Punic War Warhammer Ancient battles

Carthaginian Veterans- first unit completed

2010-01-16T14:11:00.001-08:00

Crusader Cathaginian Veterans

I managed to get them finished today, slightly ahead of schedule. I will start work on the next unit (which is made up of A&A figures) but need to order some command for them. Once these are done I will probably mix the figures from the two units up a bit.

I painted most of the shields (very quickly) on the basis that your eyes are drawn to the LBM shield transfers so it doesn't matter what mine are like!

Carthaginian Veteran: shield issues

2010-01-14T04:08:00.000-08:00

The unit so far

This unit was going so well. I had finished the twenty figures except for the shields and I was just waiting for my LBM shield transfers to arrive. When they did I realised that they don't fit most of the shields in the Crusader packs. This is not LBM's fault, though. The problem is that they arrived with a mixture of three different shields, which is fine for veterans who have looted much of their gear. There were a number of hoplite type shields and this was OK as I had already got some Carthaginian transfers in stock.

Then there were the curved shields (above), which the LBM transfers were designed for, but the problem is that there were only three shields of this design included in the twenty that arrived; most were a flat design (below) for which LBM do not make a transfer.

Having just let them sit for weeks because I was so fed up with this I did glue all the shields on yesterday evening with the realisation that I am going to have to paint eleven shields by hand. This shows how lazy LBM has made me as, of course, this is what I always did before! I painted all my Spartan shields by hand and so shoouldn't be too put off by this!

The good thing is that now I know, with a bit of luck, that I should be able to get them finished this weekend! Next I have a unit of A&A Miniatures Carthaginian Veterans to start but at least I have all the right transfers for the shields for them!

I don't think that we are now doing Zama at the club; there doesn't seem to be that much interest and I don't even know if we have been entered for the SOA battle day or not as I haven't been there for months. Nevertheless, I always wanted a Carthaginian army so will carry on with these anyway.

Carthaginian Veteran Spearmen started

2009-11-10T08:23:00.001-08:00

Well I have started work on a 20 man unit of Crusader Miniatures Carthaginian Veterans. One thing I find curious is that they are all modelled with a sandalled left foot but a bare right foot!

Crusader figures

I have also ordered some of A&A's Carthaginian veterans as they are sculpted by Mark Sims as well and they will lend some varity to what will have to be a reasonably large number of figures. I also ordered some of Little Big Men's shield transfers for the A&A figures and must get some for the Crusader figures.

A&A figures

As the Veterans were a collection of different nationalities largely equipped with looted Roman gear I have decided that they will have a somewhat non-uniform appearance; so different shields and different coloured tunics.

Zama: on again?

2009-10-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

Well it went a bit quiet on the "will we or won't we do Zama?" front but now it looks as though we may be on to do a game at the Society of Ancients day after all. I'm struggling with envisioning the forces and so I have a dropped a note to Big Red Bat whose Zama project is truly awe inspiring.

Two things we have agreed we need are elephants and Numidian cavalry so maybe I could put in an order for some of those; probably from Crusader.

Balearic slingers

2009-07-04T15:16:00.000-07:00

These are my first few figures for the Society of Ancients Zama game. I think we are planning to use the Tony Bath rules and I remember from Cynoscephalae that missile troops are pretty devastating so I will have to get some more of these I think.

They are Crusader figures so were very easy to paint and they match my Romans. I painted headbands as spare slings as they carried three slings of different lengths to shoot at different ranges.

Two other people at the club are interested in entering a game and they have quite a few figures so I may not need to paint that many. I will concentrate on Spanish and Celtiberians to start with as I have always wanted a Spanish army to oppose my Romans.

Society of Ancients: Zama?

2009-04-27T05:39:00.000-07:00

Elephants!

We had some people at the Society of Ancients Battle Day over the weekend. Persians against Early Byzantines so not for me this year. However the rumour is that next year the SOA is planning to do something with Hannibal: probably Zama. This is much more exciting and gives me the chance to get going on lots more stuff after the Roman legions I did for Cynoscephalae two years ago.

Both sides had lots of Numidian Cavalry. Hannibal had Celts and Ligurians as well as African (Carthaginian and Libyan) troops. It all sounds quite inspiring!

Hannibal's Last Battle: Brian Todd Carey

2007-12-18T00:09:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-05T01:11:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-04T04:17:00.000-08:00

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

I originally bought the Rengade 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

2007-04-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-11T01:28:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-14T14:04:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-12T03:26:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-10T07:51:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-10T00:30:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-05T17:06:00.000-08:00

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

2007-01-03T11:52:00.000-08:00

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.

First Legion Complete

2006-12-23T13:52:00.000-08:00

It's taken a bit longer than I had hoped, mainly down to Christmas shopping etc.

This is the first Legion based for WAB at a figure scale of 1 to 100.

12 Velites 84 pts
12 Hastati (drilled) 132 pts
12 Principes (drilled, light armour, pilum) 156 pts
6 Triarii (light armour) 90 pts

3 Cavalry (light armour) 51 pts

Total 513 pts

1 General 145 pts

Grand Total 658 pts

I've finished five of the second legion with most of the rest being based and undercoated.

After Christmas I will order the remaining figures I need to complete the second legion and order some Italian Allies from A&A Miniatures.

Finish the first legion next weekend?

2006-12-10T13:21:00.000-08:00

I have got 6 Triarii and two cavalry to paint to finish the first legion. They are all based and undercoated. I have had a very good week but don't expect to be able to keep this up! Here is the first cavalryman. Not a brilliant picture so I may try to do another with my wife's SLR. I only need three figures at 1 to 100. I will combine them with three figures from the second legion to make a unit of six. They won't be much use unless I can run down a few skirmishers with them!

The Crusader figures are nice (maybe the horses are a bit long-legged) but fitting the riders onto the horses is a pain. The cloaks get in the way at the back and need to be filed down and at the front the flying manes also get in the way so some of them are sitting a bit far back. Saddle cloths are moulded on the figure and aren't exactly a snug fit over the horses backs either.

Velites and Principes at full strength

2006-12-10T13:05:00.000-08:00

I have added three more Velites to the original nine to make them up to the correct proportions rather than the eight or nine suggested by Allen Curtis in the WAB supplement. A lot of the action at Cynoscephalae involved Velites initially so I may need them. It depends on when the scenario starts, with the initial skirmishing or after the first Roman attack has been repulsed (which was the case in the WAB scenarion in Slingshot a few years ago).

I have finished the first unit of Principes. These took longer than the Hastati because I undercoated them in black because of the chainmail and so they needed more coats on the pale colours. The chainmail itself takes longer as well. I've also now got five of the twelve Hastati done for the second legion. Three more of these are undercoated and even started. The remaining four are based. I have rather more rank and file Hastati than I need so I am going to give one a sword to make him an officer, rather than using the officer in chainmail which I can use for the Principes.

Principes nearly done..

2006-12-06T13:35:00.000-08:00

My Crusader order came today. I ordered at 11.04am on Monday and they arrived 9.30am on Wednesday. Pretty good. I now have enough figures to finish the first legion and the cavalry. I can do most of the second legion but need some more command I think. I will put in another order to Crusader as they have reduced their box sets and I am quite tempted by the Byzantines again. I thought I had decided on Gripping Beast for those but enjoyed painting the Crusader Roman figure much more than the GB ones even though the GB ones are more anatomically correct.

Hope to have most of the day at it tomorrow so want to finish my first cavalryman, three extra Velites to make the full 12 and three last figures for the Principes unit. Quite a tall order but achievable. Finished eight Prinicpes today.

Next up I will undercoat the first Triarii and base the last of the cavalry. I am going for one unit of six figures which at 1 to 100 is exactly right for 2 legions worth.

The Roman Army of the Punic Wars - Osprey Battle Orders

2006-12-04T03:48:00.000-08:00

I have just found the following note about a forthcoming Osprey. Strangely I can't find anything on the Osprey website itelf. Unfortunately it's going to be too late for Cynoscephalae as it's out in May 2007!

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781846031458

Last Order of Romans

2006-12-04T03:12:00.000-08:00

I just sent an order off to Crusader to pick up the last figures I need to complete the two legions (except maybe some extra command-but I am going to buy some Foundry Caesarean standard bearers for variety). I had to order rather more figures than I needed to fill the gaps but I will put the spares into my Italian allied forces who I want to look a little less uniform anyway. I ordered extra velites so I can have units of 12 if needed. Hopefully the SOA will issue some orders of battle soon. I am taking nearly three weeks off at Christmas so hope to have finished all the Romans by then. Then I will start with the Italian allies using A&A Samnites for at least one "legion".

I have also started on about 10 Greek light infantry for the Aetolians. I am using some Foundry Steve Saleh "World of the Greeks" figures which I already had. These are rather more elegant, anatomically, than the Crusader figures but match well as regards height and general appearance.

I have decided to do batches of eight figures at a time. I had a good weekend and not only finished the first Velites but some of the Roman Marching camp figures.

These are no use for Cynoscephalae but good for a Spanish raid scenario I am thinking about given that Mark Sims is working on a Spanish range at present.

I have made good progress on the first cavalryman and hope to get him finished before next weekend. Likewise I have eight principes that just need the bases , shields, pila and metalwork painting. Hope to get these done before next weekend too.

First Unit of Velites

2006-12-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

I have finished the first unit of Velites. It should be 12 figures at the 1 to 100 scale I am using but I am taking as my model the suggested army from the WAB book which uses 8 or 9 to keep the points down. I can always expand the unit later.

Javelins are a mixture of Perry and Xyston. Generally, the current theory seems to go against the full wolfskin rather just a helmet covering of fur. I'm not going to throw out half a pack because of this though; it would be nice if manufacturers offered packs with or without wolfskins instead of mixing them up.

I have set up an excel spreadsheet to keep track of the army's points. I am now up to 483 points but most of that is still down to the General and the Consul who make up 290 points.

Next up is my first cavalryman and the first eight Principes. I've also started another six velites and five Hastati for the second legion. These will have red shields.

Here is the first completed Hastatus for the second legion.

Here is the first Princeps for the first legion.

First Unit of Hastati

2006-11-29T15:48:00.000-08:00

The first unit of Hastati is finished. The good thing about the Hannibal and the Punic Wars supplement for WAB is that you can use 12 man units because of the rule about using rank bonus from supporting units. I suspect, when deployed, that 2 line units like this won’t be any good as they only give a rank bonus of 1. To get the full rank bonus for the supporting unit you would have to rank them up as 3 deep (i.e. with a frontage of 4 figures). The loss of one figure would destroy your maximum rank bonus in one go, therefore.

The more Crusader figures I paint the more I like them. Some of Mark Sims’ figures have been a bit short and stocky for my tastes lately but he seems to be addressing this. Indeed, even within this range, the figures in chainmail are noticeably taller than the Hastati and the Velites. This would usually annoy me but because the build is similar it’s really not noticeable unless you stand them next to each other and look at them from eye level. On the left we have a Hastatus. On the right a general from the new senior command pack.

2006-11-15T04:50:00.000-08:00

I didn't really want to start another Roman Army as I had a 1500 point EIR one completed with more units to add and a 3rd century Middle Imperial one in progress. Added to this I had about 60 Foundry Caesarian figures to paint and some Black Tree Design late Romans as well.

I had thought about doing the Punic War with Warmaster Ancients as I was not that impressed by any of the existing 28mm ranges but I forgot about the whole thing until the Warhammer Ancients Hannibal Supplement by Allen Curtis came out. This started to re-enthuse me and the thought of small 12 man units for the Romans sounded like I could produce units quite quickly.

Then Renegade brought out their new figures and these looked great. I ordered some together with some Numidians. I liked the Romans although I thought their helmet feathers were too big.

The Numidians were dreadful, however as they had hugely oversized heads: see the comparison here. I decided that the Renegade Carthaginian range was just not going to work.

I had painted a Renegade velite and really liked it but they were too big to go with anyone else's Carthaginians. This was a shame as I had the Steve Saleh Renegade Celts and the Romans would have been a perfect fit.

It was back to the drawing board and so I ordered some Gripping Beast figures and some from Crusader

A quarter of a unit of Hastati

2006-11-15T03:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to do much painting lately as it has been too dark in the mornings and the evenings. I also had a business trip to Portugal and Spain which meant I lost a weekend.

I am still trying to concentrate on just a few forces on the work bench and have managed to finish three more Crusader Hastati. I have ordered some more Crusader Punics; some Velites and a command unit. The light infantry command unit doesn't have a standard bearer though so I will have to get a regular one as well.

Using the WAB Hannibal supplement means that each Roman unit is only 12 figures, so I now have a third of a unit. I have decided that I really like painting the Crusader figures. The only thing I have done is substitute the rather chunky pilum for some Gripping Beast ones.

First Crusader Hastatus

2006-11-15T03:41:00.000-08:00

I have painted my first Crusader Punic period Roman and am very pleased with it. Once painted and with the shield attached it doesn't look as stocky as on the website. The new marching camp and general figures arrived on Saturday and they are lovely.

The figure was a pleasure to paint in exactly the same way that the Gripping Beast ones weren't. The problem I have now is that I have a unit of GB hastati two thirds complete and the same with a unit of Renegade velites. I may finish them and put them on eBay, I suppose.

Punic Puzzle Solved

2006-11-15T03:39:00.000-08:00

Left: A&A Carthaginian Right: Crusader Roman

I have been trying to find some figures for a Punic Wars Roman army for some time and have ordered samples from different manufacturers without being really happy with any of them. I liked the Renegade Romans but not their Numidians. The Gripping Beast ones had the range but were really too slim to go with my existing Celt Army which is a mixture of Renegade and A&A. I saw on TMP that Crusader Miniatures have just announced they have completed their Republican Roman Range with an excellent General and marching camp. I hadn't really looked at them but these new sets were excellent. I have now compared one of their Roman figures against an A&A Carthaginian I already had and they are completely compatible. I think I read somewhere that the A&A figures are Mark Sims too.

Case solved! Gripping Beast, Companion and Renegade off you march to eBay!