Gladius and Scutum

Along with learning how to draw authentic arms and armor, I'm picking up some tactics the Roman Legion employed. Rather than the hack-and-slash of a typical dungeon crawler, a Roman soldier used his sword mainly to thrust since a slash would seldom kill a foe. The shield, too, was used for offense as well as defense: "the standard drill for the imperial legionary was to punch the enemy in the face with the shield-boss and then stab him in the belly with the razor-sharp point of the sword." (Fields, Roman Battle Tactics 390-110 BC. p.45)

I began the drawing below as a stepped example- the top soldier is butting his enemy with his scutum, or shield, while the bottom soldier demonstrates the thrust of the gladius- but as I progressed I combined the figures into a single image.