The lack of cavalry was a constant problem for my Republican Roman army during the games. Last year I managed to paint some Roman Equites medium cavalry, but according to the army list it is compulsory to have light cavalry too. So the light cavalry was always installed by an another player. But this time I could paint my very own light cavalry contingent.
Two more commanders of my slowly groving Republican Roman Army are ready to lead their troops.
As a second part of my last blogpost I would like to present two more units of allied legionaries. These two are hastati and principes, therefore I finished a full allied legion (2 hastati, 2 principes and 1 triarii). Next I will paint a commander for the legion.
Nearly half of the Republican Roman troops consisted of allied warriors. There is not much information about them, but probably they were similarly equipped as their Roman comrades (maybe except for the allied cavalry).
In every battle that I fought so far with my Republican Roman army, the absence of Roman cavalry was a major issue I had to face. Therefore it was crucial to paint some units of cavalry. Now the first step is done to solve this problem: I painted three units of equites. More light cavalry are needed later on to represent the allied cavalry contingent.
Two more units were added to my Republican Roman Army. With these hastati and principes finally I can field two complete Roman divisions in the Hail Caesar system. Next task to paint will be the cavalry...
As I went on with painting my Republican Roman Army, it was necessary to make commander figures. I did choose the 'Mounted Roman Generals' set of Victrix Miniatures. This set is designed for early imperial period, but it has parts which are suitable for earlier Roman times too. Also I converted some bits from the Victrix's Republican Roman cavalry box.
As I mentioned before in other posts, there is a Hungarian wargame event called Historikum held several times a year. In this September together with my friend we fought a Hail Caesar battle on this event. My Republican Roman army encountered his Pyrrhic force. This battle report is written by him:
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The best and most experienced soldiers in the Republican Roman Legion were the triarii. They were recruited from the wealthier and older citizens who had been participated many campaigns throughout their life. Obviously my Republican Roman army needed some units of triarii - in this case two units of them. In contrast with other legionaries, triarii used hasta (spear) instead of pilum and also had more armour.
After a longer pause, I could continue to work on my Republican Roman Legion. This time velites infantry was painted.
I managed to finish 48 Republican Roman legionaries so far. Only hastati and principes units for now. The next task is to paint velites and triarii for my legion.
After painting a lot of figures for my ongoing 1848 Hungarian War of Independence project, I started a completely new one in 2021. I have always been interested in the warfare of the Republican Roman legion so finally decided to reconstruct it in miniature.
