Osbad’s bangin’ Gangs of Rome

First to get my attention was one of the two blisters of 3-person gangs.

I have to say they are nicely sculpted models.  The first picture turned out a bit blurry, sorry!  I’m not about the strip the models to take another photo, so you’ll have to wait for a better one till next time!

Being dressed in tunics with bare chests and arms, this was a great opportunity to use my Army Painter Barbarian Flesh spray.  So that is what I did.  Simple basecoat, wash, highlight for the rest and Robert’s your father’s brother.  They were simple to paint – with enough detail in folds of cloth and buckles etc to be interesting and take spot highlights well, but no superfluous detail.  That is something I like about historicals vis-a-vis fantasy models.  A lot of fantasy models tend to go overboard, for my taste, on the filigree and extraneous decoration.  There is still (for instance) texture to the hair, but it isn’t 4 (scale) feet long and all wafty!

So, here I sit looking at the contents.  And what a lot there is! As well as 7 one piece lovely metal (oh joy – one piece metals!  Sucha rarity now, and such a joy to paint!  None of that fiddly assembly!) models, a huge “under construction” temple, and special dice and tokens.  Oooh and that lovely “Barbeque” smell you get from new MDF kits as a bonus!

It has to be said that I am not immune to advertising.  Many times I have said to myself “I really have enough games and unpainted models, the last thing I need right now is another one coming along”.  We all know how that goes though don’t we?  One whiff of a box of new shiney toys and we can’t restrain ourselves.  Such was my mindset when I watched Andy from Footsore talking about their new game Gangs of Rome!

It has to be said that I have been interested in Rome and the Romans since I was a little boy. I was born and grew up on Hadrian’s Wall in the North of England, only half a mile from the fort of Segedunum, and must have ingested a love for Roman history and archeology with my mother’s milk!  So it is strange that so far in nearly 40 years of gaming I have never really gamed the period.  Funny how those things go.  I suspect it was because I could never really imagine a “small” Roman army, and there weren’t many skirmish games catering to the period, and to be honest, I didn’t really fancy painting up hundreds upon hundreds of identical legionaries.

So with this game, Warbanner/Footsore were really pushing on an open door.  I had started to mull over Broken Legions, but the lack of appropriate terrain in my collection was holding me back.  And then Blood on the Aventine came along and I no longer had any objections.  £35, including scenery and all the models needed to play a few starting games, and giving you a “real” gang for the main game once you had played it through….  Go on then! Take my money!