The Thinking behind My Army

Before I post the first finished army pics, I thought I'd just share the rationale behind what I am doing with this army.

Initially, I was planning on a Romano-British army, simply because that's all I'd seen out there in wargame land and because what I'd read suggested that was the way to go. Also, my reading of Philips and Keatmans fantastic 'King Arthur, The True Story' really inspired that idea. It was only when the Age of Arthur book actually came out and I read the historical background, that I began to rethink. Anyway, I ploughed on, detemined to field an Ambrosian Twilight of Britannia list. I even bought additional Roman models to add to the mass of GB Arthurian/Germanics I'd already got. However, I played a couple of games with that army while painting and found myself oddly dissatisfied. I found myself playing just like I do with FOTW Romans...badly!!! So that prompted a rethink and I tried a British kingdoms list. It felt very different, with rock-hard characters, Teulu and warband infantry and I found myself playing more aggressively, and just plain..better! So I bought the West Wind models and 'British-ised' them with round shields (see earlier post) and that's the army I've completed...I simply removed the very overtly Roman troops and popped them away in the storage cabinet until I could think of what to do with them.

Then came the news that Morris and Jones were planning a 7th Century campaign day based in Northern Britain. I was really keen to get involved, but would have to field a later army.... and it was then that it struck me... I could actually do three armies in one here. So this is how...

The current British kingdoms force has 3 infantry blocks containing about 70% round shield models with the rest oval shield Arthurian range, some armoured. I figured that would be entirely appropriate for a Brtish kingdom that had started out as a warlord in charge of an old Romano-British frontier garrison who declared himself Rex. As time went on, the Roman equipment would begin to wear out, although the descendents of the original military garrison and their armourers, smiths, etc still retained their knowledge of Roman arms techniques, so some Roman armour , helmets and shields still remain in use, although only in a minorty among the combrogi. Gradually, the equipment and tactics would evolve to that seen in later kingdoms, very 'skirmishy' - lots of javelins, etc and obviously all round shields, armour very much limited to Teulu and leaders...

So, by replacing some of the round-shield foot models with the Roman chaps I've relegated to the storage cabinet and by re-arranging unit numbers, I can field the army of the Roman Military Civitas that preceded the Warlord's take-over-much more of a late, late Roman looking force.

By painting a few more round-shield unarmoured types, I can replace the oval shield types competely to field a much later force - 6th-7th century...Even better if I replace some of the current Teulu with West Wind's javelin-throwing ones.

Genius! with one an a half armies' worth of figures, I can field 3 different variant armies!

So, here's the scenario:

Romano-British civitates force: Represents the garrison of Hadrian's Wall near Carlisle-the Western end of the wall, the Civitas of the Carvetii.

British Kingdoms force: Represents the early stages of the kingdom of Rheged that emerged from that civitas, aiming for the time period of late 5th early/6th century-ideal as an 'Arthurian' force as well:

Northern Welsh force represents the kingdom of Rheged from the time of Urien onwards (mid 6th century until the kingdom's absorbtion by Northumbria.)

So that's where I am now. The British kindoms are what you'll see in the pics in my next post. The next job will be to get some troops done for the later period, along with a foot Teulu, before finishing off another dozen or so Roman foot models and a couple of oval shield cavalry to complete the earlier army...