New Releases for January 2026 - Armies and Enemies of Ancient Rome (2 Viewers)

Julie

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THE ANCIENTS
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME
ROMAN AUXILLIARY CAVALRY

As Romans were never considered exceptionally good horsemen, and the role of the cavalry not as important in the Roman thought process, the Equitatus was generally made up of non-Roman horsemen. While they would play an important part of Legionary tactics, the Roman Cavalry was considered secondary and would remain the weakest part of the Roman Army until the very late Imperial period.

Generally, the cavalry was used as light skirmishing troops, and mounted archers whose job was to patrol, act as scouts and messengers and to provide a mobile defensive screen while the legion was massing in battle array. As in all armies throughout history, the mounted trooper was also very effective in chasing down and harassing a fleeing and panicked enemy force.

As part of the military reforms of Augustus around AD 14, the Auxilia were re-organized. They would be trained to the same standards of discipline as the legions. They were mainly drawn from a wide range of warlike peoples throughout the provinces, and would receive Roman citizenship on completion of their 25 year service. Senior officers in contrast were Roman citizens.
The Auxilia filled the tasks of patrolling, containing raids, tax collecting, and the multitude of duties of the frontier troops.
They were especially suited to garrison and local policing activities, and could also hold their own in small scale warfare.



ROMCAV-15A
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
ROMAN AUXILIARY CAVALRY


Roman Auxilia cavalry were usually heavily armored in mail and armed with a short lance, javelins, the Spatha long sword, and sometimes bows for specialist Horse archer units. These men primarily served as Medium missile cavalry for flanking, scouting, skirmish, and pursuit.
Cavalry units were known as Alae, and were made up of 16 Turmae.
A Turmae consisted of 30 troopers, and was commanded by a Decurio, and a second in command called the Duplicarius.

Cavalrymen carried Clipeus, a flat oval or hexagonal shield. These were extremely light, constructed of double or triple thickness plywood, made up of thin strips of birch.



ROMCAV-15B
ARMIES AND ENEMIES OF ANCIENT ROME,
ROMAN AUXILIARY CAVALRY



PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE NOW THE LAST OF THE ROMAN CAVALRY


**PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL DEALER TO PLACE YOUR PRE-ORDERS**
 
Must haves for the Roman collector. I will add another green shield to my collection
Yes, it's another great figure. It certainly looks like that Auxiliary is intending to go down fighting.
I know John says this is the last one, it's a shame as there were still lots of possibilities.
Would be nice if he done a dismounted one all the same, but with do many other lines running a slim possibility I suspect.
Still there is the German Cavalry, both as allied and as enemy, as I doubt he'd leave it at just the one figure though it could be a while before he is joined by others.
What do others think, even better if you've seen some drawings or preproduction figures over on the Facebook group ?
 
Yes i would love to see a few dismounted guys fighting, could be a few pieces, downed rider and his mates coming to help. Regardless, i am happy with this lot, i must be up to about 40 now so thats a great little unit
 
Wow, I remember you sharing some if your earlier dioramas, but with the new ones too, must look very impressive.
Hopefully you'll share photos of them again with the newer releases too, when you have them all finally.

Though not JJD, so will probably put some off, are three further figures that fit right in with them that
I have, are a dismounted Auxiliary that came with a separate appropriate saddle, a casting I painted myself that fits in very nicely with the JJD having same chain mail armour / helmet design and oval shield with same design of laurel wreath with crescent moons at top and bottom. It is in a Sentry type pose. Unfortunately no markings as to manufacturer.
Del Prado, did a mounted Decurion which I repainted, with same armour, and helmet, though with a plume crest, the shield though oval, I had to paint the wreath and moons. But scale wise it fits right in with JJD. I'm not sure of the ranges name as there are two possibilities l, one being their Ancient Romans range, the other Cavalry through the ages.

Lastly on figures, EK castings do one, right scale, armour / helmet and shield, though that needs a little alteration on the shield devise design, but otherwise fits in very nicely.

One final thing, which fits more with K&C's Roman civilians is a new 3D print for a Roman street.
Which I'm sure someone like Paul Bell would be able to print and paint.
Though perhaps there's someone in Oz who can take that on for anyone interested as international postal rates are a killer.

 
Oh Steve, thats some great recon and i will follow up on some of those leads, especially 3d stuff from Paul and the EK Casting. We arecutrently renting as we are building a new home, so all of mystiff is in storage exceot for my last 2 months purchases. But as soon as i can i will get my Roman auxillary cavalry together. Yes, i have shared pics before, they have some of Pauls buildings and that set up only had half of the at ease figures and none of the latest releases attacking with spears. So when i do get them together the Iceni will really have to watch out
 

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Excellent photos of your Roman Auxiliaries Jason.
The mounted ones at ease are so versatile for so many different themed scenes, from patrols, to escort, etc, I have a pair from the original release and another four figures from the re-release and would of been quite happy if John had done a few more similar poses, still, happy with those that I have.
The EK design one is on a stationary horse, holding an upright spear, which could with a little research and modeling be converted into a standard and would look good in a command group.

That 3D design website do a lot of other Roman, Greek, Persian, Egyptian etc designs too. Their Hadrian's wall looks great, especially the section under construction, the marching camp looks good too.
 

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