[UNITS] Roman Republican Shields

**ABH2** · January 26, 2016, 09:51 AM

Just wanted to do a little thread showing off a recent change to our early Roman and Italian/Socii units. Thanks to Legionaire of the The Legionaire Army Mod. With the base shield designed by Solitudo (who has his own project geared around the Italian era, see the link), they have created what is in my view the best looking early Roman shield to go along with a large batch of custom cavalry, Velites, and Samnite shields. In all, he has done over 60 custom shield designs unique to Ancient Empires and a future release date of his own army overhaul mod. One final note before the good stuff - the below screenshots show the shield designs as LL worked on them rather than our exact units which differ slightly. Click here to see our earlier Republican era preview.

New Republican-era Scutum

Hastatii variant 1

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Hastatii variant 2

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Principes variant 1

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Principes variant 2

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Triarii variant 1

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Triarii variant 2

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Cavalry

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Samnite Shields
Variant 1

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Variant 2

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Variant 3

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Variant 4

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Variant 5

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**KAM 2150** · January 26, 2016, 10:44 AM

That looks ubercool!

**zombieflanders** · January 26, 2016, 11:12 AM

Gorgeous! I assume these will also be in the Attila version?

**The Wandering Storyteller** · January 26, 2016, 12:38 PM

Excellent!

**Little Legionaire** · January 26, 2016, 01:05 PM

Happy to serve Rome! and AE mod!

My new home,

I think there'll be more pictures to come thanks to my sloppy packing unfortunately some files were missing and i had to deliver them to ABH2

Hopefuly we'll put quite a show for early period Italian peninsula as a whole,

**Eldgrimr** · January 26, 2016, 01:27 PM

They look awesome! Just a question, they have quite the difference in the form when compared to DeI. Which shields are the most historically accurate, DeI's shields or these?

**Little Legionaire** · January 26, 2016, 01:50 PM

Originally Posted by ZombieZleeping

They look awesome! Just a question, they have quite the difference in the form when compared to DeI. Which shields are the most historically accurate, DeI's shields or these?

Here are the research foundings of mine

http://www.roman-reenactor.com/scutum%20el%20fayum.html

http://www.roman-reenactor.com/roman...%20shield.html

IMO, it is impossible portray exact form of Polybian scutum. Resources are limited and the only evidence found in Egypt and belongs to Ptolemaic era. Thinner at sides and more oval at top compared to vanilla model. But i think both models serve fine for Early & Polybian era Roman Scutums. In the end just like the shield patterns and the models modders need to blend limited historic sources and artistic creativity to portray realistic and good looking result as a whole.

Thats what i think on those matters,

**Darinius** · January 26, 2016, 01:59 PM

This is absolutely outstanding!!

Thank you for the preview, also the effort and time spent on this mod so far. This looks great!

**ABH2** · January 26, 2016, 02:06 PM

Gorgeous! I assume these will also be in the Attila version?

Yes, this is for Attila.

IMO, it is impossible portray exact form of Polybian scutum. Resources are limited and the only evidence found in Egypt and belongs to Ptolemaic era. Thinner at sides and more oval at top compared to vanilla model. But i think both models serve fine for Early & Polybian era Roman Scutums. In the end just like the shield patterns and the models modders need to blend limited historic sources and artistic creativity to portray realistic and good looking result as a whole.

Yes, there's really not much to go on in terms of finds. There are only a few depictions. The picture in the original post is from the Aemilius monument constructed after the Battle of Pydna in 167 BC. There are a few other depictions, as well. I think LL is very close to what is typically shown in the few reliefs we have.

I don't really like to compare to DeI. That's a pretty high bar to clear. They are currently using the shields Kaziel's excellent Roman overhaul, if I'm not mistaken. Many mods (to include our own) have borrowed heavily from his work. In terms of the shape of the shield, though, I do think LL has hit it on the head here. Kaziel was working on a new one of his own, but unfortunately it hasn't been released yet. I love what LL has done here with Solitudo's model.

**Little Legionaire** · January 26, 2016, 02:27 PM

Originally Posted by ABH2

I don't really like to compare to DeI. That's a pretty high bar to clear. They are currently using the shields Kaziel's excellent Roman overhaul, if I'm not mistaken. Many mods (to include our own) have borrowed heavily from his work. In terms of the shape of the shield, though, I do think LL has hit it on the head here. Kaziel was working on a new one of his own, but unfortunately it hasn't been released yet. I love what LL has done here with Solitudo's model.

That is the ultimate beauty of modding. Kaziel set the bar so high and all the rest of modders including me who seeks a friendly competition doubled their efforts. Such an immersion imo what makes this community that special and unique because theres no simple end of progress and the harmony and support between seperate mods is marvellous. I still remember how Meneros helped me on creating gloss DDS files and long conversation between modder friends and fellow community members. In this case TWC is big and happy family with full of kind and talented individuals. Sorry for being off topic,

My two cents

**Lü Bu** · January 26, 2016, 02:29 PM

Gloss DDS hahahaha

Anyway models look outstanding!

**Little Legionaire** · January 26, 2016, 02:35 PM

Originally Posted by Lü Bu

Gloss DDS hahahaha

Anyway models look outstanding!

Creating those were pain in the as***

**Petellius** · January 29, 2016, 12:38 PM

Some wallpapers

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**Little Legionaire** · January 30, 2016, 07:28 AM

Looks great in game mate!

Can't wait to see them in action!

**loukylouk** · January 31, 2016, 12:42 PM

You are not joking, those are extremely beautiful shields!

**Ataegina** · February 02, 2016, 01:07 PM

those are seriously awesome !!!!!!!!!!!!!

**PanzerHue** · February 12, 2016, 10:43 AM

GREAT work AE-team!!! This looks absolutely amazing!!!

**gary** · February 18, 2016, 12:16 PM

Wow mate these look spotless! amazing well done!!

**dahooscarl** · February 22, 2016, 03:55 PM

What's with the swastika on the samnite shields? I thought it's origins were Tibetan?

**Petellius** · February 22, 2016, 04:23 PM

Swastika's are actually a pretty common symbol for this region, believe it has some relevance to power or some such, it was explained to me once but I forget, Im sure ABH or LL will come along and explain much better than I. Short answer is that its realistic though.