Increasing the herd

One of the vagaries of my Ancient armies is that I had a load of Minifigs elephants but only four Garrison. Thought it was time to redress the balance.

So the first part of this was to do a load of straight Carthaginian elephants. I've done them quite simply, no shields on the side or bowcases! At some stage this will allow me to take the howdahs  off my converted  Minifigs Carthaginians elephants so they can join the Indian army.

Plenty more to do - these 12 have been allocated to provide four Vanha elephants to supplement the mammoths plus eight that will be used as Sassanids or fantasy Persians.

Once this lot are sorted, my next lot will hopefully be a dozen to act as Atlanteans. 

Obviously, of course, just because I intend to follow this plan doesn't mean that I actually will...

Corps 1M the Phoenicians

This was just a matter of basing. Carthaginians were some of the first figures I sold to Harry - then came home when I bought his collection. His Carthaginian army was mainly Minifigs so I had always intended using the minority Garrison Carthaginians as Phoenicians.

The unit didn't have a standard bearer or drummer so they've been 'borrowed' from a pike unit.

I really like the wash effect on the armour - looks good.

They're based on 30mm deep bases as the DBM army lists list them as Reg Ax (O).

Spain v the Celts - double DBA-ish Part the Second

Second phase of the battle as in second session - so  I've also reset the tree counter!

Scene at the end of movement in Move 5.

Another river proved no obstacle for the Celts - both rivers threw a 1, could have made a difference on the other flank if it had proved uncrossable on a 6. Really, though, on this flank nothing much happened!

The Spanish forward hill is starting to get a bit surrounded by Celts...

While the other hill awaits the onslaught. The Spanish general and other cavalry are meanwhile fully occupied.

The battle for the Spanish left continues...

Move 6 sees the Spanish advanced hill looking a bit fragile as it's completely surrounded.

And... the onslaught starts on the other hill.

And... The Spanish left is a bit crumbly.

End of the move see dead warbands and auxilia all over the place. Mostly warbands.

The position is pretty even at this point - both sides have lost 7 elements. The Spanish are a mix of troop types, the Celts are all warband! Mainly due to frontally charging Auxilia on hills.

It isn't as even as the casualties imply though - the Spanish left flank is about to go under.

Meanwhile there is a clash of generals. The Spanish general is actually Carthaginian - ex-Harry bodyguard, and the fact they are on palominos suggest he painted them - think Harry likes palominos. Don't remember where I got the general from, could have been Harry.

Closer view of the Spanish left at the point of contact.

Closer view of the Spanish left after contact - LI pushed off the edge of the world and cavalry pushed back without being able to go anywhere.

Lots of infantry dying on a hill.

View from the Spanish right...

View from the Spanish left... At which point the Celts had lost 8 elements, the Spanish 12. More importantly, the Spanish position didn't seem to be viable so battle over.

An interesting battle. I tried to play it as a battle rather than a wargame - as a competition wargame I wouldn't have launched the warbands against the hill the way I did here and I would have held the Spanish left back rather than go for the river line. I would possibly have been a bit more aggressive with the Auxilia on the second hill. Might even re-run the battle doing that sometime. It was good finding out the way the terrain affected everything - good battle.

Carthage - the whole army

Well, apart from the Garrison figures. I intend to use them as Phoenicians in my Persian army.

Apologies for the quality of the pictures - the lighting around my wargames table isn't really up photography standard! I haven't included any close up shots as they are already covered in the blogs on the individual contingents.

I've included a Gallic contingent from my Gallic army as Gallic mercenaries were an important component of many later armies.

I think the first photo shows up the lighting problems quite well.

Down the army from the right flank. The first line consists of light infantry, second line cavalry, third line is the 'battle' line of close order infantry and Carthaginian/African cavalry whilst the elephants bring up the rear. It would have been nice to have laid everything out 2 deep with cavalry on the flanks but space limitations got in the way.

Troops in the cavalry line are Numidians, then Spanish, finally Gauls. The close order line starts with Liby/Phoenician cavalry, then Citizen cavalry, Libyan spears, Spanish then finally Gauls.

This photo shows the Spanish and Gallic components. For the Gauls, I didn't bother about an accurate infantry count, I simply used enough to fill that space  whilst looking like a substantial force. The current Minifigs Gallic army has also been photographed and I'll put those out later.

Carthage - the Numidians

Again, the cavalry have already appeared, and realistically there's not many infantry, so this is a posting more for the sake of completion and keeping the components together.

 The cavalry needed new javelins and I also repainted the shields as cowhide.

 The infantry, on the other  hand, are in their original state. I keep thinking about repainting the shields. It would be an easy job, perhaps someday.

The Gauls have already been covered, likewise the Garrison Carthaginian infantry. And that pretty much covers Carthage. At the moment I've started basing a load of Macedonian phalangites as well as painting and basing a load of Indians.

Slowly getting there!

Carthage - the Spanish

Apart from basing and a new coat of gloss varnish very few of the Spaniards needed any extra work - really, it was just a case of giving the round shield cavalry new spears.

I'm a great believer in the thought that, for wargames figures, the most important visual aspect are decent shields. The Spanish figures have excellent shields.

The scutari have been put into 24 figure units though I  actually have 30 of each - the 'spares' may find a use later.

This unit is a later PB version than the other two. I think the officer is a Byzantine.

The cavalry have been posted in the earlier 'Sorting Carthage' blog but are here to make it complete. Also, I like the figures.

Nothing to say about the caetrati - they're well painted light infantry.

Never sure whether I should include Balearic slingers with the Spanish, but there isn't anywhere else to sensibly put them so...

I'll admit I really like this contingent.

Carthage - Libyan spearmen

This component of the Carthaginian army looked a bit tired - the shields had been varnished and had yellowed badly over the years. The ostrich plumes were also a bit strange. As a result, I've repainted the shields and given them plain black feathers. The figures are early PB, though the standard bearer (red crested helmet guy) is 'S' Range.

Carthaginian Elephants

There's nothing more impressive on the Ancients wargames table than a large corps of elephants. So this lot should be quite impressive.

I've resisted the temptation to do anything other than base these. I'm not sure how the howdahs are managing to stay on the elephants...

The elephants themselves are a bit strange - seem to be 'S' Range elephants and mahouts, but the howdahs have been replaced by Garrison ones and the crew are Minifigs PB Range.