Having finished off the Gauls a week or so ago, and being slightly in deficit on my Neutral credits 🙂 I decided to have a little re-basing frenzy to catch up before cracking on with the Swans. As I’ve been doing odds and ends of my Punic War stuff I’ve been slowly re-basing units to reflect my current basing style. I’d only ever done eight stands of regular Carthaginian spear and four of veteran when I did my DBM armies in the 90’s but last year I spotted a few deals on eBay from abugan (ex-Falcon minis in the Philipines) and through various deals and trades I acquired enough figures to finish off my current veteran BG and do another regular one. All have now been re-based so here they are, two veteran units on the hill and two regular in front. All Essex miniatures:
This is the first regular BG and I painted these back in 1993 when I lived in Birmingham. For some reason I went for plain bronze shields with designs on only some:
These were my veterans. I picked up four more stands (inc. command) and just repainted the shields to match what I had. The painting styles are a pretty close match:
This lot are regulars and all from abugan. Only slight issues is one stand have a slightly different style shield as the figures came off two command elements which were obviously done at a different time or by different painter. And I painted up the standard bearer myself to make up a full command element:
This was the unit of veterans I bought. I wasn’t sure about the shield designs and was tempted to re-paint them but in the end left them as is:
The command stands:
I know there is some debate at the moment in Slingshot on whether the ‘Roman equipment’ veteran spear in Hannibal’s army actually fought in the Roman style rather than as hoplites. Apart from the various literary interpretations put forward to support this there is the suggestion that the scutum is not suitable for traditional hoplite combat. However, the triarii were spear armed and they seemed to manage it OK?
I had contemplated double-basing some/all of these but in the end decided to stick with the standard bases. Partly because there is no variation in base depth for this troop type and partly because I have no casualty figures at the moment to tart up a bigger base!
I’ve got some cavalry to do next and will also likely re-do my command stands as I have a few figures left over to make them interesting.
Lovely units, those chaps with the red uniforms and painted hoplite shields look awesome. Sure that shield design looks suspiciously Macedonian, but is it ever pretty.
Couldn't agree with you more on the veterans being rearmed with Scutums, and not modifying their technique. And that is an excellent point about the Triarii. After many years of kicking butt in Spain, then marching to Italy and doing the same, it is likely that these veteran troops where able to maneuver and fight in several styles. But the idea that they adopted Roman fighting techniques simply by observing them doesn't seem practical. Doesn't make tactical sense to adopt the tactics of the military they consistently defeated.
Lovely units, can't wait to see the Cavalry.
Go Carthage Go !!!
Phew, I'm safe on that one, not a single 15mm Carthaginian figure anywhere in the house. Now 10mm, thats a whole different tin of lychees. I already have three Imperial cohorts plus all the supports but they are recent so don't need touching. To face them I have over 200 Gallic inf, 40 odd cavalry and 12 chariots but the vibe isn't right for them just yet so thay can stay unpainted for the time being. Very nice by the way. I've said it before and I'll say it again -a good base will always complement good figures.