This is my hobby blog detailing my work on developing a detailed First Century Rome terrain set for playing Gangs of Rome, Pulp Alley and Cohors Cthulthu.
Rome and the Romans have had a deep fascination for as long as I can remember so I was delighted when Mike introduced me to Gangs of Rome a couple of years ago and more recently to the fictional world of the great 1st Century Informer, Marcus Didius Falco as presented by Lyndsey Davis, who is, in my opinion the greatest weaver of yarns set in the Roman world. Last year Mike & I were invited to Footsore miniatures in Nottingham to be part of the playtest for the second edition of Gangs of Rome, and more recently Mike and I have been involved with a Pulp Alley campaign set in Vespasian’s Rome.
This is a photo from one of our very first games of Gangs of Rome. The terrain used was very much what was already at hand, and the Coliseum, particularly with it’s arches on the outside that would have been filled with market traders and ‘painted butterflies’ together with lots of market stalls featured very heavily in our games. The more Lyndsey Davis and Mary Beard I read, watch & listen too, the more I am inspired to build a detailed Roman table inspired by the multi-occupancy apartment blocks build on top of shops, lock ups and workshops. Vespasian’s Rome had a population of around a million, and 90% of them would have been living in this sort of accommodation.
‘Bread and Circuses’ were of course the two main stays of controlling the people. ‘The dole’ originated in Rome with the Corn Dole, the entitlement of all Roman citizens to state provided corn or bread, so a retail bakery seemed a good starting point. The shelves and counters (the bread is cast on), are resin models from Sally 4th’s Bakery pack.
The bakery pieces have been very simply painted using Army Painter Speedpaint, Hardened Leather for the counters and shelves and Bony Matter for the bread!
These pieces are all from the Thermopolium set. A Thermopolium was an ancient fast food takeaway. Examples of the typical food counters have been recovered from Pompeii and Herculaneum complete with colourful paint schemes. These models are from Sally 4th’s 28mm scale resin Thermopolium set.
A street scene with some citizens enjoying a beaker of wine and a game of dice outside the Potters shop.
Research seemed to suggest that black, red & green were popular pottery glazes. The pottery on the counter and on the shelf at the back of the shop are metal castings from the Pottery Pack. The seated citizens are from the seated crowd set, which was originally designed for filling amphitheatres, but over the years I have found many other uses for seated civilians!
Many of the civilian figures are new designs that we launched on our recent ‘For the Glory of Rome:3’ Kickstarter. At the moment they are only available as a 16 figure set, Citizens of Rome.
Here we see a worker, probably a slave, unloading the last sack of the Two Ox Wagon. The Ox Wagon is a detailed metal kit that comes with three driver / passengers and a barrel.
So…. why build a ‘Street of the Aventine’? To game on, of course. Here we see in the foreground some Vigeles (Romes Fire Watchers / Police) from Footsore Miniatures, Gangs of Rome, which is one of the top games I will be using this table for!
… and here are some of the bad boys. These gang fighters have all been made from Wargames Atlantic / Footsore Citizens of Rome multipart plastic set, which has pieces to make 30 miniatures.
Some heroic fantasy style Legionaries from Modiphus Cohors Cthulhu. I’m very excited to see how this game develops. It started off as a RPG but a tabletop miniatures game involving Romans fighting off the rise of Cthulhu is under development for release latter this year!
Handy Links:
Gangs of Rome rules and starter set
Pulpam Angiportum: Sepulcrum Serpentis – Our 1st Century Pulp Alley Tomb of the Serpent Campaign
A Street of the Aventine: Sally 4th Roman Civilians and detailed shop terrain
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