After the resent victory at the battle of Valentia, would be emperor Tullus was shocked in the way that the vexilations from North Africa were swept from the field, almost spelling defeat for his quest for the throne. Needing replacements badly he dispatched Centurion Metellus of the 1st Cohort, VI Gemina, to Africa, to bring back the much needed re-enforcements. However, Tullus gave Metellus strict orders to beat them into shape first........quite literally.
Centurion Metellus was not impressed at what he found on arriving in Numidia and the state at which standards had dropped. With most of the III Augusta still in reasonable shape, Metellus turned his trained eye on the Auxiliaries of the Province. It was them who would help swell the ranks of Tullus's war machine. 
Within weeks a rag tag bunch of City guards had been retrained and drilled into a disciplined Cohort of spearman, to send against the Germans of Secundus. These dark skinned Lybians were armed with the weapon of their home land, a 12ft thrusting spear, a rare sight on the battle field and one that Metellus thought might inspire a little shock and awe in the armies of the North.
Gaming Note; Organising the army of North Africa is one thing I've been meaning to do for a long time, with all its varied troop types it could have great character. First up on the painting table are these Lybian spear men from Renegade Miniatures. They are from the Punic war collection, but with a little bit of imagination and tweaking, they will become ex-city guards beaten into shape and turned into a cohort of the line. I thought I would give them Carthage style spears to add to their look and to make them very different from anything else in the Roman ranks. I'm also toying with the idea of putting the my newly completed Evocati Cohort into the army of North Africa, as many veterans were settled there.
Centurion Metellus was not impressed at what he found on arriving in Numidia and the state at which standards had dropped. With most of the III Augusta still in reasonable shape, Metellus turned his trained eye on the Auxiliaries of the Province. It was them who would help swell the ranks of Tullus's war machine. Within weeks a rag tag bunch of City guards had been retrained and drilled into a disciplined Cohort of spearman, to send against the Germans of Secundus. These dark skinned Lybians were armed with the weapon of their home land, a 12ft thrusting spear, a rare sight on the battle field and one that Metellus thought might inspire a little shock and awe in the armies of the North.
Gaming Note; Organising the army of North Africa is one thing I've been meaning to do for a long time, with all its varied troop types it could have great character. First up on the painting table are these Lybian spear men from Renegade Miniatures. They are from the Punic war collection, but with a little bit of imagination and tweaking, they will become ex-city guards beaten into shape and turned into a cohort of the line. I thought I would give them Carthage style spears to add to their look and to make them very different from anything else in the Roman ranks. I'm also toying with the idea of putting the my newly completed Evocati Cohort into the army of North Africa, as many veterans were settled there.
The idea didn't stop there, to give more character to each of them, I devised a 1 to 10 table to roll on for their stats e.g +1 to str or +1 to attacks. The Centurions I wanted to be mostly a plus of one sort or another for they had been promoted on example and merit. Whereas the table I drew up for the Higher Officers, the Legates and Tribunes is less positive and has a 50/50 chance of being something bad, a minus. For example an unlucky roll on the High Officer Table could see out of touch Generals receiving a -1 on their leadership, wounds or attacks. These bad officers have obviously been promoted beyond their means, by friends in high places and do their men little favours once in the field. I'm hoping these personalities will bring a bit more colour and life to the board and make great blogging throughout the Campaign.
It may turn out that in the heat of battle who has what and toughness and strength they are and so forth may get in the way of the game, but with the unit cards on hand I'm hoping it won't. We will just have to see about that one, but it is great to know that all the characters have names and personalities even if we do drop their skills.
31. The walls are painted white....of course.
30. With the model completed I took about under coating it in 
26. With a model that will be used with tiny detailed figures I think it's important to spend time trying to get the building just as detailed, so the two sit together better of the board.
25. Using the Warhammer illustration as reference again, I started to put in the really fine detail around the windows and doors. This was done using Milliput and a modelling tool. It was quite tricky but again the results would be worth it in the end.
23. The time taken will the tweezers and balsa wood sticks really pays off in the colonnade roofing.
22. Here's a shot of the main door. I had to do a lot of searching through my books to find this reference, but finally struck gold in a book about Hadrian's wall. The cross bars will be painted to look like iron and given rivets made from drops of Super glue.
19. A proud little Roman shows off his new house.
18. A new day brings new ideas and both Tony and I are up at the crack of dawn.
17. With out any windows or doors in place, Tony was kept awake all night by drunken passers by.
12. Although I hadn't planned it, I thought the Villa looked a little small so I started to work out another 'wing' to add onto the end of the building. I would have liked it to be quite large, but the base had to be brought into consideration, so I opted for something half way. The slave quarters were born.
13. here we see the Villa with all of its roofing almost finished. look there's Tony, good of him to turn up at last.
11. Thin card was now cut into strips with tile designs drawn on them, these were layered on top of one another to make a roof effect. A jagged edge would give the roof a weathered look.
9. Using Tony as a height guide, I cut measured lengths of wooden 
5. In this photo you can see the tiny line drawing that kicked my creative juices into overdrive. I tried to stay as close as I could to the illustration because ever since I saw it , It has always captured my imagination and I think it has loads of charm.
