Late Roman – Levy

The very late Roman army had a quality drop off – and this is even more the case for the post Roman forces in Britain (Romano-British). Armies started using Levies i.e. troops which were not full time soldiers. I wanted to have a good amount of these as I planned and now have used these figures for games such as Dux Belorum from the Too Fat Lardies, Those have a lot of these types of troops – basic part time forces. Games such as Peter Pings Vikings will also find a use for these.

So below you can see 17 ADLG bases of Levy troops. Most are based like this (i.e. in 40 x 40 bases) but some do have ‘half’ bases so DBA size which allows me to also use them in various ways as well. These all have a simple shield design and that works well. I suspect most of these guys would have been supplied shields by a common set of communal equipment. Let’s be honest they were not wealthy enough to provide their own and so the local lord/commander would provide shields and spears. Side weapons like swords and may well have been their own – if they had them. More likely as sharp dagger or an axe would have been used.

These are figures which would not be out of place in many Dark Age armies and may well get some use in that regard. They moved ‘back’ to oblong shields for Romans but most of their western opponents had been using them for years. So these could be basic troops from anywhere in the late Roman world in the 4th, 5th and maybe into the 6th centuries and even a bit later.

Below you can see the first set of 6 bases a the single line. I include the front and back of all the figures as normal. You can click on the pics if you want a closer look. They do not have armour or have much order or similar clothing. That is again on purpose, as they stand out well compared to the much more structured and better organized legionary troops.

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The second set is just 5 bases. This set also include a command element – should I need it. I doubt I will as these are not great troops but if nothing else it at least gives some variety in the troops.

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Last set has another 6 bases of ADLG troops. I believe these figures are from the Forged in Battle – their Romano-British range. They work well for that and the later Roman levy, as thats basically what they are. I’m not sure I’d use them a lot in a true Roman army but for the Romano-British they are required. They also as mentioned work really well for the mainstay of a Dux Delorum British force and really levy fighting up until the replacement of the sheilds with round ones. So in theory canb be used up until the 8th or 9th century if I push it a bit.

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So there we are – a good amount of figures this week. The nice thing is these have already have some good use on the table as well. So thats an added bonus for me.