Gallic archers and Roman cavalry...

I had a pick around in my oddments and soem spare figures; I had some bits from a medieval accessory set which inlcuded some quivers and arrows, so attached these to a couple of gauls, with bows made from wire ....

Also finished the small roman cavalry attachment for my auxiliary unit, the rest of the HAT carthaginian cavalry box with heads from Call-to-Arms legionaries, shields from HAT triari and spears made from cocktail sticks.....

Painted up and with the commander and standard bearer I'd already completed....

Gauls attack !!

The Romans have been levying extra taxes recently - the new governor is raising money to re-build the provincial capital Botulinum, this has made the gauls rather annoyed, and they decide to take some of the money back ...

 

Asterix: No potion ?

Getafix:  it was all used up last week to rebuild the stockade round the village,

you'll have to fight the romans without it

---oXo---

 

Some time later .... The roman column carrying recently collected taxes on their way back to Botulinum

 The gauls appear from the edge of the woods ...

The romans form up,  the commander of the column rides ahead to reconnoitre ...

More gauls appear... 

The gauls close in on the romans, using their slings and javelins to some effect .... 

The gauls charge in .....

Fighting is hard and continues .... the romans hold their ground ...

The chief in his chariot tries to catch up with the roman commander but he is too slow (more like to heavy!)....

 The fighting continues, as more gauls move up to join in ....

The roman commader with his small group of cavalry threaten the gauls who are falling back ... 

The gauls retreat from their fight with the romans whose steely discipline has worn them down

The gauls give up and fall back into the woods (not too happy having to fight the romans without some potion to chivvy them up),  the roman column reforms and backtracks slightly and takes a safer route back to Botulinum where they arrive without further incident.

 

---oXo---

 

A nice little game for a first time on the table for the romans and gauls. We made up a variant on the Saxons & Vikings rules used for dark ages games. Making some changes to allow for the romans being steadier etc - still working on typing the marked up rules (the rules do allow for potion taking when available !). I expect the rules will evolve slowly as we play out games.

Roman Auxiliary Command and a few Gauls more...

I've been considering having some roman cavalry, but not too much. A bit of reading on the web - auxiliary units did have some cavalry attached - 'Cohors equitata' : unit of auxiliary infantry with attached mounted squadron(s). Just right to add a few cavalry.  So I bought a box of HAT 1/32 Carthaginian cavalry to hack about. First up the command, a standard bearer and officer, using some BMC heads, shield from the HAT triari, the fur for the standard bearer gave me some difficulty - then realised that some dolls house grass is just right, the conversions in the raw ...

and painted and finished off ....

Currently have the auxiliary cavalry other ranks on the modelling desk - will post piccies when finished.  While I was in 'auxiliary mode' I made up two more infantry standing with spear to act as sentries ...

And last of all a few more gauls have been painted up....

I've sorted out the gauls I've left over into groups of nine to paint, I'm also thinking of adding a couple of gallic archers (did they have them ?).

Roman Legionaries - first cohort ready for paint

After some fiddly work to get the conversions to holding pilums done, the first unit of roman legionaries is ready for painting...

I may have a blitz and finish all the legionary conversions off, I have another two units part done sitting in a box - we'll see ....

Gallic Chariot

Vitalstatistix tries out his new chariot,

Then shows it off to the locals ...

Some new addtions ...

Getafix gets a cauldron to brew his potion in ...

A couple of pack ponies (tweaked slightly from a Western set), led by converted HAT spanish infantry.