"Warlord Epic Romans" Topic

Just looked over some pictures of the new "epic scale" Romans and Carthaginians from Warlord and was curious what folks thought. I've been rather impressed with some of their other lines, but these looked to me, well, just a bit off. The Romans particularly are so tightly jammed together that they reminded me of the clanking mass of legionaries in that old Bugs Bunny cartoon (w/Yosemite Sam as one of Nero's centurions). Certainly, from what I've read, manipular Romans in combat would have to been much more widely spaced…

Where did you see them? I can't find anything on their site.

79th, here's a couple links (the code at the bottom of this 1st postings' text body will get you to the Warlord advertisement) -

link

Closer sprue look (interesting) -

link

Like this -

"……… which would be an absolute nightmare to achieve with traditional Epic Battles strips – there simply wouldn't be room between the ranks to get your paintbrush in! To avoid this, our Design Studio sculptors have come up with an innovative new design for the Roman infantry blocks – check them out on a test sprue below, next to the finished example!

Hoping they've done shield decals too.

It looks like the shields (pavises?) are just too big.

60mm strips I would think

Will this lead to more 25mm DBA?

Here is the Warlord Games Salute report. If you are impatient skip to the 1:15 mark and they show what the sprues look like…

YouTube link

"You don't need to paint three ranks, you only need to paint around them…"

Looks to like the Roman Shield design is molded on the shields themselves…

Dave

Thanks for the video link PzG-Dave!

A thought – I wonder if you can stack the inside rank sections up on themselves, to make blocks deeper than 3 pieces?

Much like the ACW and Napoleonic periods in this series, the boxed sets will appeal mainly to those who are just getting into the period. My guess is that the scale is that weird 12.5-13mm, meaning that they won't match with gamers' 15mm collections or those who are doing the period in 10mm. It certainly forces you to buy their products, which I'm sure is the #1 goal.

@Louis, no, but it will lead to more 13.5mm gaming, or whatever these are.

Thanks, Hans. I am sure that this was done to make mold making and casting easier. This sin't my area of knowledge, but I imagine that the Romans must have had several types of formations to include marching in formation, as well as set to receive a charge type of formation, which I imagine these figures to be in. Tightly packed and ready for contact. That's what I get out of it, anyway.

On a side note, are the rules actually different from standard scale HC?
I couldn't get a sense from their (woefully designed) website.
Is there a comparison to Warmaster Ancients? And are the base sizes compatible? (WMA uses 20mm x 40 mm bases)

A shame about the oversized shields and prominent mould lines, but it's long overdue for a manufacturer to produce figure blocks like this. I'm surprised they didn't go for it with their pike & shot range as that would produce an aesthetic very close to contemporary prints of battles.

BTW, I don't see any command figures for the infantry units. I don't like the look of those Romans being so packed and with those shields but I look the range.
I'll wait for new armies. I'd love to see a Macedonian army.

Those Romans are packed so close they're ready for Cannae.

I already have my legions. This is for new Tribunes to try!

Historically, Romans would form up that close. They were always in intermediate order, each soldier in a 3 x 3 foot box, leaving him adequate space to used his shield and sword and fall back if necessary. That looks like close order, 18 x 18 inches, used by the pike phalanx and shieldwall formations like the Saxons at Hastings.

Not a fan of the Epic minis and i already have large collections of the main combatants.

I would be interested in a Punic Wars supplement book

Having seen friends going mad painting the Epic ECW/TYW pike men I think the concept of a faux middle rank is genius!

Questions about the formations being over tight may be valid but the idea is to give an impression of bulk and solidity which I think they do very well.

The cavalry look much better than the Pike and Shot ones and the Elephants are really good.

They may also need to be packed tight for the fake middle rank to work/look right.