It’s been said that the Visigoths heralded the age of cavalry when they destroyed the Roman army at Adrianople in 378 A.D. The day of the Legion was over!
The once mighty legions were demolished by closely packed squadrons of sword and lance armed Gothic horsemen charging into their flank and rear while simultaneously being assailed frontally by Gothic infantry emerging from their wagon laager.
The writing was on the wall and the dominance of the mounted soldier in the armies of Western Europe for the next 1,000 years had begun.
Maybe a little hyperbole involved there but regardless, the Visigoths and their related groupings and fighting styles certainly affected the Roman Empire and Western Europe from that time on.
I used a more ‘fast-paint’ method than I normally do but spent a bit of time on the shields. I also used a more ‘Old School’ method of basing using flock rather than my usual sand as my base layer - pretty happy with how it turned out.
I went with a pretty restricted colour palette for all the clothing and shields:
The army has all the options for the DBA Early Visigothic Army Lists (Book II/65 abc)
Featherstone Fighting Factor: 30 - The Goths? Meh!
Game-changers but…
Donald says that the Goths may have helped revolutionise heavy cavalry warfare but otherwise they were largely vanilla
The Visigoth Noble Cavalry (3Kn)
Irregular Miniatures
The Visigoth Foot Warriors (4Wb)
A mix of Irregular Miniatures, Alternative Armies and a couple of Essex figures.
The Foot General
Alternative Armies
The coffin shield minis scattered through the war bands may be historically suspect but they look too good to leave out!
The Light Cavalry (Lh)
Gothic horse at the front - Alternative Armies
Alans to the rear
Unsure of these maybe Gladiator Games?
The Light Infantry (Ps)
Essex & Minifigs on the right - Alternative Armies to the left
Freed German Prisoners (7Hd)
According to Luke Ueda-Sarson’s highly useful summary of the Notitia Dignitatum, shields depicting two leaping dogs may be associated with Gothic units in Roman service.
I’ve taken this as license to illustrate the shields of the two hordes Alaric’s Visigoth army (II/65c). These were Gothic warriors who were in Roman service who later defected and joined Alaric's army after atrocities against them committed by the Emperor Honorius and/or Olympius his Magister Officiorum.
50/50 Irregular Miniatures & Alternative Armies
Old Skool Minifigs
The Baggage Camp
Mainly Museum Miniatures. The mother & children are Xyston
The tents are homemade.
Click on the tents below to download a copy of the tents
