Dux Bellorum

I've always had a bit of an interest in the Arthurian Age and after reading, "Arthur and the Lost Kingdoms" by Alistair Moffat I got a copy of the "Dux Bellorum" rules by Dan Mersey.
This is an element based system that I was impressed with and there is an excellent article by Steve Jones in issue 62 of "Wargames Soldiers & Strategy" giving further scenarios and an increase in element base size to that of "Impetus" with an element having a frontage of 120mm. The number of figures per base will be following Steve's recommendations and as an example a base of ordinary shieldwall will have 14 figures, in 2 ranks of 7. This allows you to go to town on the 28mm figures and create mini dioramas for the elements!

My intention is to build a Late Roman force as well as a Sub-Roman or Arthurian force. Using my normal painting style for these number of figures would take a while so as a complete about face for me for the last couple of months I've been scouring eBay and bring and buys for painted Late Roman figures. I'm not massively concerned about the quality, they'll be getting tarted up and rebased and I'm now at a stage to crack on with the Late Roman force.

It'll be organised as below;

1 element of Mounted Companions
1 element of Cataphracts
1 element of Ordinary Riders
4 elements of Ordinary Shieldwall
1 element of Bow
1 element of Mounted Skirmishers
1 element of Foot Skirmishers

Here's some of the figures I've collected.

Some foot soldiers, the guy on the right is how this unit will look.

I acquired a unit of 12 cataphracts, I only need 6 so I've completed 6 of the figures and there're now on eBay , this will hopefully cover the cost of the figures and I get my unit as a bonus.

This is one of the 12 Cataphracts as I bought it

 
And here's the unit thats on eBay, this is how the elements will look, 120mm frontage with 6 cataphracts on.

Next up some bow, the figure on the right has been "tarted up"

I'm finding this is a much quicker way to get the units finished, I'd probably prefer to do all the painting myself but there are advantages to using this method.
Dougie