Igor is the club's resident miniatures expert, and this is his
review of Foundry, RAFM, Old Glory and Ral Partha figures
for Early Imperial Romans (EIR).  All pictures are thumbnails
that can be clicked on.  You can check out more of his work at
igwargminis.com.
      It all started when a friend of mine and a member of my wargaming club decided to paint a Warhammer
Ancient Battles (WAB) army of Alexander the Great. He painted a 3000 point army, so we could play larger
battles. The only problem was that I didn’t have any armies to historically match his army. All of my armies fell
into the medieval category. Years ago I had started an Ancient German army, but because I had to paint ton of
figures, literally, that project kind of stalled. So far I might have 1000 points painted.  

    The solution was to borrow an Early Imperial Roman army (EIR) from another member of our club. I
supplemented his Romans with my Barbarians and came up with 3000 points army. Our first battle was a
disaster for the Romans. I decided to buy only heavy troops and had several units of veteran legionnaires,
barbarian warbands, Roman Cataphracts, barbarian noble cavalry and some artillery. Needless to say I never
got in to hand to hand combat with his phalanxes, his skirmishers impeded my movement and shot my barbarian
cavalry to pieces. His wedge cavalry outmaneuvered and outmatched my cataphracts and ran down my much
depleted warbands.  I learned my lesson and the next week I changed the composition of my Roman army by
reducing the number of heavy units and adding a large number of light troops. The result was furious
maneuvering with light troops while my heavies thundered towards his heavies. Even though I never got in to
close combat with his phalanxes I managed to rout Alexander with his best cavalry unit.

    I loved the composition and the flexibility of the Roman army, and since I like to play with my own
miniatures, I decided to paint my own EIR army. The problem was that I didn’t want to spend money on yet
another army. The solution presented itself when I found out that a member of our club that had bought EIR
legionnaires didn’t want them anymore.  Now I had to figure out what to do about my auxiliary troops.  I
already had a unit of Late Roman cataphracts that could also be used for an early imperial army.  I decided that
I needed archers, light cavalry and light infantry.  I did some research and found a solution: eastern legions of
Vespasian around the time of the Jewish revolt. They used a lot of auxiliary troops from surrounding Hellenistic
kingdoms. The WRG “Armies and Enemies of Rome” book has orders of battles that mention such troops for
the period.  I also found out that not all Roman Auxiliaries actually had Roman uniforms and many retained their
native dress well in to Roman service.  Famous Eastern or Syrian archers that served all the way in Britain are a
good example. So, I decided to use peltasts, thureophoroi and Greek archers from my Ral Partha and Rafm
successor army that I bought about 10 years ago and never painted.  I had plenty of them, so all I had to buy
was some decals and Roman command figures. Here are some pictures of my army that I spent a week painting.

    My EIR army has two 20 man legionary units, two 18 man auxiliary units, two 12 and 15 man units of
bowmen, one 9 man unit of light cavalry and one 10 man unit of cataphracts. I can manipulate point values and
add command, artillery and barbarian allies to achieve 3000 points army or may be even more.  In conclusion,
by painting Hellenistic light infantry and cavalry for Romans I also painted a good portion of my Hellenistic
Successor army.
All the figures are Foundry except the Old Glory standard-bearer from
their Republican range. I managed to buy a bag of Old Glory Republican
command for $10. Musicians and standard bearers fit perfectly with EIR.
Here is comparison between new Foundry Romans, their old Romans and
Old Glory. As you can see there is not much difference, new Romans are
slightly taller.
These are command figures from the Late Roman Foundry range. The
Officer wears traditional Hellenistic equipment and can be used for many
Roman and non-Roman armies of the ancient world. The Standard-bearer
wears scale armor and pants that would be very common in the East.
Hellenistic light infantry that I use for auxiliary infantry. Mostly RAFM with
some Ral Partha. When I bought them there was no Old Glory or
Navigator of Newline. They were IT. I didn’t like Essex too much then.
RAFM figures come with separate heads and one can create a large
variety of troops that way.
RAFM figure is on the left; Ral Partha is on the right. As you can see
there is almost no difference. Some of the Ral Partha figures are sculpted
with very thin arms and legs and wouldn’t fit well with RAFM.
Ral Partha is on the left; old Foundry is on the right. Old Foundry is
slightly taller, but it fits well because of a similar sculpting style.
Old Glory vs. Ral Partha, Old Glory looks taller individually, but fits well.
Here are new Foundry, Rafm and Ral Partha. New Foundry are much
taller, I wouldn’t mix them in a same unit, but they go well in the same
army because of similar “chunky” appearance.
Here are some more Rafm images from their excellent Hellenistic range.
Rafm Arab bowmen. They were recruited from the Hellenistic Arab
kingdom during the time of the Jewish revolt. Separate head from Rafm
creates great variety.
Hellenistic Greek bowmen, Rafm with Ral Partha on the far right.
Hellenistic light cavalry, Rafm and Ral Partha.
Ral Partha left, Rafm right.
One of the Hellenistic Greek client kings gave some Cataphracts to the
Romans during ether the Jewish revolt or the Civil wars. I decided to paint
those instead of my Late Roman Cataphracts to preserve the flavor of
Eastern Roman Army.
A Comparison of Early Imperial Roman Figures