Four weeks in to my Epic Punic Wars project and I feel that I have hit a bit of a milestone. The models in these photographs are the complete contents of the Republican Roman Division Box . I am very pleased with how these have turned out. They can be used as a complete starter army either for Epic Hail Caesar, or with Mortem et Gloriam (this could be used as a 2000 point Pacto Army. The Republican Roman Division Box is £31 RRP, Sally 4th has it on pre-order discount until end of week at £24.75. In my opinion they look great and an army for less than £25 id definitely worth thinking about!
The last pieces that I painted (finishing this morning before breakfast), were the cavalry and generals. There are 4 generals in the box. I mounted two on a base as the overall general and mounted the other two, one to a base to use for sub-generals. Cavalry was very much the minority arm for the Romans. The box contained eight light and eight medium cavalry figures, which you could mount four to a base, however I had an additional Roman sprue in with this months Wargames Illustrated which gave me an extra 4 cavalry models to enable me to go with 5 models per base.
Here is a look at the army from the rear, which if you are playing the Romans is probably your main view of the army. From the rear it is easy to distinguish between the Hastati, Principes and Triari.
A view of the Roman Division facing off against some troops from the Allied Troops Division.
As well as being light and robust, the epic models take up very little storage space. This photos shows what I have painted so far in a Sally 4th Really Useful Box Tray. This tray is 35mm high. Four of them sit inside a 9 litre Really Useful Box, so in reality you will probably get both armies, terrain, rulebook and player aids all inside one Really Useful Box!
This is exactly the same army in 28mm scale. Same units, same bases. Miniatures are 28mm metal Wargames Foundry. If you were doing this sort of army today, you could use plastic figures which work out around £1.10 for infantry, £2.20 for cavalry, so this army would cost around £86 or about three times the cost of the epic alternative.
The epic units actually have a wider frontage (and a far more realistic depth), so to match frontage in 28mm you might go to 6 figures on a 60mm frontage, which increases cost by 150%. At the end of the day, it is down to personal preference.
For me, 120 miniatures on four bases looks more like an army than 16 figures on four bases, so I think I am going to go with epic for army size battles and rebase my 28mm models for skirmish gaming.
A view of the army in a compact deep formation.
A view of the army spread out in fighting deployment.
Tomorrow, I am going to break out the Carthaginian Division Box and get the first units undercoated, ink washed and ready for painting.
One of the games (other than Epic Hail Caesar) that I am planning to use these new figures for is Mortem et Gloriam. This is an army list I’ve put together for the figures I have painted so far at the Pacto scale.
Update 24th July
Over the weekend I painted up a couple of Carthaginian War Elephants
I did take a slightly different approach. The crew were painted on the sprue, and the paintwork touched up when they were cut free and glued in place. I temporarily glued (using UHU) the elephants on to standard 60mm x 20mm bases to make painting easier. Everything was sprayed with Halford’s Auto Primer, Matt White and then washed over with a brown / sepia ink wash. When the ink was completely dry, I drybrushed Matt White acrylic over the whole model using a make up brush. I find that the brown ink wash does a great job amplifying the shade when you apply Army Painter Speedpaint over the top. It also puts a nice neat brown line around each part that helps to deliver a tabletop ready job with minimum effort.
As the pair of elephants are mounted on a fairly large base, I had enough space to mount a few Gamers Grass tufts onto the bases before applying earth & turf scatter.
Handy Links:
Epic Punic Wars – The Adventure Begins! Project kick off article
Epic Punic Wars – Week One Painting article
Epic Punic Wars – Republican Roman Infantry step by step painting guide
Epic Punic Wars – Week Two Painting article
Epic Punic Wars – Check out the full range at pre-launch discounts
Thanks for comparing. I really like 28’s, but for me, the visual of the Epic is better, you have done a really nice job on them. I quite like their robust and easy handling nature, now really looking forward to release day.