Hannibal's Last Battle: Brian Todd Carey

I picked up this new book in Waterstones yesterday. It looks like a good summary of the three Punic Wars. The best thing about it is the battle maps, however. Each battle featured gets five or six maps, rather than the more usual one or two, showing the development of the battle.

The battles illustrated in this way include: Tunis 255 BC, Ticinus 218 BC, Trebia 218 BC, Cannae 216 BC, New Carthage 209 BC, Baecula 208 BC, Metaurus River 207 BC, Ilipa 206 BC, Great Plains 203 BC, Zama 202 BC, Cynoscephalae 197 BC, Magnesia 190 BC, Pydna 168 BC and Carthage 147 BC.

From a wargaming point of view this is excellent and has got me wanting to get started on some opponents to my Romans.

Crusader v Renegade Comparison 2

Here are a couple of pictures of Velites from Renegade and Crusader. Confusingly the top picture shows Renegade on the left and Crusader on the right whilst the bottom is the other way round. The figures are not that different in size or bulk but the real difference is in the head size where the Renegade figures are very exagerated. The Numidian figures I bought were even worse with the head about one quarter of the size of the body. Horrible!

Crusader v Renegade Comparison

Left to Right: Renegade Velite, Crusader Velite, Crusader Legionary, Renegade Legionary.

I originally bought the Renegade figures and painted some velites which I liked. Although the Romans were big it wasn't that that stopped me buying the range it was the truly horrible Carthaginians which had huge heads. I had bought some of the A&A Carthaginians which were also sculpted by Mark Sims so went for his Crusader figures as they matched perfectly. He is now expanding his Carthaginian range so I am very happy with my choice as you have two ranges (A&A and Crusader) to choose from.

Italian allies Javelin men

These six figures were painted to make up the numbers for a unit of Velites we need for the Roman army for Cynoscephalae. In fact, they are the first figures to be painted for my Italian allies forces for the Punic Roman army. I have bought and based most of the two forces I need (one unit will be more Roman looking, one more Samnite) but have had to put this project on hold until after the Society of Ancients Games Day next month. I haven't given them shields to differentiate them from the regular Roman Velites.

Second Legion Complete

The combined cavalry force.

The final unit of principes.

I've finished the second legion by completing the principes and the last cavalryman. I can't think that I have ever painted an army quite so quickly. There are 92 figures for a WAB total of 1316 points.

The next job should be to paint the Italian allies and I have most of them based now. However at a run through of the Tony Bath rules we are using for the Society of Ancients Battle Day it became apparent that what we were short of was Macedonian cavalry and Greek light troops, so I may do those next.

The completed second legion.

The two legions in battle array.

2nd unit of Triarii

I've finished the final unit of Triarii. The standard bearer is a Copplestone-sculpted Foundry one. The Centurion is Gripping Beast. Rank and File are Crusader. I haven't painted anything on the Vexilium yet so need to think what I can put there. Now I only have the Principes to do to finish the legion. I might be able to get all twelve done in a week if I really work at it.

Here is the combined unit of Triarii with figures from each legion. I've now painted 79 figures for a total of 1143 points. Not quite my biggest WAB army (that's still the Wars of the Roses one) but getting there.

First Ala started

I've based two units of twelve for the Roman-equipped Italian allies. I don't think I got exactly what I ordered from A&A as they sent rather more figures in the disc pectorals than I wanted but it's not a great disaster.

I keep forgetting that I need an Elephant (or two) for the Romans! I will set out the two Alae this weekend and see what other figures I need. More command and skirmishers certainly. Overall I need 18 command and 54 rank and file for the two alae plus 24 skirmishers.

I have finished 21 out of 40 stages on the Triarii so should get them done this weekend. I've also got my first Greek skirmisher in there (from Foundry)! Hope to do bases and spears tonight.

Stages in painting

During a boring meeting at the Mansion House this week I worked out the various stages I need to go through to paint one standard Roman:

1 Clean up figure with file and knife
2 Make base from artists card
3 Superglue figure to base
4 Undercoat
5 Paint skin
6 Paint tunic
7 Paint second coat on tunic (especially if black undercoated figure)
8 Paint leather work (belts and sandals)
9 Glue sand to base
10 Paint shading on skin
11 Paint highlights on skin
12 Paint whites of eyes
13 Paint pupils of eyes
14 Paint lips
15 Paint shading on tunics
16 Paint highlights on tunics
17 Paint shading on leather
18 Paint highlights on leather
19 Paint base
20 Drybrush highlights on base
21 Matt varnish
22 File shield
23 File pilum
24 Undercoat shield
25 Undercoat pilum
26 Paint shield
27 Paint pilum
28 Paint shading on shield
29 Paint shading on pilum
30 Paint highlights on shield
31 Paint highlights on pilum
32 Paint Bronze metalwork on figure
33 Glue shield to figure
34 Glue pilum to figure
35 Touch up hand/spear
36 Matt varnish shield
37 Matt varnish pilum
38 Paint bronze shield rim
39 Paint iron shield boss
40 Paint iron pilum head

So, 40 stages for one figure. No wonder I only paint six a week!

Second legion Velites

These are the Velites for the second legion. I now only have the Principes and the Triarii to do.

My first order of A&A Samnites has arrived. I have heard bad things about the fragility of their helmet feathers but only three had any damage. I have decided to paint one ala as Roman equipped troops with Roman shields and pila. I will use some Samnites, some left over Crusader Hastati and some Conqueror Miniatures Hastati which also seem to be very compatible. I'm not going to use any chainmail for these units and points wise I will treat them as basic legionaries (i.e not drilled). For "velites" I will use the Crusader javelinmen without shields.

For the other ala I will paint the Samnites in more Samnite colours and use the LBM shield transfers. This means that I can also use them as Carthaginian allies if necessary.

The Samnite cavalry have much smaller horses than the Crusader Romans. I suspect the A&A figures are closer to reality as the Romans had quite small ponies rather than proper horses. Hopefully it shouldn't look too odd.

I hope to finish the Triarii this weekend and get a good start on the Principes (who are at least all undercoated now).

1st cavalry unit

OK it's only three figures but now I only have the Principes and the Triarii to do-18 figures. The cavalryman took my WAB total over 1000 points and I don't have too many WAB armies that size yet!

Second Unit of Hastati

I finished the first complete unit for the second legion last week. I am also half way through the second unit of velites. All are Crusader figures except the musician which is Gripping Beast and the Standard bearer which is from the Foundry Caesarian range by Mark Copplestone.

My final order of Crusader figures arrived today, together with a rather nice Crusader pocket diary -I must be ordering a lot of figures! I now have everything I need for the second legion. I ordered some javelin armed skirmishers and I will use these intead of velites in one of the units of Alae. I have put in an order to A&A for some of their Samnites. I am going to equip the Samnites with Roman shields and paint their tunics in plain off white so they should look Roman but not quite. Not sure yet whether to give them pilum or spears. Probably pilum. I considered making the Samnites more Samnite and less Roman looking so I could use them as Carthaginian Allies but I think I am going to concentrate on the Punic Wars in Spain to start with so will get the new Crusader Spanish which are due out any day now.