"Late Roman Legionnaires vs Auxiliae" Topic

I'm looking to paint a Late Roman army using those beautiful Footsore Late Roman figures but I'm having a little trouble getting started.

For those of you who game with Late Roman Empire armies, how do you distinguish your legionnaires from your auxiliae?

Other than shield patterns do you use all chainmail armored figures in the legions and unarmored figures in the auxiliae?

More armor in the legions with some unarmored figures and some armor with most unarmored figures in the auxiliae?

Any help would be appreciated.

For me the distinction is between palatina, comitatenses and psedocomitatenses rather than legio and auxilia.

Better equipment for the palatina and field armies, much more rustic and barbarian looking at the frontiers and defence limes.

I'm amassing a late Roman army myself, using Armati 2 army lists.
Light Heavy Infantry auxiliaries have six figures per individual stand. Heavy infantry Legio have 9 figures per stand with 2 stands making up a unit.
My plan is to use a few armoured figures in the auxiliaries with the bulk unarmoured. Legions are mostly armoured.

So far I've done it the way you have already mentioned, legionnaires have the chain mail and aux have none.
But then in DBx the base depths are a bit different, the aux are on a deeper base thus I've given them a more open order look as opposed to the Legionaires who are a lot closer together.

By the later Empire there was little practical difference between the Legio and the Auxilia (if there ever had been).

The better units would have been provided with the better equipment…

I'd go with Zippee's suggestion – irregular looking limitanii
Tidier Comitatenis and well dressed Palitina.
Plenty of German style all round in the "Roman" army by then.

I play Comitatus for this period so they are all "Roman Infantry" on the battlefield, no differentiation into "HI", "MI" or "LHI", "LMI", tis a myth (mainly caused by gluing figures to bases :-)

Cheers
David

Depending on when in the Late Roman empire you are playing, there is room for some "specialist" auxilia units (various sorts of scouts, skirmishers, or missile units), however, as noted above, the real difference was most likely in the level of equipment and training regardless of unit name. I base my figures for this period 12-14 per 60mm frontage base, in 2 ranks. I have three different categories, which probably cover 90% of cases:

1. Lower quality troops, with no armor other than some helmets and no uniform clothing or shield patterns, in a looser/sloppier shieldwall.

2. Average or veteran troops, with the front rank in armor and the rear rank without, but uniform (or more uniform) clothing, in a tighter shieldwall formation. Shields will be similar but not 100% uniform.

3. Elite or household troops, with both ranks in full armor, uniform (higher quality) clothing, a nice tight shieldwall, and all shields exactly the same.

This allows me to collect a variety of figures and unit types, and also allows for easy visual identification of units on the table.

Cheers,

Christopher

I painted my 15mm late legionaries in Red tunics and auxillia in off white ones. I he no idea if this is historically correct but I think I read something to that effect in the WRG Armies and Enemies of Ancient Rome. It worked for me but your figures your choice. Have fun :)

Guys, thanks for the help.