A Roman army in 6mm

The might of 6mm gaming 

A Roman army that not a group of squads.

I do love wargaming and like big battles, this has led me down a veritable rabbit hole.

As a child I was fascinated by Rome and even though Dyslexic with a hatred of writing that will delay me picking up a pen (typing not a problem) I still managed to copy out of my encyclopaedias anything about Rome and its peoples.

I chose 6mm as you are able to represent a lot of soldiers in a small area. Consider I get 48 Romans on a base that would take around 4 28mm figures. So you move from representation of quantity to trying to achieve real 1:1 quantity,

I'm nowhere near that as my 48 men on a base could, depending on the game represent:

Legionaries

- a Century of 80 men. 2:1

- a Cohort of 6 Centuries 480 men 10:1

- a Legion of 10 Cohorts 5280 men a ratio of 110:1

[Note that the1st Cohort is double strength 960]

However it's still a lot better than 4 28mm models, though in fairness they will use 16 men on three times the width, and need a table three times the size.

I started with a base with 24 men thought it looked a little light so added 12 then went for another 12, it is of course called escalation.

Anyhow, I have fielded all my Romans, they can between them make up two-three armies.

As I said Rabbit hole.

Ave!

The complete Army (for the moment) 

Auxillary

Medium Mounted

Medium Bow

Early Imperial Romans part 2

My First Hail Caesar! Army

It was bought in April 2011, the same year as HC came out.

You can now buy army packs specifically for Hail Caesar!
The units have been selected by Mr Priestley for Baccus and IMO are roughly about 500 points.









6 units of Legionaries (AIR1)
4 units of MI Auxiliary Infantry (AIR2)
2 units of LI Auxiliary Infantry (AIR2)
2 units of MC Auxiliary cavalry (AIR3)
2 units of MI Auxiliary Archers (AIR4)
2 small units of Sk Javelins (ACE3)
1 small unit of Sk Slings (ACE4)
1 small unit of LC Bows (APA1)
1 unit of Bolt Throwers (AIR5)
3 Commanders (AIR6)


Of course you will want to add to the army, probably add more of the same and other different units to reflect the way you play.
How you base, how many men per base all depends on the look you want .
Initially I was basing up for Warhammer Ancients.

A quick view of the Legion, unpacked and glued to a lollipop stick.

We all paint differently, but I try to use a small palette per army so all the units look like a cohesive whole. I also try to identify an element that makes the unit stand out, Cloak, Kontos or in this case shield.

A quick undercoat of black, remember to keep it thin, detail can get easily swamped with any undercoating, especially at this scale.

The Romans were easy for a lazy me.

Drybrush Boltgun, highlight with Mithril Silver, faces hands and calf flesh, hint don't try to apply paint to hands or face they way you might on a 28 mm model, just dab it on. paint skirts and shields red with brass boss, spears brown with metal tips

The centurion, Signifer, Cornicen and one legionnaire are a one four man strip which I positioned to the centre of the front rank. With white to the crest and brass/gold to the horn and signum.

The same pallet was used on all units and commands. Initially I mounted the Legionnaire two deep the same as the Auxila, but decided they needed to look heavier and went for three deep so had to recruit more from Mr Berry.

A Legion and a command base.

Four  Auxila below

             

Two bases of 9 medium CavalryAuxila

4 Bolt thrower bases

Psiloi / Skirmishers

Archers

The Army.

We played some games and then butterfly like moved to other eras and games.

I knew I would come back, I'd already purchased a Dacian Army to fight the Romans I didn't realise how long it would be.

Early Imperial Romans part 1

Then 6 years ago.

Never ever loiter near Pete Berry, especially if his alter ego, my mate Trev is also there. They said nothing one merely took my money the other smiled. Mind you I say merely, the machine refused to accept my plastic, but I was foolishly determined and handed over cash instead and then paid extra for bases.

I'd always wanted to play big Roman armies, that's why some years ago I’d bought three 15 mm DBA Roman armies, Republic, Imperial and Italian Ostrogoth, the plan was to play DBM as well. I also think 15 mm and 6 mm are very much the scales for large battles. Although I've hesitated to go down the 6 mm route as I feared I wouldn't be able to see much to paint, but I've been sitting next to 6 mm players and listening to too much 6 mm prattle as well as reading similarly themed threads on my club’s forum.
That Friday game before Salute between Chris McGill and his friend again showed the advantage of a large 6 mm game, two games played in one evening and so little to pack away afterwards.

So Off to Salute 2011 to buy 20mm DAK, I should have known it was a mistake to loiter near Baccus, it had already been a day of 180 degree change arounds.

I'd never intended to go to Salute that year and hadn’t decided to buy a new army never mind a 6mm Roman one but a Roman army pack was now nestled next to my 20 mm DAK.

Now

It was a decision I’ve never regretted. Sure it took a while to understand how to paint 6mm, but once I’d stopped trying to paint a 28 mm model and accepted I was painting a 6 mm unit it became easier. Yes I know some can do wonderful jobs, but to be honest I don’t care. I paint so I can play.
The advantages are real
Cost of an army circa £60-100, that’s for all the units you could ever really need, of course you will expand on that but the price of an extra unit is less than the price of a couple of extra 28 mm men, a true economy of scale.
Storage space, I can get three 500 point Hail Caesar armies plus variants in one 9 ltr Really useful box. Another box will carry all the scenery and terrain I need a third the dice cloth and rule books.
One trip to the car, less setup time, no movement trays, more play and beer/coffee time;  I could go on.
However the overwhelming reason for me to play in 6mm is my desire to play big battles. I always preferred the skirmish of 40K or WHFB in 28mm but for that massive battle I would drop down to Epic or Warmaster.

My unit of 48 Roman legionnaires has a foot print of 80 mm by 40 mm, how big is yours?
In my 500 point army I field 10 of those plus 3 units of 6 skirmishers (40 x 40 mm) plus two units of 9 Medium cavalry (80 x 50 mm) and two units of 24 medium archers (80 x 40 mm).

These all line up outside of bow or indeed Light artillery range, with plenty of space to then manoeuvre and wheel on a 6’ x 4’ table.

Were you to field your 28 mm models 480 Legionaries, 48 archers, 18 skirmishers and 18 cavalry on that size table, all you could do is charge forwards and shoot. That’s not the sort of battle I want to play, in my opinion it is a large skirmish.

The picture above was taken in Feb 2012, at the time I was basing on 60x30mm or 30x30mm as this was my club's standard. More on why I changed in part 3