Sassanid Elephant

Sassanid Elephant

The first of my Sassanid elephants, this one is from old glory with A and A archer in the howdah. I am yet to use any elephants in Impetus and I am looking forward to it…….just a little bit!

Cheers

Matt

Equites Tertii Stablesiani

Another addition to my roman army, my last unit of light cavalry......I think! This unit will be used as CL in Impetus.

This  unit served in the east under the command of the Magister Militum per Orientem, they served along the roads around Cyrrhus in provence of Euphratensis. A great article has been written regarding this unit by Phillip Rance it can be found here

The meaning of Equites Stablesiani has much discussion around it, I tend to believe one theory that Spiedel has, that stablesiani means quick response unit, not light mounted infantry made up of grooms etc.

  I have used A and A miniatures for this unit, the shield is entirely conjectural, but is similar to  Equites Stablesiani Africani.

cheers
Matt

Decima Gemina

Raised by Octavian by the merger of two legions of Mark Antonys following the Battle of Actium in 31BC. 

In the third century, the tenth legion received several surnames, which suggest its loyalty to the emperors Caracalla or Heliogabalus (211-217 or 218-222; Antoniniana), Gordian III (238-244; Gordiana), Decius (249-251; Deciana), Florianus (276; Floriana), and Carinus (283-285;Cariniana). From this set of rulers, Caracalla, Decius, and Carinus waged Germanic wars. Gordian III is known for a war against the Sasanian dynasty in Persia, and may have used a subunit of X Gemina. Why Florian, who ruled for a mere 88 days and never left Asia Minor, would award an honorific to a unit that was stationed on the banks of the Danube, is unknown.

During the conflict between the emperor Gallienus (260-268) and his rival Postumus of the Gallic Empire, the legion certainly supported the first-mentioned, for which it was rewarded with surnames like Pia VI Fidelis VI ('six times faithful and loyal'). This proves that it was awarded the titles Pia II Fidelis II to Pia V Fidelis V in the 164 years between Domitian and Gallienus.

The tenth, 'twin' legion, like almost all Caesarian legions, the emblem of this legion was a bull. (Some historians believe it may of been raised by Ceasar in 61AD in Nearer Spain)

4th century
At the time of the Notitia Dignitatum, the first detachment of Decima Gemina was under the command of the Magister Militum per Orientem, and was a comitatensis unit.The other detachment was still in Vindobona, under the command of the Dux Pannoniae primae et Norici ripensis.

Cheers

Matt


Literature 
J. Gómez-Pantoja, "Legio X Gemina", in: Yann Le Bohec, Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 169-190 
J.K. Haalebos, "Römische Truppen in Nijmegen", in: Yann Le Bohec,Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 465-489 
M.C.J. Miller, "Legio Decima Equitata. The Tenth Legion after Caesar and the colonists of Patrae", in Ancient World 2 (1979) 139-144 
A. Morillo Cerdán & V. Garcia Marcos, "Nuevos testimonios acerca de las legiones VI Victrix y X Gemina en la region septentrional de la península Ibérica", in: Yann Le Bohec, Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 589-607 
I. Piso, "Les légions dans la province de Dacie", in: Yann Le Bohec,Les légions de Rome sous le Haut-Empire (2000 Lyon) 205-225 

28mm Bersaglieri

Off the table some time ago, the Bersaglieri are one of my favourite ww2 units, I have painted them in a mixed tropical and temperate uniform, I like it!

Australian Napoleonic Congress 2013

Some pictures from the Napoleonic Congress on the weekend, we had four games for the weekend, a big thanks to Clinton for running us through his computer / tablet based rules "Iron Duke", Mark for bringing down his 1812 games, Colin for his fine collection of British and French for our 1813 Spanish game, and to Boyd and the lads for a great Naval game that kept us all very entertained for several hours.

MOAB Impetus Tournament 2013

On the October long weekend I traveled up to MOAB (mother of all battles) gaming convention, this year I entered the Impetus 300 point 28mm tournament with my Sassanid army. The convention is Sydney's largest wargames convention. The crowds were down, I suspect that the Navy fleet review and the local NRL teams Grand final.  

It was my first competition wargames event in 14 years, an I would like to extend my gratitude to Tarty for organising the event everybody who played in the event.

A pic of the guys, missing Mick though, who only played on Saturday.

My Sassanid army was very small, 1 unit Zayadeen with general attached, 4 CM Savaran, 4 CL and 2 CL elite Savaran, a total of 18 VD, which is very small as I break at nine!

My first game was a tough one and had me asking why I had taken such a small and brittle, Robs Romans taught me a lesson about rear charges and zone of control. Rob eventually won the tournament.

My second game was against a very shooty Indian army, Axels;'s army was beautifully painted, I drew out his elephants and chariots managed to kill the all buy the forth turn, causing Alex to reach break point, with zero losses to myself. I had a exceptional rolling of my dice with two units getting 6 hits from 7 dice two turns in a row.

On the second day I drew Rex and his Normans, this was the toughest game of the comp for me, Rex tried to pin me against the table edge but I broke through his cavalry line and shot up a lot of his cavalry. I really learnt a lot in this game about the strengths and weaknesses of my army, I did stuff up, charged my cav against his and used my lights against his infantry instead of concentrating on his 3VD cavalry units that were already badly shot up.

"how the hell am I supposed to catch these guys!!!"

Rex's much loved baggage was a collection of lollies, which got progressively smaller over the weekend

I lost this game after failing a cohesion test after being charged in the rear, and my General died........

My last was against Dave's Persians, this army was beautifully painted! His chariot worried me, but was destroyed by one unit in the first turn. I had learnt to concentrate on high VD units by this game, so Dave had broken by turn 3.

Other Armies what I missed playing were Kendos horde of Romano Brits

Steves Assyrians

Ralphs British gallic tribes

 Grants Normans

Clints NK Egyptians

The Winners, Rex, Rob, Clint 

Table
1 Rob Bruce Late Roman 459 pts 20
2 Clint Richards NK Egyptian 417 pts 15
3 Rex Harrison Normans 312 pts 10
4 Ralph Hawker Ancient British 302 pts 7
5 Steve Hopkins Sargonid Assyrians 289 pts 6
6 Matt Williamson Sassanid Persian 277 pts 6
7 Chris Kendrick Romano-British 266 pts 5
8 Grant Tighe Norman 228 pts 5
9 Dave Veasey Achaemenid Persian 110 pts 4
10 Mick Steggles Goths 65 pts 3
11 Axel Hawker Ancient Indian 63 pts 2
12 Richard Tartt NK Egyptians 62 pts 1

Cheers

Matt