Hi everyone,
This post is going to be a bit long but is an introduction and, more importantly, is to show my unit of Eastern Roman spearman (counting them as footguard) for my KOM army.
I had started on the army some time ago but stopped mainly because I think I burnt out from the activity (having to do a different colour of clothes and shield for every individual in the unit is tiring work!) and to be honest I was a bit apprehensive about starting a KOM army. I have a feeling that Mantic will eventually drop KOM as an army as their popularity grows, and might start being more strenuous about having their products used as a requirement (which they’re in their right to do and I can’t blame them for doing so). From my experience this hasn’t happened though and Mantic’s reputation has been great! But anyway, onwards!
I’m thinking of getting back into it, mainly because I really enjoyed when I did do it and I’m fortunate enough to find that there’s a community for Kings of War in London, so if I wanted to play with an army it’s an option I can pursue (also multibasing is really cool and I wish more wargames did it as a requirement; it made me get creative, and think outside the box, and try to put effort into the unit itself).
So here’s my unit of Eastern Roman tagmata (probably between 800-1000). Before I show them, this post is going to get very analytical but if people would like to read it, then please read on!
The one issue I’ve always had with units and formations when it comes to wargaming is its static nature, and that’s not coincidental right? It’s a balance between the manufacturer being able to produce plastic/metal soldiers that can easily be glued and painted, and having a good-looking army at the end of the day on the table. However, this often means that units tend to look very identical and static: what that means is units tend to adopt the same movements with little impetus for dynamics, which even in a fantasy setting doesn’t make any sense. Battles between units are not immobile affairs, even when engaging each other. At any one time, soldiers are going to be advancing, pushing forwards, keeping coherency/formation, pulling back, striking, shield bashing, feeling out the opposing side for a reaction etc. As in life, people are dynamic, even when they’re seemingly doing nothing.
What I find fascinating, when trying to portray miniatures, is that the most fascinating parts are the seemingly mundane ones whether it be: guards idling about, the calm between the storm where people are conversing with each other, the subtle things going on in the background while the scene takes place etc. All of these things aren’t coincidental and usually fall into art and cinematography as well: the best films I find tend to be the ones which not only take in the ordinary but also make it interesting in the way it does so.
I tried to portray this dynamic with this unit of footguard. I didn’t just want them standing at the ready because it’s not very interesting and even at ease, humans don’t likely act this way (unless we get into gunpowder warfare and line infantry where being static and following orders to the T is emphasised). Especially in this depiction, which is an attack in a river (I didn’t manage to do the river with e-poxy resin but it’s a possibility in the future), there would be a thousand things happening at once. If you notice what’s going on, there’s a list of things that are happening which include:
- The unit’s advancing and is doing so aggressively. One of the soldiers has gone into the base of the river already and is trying to advance with the rim of his shield out forwards as if striking or range finding/proding.
- Two spearmen to his right are rushing in behind him, their shield raised to cover themselves.
- Everyone around him is raising their shields in the front, advancing or rushing forwards.
- Some are punching their shields out to shield bash (likely against some opponent).
- The soldiers at the back, who have less of risk of being in combat, are more at ease.
- The unit’s advancing at the centre which is thinning out the back and compromising the formation.
I ideally wanted to give every soldier it’s own individual unique flavour (and I hope I did so) by contrasting it with a diorama scene, basically saying that something is happening at the spur of the moment, coinciding with the fact there’s not only differing colours per person but there’s different shields as well. I like it because it’s ultimately something different but very mundane at the same time.
We’re very spoilt with the choice of miniatures we have in today’s day and age, all of them in heroic poses, but I find it’s the very human things which make miniatures so much more interesting, and I hope at least it raises some interest if I do an army of these in the end.
Anyway, here’s the unit:
For people who are interested, the unit is fireforge Byzantine spearmen mixed with fireforge medieval Russian infantry. The kit is very similar and the Russian infantry comes with sprues for bowmen which, if you take the bow off of the sprue arm and put a shield on instead, has a very good look of shield bashing with the rim. Both kits together make very dynamic and posable miniatures.
The base itself was done with cork surrounded with basing (stones, grain etc), all primed black and dry-brushed coats of brown (lighter with every layer). Grass is then glued on.
I had trouble keeping the grass on with PVA glue so I based the top with superglue. What I found is if you do this, you get a very good effect for wet (marshy) grass, showing the grass being near a river-bed. The incline to the river was done with milliput epoxy putty.
Anyway I hope you enjoyed!
