Balearic slingers

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.

More on Zama this week.

Society of Ancients: Zama?

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

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.