Sunday 27 October 2019

New Collection: An Impulse Buy



I've mentioned before in this blog the wisdom of the old-timers' saying: "Choose your period, and stick to it", and how impossible that is, for me at least. I blame this, in part, on all the fabulously illustrated, and often cheap, rules that are available these days -- to say nothing of the new figures that are on offer.

Here is a classic example:

While browsing in the bookstore a couple of years ago I came across a new set of Osprey Wargames rules, Broken Legions: Fantasy Skirmish Wargames in the Roman Empire.

Never mind that I'm not really into fantasy gaming. Never mind that I didn't own any figures to support this thing. I had to have them, didn't I? And they were so cheap! So home they came, in a moment of pure madness. And I suspect that my fellow gamers have many such moments.

I explained this to fellow-gamer JohnA one game night.

"You bought what?" he asked, wide-eyed.

"Ancient Roman fantasy skirmish rules."

"What the *$#%* are 'Ancient Roman fantasy skirmish rules'?"

Exactly.

Flash forward a couple of years to another game night at Trumpeters. DougH brought in about two dozen 28mm Marian Romans along with four dozen Gauls for the sales table. Price? Eighteen bucks, Canadian. My mind flashed back to those rules I had sitting on my bookshelf, and out came my wallet. 

So, what you see here is the result of a couple of weeks painting (I'm not sure what manufacturer they are).

My new 28mm Romans. If you think that the rules intend to represent one man per fig, then what you see are three contubernia (eight man sections), each led by a Decanus, and overall by a Centurian.  If you think that ten men per fig is more appropriate, then the above are a group of three centuries led by a Primus Pilus ('Top Kick' Centurian) or a Tribune.






















Gauls. (Who let them in?)





































Above is an illustration by Alan Lathwell from page 16 of Mark Latham's Broken Legions (Latham, Mark, Broken Legions : Fantasy Skirmish Wargames in the Roman Empire, Osprey Publishing, 2016, p.16). 






Here's my recreation of the above illustration from the rules. Since I don't own any Wulfkind figs, my Grendel figure had to fill in.  





















Bottom line? I'm probably not going to use Broken Legions at all! More likely, I'll use a modified form of Ronin. Like I said, I'm not really a fantasy gamer.

Cheers,