9th Legion Archers
Tabletop Miniature Solutions
Continuing the review of my recent haul we have a blister of three Imperial Roman auxiliary archers from TMS. The bodies are the same as the other 9th Legion infantry, with bow arm, quiver, shooting arm as well as standard, musician and centurion head options.
These resin casts are nicely detailed with little in the way of flash or other things I'll need to clean up. I like the sculpts in general, although I can see why some people think they are a little too chunkily proportioned for skeletons.
These guys will serve in my Undead Imperial Roman Legion in one of the auxiliary units. During the Republican period and the early Empire, the actual legionaries were rarely, if ever armed with missile weapons. The Roman legion evolved as an almost pure infantry melee force. Cavalry and missile troops were supplied by allies who had more historical skill in those areas. In the early Empire they were organized as auxiliary units to the legions.
Auxilia were formed from non-citizen allies or provincials and could gain citizenship after 25 years of service in the military. Many fought alongside the legions and were armed and armoured in a similar fashion, the exception being that they carried large oval shields instead of the square scutum of the legions. Almost all imperial archers and cavalry were auxilia. Archers were originally recruited from Crete in the Republican era, with recruitment expanding to the eastern provinces such as Syria where the native skill with a bow was valued.
What's interesting, and quite frankly frustrating for me as a war gamer, is that we basically have no idea how the Roman military actually used their archers. We know they had them from surviving personnel records and archers appear in artwork from the period like Trajan's column. But the histories we have do not talk about archers in accounts of Roman battles and we have no surviving military manuals.
There are several ways you can use archers. You can use them as light skirmishing troops that screen your main infantry and harass the enemy. You can mass them in units on your flanks and use direct fire to keep the enemy from trying to wrap around, or you can mass them in units behind you and have them use indirect fire to volley arrows over your infantry.
But just what path the Romans took is unknown. Lost to history like just exactly how they were able to constantly retire and refresh their front line infantry.
Tabletop Miniature Solutions
Continuing the review of my recent haul we have a blister of three Imperial Roman auxiliary archers from TMS. The bodies are the same as the other 9th Legion infantry, with bow arm, quiver, shooting arm as well as standard, musician and centurion head options.
These resin casts are nicely detailed with little in the way of flash or other things I'll need to clean up. I like the sculpts in general, although I can see why some people think they are a little too chunkily proportioned for skeletons.
These guys will serve in my Undead Imperial Roman Legion in one of the auxiliary units. During the Republican period and the early Empire, the actual legionaries were rarely, if ever armed with missile weapons. The Roman legion evolved as an almost pure infantry melee force. Cavalry and missile troops were supplied by allies who had more historical skill in those areas. In the early Empire they were organized as auxiliary units to the legions.
Auxilia were formed from non-citizen allies or provincials and could gain citizenship after 25 years of service in the military. Many fought alongside the legions and were armed and armoured in a similar fashion, the exception being that they carried large oval shields instead of the square scutum of the legions. Almost all imperial archers and cavalry were auxilia. Archers were originally recruited from Crete in the Republican era, with recruitment expanding to the eastern provinces such as Syria where the native skill with a bow was valued.
What's interesting, and quite frankly frustrating for me as a war gamer, is that we basically have no idea how the Roman military actually used their archers. We know they had them from surviving personnel records and archers appear in artwork from the period like Trajan's column. But the histories we have do not talk about archers in accounts of Roman battles and we have no surviving military manuals.
There are several ways you can use archers. You can use them as light skirmishing troops that screen your main infantry and harass the enemy. You can mass them in units on your flanks and use direct fire to keep the enemy from trying to wrap around, or you can mass them in units behind you and have them use indirect fire to volley arrows over your infantry.
But just what path the Romans took is unknown. Lost to history like just exactly how they were able to constantly retire and refresh their front line infantry.
