"Roman Legion with Baccus 6mm" Topic

Call me nuts but I am thinking about building a early Imperial Roman Legion.

link

Using Baccus 6mm Early Imperial Romans
Basing 20 x 40 mm
Scale 1:1 so around 5-6000 Figures. Heavy Infantry 8 four figure stands per base.

I'm looking for suggestions on how to represent command staff in the Cohorts. Baccus's command stands each have an eagle and I don't need an eagle in each cohort.

Any comments or suggestions welcome.

Don In Ft Nelson
ps Can't wait for our Dollar to be $1.10 USD US :)))

You're not nuts. Maybe not in 1:1 but I'm doing EIR as well.

Don,

That's a fair bit of painting! I wonder about just doing something different with the shield (frilly edge? reversed colours) on a regulat strip?

Like the British drummer would have a white coat and red pants while everyone else got the slimmer looking red coat and white pants. You could also look at the Republican Roman command stands (I don;t think they have eagles but the shield shape is wrong on the last figure).

Bob

Kubel,

I can only admire your magnificent insanity…

So to help you on your way on the path of megalomanic madness, each of the command stands in the legionary/Auxilia bases is a Cohort signa, not an eagle. In fact you'll have to scratch build the single eagle you'll need for the legion.

I'll be happy to supply tailored packs of strips so you don't end up getting loads of unwanted command strip.

Best of luck – it will be Glorious!

Cheers

Peter

Well, I've been doing the same thing with a Republican Legion as an on/off project for a few years now. I have made mine on 20X10 mm bases, eight figures to a base, nine bases to a century. The based figures are placed on a movement tray with room for two centuries spaced 10mm apart. The command figures are placed on the movement tray, on the right side.

You'll have to mix and match a bit to get the right standards, but arrange it with Peter, he's very helpfull with this kind of thing.

A couple of pointers for you to keep in mind:

Start by getting a lot of figures, say a thousand, and a table where you can lay out a whole cohort, it's a lot easier to plan things this way.

When you have arranged the figures to your liking, place the individual centuries/maniples in closed containers or bags, you don't want to drop anything at this stage or, as in my case, have interested members of you family pick up strips to look at, messing everything up.

Write down everything, this is going to take some time.

Best of luck, and let me know if I can help you.

Svend Erik, Odense, Denmark

And remember, painting 6mm, especially Baccus, is fun, I find it a nice brreak from larger figures, but 5-6,000, that's a lot. I find if as soon as I get some finished if I base them up and add them to the collection it spurs me on to get more done.

And don't forget to post pics when its done. I'll look forward to seeing them in 2011.

Kubel

Great idea and one I've always wanted to do with Napoleonics, but I have come across a small problem with it. You can't get to true 1:1 ground and figure scale with existing 6mm figures! A strip of 4 figures is 20mm x 5mm in size. At 1:300 (1mm = 1foot) that equates to 20feet x 5feet. Allowing 2.5feet x 2.5feet per man this area should hold 8 men x 2 men or 16 men, not the 4 on the strip. Therefore the best you could do at the proper ground scale is 4:1 figure ratio.

Even with this problem it would still look amazing and I can't wait to see the pics!!

Keep at it.

Ken

It depends on how spread out one decides the troops actually were; Polybius described legionaries standing 5 or 6 feet apart. This would fit the strips quite well. I'm a bit sceptical abot this myself, as it feels too dispersed to me.

Simon

Don,
I'm also building out a 6mm 1:1 EIR legion as well. I'm basing mine on 20mm x 20mm stands with 2 strips per. Each century has 9 stands of pure legionaries with a 10th command stand with a centurion strip in the front rank and a legionay rank in the rear.

So far I have 2 cohorts and an auxiliary cohort finished, some I'm about 1/5th of the way there. And I started last summer.

I'll post some pictures so you can see how it's turning out. I'm kind of stalled right now as I'm waiting on the rumored 6mm EIR sheild transfers to be released(Peter?) – THAT will make my painting go a lot faster!

Mike

If it wasn't for the fact I already have nearly 20,000 15mm ancients I would be heading down this road too. I am still considering doing soemthing like this for the next mass battle period I end up playing. I like the idea of ECW or Malburian battles with this kind of figure density.

One day, may years from now, I hope to have achieved this too.

Some day I'll settle for a 1:1 Napoleonic or ACW battalion and a 1:1 artillery battery with limbers and caissons. But a whole legion? Now that's carzy!

Thanks all for the comments.

Peter thanks for the command stand clarification.

Bob the cohorts I plan on giving slightly different tunic colours (preliminary thoughts). Shields, Bob I will contact you later by email for more of your thoughts.

Streetgang I too have heard rumblings about 6mm shield transfers for Baccus EIR can't wait.

Quintus great idea on arranging the figures.Also on this scale movement trays will be required. I will look at several basing options, however most of the people I play with use 20 x 40.

I'm a new convert to Baccus 6mm. I saw Bob in Edmonton's American Revolution figures at Mayday and was blown away. This summer I've painted a starter army from the Baccus Napoleonic line for each nation along with some boosters and the odd ancient pack.All in all about 150 stands so far.
Nappies will still be added to when I need a Roman Army break.

I'll start planing on paper then start ordering this will be a year or so project I think.

Well I'm off to Fallcon in Calgary happy gaming all and thanks for the help.

Don

Ken- I'm no expert on the disposition of EIR legions- or Baccus figures- so bear with me:
I'm guessing that the figures are slightly taller than 'true' 6 mil. Even if they're spot on- the measurement would be foot to eye. You also need to bear in mind that your average legionary would be nearer 5ft than the 6ft you seem to be basing your arithmetic on.
2.5ft per man, especially with the size of the scutum, also seems a tad cramped to me. I would have though a yard or so would be closer to the mark.
So- I'm guessing that a scale of 1:200 would be nearer the mark. Which would give a four figure strip a scale footprint of 4x1 metres- which sounds about right.
Disclaimer:- I've just done this in my head so it may well be complete nonsense.

Steve.

Steve,
Baccus EIR are actually closer to 7/8mm. And you are VERY close with 1/200 – they're about 1/225 – 1/250 (I know as I once spent a fevered night measuring and calculating).

Don,
Once we get our legions done, we HAVE to get them together for a convenention Roman Civil War game. What rules are you using?

Mike

Hi Guys,

I've always admired the folks who take on these monstrous projects and get them done!

Power to the gamers!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
6mm-minis.blogspot.com

I'm very open to rules. Something that big needs to be fast play to detailed will kill the fun imho.

Don

ps Fallcan Was a Blast !!! as usual. Thanks to the guys and gals who put it on. Plus the sponsors are Great.

Well the order for the first cohort just went in 800 Romans.
5 x 160 men centuries. Barring problems with Canadian Customs they should be here in 7-10 days.

Now when they get finnished thats hard to say.

Don

Mike

I would love to have a Roman Civil War game with you. After pondering basing, I think I'll use your idea 20 x 20. And just use movement trays.

Don

If 160 man, that would be a maniple; century was 80 strong.

A legion would be an impressive sight!

Simon

Big Red Bat

The first order is for the 1st Cohort strength. Composed of 5 double strength centuries.

Legion = 9 normal cohorts (9 x 480 Men) + 1 "First Cohort" of 5 centuries (but each century at the strength of a maniple, so 5 x 160 Men) + 120 Horsemen = 5240 Men

From various sorces. The remaining cohorts will have 6 x 80 man centuries.

I'm looking forward to the challenge BigRedBat.

Further the order process, Peter @ Baccus was again great in tailoring the order to suit my needs.

They arrived!!!
800 + Legionaries for the First Cohort…Time to sort them out bag them an experiment with the basing using artists tack.

My bases arrived yesterday from 50 Paces 50paces.com They look great and being magnetic I can secure the stands for travel.

I'll take some picks as I progress. Thanks for the advice and encouragment all.

Don

I am a big fan of 1:1 .. and I think it is the only way to give a real approach to wargame and not a sort of chess.
Now I am preparing the Leibregiment of Baviera in 1704 at 1:1 (around 2.100 papersoldiers) and I am also going to make my first Polibian Legion (Republic pediod for Punic and MAcedonian wars) at 1:1 ratio.

Tons of other wargame at 1:1 already done:

I am thinking that kubel experienced a miraculous cure and his sanity was restored since we never did get interum updates and a final notice with the project completed. I can't see why anyone would want to do a Legion (or equivalent) one to one. How useful would that be from a gaming point of view.

It's a magnificent project and the sort of thing a museum would be interested in using in a display.

@Sidley you mean the legion or the Leibregiment? or something else?

I can't see why anyone would want to do a Legion (or equivalent) one to one.

One to one looks so good though.