When painting an irregular army, one of the first decision points is deciding on a paint scheme and your primary color(s). You could paint every Caetrati uniquely, reflecting that each man had to kit themselves out. That would be historical but also very time-consuming to paint up. An army painted like this can be a little hard on the eyes, or as my son describes it, a "clown army." Alternately, you could paint every figure the same, which would be pleasing to the eye. Visuals are important in our hobby but so too is an attempt at creating something historical. I split the difference by limiting my colors here and in the rest of my Iberian army. I picked 3 primary colors for the tunics-black, white and red. I limited the shield colors as well. You never know how it'll turn out till you hit the finish line and here, I think I have a balance that says "irregular" without veering into the "clown army." All Xyston figures with a nice mix of poses.
Caetrati provide skirmishing support to the main battle line of Scutarii warriors. As
Light Foot skirmishers, their job in Field of Glory will be threefold:
1. Protect my battle lines from enemy skirmishers and their missile fire.
2. Pepper the enemy battle
line with javelins in hopes of disrupting them.
3. Move, occupy and fight in poor terrain. I'll drag as much poor terrain on the table as I can with this army
.
Livy mentions the Caetrati in The History of Rome, Book 23: "Several skirmishes took place between the two sides who were alternately frightening and fearing each other, and the Numidian trooper proved to be no match for the Spaniard, nor the Moorish javelinman for the caetratus, who were quite as rapid in their movements and possessed more strength and courage." Who's bad? We bad!!
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| Fear my Falcata |
