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Superb and original. Um, and I see they seem to live in giant haggis mounds, is it a part of the nightmare?
They are not Haggis mounds. As everyone knows the wild haggis lives on the mountains and has its legs shorter on one side than the other to facilitate running around mountains see http://www.robertburns.org.uk/Assets/Documents/haggisarticle.pdf
They are endangered by tourists dogs
<p style=”text-align: right;”></p>Thanks. My own “legion” now has a unit that has 50% slingers.
After I made the figures it struck me that any slinger legionaries actually deployed may well have operated in pairs a bit like skirmishers of later periods. One observing and shooting (scutum slung or on the ground) and one protecting with his shield (or both shields?) and with both soldiers pila. Why I did not think of it before as all through my military training the idea of supports while moving was emphasised.
Sometime I may make another unit of “pairs”.
The miniatures are silly and the product of people who’ve grown up with self loading weapons.
They may be fanciful in pose but so are the poses of plenty other wargames figures. And the old question of whether your models should be in “campaign dress” or “full dress” or “working dress” or whatever.
You have Romans holding a shield and javelins in one hand so how do they load the stone into the sling? How do they even hold the javelins like that behind the shield given the horizontal grip or were the javelins somehow held with the thumb?
I would agree that carrying a scutum and one or two pila in the left hand would be difficult – read http://myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.30781.html for an informative discussion how how it may have been done.
The other thing here is that why is the sling being used when the Roman is holding javelins?
To refute the possibility by saying “why have a sling and a javelin” is like refuting that a modern soldier would not carry a pistol or grenades because he has a rifle.
They’d look much better with nothing in the left hand.
Agreed but I think I’d like a bag of slingshot on the left hip. Probably too small to depict a slingshot in the left hand.
I have spent some time in past few days researching this topic (not thoroughly or deeply I admit) – Vegetius says that all Legionaries were trained to use the sling. Polybius says the legionaries carried two pila Caesar in his De Bello Gallico (book VII, battle fought by Labienus near the Seine) he mentions the use of two and in other places. I am sure that the sling armed legionary could, as I said previously, leave his shield and pila at the rear of his unit, in a cart or with another legionary, he might even, shock horror, have put his shield and pila on the ground to use his sling.
Here we have to consider what the job of a legionary at this time was. Large scale battles where they fight as a Legion in formation using the traditional scutum, gladius, pilum combination were few. Most engagements were small scale throughout the history of the empire. The Legionaries main activities were patrolling, garrisoning, guarding, collecting taxes, preventing raids and acting as an armed police force along the borders. If a century was sent to deal with some 20 bandits in Germania Superior the scutum and a pilum was probably not as much use as in the battle line so it makes perfect sense to have some (most?) of the legionaries armed with slings (with or without pila). These chaps might even be given a flat “barbarian” shield explaining some depictions of Early Imperial legionaries with flat shields. The small scale of the usual fighting they had to do against Germanic and Celtic raiding parties, against rebels, in preemptive strikes across the borders. on punitive expeditions probably meant that the equipment carried varied according to the mission – just as with modern soldiers. Unfortunately the ancient chroniclers are not consistent in their terminology which does make things difficult for us. Add to that we only have a very few original sources and it is easy to become confused.
During the Republican period the Antesignani (=in front of the Signa, i.e. bands fighting in loose formation in front of the heavy infantry) the velites were sometimes reinforced by some of the Hastati armed with javelins. So a drill for doing this probably existed.
Anyway, I’m not going to use those particular figures. The games we play are generally of the more common low intensity type rather than pitched battles. So I’m going to convert about 10 plastic ones that came with the wargames magazine and probably give them shields slung on their backs as they would on the march. Though I’m fairly sure that the shields would be dropped off so they did not get in the way.
If you can find one on ebay Roco minitanks 1/87 German Flak Sdkfz 7 and SWS halftrack had a 3.7cm gun mount that would do you. It also came with a Flakvierling 2cm Flak as well. I used the spare guns to make 1/76 2cm guns for my Panzer Grenadiers. You might be lucky and some kind soul may have a spare in their bits box. One of the 2cm guns might do as well. I am sure that I used all mine but will have a look a the weekend.
The gun on the right
Or even a cut down larger scale 50 cal HMG?
