New Aventine Roman officers and more Sotiates cavalry

Aventine is not a company I have bought from before but I like the sculpts and so I thought I'd buy some of their new Republican Roman officers as well as some horses, that they sell separately - more on those later. I'd like to recommend these as beautiful figures.

The top picture shows the three together and they cost £10.

The second picture shows the army’s second in command - Legatus Tiberius Cornelius and he is also the commanding officer of the VII legion.

The next senior officer is Praefectus Equitum Decimus Balbus, who commands the cavalry and he shows his Spanish roots by virtue of the falcata he is carrying. I’m sure I can remember from Colleen McCulloch’s books that the Balbus family were Caesar’s bankers and that they originated in Gades (Cadiz). Perhaps a debt is being paid off here.

The third officer is the most junior and he is Tribunus augusticlavius Lucinius Nexus. He commands the two cohorts of recruited veterans as well as the light infantry.

Lastly, there is another unit of Wargames Factory’s Celtic/Gallic cavalry. I’ve reviewed these before and was less than thrilled by them then. I still find it very hard to give them a decent paint job and I’m using them because they were cheap, which, in my book, is as good a reason as any. Now the odd thing about Wargames Factory’s packaging is that you will have a lot of surplus riders left over when you have used a box that contains 12 complete figures. And, even though they sell separate horses, that will not solve the problem as they don’t sell separate saddles. So, in the spirit of using everything I have bought, I looked around for someone who would sell separate ancients horses with saddles on them. Bingo – Aventine! At £5 for three horses they are not cheap (and indeed you could buy another box of complete Wargames Factory cavalry for the price of the 12 horses I bought) but at least I have the satisfaction (minor thought it is) of having used up all or most of the bits I have previously bought. Needless to say I’m not entirely convinced of the logic of this but you will see the results soon. Plastic figures on metal horses.