Anyone seen my Pachyderm

I have been finishing off some odd figures before launching into the remaining “legions” I have to paint to round off the Romans.

First up were a couple of more units of the “prolectarii” or levy hastati that I’ll be using to represent the raw legions in the army for To the Strongest.

Next we have another unit of light infantry velites to annoy the enemy.

Next I had a few spare command figures by Crusader Miniatures. These were painted up so that not only as figures in skirmish game but also to represent the heroes in To the Strongest rules.

When I first started this project if someone had said that the first time I would field the armies it would be:

• the Republican Romans
• it would be a “rank and file” game rather than a skirmish game

I would have laughed but the other week they were on the table against a Pyric army in a game of To the Strongest. This was slightly “out of period” as I fielded the later “Polybian Roman” army rather than the “Camillan Romans” that would have actually faced Pyrus but I have to paint up more legions before I can field that army.

A few more pictures as the game developed when I get chance I will do a fuller battle report in my other project.

The other units I completed were the Balearic Slingers and the Cretan Archers. Both these units can be used for either the Carthaginians or the Romans so its a 2 for 1 deal.

I based one unit of each on sabot bases and the other as a multi base so I still have some for the skirmish games.

For the Balearic Slingers I followed the description in on of the old WRG Macedonian and Punic Wars books which was based on a roman source that described them dressed as in the “Spanish” fashion. This was white tunics edged with purple or deep red. The figures were Victrix.

The Cretans are Gripping Beast figure so one piece and metal and no construction required ?.

Again these were painted in muted tones to represent “undyed” cloth.

I started the Italian Allied Legion from Victrix for the next Quincunx. While I was finishing these figures off I also excepted the obvious and I had more infantry than I would ever need for a skirmish force for my Romans and would retire the “sabot” bases and multi base the figures so out came the square bases (well rectangles actually).

The intention was to keep the same unit frontage but increase the number of figures on the bases however when I started to base up the figures the plan didn’t work. The way the figures and shields are posed I couldn’t increase the number of figures on the base! Oh well it least gave me a couple of more units.

Above shows how the units can be used for the two “rank and file” rules we use.

As well as the heavy infantry I also completed their supporting Velites.

Now for some units that can either fight for the Romans or the Carthaginians. The Italian Allied cavalry, these are Gripping Beats cavalry and are smaller than their Victrix cousins so cannot be mixed but do look OK when fielded in their own unit.

One thing I can say was that they were easier to put the shield transfers on as they had a plain shield and there was no fiddly cutting to do on the transfers?.

I also managed to complete a couple of commanders (don’t ask why one is on a round base and the other square as I have no idea why I did this) these are from Gripping Beast Roman Senators.

The next units to be completed were the Roman Cavalry. For some reason there are 16 figures in the Victrix packs so have few spare for command in the skirmish level. But as the Romans were always short cavalry this also gives me the two units I need for the army under both the Polybian and Camilian lists for “To the Strongest”.

Over Christmas I managed to get the figures I’d been painting for the last couple of months based.

First up are the 3rd Quincunx of Roman infantry. These were organised in a similar way to the first two.

Now thanks to Christmas presents I now have at least enough figures for another 3 infantry units. I have not decided yet but I think these will be based slightly differntly as I now have enough figures for any skirmiah game I wish to play as well as rank and file so these later units will probably be based just for rank and file games ?.

In the Victrix packs there are a lot of additional Velites more than I needed. Instead of wasting these a bit of a quick conversion removing the spare javelins from the left arms and using some of the spare Pila from the heavy infantry and we have some “Proletarii” or emergency levy or alternatively some of the Penal Legions.

Finally we have the officers, standard bearers and musicians.