6mm Romans: Figure Comparison

The other day, I decided to take advantage of the recent offer from Rapier Miniatures, in order that I could have a look at their figures against the competing ranges of Irregular and Baccus. As you may have seen elsewhere on this Blog, I had taken on a 6mm Early Imperial Romans project with a distinctly 'frugal' twist, and in order to keep costs down, had begun with the cast-together blocks of Legionaries available from Irregular; however, I soon experienced 'mission creep' towards Baccus, and made use of their Command and Artillery figures, so naturally enough, soon reasoned myself into a corner and took advantage of the special offer from Rapier!

http://www.rapierminiatures.co.uk/

I have had no previous experience of their miniatures, but had heard good things about their Ancients Line, and was not disappointed when the jiffy bag arrived, containing 96 Legionaries standing, based in five figure strips, 48 Legionaries throwing Pilum, which were based individually, 6 Command strips with a single Centurion, Signifier and Cornicen on each, and an overall command group of a single mounted Tribune and two standing Legates. Flash was present only in terms of a few ribbons left over from casting, as you will see in the photos here, and a slight nub or two on the base of the strips. The casting and detail was crisp and clear, in line with the quality of Baccus, and all were nicely proportioned.

Let's start off with a look at the Tribune and Legates - nice looking figures with good detailing, especially the breast plates and clothing, (remember all photos here are clickable for a close-up, Macro view), and great character in the faces:

The mounted commander, at a distance, scaled nicely with the offerings from the two other manufacturers - Irregular on the left, Baccus on the right, whilst obviously leaning away from the former's impressionistic bravura in terms of sculpting, toward the realism of the latter:

Up close, the rider is a little slighter in 'Heft' than the Baccus, but if anything, the horse is perhaps more realistically proportioned, although I think there would be no noticeable difference when on the table top, even if mounted on the same base - perhaps only the thickness of the Baccus strip being a factor in terms of height, but again, this is pretty negligible:

Next, let's have a look at the Legionaries themselves; I must state that obviously I have only the cast-together blocks from Irregular, and it may be that their individual figures are slightly larger in terms of individual proportions, whilst the men from Baccus are in reality the single end-placed figure clipped from one of their Command strips, as I did not actually purchase any of their Legionary ones; that aside, hopefully they will give a reasonable comparison:

Immediately, the Irregular Miniatures' chaps come across as the most diminutive, with Baccus being noticeably smaller, perhaps giving a more 'hunkered-down' behind their shields look:

It is important to note that of the three, only Rapier have provided the points of the Pilum, and although this is nice, I found that there was a tendency for these to be fragile and bend during handling, the metal/pewter is good quality, so that they can be bent back into position if disturbed, but of course the more times you do this......

Also interesting is the Rapier strip itself, in that the individual figure sits on its own base, which is then sitting on top of the strip, adding height, which otherwise would probably be a lot nearer to that of Baccus. I suppose this could be filed away, but that would be a thankless task on a whole Legion or two; creative basing would of course even this out:

From behind, in particular, the crispness of the detail on the Rapier mini is evident, although to be fair to the others, the camera focus at extreme Macro, does tend to blur a little at the edges.

The overall proportion of their figures leans toward being an anatomically balanced athletic type, whilst Baccus' men are perhaps, to be kind, a little more well-fed and sedentary in their habits?

To be honest, to my eye, Irregular would look a little too small on the table besides the Rapier, but Baccus would be fine, perhaps just not on the same base.

Next, lets move on to the rather exciting Legionary throwing Pilum.

This is a great little mini, full of animation, the only slight criticism might be the size of the weapon in relation to the figure, but some exaggeration is to be expected at this scale, so that is merely nitpicking.

Please ignore the ribbons of flash in the photo, I left these on for a fair, 'out-of-the-pack' comparison; the Pilum is sturdy, and has no need of this support, and unlike those of the standing Legionary, is less inclined to bend, so will easily be removed for the finished figure.

Seen here against the block from Irregular, the size is actually relatively close, this mini being smaller than his fellows from the same company:

Betwixt a single from Baccus and his fellows:

If anything, this one falls somewhere in between, so has more flexibility in terms of mixing manufacturers on the same base, and also lacks the extra height on the strip of the standing Legionary:

Moving on to the Command strips, these are again animated and detailed sculptings, and whilst showing the athlete vs 'norm' tendency between the two manufacturers, don't look overly large next to Baccus.

I must say that I have deliberately avoided the question of actual figure height in this post, in that I think it rarely gives a true measure of the miniature, and is often not totally helpful in describing a mini. Debates about base to eye, foot to eye, foot to top of head, etc, frequently inflame the Forum pages over at TMP and elsewhere, but from my point of view, it is the 'Heft' or bodily proportions of the figure that is the final arbiter amidst figs of the same ostensible size.

Extra overall height here again comes down to the 'double' base strip, and although from behind, the range from Rapier seems to be definitely leaning toward the Heroic, it certainly wouldn't preclude an appearance on the same table top. The standard and signal instrument are particularly nicely sculpted, with a circular shield for the Signifier.

Looking at the Legate against the Centurion strip, he looks a little more prosperous (less lean and mean) than his subordinates, but perhaps that is a good reflection of real life, anyway!

In any event, it is a super figure, the pointing arm giving good animation and therefore variety to any prospective base, with a nice drawn sword by his side:

Finally, let's see him up against the strip from Baccus; without the extra base part, it would be a good visual match, I think:

Overall, then, some excellent sculpting and attention to detail, that might just be edging it over the output of Baccus, which has always been of a definitively high standard.

I think if you wanted some variety in your forces, then they would march easiest alongside those of Baccus, and a bit of creative basing should iron out any apparent height problems.

The animation of these figures would particularly lend itself to, I feel, depicting those units who are skirmishing, deploying or attacking, rather than just standing in ranks.

I have omitted mentioning the range from Heroics and Ros, firstly, because I don't have any of their Ancients, and also in that I feel they would be clearly different enough in size, detail and heft to warrant being characterised as different figures; I suppose in a way reminiscent of the 1/285th versus 1/300th Scale Micro Armour debate, I wouldn't ordinarily consider placing them against these other minis on the same table top, anyway.

So.....was my profligate; "it's a bargain, though", train of thought rewarded?

Certainly, it was a good offer, and even more certainly the figures did not disappoint, the only worry being the apparent fragility of the standing Legionary Pilum; I think if they do take a place alongside the other bases for this project, then it may be as elites or character figures, or certainly as attacking groups, to take advantage of those lovely little Pilum throwers....

6mm Romans: Ambush at Locus Castorum

I thought I'd take a look now at the likely make-up of the forces engaged in the initial battle of the 'Year of the Four Emperors' Campaign, namely the ambush at Locus Castorum.

For this I have been looking through the Histories of Tacitus which document the campaigns of AD69, and more particularly, the companion to the Histories written by Bernard W. Henderson, "Civil War and Rebellion in the Roman Empire AD69-70", which makes an effort to interpret the military aspects of the events described. Both of these are available to look at online; links follow at the end of this post.

As you might remember from a previous post:

http://steelonsand.blogspot.com/2009/10/6mm-romans-year-of-four-emperors.html

the rather confusing ups and downs and ins and outs began with the fall of Nero and his replacement by Galba, only to see him in turn replaced by Otho; the Army in Germany, backing their own man, Vitellius, promptly set out to take on Otho.

We join the action as the Vitellan forces, split into two columns led by the Generals Caecina and Valens respectively, have entered Italy, and are approaching a showdown with the Othonians, who are made up of a column under Annius Gallus encamped at Bedriacum, and his back-up in the form of the main Army of Italy under Seutonius Paulinus and his deputy Marius Celsus.

The Vitellan troops were principally made up of the Army of Germany, along with a large number of auxiliaries of all types. Tacitus' text and his commentator Henderson point out the following:

From Germany:

Legio I Germanica

Legio V Alaudae

Legio XV Primigenia

Legio XVI Gallica

Legio IV Macedonica

Legio XXII Primigenia

Legio XXI Rapax

From Gaul:

Legio I Italica

8 Batavian Cohorts which were originally formed as the auxiliaries of the Legio XIV Gemina, (which had declared conversely for Otho)

From the Garrison of Lugdunum, a cavalry 'squadron', (more correctly a corps) the Ala Tauriana

Raetian auxiliaries

Thracian auxiliaries

A corps of cavalry, the Ala Siliana, some 960 strong, which had deserted from the Othonian side

Gallic, Lusitanian and British auxiliary cohorts

Vexilia (detachments) of German troops (Likely native levies)

A corps of cavalry, the Ala Petriana

There are unfortunately no detailed entries as to the exact numbers of these troops, or indeed, how they were split up between the columns of Caecina and Valens, and furthermore, some losses had been incurred fighting Othonian forces in Narbonese Gaul on the way to Italy, and also at the city of Placentia, which Caecina had attempted to take by storm, as well as in a number of skirmishes with the enemy in the valley of the River Po.

Knowing exactly who was in Caecina's vanguard at Locus Castorum is rather difficult to pin down, certainly, Tacitus is at pains to point out that it was mainly formed by auxiliary troops operating in rough ground and a force of cavalry; these were re-inforced in somewhat piecemeal fashion from the entrenched camp at Cremona once the battle had begun.

The Othonian side, thankfully, was set out in some detail, and therefore is easier to describe, thus:

In the centre, three Praetorian Cohorts.

On the right, Legio I Germanica, with two auxiliary cohorts of foot and 500 cavalry.

On the left, 2,000 men of a Vexilia of Legio XIII Gemina, with four auxiliary cohorts of foot, and 500 cavalry.

In the rear, 1,000 cavalry under Celsus.

Again, the overall number is hard to define, given the unknown compliment of men available to Legio I; the Praetorian Cohorts were ostensibly 1,000 each.

It is likely that the opposition under Caecina had initially a smaller number of men in the ambush, but soon they were appearing in such numbers as to cause the Othonian commanders to break off the engagement, perhaps 12~14,000 in each force therefore might be about right.

The narrative of the engagement must be set against a background of the likely arrival of reinforcements for the Othonian side from the Army of the Danube, and the need for the Vitellans to dominate the strategically important road network in the area, as well as seek a victory in the face of the recent reverse at the walls of Placentia.

Caecina, therefore, wanted to take the initiative, and decided to set an ambush in the vicinity of Locus Castorum which would lure the Othonians to battle. Twelve Roman miles east of Cremona, the raised military road of the Postumian Way ran for a short distance through woods on both sides, and emerged from the trees to pass through an area of vineyards, which were thickly planted and criss-crossed by irrigation ditches, therefore making them difficult ground for formed bodies of troops.

Here, just before the road left cover, Caecina placed his auxiliary foot in ambuscade, and pushed his cavalry further along the road with the intention of employing a 'feigned flight' (Battle of Hastings 1066 style) that would draw on the Othonians.

Unfortunately for the Vitellan cause, however, his plan was betrayed to the other side, and Seutonius Paulinus set out with his troops in the order described above, intending to use his cavalry to envelop the enemy from either wing.

The onrush of the Vitellan cavalry was not reciprocated by the Othonians, and it appears that somewhat in frustration, or more likely due to poor command and control, the auxiliaries in ambush rushed from cover and fell on the enemies' horse. This move was countered by a pre-arranged order, which saw the cavalry withdraw through the ranks of their own oncoming infantry, with the impetuous Vitellans pinned in their front by the Praetorians, and Othonian auxilia of both horse and foot closing in on their flanks; a double envelopment was only prevented by the precipitate withdrawal of the would-be ambushers into the vineyards, which then became a great obstacle for Seutonius as he urged an advance - this was further tempered by the arrival of back-up on the enemy side along the road.

A developing encounter-style battle then , which eventually saw Caecina draw off back in the direction of Cremona, and Seutonius wisely not attempting to follow-up, given that he was already ten miles beyond his own entrenchments at Bedriacum, and would possibly meet the column of Valens who might arrive at any time to supplement Caecina.

Tacitus is rather hard in his summation on both commanders, for the apparent folly of Caecina for setting a weak and hasty ambush, and for the caution displayed by Seutonius; but this is tempered by the more militarily focussed Henderson, who sees the tactical benefits of both their approaches. As to how this might actually play out on the tabletop, I'm yet to find out, and worry that the weaker ambush forces might get pushed off table before any back-up might arrive; furthermore, I've realised that I need to paint up a lot more auxiliary troops and cavalry, too!

So, more to come on this in the future, and in the meantime, onward and upward....

Tacitus' text (with some enlargeable maps of the North of Italy):

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16927/16927-h/i.html

The Henderson Commentary (useful, but also as long winded as the original!):

http://www.archive.org/stream/civilwarrebellio00henduoft/civilwarrebellio00henduoft_djvu.txt

6mm Romans: Some additional troops

A look now at some additional troops for the AD69 'Year of the Four Emperors' project that have finally graduated from the painting table.

Unfortunately of late, I have been concentrating far too much on "Real Life", and not on the much more rewarding subject of painting and gaming! Hopefully the rather low post count in November will grow somewhat in the coming month, so apologies for things being a bit thin on the ground recently.

Anyway, back to the good bits - I'd obviously made quite a dent in the hordes of legionaries required , as can be seen in previous posts on this subject, however was behind on some of the ancillary troops, so have been working on these, to whit, Command, Artillery, Cavalry and Light Infantry. These are a mixture of Irregular and Baccus, hopefully playing to the strengths of both ranges.

Below we see a pair of bases made up from the superlative Baccus Mounted Commanders, absolutely lovely figures with plenty of character - there's even a Caesar look-alike with appropriately large nose!

These I've mounted on UK 2 pence pieces, and made sure to leave the brassy edges of the coin visible, I like the vignette effect this gives, and also makes these smaller bases visually 'pop' more on the tabletop.

The only slight criticism of these sculpts is the piece of supporting flash that comes with the casting, effectively giving the horse an extra leg underneath - this can be a pain to remove - particularly if, as I did, you only do it after painting the model (d'oh!) - it's probably easier done in the preparation stage. Unfortunately, some of my ones have some of the flash still remaining in place in hard to reach places, making, Ahem, it appear as if some of the horses are somewhat exited stallions - if you now what I mean......

On the next pair of bases I added some of the cut-down command strips from the Baccus Legionary packs, to give more of an army commander look:

Next up we have a pair of bases of irregular troops; as I intend to use the Basic Impetus Rules for the project, these would be classified as skirmishers, so for a bit of interest I combined three different strips from Irregular on each base - Barbarian Slingers, Javelins and Bows. This also came about because, somewhat annoyingly, the strips themselves are around 41mm long - just too big to fit on a 40x30mm base, and looking somewhat adrift if placed in pairs on a 60x30mm, so here are three placed more randomly to give a skirmisher effect:

As you can see, these bases saw another outing for the static grass, which I am just starting to get used to; I think definitely at the smaller scales, less is more!

The slinger and javelin figures are particularly nice with lots of varied poses and weapons, the bowmen less so, being indistinctly modelled - rather blobby, even:

Next we move on to a base of Barbarian Cavalry, perhaps Batavian Auxiliaries; this is made up from a combination of codes, to give a more irregular look with E25 Gothic Cavalry in front and the E23 Celtic Medium Cavalry behind:

I felt this would better represent medium cavalry, which for Barbarian tribes would necessarily mean a mixture of arms and armour, with the better or stronger warriors in the front rank, with their retainers in the rear, perhaps like later Norman Milites accompanied by Pueri or Serjeants:

Finally we come to the Baccus Artillery, which are simply great sculpts, with an animated crew - there are simply no competitors out there if you want Roman Ballistae, that can match these little beauties for both heft and character:

I only have one small caveat in that the weapon is rather fiddly to mount on its base - again, something probably best done prior to painting.

I wanted to exaggerate and make the ammunition carried by the loader more visible, so painted the balls white, but having seen these photos, realised I merely made it look as if they are playing with snowballs.....oh well! Maybe some remedial grey dry-brushing needed there......

So, moving along with this project, I'll be looking next at the battle of Locus Castorum, and trying to sort out an OOB from the very long winded and complicated Tacitus text (not in the original Latin, I hasten to add!), so stay tuned for more on this subject to come....

6mm Romans: Year of the Four Emperors

Nero may or may not have been a 'fiddler', but by the middle of AD68, his rule was universally unpopular, and he was openly challenged by a number of Provincial governors, principal amongst whom were Lucius Clodius Macer, Gaius Julius Vindex and Servius Sulpicius Galba.

The Army of Germania Inferior, including the Legio I Germanica, V Alaudae, XV Primigenia and XVI Gallica, were despatched to Hispania to confront Vindex, but whilst Nero's back was turned, Galba marched on Rome with a newly raised Legio VII, and was promptly recognised by the Senate as the new Emperor. Nero just as promptly committed suicide.

Not everything was to be wine and roses for Galba, however, as the Army in Germany were miffed at having backed the wrong horse, particularly as they had defeated Vindex, and were now likely to be slighted by the new Emperor rather than rewarded for this feat of arms.

They therefore acclaimed their own commander, Vitellius, and lickety split, Galba was in big trouble.

Before he knew what was happening, another contender, Marcus Salvius Otho, plotted with the Praetorians, had him murdered, and declared himself the next incumbent.

The Othonian dynasty, however, was only to last for less than three months, when Vitellius defeated him at Bedriacum, and drank from the poison chalice of Imperial rule for himself; Otho, of course, comitted suicide.....

Not to be outdone, however, by the Western Empire, Vespasian in the East decided he would also have a go at the top job and headed for Italy, eventually defeating the Vitellans at Cremona and thereby ushering in the Flavian Dynasty....

Phew, confusing isn't it! In, out, in out, shake it.....well anyway, all this infighting forms the backdrop for the 6mm Romans project in that it sets up some great possibilities for Roman on Roman action, (as Caligula once said!) and saves me the trouble of painting up hordes of Gauls, Parthians or Dacians.

As you might remember from previous posts on this subject, the idea is to paint up some representative Legions to cover this period, and things are rolling along now that I have settled on the mixing of Irregular's blocks alongside Baccus minis for command and artillery. Some command bases are next up on the workbench with some Germanic allied troops, and this should give me enough to begin campaigning on behalf of whichever Imperial candidate takes my fancy.

You can see here some of the almost completed bases, which are just in need of some finishing off; they are distinctive in that they are examples of my first ever use of 'Static Grass', as up to this point I've normally just relied on painting, drybrushing and flocking. To be honest the jury is still out as to the appearance of said grass, as at this scale, it does rather resemble the shedded fibres of a tired old jumper rather than luxurious, verdant stalks of green.

I guess some more practise might improve things, although compared with some of the horror stories one comes across online (Green eyebrows on the user, etc), I think I got off lightly with most of it sticking to the bases, rather than to everything else.

One thing I did learn, if using a puffer bottle applicator as I did, then a plastic funnel is a very useful item in dealing with it, in order to decant the grass into the bottle beforehand, and after using it.

Another top tip is to have a small household paintbrush ready in order to brush up any spills, rather than using your hand, which can have hilarious green-coating on extremities-type consequences!

The campaign will start, I think, with the ambush at Locus Castorum in March AD69, when the Vitellans, led by Aulius Caecina Alienus, took on the Othonian forces led by Gaius Seutonius Paulinus, who as governor of Britain had defeated Boudicca/Bodicea some eight years before.

This will be followed up with the Battle of Bedriacum, which was a right old slanging match with eagles being taken, gladiators being slaughtered and outflanking moves aplenty.

I'll then move on to Cremona in October AD69, when the Western forces of Vitellius clashed with the Legions of the East supporting Vespasian. This grudge match was so closely contested that unusually the fighting went on right through the night, with a dawn finale and the death of Vitellius himself.

So, quite a bit to get through, and a lot more to paint in order to give enough troops for some nice big battles, but as you may see, the 'Mass' that I'm always going on about is gradually coming into effect:

The cunning plan of using the cast together blocks from Irregular as the backbone, means we can see 612 little Legionaries arrayed for battle below, although there are always plenty more to add!

6mm Romans: Yet More Musings

Baccus Romans are beautiful. There is no getting around it, especially when compared to the output of the three other main manufacturers. The Command stands in particular, given their size, are little works of art; you can even see the medallions on the Centurion's armour!

I think the only thing that justifies my somewhat miserly initial approach to this project is the cost factor of Irregular Miniature's cast-in-one Legionary blocks, alongside the fact that I wanted to depict Mass in their formations; I think it would probably be a shame to go to the trouble of painting up 96 odd Baccus Legionaries only to cram them in so tight on the stand that you couldn't appreciate the paint jobs..... that is the sop to my conscience, anyway, and I'm quite happy with how the Centuries turned out.

The only fly in the ointment was of course the lack of Command figures on the base, so this is where I fell under the spell of Baccus, and opted to put the trio at the rear of each one. I had toyed with the idea of putting them out front, but felt that this would rather obscure the business end of the unit, so opted for a group in the rear. The Baccus command stand features a Legionary on the extreme right, but given that he is noticeably taller and heftier than the Irregular ones, I removed him, and just kept the 'officers'. They are slightly smaller than the Legionaries themselves, and so to my eye don't look too out of place up against the overall more dimunitive Irregular troops. Certainly the nice thick base to the Irregular blocks helps to even this out.

Whereas the Irregular blocks were more or less speed-painted (I've a total of 36 to do!), I decided to go to town, in as much as I am able, with the Baccus chaps, and I'm pleased with the way they turned out. There is some intimidating detail at first glance, but the features are so well defined that they are straightforward to paint, and reward a bit of patience, turning out absolutely spiffing, and I'm certainly no Da Vinci!

In terms of how things are going to be organised, I've decided to have each Legionary unit as three bases, which at a 'half' figure scale gives you half of the 6 Centuries that make up a typical Cohort, furthermore, visually, the two blocks obvious on each base give the impression of six distinguishable bodies of troops from above, so re-enforces the idea that this is a decent sized unit rather than just a patrol.

It is a bit unusual, having three bases each , but I'm a contrary sort of fellow!

The only exception so far is the Praetorians, who have just two bases at present, although I might do one more, in Hollywood style with black shields, to complete the unit.

As yet, the bases are incomplete, so forgive their appearance in these photos, but I hope to be finishing them off soon.

Moving on now, to some of the other necessary components, a quick look, 'in the flesh' so to speak.

First up, the Baccus Artillery base as it comes from the packet, with at lower left the offering from Irregular (ES9 Ballista in the scenics page of their catalogue). The former obviusly comes with a nice pair of crew figures, and is large and nicely defined, whilst the latter is cruder, smaller, and bereft of any crew. On the positive side, it is only £0.25 for two! I think it would make a decent smaller alternative, and if you're ambitious, with a bit of conversion, could be mounted on a suitable cart to put the 'Carro' in Carroballistae!

Leaving the Romans, now, and turning attention to their allies, here are some examples from Irregular that will see duty as either Batavian Irregulars or Suebi, who can support the various contenders for the Imperial throne in AD 69. Obviously Baccus again have some excellent sculpts available here, but I fell that more lightly armed or irregular troop types will benefit from being slighter in appearance next to the might of the Legions, so am quite positive about employing some of these, depending, of course, on how they paint up.

Not the best photo in the world, but above we have Irregular's E25 German/Gothic/Frankish Cavalry, which if you can see beyond the cast-together style, are actually pretty good, with a range of headgear and shields, and remember only £0.50 for 5 figures.

Next we have E23, Celtic Medium Cavalry, which look a bit blobby here, but in reality are quite nicely animated and are clutching a number of light spears, and therefore look suitably business like:

For the infantry, I've opted for E21 Celtic Infantry, which are again nicely animated, more so than the available German or Pictish Infantry, who come in close order, standing at ease, whereas this lot look like they are ready for trouble. Unfortunately the figure with the raised sword is prone to having this broken in casting or transit, so as often with Irregular, buy a few extra blocks just in case!

Now for some lighter types, namely E16, Barbarian Infantry Javelinmen:

E18 Barbarian Infantry Slingers:

and E17, Barbarian Archers, all of whom should serve well, depending on the paint job, as either supporters of the Legions, or as more down to earth types brought along as allies:

These are nicely spaced out on a longer than usual base, and again have good animation, given their small size.

So the project that was just a side show continues to take shape and grow, so hopefully next time on this subject I'll have more completed units to show, as well as devoting some space to discussing the historical background and battles from the era in question...