Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Roman Testudo by Warlord Games (28mm)

The Roman Testudo (tortoise) formation is probably the most recognisable battle formation in history. According to Wikipedia the testudo was commonly used by the Roman Legions during battles, particularly sieges. The Greek term for this formation is "chelone" and during the Byzantine era, it seems to have evolved to what military manuals of the era call the "foulkon"

Testudo Front View

The Testudo kit by Warlord Games is made of polyurethane resin and comes in 6 interlocking parts: front, back, 2 sides, roof and a single shield and head for the Legionary who just can't help but take a peek (2nd Rank 2nd File)!

Decals are by Little Big Men Studios Transfers and were include in the kit. I was disappointed with their waterslide shield transfers. They are not as robust as their regular decals and even though they include extras by the time I was done I was short 4 shield decals. Perhaps I am all thumbs or have a higher learning curve but I did find them rather fragile.

Testudo Side View

The kit was fairly easy to paint and I spent about 5 hours in total on it. The application of the decals took an additional hour.

The big question for me was how to base this unit. Generally I run my Romans in units of four blade elements or 16 figures. Counting the exposed shields the Testudo by Warlord Games portrays 34 figures but the figures are in six rows of six or 36 figures, but there are none in the centre to paint. So I decided to base the kit on the area represented by the space occuplied by a eight WRG Blade elements, in two columns of four. This worked out to a base with a frontage of 120mm and a depth of 80mm.

Testudo Rear View (Flap on 2nd shield from the left is glare from the decal)

Afterwards I went to the Warlord games website and placed an order for another sheet of decals. The minimum mail order is 10 pounds so I also selected a set of plastic tents (new releases- terrain) pictured below with a 25mm figure for scale.


The set includes two "pup tents", two large tents, and two Bell tents along with a campfire and stretchers. Warlord games continued its free postage for October mail orders, as I placed my order last weekend and I received the package this past Friday. just a week from the UK to Montreal. I call that excellent service.

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