6 pts of SAGA Romans are DONE! (For now)

Recently, I finished up 6 pts worth of Late Romans (5th Century) from the SAGA Aetius & Arthur book.  All of which were built from a single box of Gripping Beast Plastic Late Romans and a box of Dark Age Warriors.  (With parts to spare)  I've loosely based them on the 20th Legion in Britain.  Very quickly, I'll go through some of the elements, and share some of my thoughts...



Starting on the left, we have a unit of 8 Warriors with bows.  These were the first actual unit I tackled in the army.  (the 1st MODEL being the Warlord)  These guys pretty much established the scheme for the army.

Next to the Archers are 4 Hearthguard, which were the "extra guys" really, and serve as a placeholder to be replaced in the future.  A quick note on the shields themselves: the designs for the shields all come from reference I found, called "Notitia Dignitatum".  I also read online, that each unit had unique shield designs, which I wanted to depict.  (it's also an easy to differentiate the units on the table)  The hearthguard were the last unit I painted up.  I read online that elite units used blue embroidery in their uniforms, and as such I used blue in place the red.  (Also another reason why I used blue on the shields)  These guys are also decked out in chainmail, something I've reserved for them, the warlord, and unit leaders.

Next to the Hearthguard is my Warlord, the 1st model done for the army.  I spoke about in a previous post, so I wont go into a ton a detail.  Behind the warlord, you can see a unit of 8 warriors with spears in the back.  These guys are very "basic" with a simple gold and red shield design.  the various "edging" on the shields really makes it easy to tell the units apart from my top-down & behind view.


Moving over to the right, you get a better view of the warriors with the gold/red shields I mentioned before, and in front of them, another unit of 8 spearmen.  I also spoke about these guys in a previous post, but they were actually the first unit of warriors I painted up.  I did a little freehand of the LEG-XX Boar on their shields, which really gave me a lot of practice, which led me to redoing the banner to the current state you see here.  (The original design I did was ROUGH to say the least)  Still, I'm not a big fan of doing freehand, and will keep things simple whenever I can.

Moving to the right, you see 8 more Archers, and a unit of 12 Romano-British levies.  The only real difference between these archers and the first unit is the filled in circle on their uniforms.


The Levies were a bit of a break from painting all that white/red.  I kept the Roman Army side, clean and uniform.  Even their shields have been maintained, where as my levies are the complete opposite.  Varied colors, designs, and scratches are the norm!  Once again, I chose shield designs from from the Notitia Dignitatum, as well as a few other designs seen on transfers.  To keep things simple, I kept their closing to a few basic colors: grey, dark green, tan, and a grey-blue, and just mixed and matched.  A few also feature small leather hats, that were popular at the time with Romans, which served as another way for me to tie them in as Romano-British.  Also, as a bit of a joke relating to a discussion I had with my SAGA group, I snuck in a Red Bull Energy Drink logo onto one of the levies.  Fitting, as I spent a handful nights painting until 3 am to get these done as quickly as I did.  I have a good feeling that the "Red Bull" levy will not only do the most killing, but he'll also make all of his saves and be nigh un-killable as he's so jacked-up on energy drinks!  (We all know that "Red Bull Gives You Wings!")

And there you have it!  Overall, even though I'd say I rushed the army, I did spend a lot of hours on them overall... definitely more so than I expected!  I'm pleased with how they turned out, and am looking forward to getting in some proper SAGA games with them.  I mentioned in the title, how they are done (for now), as I plan to add in a Ballista once it finally arrives.  (It has been on order for almost a month now form my LGS, really annoying actually)  Technically, I don't even have the A&A as yet, which is on order as well.  I mentioned earlier about swapping out the Hearthguard for the Ballista when/if it ever arrives.  Technically, I'd be swappping the HG for a 2nd Levy unit, then swapping 6 of those levies for the Ballista.  The nice thing is, I've already got the Levies to spare!  I feel like if you are playing the Romans, you almost HAVE TO bring a Ballista, seeing as it is the first warmachine/artillery piece introduced into SAGA, and as such, is a pretty unique feature.

Hopefully, I can get some games in with them soon.  I'll be sure to post up my list, and few tactical thoughts on the Romans as well...

As always, thanks for reading!
-WuhSawBe-