Caesarian Romans: Cohort IV, Scorpio & General Part II

Well in spite of other products having been pre-scheduled for my attention I've derailed the production process to crack out another Caesarian cohort of Roman legionaries. Or are they Marian? What the hell - late republican Romans will do.

This is my cohort IV for my legio XI and I have to say I'm having just as much satisfaction painting them as I did their three previous counterparts (cohorts I-III). Thanks to a new print run of Veni Vidi Vici decals, I was back in business for continuing to build what I hope will be my first complete legion.
For this group I went back to the basic blue background with a handful of unpainted leather shields - with black detail instead of white. I used the separate command pack centurion from Warlord Games to further differentiate the unit from the others. This time around he and the optio have natural beige horsehair plumes.
I built up the signum with a couple of battle honor discs out of plastic-card and a tassel from green-stuff. I cut and filed the bull which comes with the Warlord sets to reshape it into what I hope is a convincing ram and added some green-stuff horns so I suppose this makes them the golden ram cohort? I'm happy enough with the final result.
I have jumped the gun a little by completing two scorpio. According to Hail Caesar army lists, I get to field one artillery piece for every three cohorts - so I have two more to do before fielding both of these at one time - if you worry about that sort of thing. I have thought of building a shield stand for the crew but in not doing so I am not identifying them with any particular legion which makes them far more adaptable.
A quick word on my chosen wargames rules. I love Warhammer Ancient Battles (WAB). I'll continue to play it into the future. I have; however, been converted to Black Powder for later periods and am looking to play my Romans with it's ancient counter-part: Hail Caesar. I'm less inclined to fiddling with casualty removal and figure counting for dicing than I used to be. I also like the command aspects of the Hail Caesar approach. They are generally quite similar in many respects.
I also painted up an army general and his escorts. In this case I think he will be a Tribunus Laticlavius (the senior Tribune and 2IC of a legion). He will command my army on the table top when fielding up to five cohorts when the eagle is not present - hence the veillarius who I have based with him. My vexillum will be the army standard for a detachment - anything less than a majority of a legions cohorts. The vexillarius comes from the abovementioned Warlord Games command pack and his escorting centurion is the commander who would otherwise have been in charge of this latest cohort. I have made him a centurion from the first cohort (seemed logical) and jazzed up his plume.
I have bought myself two boxes of the now defunct Wargames Factory Caesar's Legions plastic Romans to add to the mix. I have already built and am prepping another Warlord Games cohort - this time all gladius wielding. I only have enough left o make one further cohort after that until my new purchases arrive. I will build my onager only after the sixth cohort is done - a promise to myself. I will also be experimenting with a testudo model. For those of you following the Lead Adventure Forum you will know I've been exchanging ideas with Tom, aka tyrianhalfman (user name). The shields and figures won't get into Tonga for another two months so that little project will have to wait.

Comments

  1. You are a lucky general, splendid units, love the impressive artillery!

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  2. Excellent looking Romans; all battle-hardened. The scorpion is also superb.

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