alastair's much better report head HERE

Using my Khartoum terrain we fashioned together a representation of Mos Eisley complete with landing pad, alien beasts, and of course the iconic Star Wars Characters.

Mos Eisley


This was going to be a four player game with the forces of Good ( one squad lead by Luke & Leia, the other by Han and Chewbacca) versus the forces of dark (Darth Vader and some troopers supported by an imperial paid up group of mercenaries lead by Boba Fett).



The scenario was very simple, the Rebels had to cross Mos Eisley with a droid carrying plans for a new super weapon and escape via the spaceship docked at the landing pad. The Imperials had to stop them.
Han (top left flees Vader and his troops)


This was a fast and frantic game all played out in around two hours. A big thankyou to Alastair for providing the figures, play sheets and adjudicating.

Streetfighting....

Boba Fett reaches the Falcon first

The game was extremely cinematic and in no particular order we had…

Darth Vader wading down a street taking down three rebel troopers and clashing with Chewbacca, sadly the giant wookie is now a nice new rug in the Dark Lords Imperial apartment

One Dead Wookie - Vader at the end of the Alley



Taking Positions

Imperial Stormtroopers armed to the teeth missed everything they shot at

Real Lasers as Han battles it out with Storm Troopers


Leia using the cover of the Rebel troopers

Luke fought it out with his dad, injury him in a close fought duel and escaped - this was far to graphic to show (excuse for no photo ;-)

Boba Fett used his jet pack to get in amongst the heroes but game off worse in a firefight with Han Solo, deciding he had enough he jetted out (the rally roll was a one)

All quiet at the landing pad


Han made it to the starship first and dodged a succession of imperial and bounty guard fire.


Battle for the NOT Millenium Falcon

With a final flurry Darth Vader attempted to wrestle control of the craft through his dark powers only to ‘just fail’ and allow our heroes to escape and fight another day

 
A frustrated Vader