Late Romans for SAGA

This warband sprang from Adepticon 2016 and a visit to the Footsore booth.   I knew the SAGA supplement Aetius and Arthur was in the works so I asked Footsore's fabulously talented sculptor Bill Thornhill to help me pick out an army.  13 months later, the Late Romans are painted up and in a campaign.  Bonus!  You can run this warband as Britons too.

With my SAGA painting queue 4 warbands deep, I used speed painting to finish the band in 4 weeks. I primed white, washed with Citadel's Casandora Yellow and highlighted with Vallejo Ice Yellow. Skin was done with the Foundry Flesh 5A, B, C triad.  The Little Big Men Studio shield transfers and a tight palette give them a nice uniform look.  Footsore is hands down my favorite minis to paint. I was so happy with these sculpts I ordered an Early Saxon warband too.  As they say in the UK, in for a penny, in for a pound! 

At the finish line, the warband is made up of:

2 pt levy (manuballista + 18 spear & shield levy).  I treat the bareheaded and hatted figures as spear & shield levy.  

4 pt warriors (32), all in helmets.

2 pt of hearthguard (8), all in chainmail.  

Foot & mounted warlords 

3 games in, no-one is more surprised than I that my Late Romans are unbeaten.  They are a defensive warband with the ability to take a hard punch or two a turn. The manuballista plus the ability to throw darts via the activation Plumbatae seems to drive opponents to make ill timed charges.  

The manuballista is an interesting option for the Late Romans. For 1 point, you get a ballista with a crew of 2 levy and a separate unit of 6 levy. The ballista can't move and is removed once the crew of 2 is dead. It gains a fatigue after each shooting so it exhausts after 2 shots. It has a range of 24". The number of shooting dice is 1/2 the number of models in the unit being shot at. Ideally, you want your opponent to run a 12 pack of mounted hearthguard. Oh, you also get a +1 to your shooting dice! Because the unit is so weak and draws a lot of attention, I park it in a large building with a separate unit of 6 levy to help keep it alive.  

One warband down, three more to go!