Consider Carthage in 15mm

 

You could always find mercenaries in a Carthaginian Army. Numidians, Spanish, Gauls, the odd Greek. Almost always Carthaginian Generals of course. The three above are from QRF. One might be Phyrrus of Epirus. He's the one with the Tanith shield., There were allies too, including those just listed depending on where and when. All the same actual Carthaginians did turn up on the battle field now and then. Over the years I have accrued a fair few of them.  Let’s have a look.

 

Chariot Miniatures Liby-Phoenicians. Single pose, once upon a time the latest thing. I remain fond of these figures. I have based them as Light Spearmen according to Civates Bellantes.  I need another base to complete the unit. A big ask with Chariot gone. Luckily 3 Donnington Carthaginians will fit right in to supply the requisite 5 figures per base.

Essex Veteran Liby-Phoenicians. The fellows who did the fancy footwork at Cannae. The usual strengths of Essex castings. Sadly single posed. Forged in Battle next to them.

Forged in Battle Veteran Liby-Phoenicians. Pretty much single pose too. The minor variant route. Nice figures all the same.

I have rated the veterans as hoplites, veteran of course and note the good armour. Six to a base.

Actual Carthaginian Citizens from Forged in Battle. 

These seldom appeared in the wars. For some reason I have rather a lot of them. It must have been an irresistible bargain offer.  On the plus side they are very nice figures. I have used VVV Shield Transfers to good effect I think.

I look at the simple Tanith design with fresh eyes these days. It proclaimed allegiance to the Punic State. Sacrifice of the first born and all it entailed. The archaeology is in. The small bones have spoken. It wasn’t just Roman propaganda after all. Did it chill the hearts of the foe?

No one suggests that the Carthaginian citizens were crack troops. These ones are well equipped as befits a wealthy city. 

Morale is average to my mind like wise weapon handling. Consider them rather average hoplites.

Another variation of the Libyans from Forged in Battle. This time as Civitates Bellantes “Javelin Men”.  Good quality heavy cavalry next. Liby-Phoenicians. In Civitates Bellantes we call these Cavalry. There are also "Shock" Cavalry.

These are from Forged in Battle. I calculate I should have another 3 of them. They must be somewhere.

For ease let us look at the Numidians too. Very effective soldiers. Mine are a bit of a mixture. Light cavalry first.  Apologies for the poor quality of the light on the pic's.

Enough for 4 units in Civitates Bellantes. 

Some Essex, some Forged in Battle and possibly something else. Single bases.

QRF, Essex and Chariot foot skirmishers. 

Somewhere there are more of these. Since writing this they have been found bringing the unit up to 8 figures.

As Adrian Goldsworthy noted in his epic history of the Punic Wars we don't know enough about the Carthaginians. The Romans intended that we shouldn't. They destroyed the Punic written records. Some texts on agriculture survive.

A Hellenistic Miscellany

 

Regular Readers might remember that I reviewed Simon McDowall's Civitates Bellantes rules for the Classical Period here.  Those of a certain age might also recall an influential magazine article on matters Macedonian. 

It said that if you owned 48 phalangite figures you could do any Macedonian or Successor Army. The trick was to add smaller units as required. Some of the smaller units (Cretans) would do for any army. Others (Indians) might give unique flavour. Dizzy days of Diadochi diversion indeed. 

Very sound as a concept. It works too. Except I never managed to get past sporadic bouts of purchasing and painting. Until now. I have the figures, I have the rules. Time to begin.

I decided to take the Civitates Bellantes basing suggestions to heart. Therefore, my pikemen would be 8 to a base in two ranks. I like the look of this. 

By way of comparison Roman legions are 6 to a base. Thureophoroi or formed archers 5 to a base. True skirmishers 2 to a base. Roman Velites 3 to a base.

This project will cover a fair spread of geography and history. Persia to Cisalpine Gaul and Spain too. Eventually it will include the Punic Wars and Mithridates.

 Here are some pic’s of a range of manufacturers phalanx offerings. All 15mm as usual.

Old Glory

These are their Macedonian Phalangites. I find the shields a bit big. If I was buying from them now I’d go for the Argyraspides pike men. All the same these are OK. You do need to drill the hands but the figures can take it. No breakages. Added Steel pike.

Frei Korp 15

Currently in the Wars in terms of availability. That said I think Geoff will sort it out and we can hope for a triumphant return. These are the original Macedonian Pike men. A mixture of helmets and slight pose variation. Open hands permit gluing a plastic brush bristle pike in place. I like these figures, lots of detail. True 15mm.There is a Seleucid pike pack too with trousers. You will also see newer figures with cast on pike. I don't have any.

Ancient and Modern

Ever Donnington to me. These are very good. Open hands permit gluing a steel pike in place. Bare metal to bare metal will prevent losing pikes. Detail is good as is figure variation. I think 5 variants are available. The same for the trousered Seleucids.

Is that it? No, lots more to come in terms of units and then on to specific Armies. 

Numidians

 

The Numidians were a Berber people

In our period there were, seemingly, two big Numidian political units containing lots of little ones.  The sort of thing that often gets called tribal -but that term misses a lot.

During the Punic Wars the Numidian factions changed sides to secure their best possible advantage.  In the end they had to fight the Romans. As Roman opponents went, they did better than many. They ended up as a Roman province subsequently giving the Vandals a rough time.

Their great days were yet to come.  With the Empire and the Vandals gone they headed out west to no small effect. 

They were excellent light cavalry.  It is mainly in that capacity that we find them in the Punic Wars. 

These little fellows are my Numidians for Hannibal and the lads or Scipio and the boys.

It has always struck me that Scipio and Lucullus (an opponent of Mithridates) were essentially honest men as well as exceptionally talented generals.  They were not good at politics.   As you might expect neither of them prospered. 

We may come back to Lucullus and Mithridates.

Hannibal was a military colossus. Ponder that we only know about him from hostile accounts. Imagine what his fans wrote about him.  He made great use of his army's Numidian contingent.

Here are my Numidians. Click for a bigger pic.  Yes, it's working  again.

Essex 15mm Numidians.

Essex and Forged in Battle 15mm Numidian cavalry.

Forged in Battle Numidian cavalry.

Essex Numidian foot.

 

Next up the Spaniards.

The Wrath of Carthage

One of the problems we have when dealing with Carthage is that we can only see it through the eyes of others.  No Carthaginian account is available to us.  Carthaginians remain an enigma.  We do know that they fought three wars against Rome.  The one that still attracts interest was Hannibal’s war and of course there were elephants.

I’m putting together a Carthaginian army, to fight the Romans of course. 

Where better to begin than with the regular Libyan infantry who fought so well. Perhaps these lads were conscripts or life long levies.  Maybe some of them were the contribution of subordinate allied towns.  Certainly, they were not volunteers.  No one believes that Carthaginian rule was gentle or benign.

On the other hand, perhaps a soldier’s life was better than the endless drudgery of labouring in the fields for someone else’s benefit.

Almost immediately we run into a lack of certainty.  How did these fellows look after campaigning in Italy?  Clothes needed to be replaced and Hannibal traveled light. Did local tailors and seamstresses run up tunics in the Libyan style?  The colour red has Libyan associations did they stick with that?  Victorious armies tend to get what they want.

We do know that Hannibal re-equipped his Libyans with Roman gear.  This is normally taken to be mail, or other, armour and shields.  Some also think that the Libyans also took to pila throwing and swordsmanship, I don’t share that view.

By now our Libyans are looking quite Roman.  Maybe too Roman.  I think it likely that they decorated their shields to prevent confusion in combat.  I found a photo of a Punic stele covered in symbols, the simple symbols at the top of the page.  Just the sort of thing any soldier could paint on his shield.

According to Adrian Goldsworthy, Hannibal had the equivalent of two legions worth of Libyan spear men with him at Cannae.  That’s four units on my rough and ready reckoner.  These are they.

The Numidians also featured prominently in the Carthaginian war effort.  Then they mostly changed sides.  

Subsequently they fought the Romans on their own behalf.  These ones are from Essex.  I've more on order from Forged in Battle.  Some folks like to paint their Numidians as sub Saharan Africans.  It can look quite nice but it is inaccurate.  Have a look at some modern Berbers and take it from there.