Project Zama Complete!

This week I finished my Roman Republican army for the 2nd Punic War, the project I've been working on for the past 5 months. If you haven't been following my progress, the figures are based for Impetus and Sword and Spear. The legionaries are mostly from Agema Miniatures, with a few from Relic Miniatures added in for variety. Cavalry are all from Relic, as are some of the command figures. Most of the command figures are from Crusader, and the slingers are from Wargames Factory.



The final roll call:

6 bases of hastati
6 bases of principes
4 bases of triarii
5 bases of velites
2 bases of slingers
2 bases of Roman cavalry
2 bases of Numidian horse
2 bases of Campanian allied cavalry
1 base of Campanian infantry
3 command stands (for Sword and Spear)

For a grand total of 193 infantry figures and 24 cavalry



I've stayed very focused on these for the last few months, and so I'm itching to paint something different. With Paul of the Man Cave's imminent return to the gaming world it's time to make a serious push on out 6mm ECW project, although I've got a few gladiators to paint along the way.



My Romans have seen two battles of Basic Impetus so far, and been victorious in both. Here's Steve looking despondent after his latest defeat.



I'm really keen to play a full game of Impetus, so please add encouraging messages to get him to paint the rest of his army.

Project Zama Hits the Table

Isn't it great when you've been working on an army for a while and you finally get the chance to chuck at least some of it on a table and roll some dice?



Last night at our regular Odin's Night club, Steve and I gave our Zama armies some exercise. As our armies grow they are destined to try out various sets of rules, but last night we just had a game of Basic Impetus. I used to play quite a lot of Basic Impetus, but lost a lot of steam when SAGA came out. It was great to play it again, and remember how much I like the game. It's simple, it's bloody, and it makes me think far more about the narrative of the battle than the intricacies of using rules against my opponent.



As we know, there is an immutable law of the universe that newly painted armies always get slaughtered in their first battle. Since this was the first time either my Romans or Steve's Carthaginians had taken to the table we were interested to see who the Dice Gods would favour. They smiled on me, praise their name, and I managed to win a decisive victory over the Carthaginians. Fortunately, in the deployment I was able to keep my cavalry away from Steve's elephant, neutralising it instead with some allied light infantry. My general's cavalry over on the opposite (left) flank meanwhile managed to hold off attempts by Numidian light horse to get around my flank, while my legionaries in the centre steadily destroyed their Carthaginian opponents.



So much to like in these rules! Thanks for a great game Steve, and I feel your disappointment. During the evening his mood steadily slipped from this:



To this:



ROMA INVICTA!

Project Zama: Italian Allies

Here's a unit of socii (allies) I finished this week to help out my Romans. Figures are from Relic Miniatures, and I've painted them to be a bunch of Campanians, hence the bull and man- headed bull on the shields. One of them even has an Oscan inscription.



As always, shields are hand painted.



For those interested in Project Zama, check out the other half of the project at Steve's blog. Yep, he's started a blog at last to help motivate his painting, so check out how his Carthaginians are getting along. Great to see you in the blogosphere, Steve!

The Last Hastati for Project Zama

I've just had a couple of days between Army Cadets annual camp and going away on a family holiday tomorrow, but I managed to finish another couple of bases of hastati for Project Zama. This means I only have 56 more figures to paint!



As usual, the figures are mainly Agema plastics, with one metal Agema figure (the bloke crouching really low to throw his pilum). The command figures are from Relic Miniatures.

Numidian Cavalry

Painting production is slowing up a bit as we grind towards the end of term, but here's a couple of bases of Numidian cavalry for Project Zama.



Figures are from Relic Miniatures, except for the Numidian king, who is from Crusader.

Relic Miniatures Roman Cavalry

Those of you interested in the Zama Project I'm working on will know that I've been impatiently waiting on the arrival of a shipment of metal figures from Relic Miniatures to flesh out my Roman Republican army, which is mainly made up from Agema plastic figures. A nice heavy box finally arrived, containing some Roman, Numidian and Socii cavalry along with some command figures.



The Roman Cavalry is finished - two units on 12cm X 8cm bases. These mix in pretty well with the Agema plastics. Just a note of caution: if you get figures from Relic pay careful attention to whether they list particular figures as 'true 28mm' or 'heroic'. The 'heroic' standard bearer I bought looks absurdly overscale compared to the others, and even the Numidian cavalry riders are larger than the Romans. My advice is that if you ever consider setting up a miniatures company, set your scale carefully before you start commissioning figures from sculptors so that figures are at least compatible within the same range!

That being said, the Relic Minis that do mix in with Agema scale-wise are quite nice, with similar natural proportions to the plastics.



As usual, shields are hand painted, and looking at them now I see I forgot to add some white to Janus' eyes on the shield of the standard bearer. The standard is a conversion, made from foil from a champagne bottle.

With this cavalry finished, I think I see some light at the end of the Republican Army tunnel. I am looking forward to painting something else, to be honest, but will push on and finish the army. Still to come are four more bases of legionaries, two of Numidian horse, two of allies, one of allied foot, some slingers and a couple more velites.

This week's triarii

This week's output for Project Zama: another couple of bases of triarii. Figures are from Agema (including one metal character figure whom I call Occuli Rabidi). Shields are hand painted as always.I'm pretty happy with the wreaths. but still working on my thunderbolts!





My figures finally arrived from Relic Miniatures, so next up will be some cavalry.

The Gathering Storm...

As regular visitors to the blog will know, I'm currently working on a project with my gaming buddy Steve to paint up some armies for the Second Punic War. My Republican Romans have been steadily appearing in previous posts. Currently I have some triarii on the go, as I wait for my cavalry to arrive from Relic Miniatures. Rather than rob a bank I elected to have them delivered by surface mail, and they are taking their sweet time.

A couple of people have commented that they would like to see how Steve's Carthaginians are coming along, so with his permission I'm sharing the progress of his army so far. As you can see, the army is looking brilliant, and I'm quite intimidated. Both of us are playing mind games with the basing - I'm using desert bases to indicate that my army are fighting on Carthaginian home turf, while Steve has made it clear that his army is rampaging around Italy. The broken column is a nice touch.



I can't wait to see our armies clash on the table! Nice work Steve.

Oh, and I did manage to finish a general from Crusader Miniatures this week, so I'll finish this post with an image of the Roman general gazing with foreboding at the advancing Carthaginian hordes. 'At least there are no Celts', he says.