These look cool...

[mikeland]

http://store.warlordgames.com/imperial- ... 7842-p.asp

Just saw these on the store! They look excellent. I wonder if the could all be armed with pilum and the sling arms used on the plastic legionaries, to add more variation! I hope they get sold as separates, then a whole kneeling front rank would be possible!

[carvel2]

They do look very nice indeed... Good spot Mike! My slingers look a bit tame now But they will serve a different purpose.

[mikeland]

They do look very nice indeed... Good spot Mike! My slingers look a bit tame now But they will serve a different purpose.

Hmmmm I actually prefer the unarmoured slingers... I imagine they would be able to throw easier/better. Would probably use these with the pila myself.

[grant]

Nice looking models

[Phil]

They look lovely... And that rotter Sawyer didn't even tell me they were coming out. GGGGRRR!!!!!

Phil

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

A lady has to have some secrets, you know!

These are designed to work with the plastic legionaries so you can swap the arms to your hearts desire and mix them into your plastic battleline for more variety.

We'll be making them available next week as a pack of kneeling or a pack of standing for those wishing to add extra ranks in similar poses.

[Invisible officer]

These are realy great. And Metal!
The Romans called these men antesignani, those fighting before the field signs. They would be usefull as a link between the heavy and the medium/light infantry on the gaming table . Or for defending a wall.

Again a very nice surprise attack by the warlords.

[carvel2]

@IO

those fighting before the field signs

Whats this mean exactly?

[grant]

A lady has to have some secrets, you know!

These are designed to work with the plastic legionaries so you can swap the arms to your hearts desire and mix them into your plastic battleline for more variety.

We'll be making them available next week as a pack of kneeling or a pack of standing for those wishing to add extra ranks in similar poses.

Darn you, Warlord Games, and your cool toys!

[Phil]

@IO

those fighting before the field signs

Whats this mean exactly?

Nobody actually knows - as far as I know none of the sources (Pliny, Tacitus and Caesar spring to mind) really define who the antesignani were, or what they actually did. It's another of those things that were probably so familiar to the intended readers that it would have been patronising to have explained - which is a pity, because we, unlike contemporary readers, are not familiar with them!

On thing which may, or may not, be significant is that use of the term antesignani seems to go out of use in the sources around the time the term lanciarii starts to be used. As we don't really know what the latter means either, that's not a huge amount of help!

Phil