Warlord Games – Extra Bits in the Roman Kits

One thing I realized while cleaning up my hobby space last night, was that I had not mentioned that some of the kits from Warlord Games come with bonus things. I’m not talking about spare helmets or shields, but actual bonus models.. Not every kit has these extras, but those that do have it clearly labeled on the box. I was a terrible consumer when I picked up my first boxes of these minis, missing the blurb about the extras, and was taken completely by surprise when I opened the first boxes.

Bonus!

The Praetorian Guards, who were bodyguards to Roman Emperor (though arguably not as cool as their Byzantine counterparts, the Varangian Guard), appropriately come with an Emperor mini, mounted on a rather shabby-looking horse.

I’m not sure how great the extra is for the Hail Caesar game, but for Kings of War, it’s pretty darn solid. These two will be converted into mounted wizards for me – I just need to add some combination of books, wands, candles and wizardy wands or staves to the mini, and it should be good to go (well, once they are painted). I’m not normally a fan of metal minis, but since these are lone characters, and one-piece sculpts for each part, I think everything will be fine.

The Veterans didn’t come with anything extra, but the normal Legionaries sure did: a very nice additional sprue containing one smallish ballista, two crew for it, and a bunch of assorted extra bits (obstacles and ammo, mainly). I picked up four boxes of Legionaries, so I have a nice little Roman engineering corps going for me.

I already had some un-crewed ballista models for my army; great buys from Eccentric Miniatures, so I’m reluctant to just discard them... 

I think my plan will be to rebase my current (Eccentric) Ballistae, and add one of the Roman crew to it (it’ll look better manned). The second crew member, and the Roman Ballista, will be done up together, and be either be additional ballistae, or maybe count-as Siege Artillery? Or maybe it will be the ballista, and the Eccentric model will be the Siege Artillery? I don’t know yet. I'll have to get them built and then figure it out. Either way, I’m happy to have all the extras. Nice little bonuses from already great kits!