Legio Wargames

Having completed the basic Etruscan force for Andy Hawes’ Dux Italica I have been turning my hand to building an Italian Gallic contingent — the Senones who famously sacked Rome in 390 BC. I begin by kit-bashing several figures that have been languishing in my lead pile, supplemented by a recently purchased sprue of Victrix plastics. The Victrix Gauls are wonderful figures. If I did not already have so many unpainted Relic, Warlord and Foundry Gauls I would have been tempted

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

My latest project is to paint up a force of Etruscans for Andy Hawes’ Dux Italica  rules — an adaptation of Dux Britanniarum for the early stages of Rome’s conquest of Italy 4 th  C BC which is still work in progress. I start by kit-bashing miniatures from a wide variety of manufacturers including Footsore metals (including their separate Etruscan and Italian heads), Agema Roman Republican plastics, Victrix Greek and Italian plastics. These men will eventually become 2 nd  Cl