Ancient Rome, Enemies, Allies and Gladiators Gallery.

Here I will show off my Early Imperial Roman DBA armies and their assorted allies and enemies as well as some individually based skirmish-game figures and gladiators!

ROMANS

DBA

Here are a few pics of the first Roman Army (I have enough to make at least four more and the better part of a fifth!)



The army is almost exclusively made of old Citadel Minatures from the 1980’s. These were produced under license by Ral Partha in North America. The General on the Calvary General Stand is from Old Glory, and the Artillery stand is, I think, from Minifigs.








Casualties from Black Tree Design (I use these in DBA to mark where elements have been lost - when taking pictures for a game report - they could also be used for the same when playing skirmish games, I guess...)



Medicus treating a casualty from Warlord Games.

GLADIATORS

In 2011 I ran a Gladiator Campaign using Savage Worlds. I got about 10 or so players to all chip in and I made orders to Crusader Miniatures, Black Tree Design, and picked up some old West Wind Gladiator Wars miniatures from The Sentry Box. Some took their Gladiators home and had a try at painting them (Jackson, Patrick... you guys ROCKED!), two took theirs home and had their sons (Jackson and Patrick) paint theirs... the rest turned theirs over to me to paint for them and let them use in the campaign... but I got to keep them... strangely three of the guys that chipped in never actually PLAYED in the campaign... and so I never finished painting all of their figures or some the spares I had... until now!

You can check out the campaign on my Savage Worlds blog:

Savage Timmy's Playhouse: Gladiator Campaign

(You can also see a few of the figures other people painted, if you snoop around)



Here is the lot of them. There are the figures I picked up from Crusader MiniaturesBlack Tree Design, and West Wind Productions, plus a few others I'd already had (or have picked up since) from  Wargames Foundry, and... possibly Elsewhere...?



Some Romans citizen spectators and trainers and such.



Other Arena Officials - including a pair of guys dresses as Charon who smashed downed gladiators in the head with their hammer to ensure that they were, in fact, dead.



A pair of Veliti that didn't belong to anyone's Ludus.

The rest are the gladiators from the various Ludus Gladiatorius. Though probably not terribly "historical" I painted the gladiators from the different Ludi in matching colours so it would be easier to tell which was which



This was Amanda's Ludus - all girls!



These guys I did for myself, but I can't remember if I actually played in the campaign. I guess I should go back and read the reports.



A crew I had painted for my friend John... who then never actually showed up to play a single game...?



These chaps were painted for my Friend Christian to use... but then he decided to use some of my nekkid, tattooed Picts (you can see them if you scroll down to the Picts...)



Curtis' team... who also never played a game...



Darrin's team... again... never played a game (I think he ended up playing a Descent campaign with John on Saturday nights).

It was a strange campaign... most of the figures being used in in were NOT actually painted by ME! It was a first and I haven't been able to convince the Saturday night crew to do it again...



Finally I picked up a couple packs of convicts - men condemned to die in the arena - I'm pretty sure I played these guys on nights when I broke them out. I did that from time to time when the various guys teams were pretty mauled and were having to start with new inexperienced guys...)

I did also use some critters in the camapaign - Lions, etc... I'll have to add some pictures of them at some point.

Other Romans for Skirmish Gaming



Roman Sentries also from Warlord Games.

I also have many civilians and soldiers which I've been working on and hope to post here in the not-too-distant future!



EARLY GERMANS

I have a pile of old Rafm figures to make a Early German DBA army with (someday!). I also have a few from Black Tree Design that I've based individually for skirmish gaming:



Ancient Germans from Black Tree Design.



PICTS

I wasn't quite sure where to put these Picts. The Romans I have above are mostly Early Imperial types that wouldn't have faced any Picts... I could put them in the Dark Ages Gallery... but those are mostly later armies (Vikings-Normans-Anglo-Danish). So I've stuck them here for now...

I have a DBA/HOTT Pictish army in the works, here are a few of the elements:



Two elements of Warband (figures from Wargames Foundry)



Three elements of skirmishing archers - Psiloi in DBA, Shooters in HOTT (figures from Wargames Foundry)



Two elements of skirmishing cavalry - Light Horse in DBA, Riders in HOTT - I'm not entirely sure about the manufacturers here... I know one is from Wargames Foundry (the furthest one - with the rectangular shield), one may be from Old Glory (the nearest one with the brown round shield) and the other two (bare-chested) I got in a trade and am not entirely sure where they came from...

I also have a few purely fantastical elements I could include in a HOTT army:



This is an old I-kore Celtos figure I figured I could use as a Hero (though a Pictish Hero would probably be riding a chariot....)



This I thought I might use as a Magician Element. The Druidic Priestess/Sorceress is, I think, from Reaper Miniatures, and her two attendants are from Wargames Foundry.

I also have a few Picts based singly for skirmish gaming



These Pictish Warriors are a mix of Black Tree Design and Wargames Foundry.

8 comments:

  1. Great looking figures, very impressed!
    Mike B

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love those Gladiators! My Gaming Club is just starting out a campaign using Jugula.
    I hope mine come out half as nice as yours

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi,
    Are the Westwind/Old Glory Gladiator Wars figures a good fit with Wargames Foundry and Crusader?
    I haven't been able to get an answer anywhere.

    Thanks,
    Frank

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well... It's probably hard to get an answer because it is a hard thing TO answer. I think the closest to answer I can give you is: "it depends..."

      Have a look at the pictures above - or follow the above link to our campaign and look at the pictures of the games. Do some look out of place with each other? In almost all of the groupings above there are a mix of manufacturers. I thought they work fine together, but I do recognize I'm not nearly so fussy as some people. I recognize people are different sizes, so I'm okay with miniatures that are slightly different sizes. I'm okay with diversity and variety.

      Generally speaking, Crusader minis do tend to be a bit chunkier than the others. Looking at the pictures above, I can tell which ones are the Crusader miniatures, but the difference doesn't bother me.

      If you're asking if they fit, that suggests to me that you might be fussier about such things than me (and that's not a judgement, I recognize that personal aesthetics are... well... personal and individual and there is no right or wrong, some people just have different tastes and that's okay) in which case you might want to just stick to one manufacturer...

      Mind you, if you're asking if Westwind goes with Foundry and Crusader - suggesting you are okay with the differences between Wargames Foundry and Crusader... you might be okay with the three working together!?

      If you look at the group of Gladiators with the red shields above, I THINK those were (from left to right) Westwind, Foundry, Crusader, Westwind, Crusader.

      Hope that helps...?

      Delete
  4. Hi Tim,
    Thanks for the input - greatly appreciated. I agree about people being of different sizes - but sometimes the scale is just not going to work - so thought the line has some very interesting figures the old Steve Barber line isn't going to work not are Castaway Arts. The others can work - and I thank you for your insight.

    ReplyDelete