Late Imperial Roman General

Back in 2014 I proudly declared I was starting a Late Imperial Roman army, and showed off my first test model.  I adhered to the time-honoured tradition of planning an army, buying an army, telling everyone about my plans… then only painting one figure before quietly packing everything away and never mentioning it again.   But the hiatus is over!  Here is the second finished model – Praeses Lanceas Araneus.

Late Imperial Roman General

The figure, as with all the Foundry Late Imperial range, is really very small.  I plan for other parts of my army to draw from manufacturers with chunkier proportions and a slightly larger scale – Black Tree, Crusader, Footsore et cetera.  To avoid the subordinates towering over him, I built up his base with bark.  I only decided this after painting him, and ended up repainting his legs and shoes after I’d cut and filed him off his intrinsic metal base.  That was not clever, but I’d regret more having his head only come up to nipple-height in a front rank of spearmen.

Araneus didn’t immediately strike me as Late Imperial Roman – his chest armour and his vine staff look much earlier.  I had to check with Foundry he wasn’t an exile from their Early Imperial Roman range.  The figure does appear in the John Lambshead Fall of the West – the excellent Warhammer Ancient Battles supplement focussing on the last 126 years of the Roman Empire.

Fall of the West

So this Late Imperial Roman figure is dressed as someone from much earlier antiquity.  His hair is curly in the style of statues, and his helmet may even be a Theban/Corinthian design.  He’s one of those Romans yearning for a return to earlier times, when Romans were Romans and Emperors ruled wisely and justly.  It was a very Roman trait, mistaking the past for a golden age unspoilt by moral decay and decadence. Livy expressed this sentiment centuries earlier in his preface to The History of Rome.

The subjects to which I would ask each of my readers to devote his earnest attention are these – the life and morals of the community; the men and the qualities by which through domestic policy and foreign war dominion was won and extended. Then as the standard of morality gradually lowers, let him follow the decay of the national character, observing how at first it slowly sinks, then slips downward more and more rapidly, and finally begins to plunge into headlong ruin, until he reaches these days, in which we can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies.  

My Late Imperial Roman army is now two figures – both of them commanders.  I plan to add a ballista next (specifically with games of Saga in mind), and some limitanei that have been lurking around my painting desk for years waiting for a shield design to come into being.

Late Imperial Roman Characters“Wasn’t like this in Sulla’s day, eh?”

Thanks to Rob for a lot of the insight into the Romans, and dredging up the passage from Livy.

Here’s everything about Maximianus’ vibrant colour scheme!

Curis

Curis has painted for Games Workshop, Forge World, Warlord Games, Mantic Games, Avatars of War, Wargames Foundry, Studio McVey and many others. He's won at Golden Demon and Salute. He publishes monthly painting tutorials on Patreon.

9 thoughts on “Late Imperial Roman General

  • August 3, 2017 at 12:44 pm
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    I adhered to the time-honoured tradition of planning an army, buying an army, telling everyone about my plans… then only painting one figure before quietly packing everything away and never mentioning it again.

    See, I normally only get as far as the telling everyone about my plans stage of this cycle, so well done for forcing through to the next bit. ;)

    Reply
    • August 3, 2017 at 12:50 pm
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      “Acta non verba” should be the miniature painter’s motto.

      Reply
  • August 4, 2017 at 9:41 am
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    Short people can be in charge too of course, but it is nice to make the leaders stand out a little.

    He looks very nice Curis. I find the insight into the armour eras interesting, even if my knowledge of that sort of thing is zero.

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    • August 4, 2017 at 9:54 am
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      Leaders must be people you look up to.

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  • August 4, 2017 at 9:05 pm
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    I seem to remember, years ago, you doing a glass cabinet comic about this very topic. Though, you didn’t go the full length – you forgot to ask about stripping models and how to go about painting bronze!

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  • August 6, 2017 at 11:59 pm
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    Guilty. Mea culpa.

    Reply
  • August 14, 2017 at 3:04 pm
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    >with games of Saga in mind

    I’d be curios for a few words on that. Friends of mine have started using the fantastic “A Fantastic SAGA” rule addition that pulls from folklore so you can play fantasy races like Undead, Orks, Elfes and Skav..Troglodytes. It is played with a bit more models than regular SAGA (8 Points instead of 6) but its scale is still small enough for us.

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    • August 14, 2017 at 3:18 pm
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      I’ve not heard of that before you mentioned it. Oddly enough I’ve been collecting up the old Citadel preslotta Gnolls in Norman armour to blend in with my regular human Normans – be perfect if I could find quasi-official rules for them too! Thanks!

      Reply
      • August 14, 2017 at 3:34 pm
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        The Fantastic Saga rules are not done by any of the Saga regulars but a small group from tabletopwelt.de. Depending on what you envision your Gnolls to feel like, maybe the Kobaloi rules could fit well. You can find all of the new rules on http://www.a-fantastic-saga.com/. The sub-forum for AFS is quite active and the developers are there as well, helping out with rules questions.

        So far, after over 4 games I had with the system the new Battle boards and rules feel really balanced (we only tried undead, troglodytes, dwarfs and orks).

        Reply

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