These Garamante African troops really bring a distinctive look all of their own to the Army of North Africa. Their random tribal formations will contrast nicely against the regimented ranks of the drilled Legionaries on the battle field.
I was lucky with these troops for I found the exact reference for them in Osprey's 'Rome's Enemies, The Desert Frontier'. Which was priceless for painting up the animal hide shields.
Below can be seen the Army of North Africa
. In the first rank are the Evocati (tough veterans) followed by the Lybian spear men from Leptis Magna. Behind them are two Cohorts from the III Augusta, the African Legion. To the side can be seen a unit of Numidian Light horse with the Garamantes next to them.
Being a Desert army, there will be a lot of Light horse units and skirmishers, so to come will be another 12 African light horse, 12 more Garamante skirmishers and a tribe of 24 Numidian foot skirmishers. Tribesmen are quite cheap in points compared to Legionaries and this Army will appear very large in comparison when finished. How ever, it is quality not quantity that wins wars....I hope. I also have a nice Numidian king figure, that should look good on this Army's command base with the General.
I was lucky with these troops for I found the exact reference for them in Osprey's 'Rome's Enemies, The Desert Frontier'. Which was priceless for painting up the animal hide shields.
Below can be seen the Army of North Africa
. In the first rank are the Evocati (tough veterans) followed by the Lybian spear men from Leptis Magna. Behind them are two Cohorts from the III Augusta, the African Legion. To the side can be seen a unit of Numidian Light horse with the Garamantes next to them.Being a Desert army, there will be a lot of Light horse units and skirmishers, so to come will be another 12 African light horse, 12 more Garamante skirmishers and a tribe of 24 Numidian foot skirmishers. Tribesmen are quite cheap in points compared to Legionaries and this Army will appear very large in comparison when finished. How ever, it is quality not quantity that wins wars....I hope. I also have a nice Numidian king figure, that should look good on this Army's command base with the General.
Wow I like these new guys Simon,
ReplyDeleteExcelent shields, very scary.
Its taken me quite some time to build up to writing something, sorry about that chap.
LONG LIVE THE MITTEN.....!
Carry on my good friend, hope to see you soon.
:)
Thanks for this great and inspiring blog. I am slogging my way through painting my first Tactica Caesarean Army. It is an uphill fight.
ReplyDeleteYour miniatures are superb, your comics are just awesome and the campaign make me want to know what rules you are using? Could you share the system and the rules publicly or privately?
Thanks for a great read!
Hello Matt I'm glad you're enjoying the blog, when I started it I hoped it would inspire fellow Roman collecters. It's always good to see other paint schemes and shield designs etc, even modelling ideas to try out.
ReplyDeleteTactica eh...boy you have your work cut out, those army lists are huge, I'm looking at the Caesarian one as I type. 8 times 24 legionaries..sorry make that nine times. There's a lot of work there, I just hope my Blog can inspire you long enough to finish it. We're using 'War Hammer Anceint Battles' to play the games and a very simple set of made up rules to play the Campaigning side of things. I made them up to fit the needs of myself and my friends and they are still just scribbled in a black book at the moment. They are not really worth sharing, although feel free to take any ideas or maps used in our game for your own games. My main problem is now that we all have full time jobs and busy lifes, It's hard to get everyone together to actually play the game. Battles are few and far between these days.
I also use a lot of Roleplay style writing to add colour to the random events rolled on the 'table of the Gods', this helps to flesh out the story and adds character to the players.
Looking at this Tactica army it is the size of about three WH 2000pt armies.....thats big. I do love those army lists though and they are brilliant for help when collecting armies. I love big,big armies and I always look up the army in Tactica to get a good idea of the composition and size needed. I recently did it for Anceint Germans and Celts and their armies are just mammoth. It's good to have a goal to aim for though and there's nothing like seeing hunderds of painted figures on the table. Your Caeserian army will be well worth the up hill fight when it's finished, trust me.
I use a lot of Caesarian troops in their Lorica Halmata, as Eastern troops, being slightly less well equiped, compared to the West with their up to date segmented armour. So there should be plenty of pics on the Blog for ref, I hope some will be of use if it helps. Simon
Simon,
ReplyDeleteI've decided to finish collecting the Roman tactica army, but I have given up my dream (for now) of having both a caesarean and gallic tactica army (needing 300 painted Gauls for just the infantry blocks, not counting skirmishers or cavalry is just too much) but I will use them to play WAB instead . . .
It looks like you are using a slightly modified version of the conquest of empire board (or perhaps the new release of that game is slightly changed from the old one)
I am really interested in your campaign rules, and would love to discuss them, but I understand if you don't have a computerized copy they would be hard to share :(
Finished painting my first unit of allied Gallic cavalry, I used your photos as guides for the Gallic shirts and shield patterns.
3 more cohorts and then some Spanish cavalry!
Happy Holidays
Matt
Hi, Simon. Great job on those Garamantes' shields! Are they on 40mm square bases? Also, which range of figures are they from?
ReplyDeleteAve!
(still) anonymous (as I can't be bothered to register yet)
Hello, yes, I've put them on 40mm bases for a couple of reasons, firstly I think it helps to make them look spread out and more like skirmishers, on bigger bases. The second reason being I'm running low on the cavalry bases which I normally.
ReplyDeleteThe figures are from Gripping Beast's 'desert frontier' range and will happily fit into any Roman period. I like them because they really stand out from all the other troop types on the field and look really African. I've just finished the other 12, so the unit is complete, I'll post the results soon. Simon.
Thanks, Simon! Your bases do look good, especially because you flock their sloping edges, too.
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