Legio Wargames

I am nearing completion of my basic Etruscan force for Andy Hawes' Dux Italica. Fresh off the painting table is this unit of Etruscan cavalry and their leader. They would most likley be young aristocrats who provided their own equipment and horses. The figures are a mix of Victrix Macedonian Successors and Republican Romans with a few Footsore Etruscan heads. Most of the shields have Little Big Man transfers but a couple are hand painted. Such men could afford the latest body

Our initial Queenston 1812 game saw the Americans gain possession of the British redan on the heights. I have since being painting reinforcements for the British/Canadian counter-attack which will be played in a couple of weeks time. Leading the attack will be Captain (now Major) Dennis’s Grenadier company of the 49 th  Foot (green facings and black plumes). They have been reinforced by the newly painted Grenadiers of the 41 st  (red facings and white plumes). The figures ar

Etruscan society was highly stratified. Citizens of wealth and rank ( hoi dynatotatoi ) provided the hoplite phalanx backed up by their vassals ( penestes ).  The Etruscans were loath to arm the lower orders of society. When such men were called up they were lightly armoured with oval/rectangular shields and heavy javelins — forerunners of the Roman scuta and pila. Dionysius of Halicarnassus wrote that some Etruscan cities used mercenaries to swell their ranks and I have dec

My Etruscan 1 st  class citizen hoplites ( Rasenna  as they called themselves) are now ready for battle, joining the 2 nd  class hoplites previously painted . These are proper citizens of wealth, good standing, and refined tastes — not the hoi polloi fielded by the Romans and other lesser mortals with their dangerously radical republican ideas. The Rasenna can afford full hoplite panoply and decorate their shields, armour and helmets to display their wealth and prestige. The