Starting Another Army...

One of the things about historical wargaming is that you can never truly be done with it. With games like Warhammer and other fantasy/sci-fi systems where the figures are very closely tied to the rules, there is only a finite number of armies you can build before you have built them all. With historicals, however, it is impossible to ever complete every army, so diverse is the field. Alone in Ancients typical rulesets span between 3000bc to 1500. Even a game like Might of Arms boast 200 unique armies.

I've been selling old toys on Ebay, and made quite a tidy sum. My financial situation right now is stable, but doesn't encourage reckless spending. Nonetheless, I just had to buy a few packs (especially since that paypal account has been burning a hole in my pocket).

One of my long-term objectives has been to build the entire Roman army through history. Roughly this translates into Early Republic (army of the Tarquinian Reforms, i.e. the classic Roman Hoplite Army approx 509bc to 280bc), Middle Republic (that of the Camillan Reforms, i.e. the 4 classes or approx 280bc to 100bc), Late Republican (i.e that of the Marian reforms or approx 100bc to 27ad), Early Imperial (approx 27ad to 200ad), Middle Imperial (200ad to 300ad) and finally Late Imperial (300ad to 476ad). Certainly a lot of work to be done...

So it was that I was recently inspired to pick up a few packs to further this goal. From Old Glory 15 I decided to pick up RR03 and RR07. After the Camillan Reforms, in which the Roman army was reorganized into the triple lines (i.e. Hastatii, Principes, and Triarii), the Hastatii were made up of the younger inductees to the legion. Equipped with a large shield called a Scutum, and armed with a sword and two throwing spears called Pila. They formed the first main line of the legion.

Nice thing about Romans is that they're nice and easy to paint. Tunic white, shield red, and bronze parts, well, bronze, and that's it. Hopefully I can get these guys into action shortly...