2nd Punic War: Romans and Carthaginian Spear

This was my historical tally over the new year's break, more conversions and unit completions for Hail Caesar.

Feels good to make some progress against the total rebasing started a few years ago.

Romans

Having finished the Hastati, I thought I'd get some Princeps going while starting on rebasing some cavalry and command.

The Princeps are from HaT Set 8017, Republican Romans Princeps & Triari and Set 8051, Roman Command. The shield decals are from Little big Men Studios and a private commission.

The cavlary are from HaT Set 8021, Roman Cavalry with a commander from Set 8051, Roman Command.

The commanders are a mix of the HaT Roman Command set and Newline Designs command packs (Roman and Etruscan) - both companies' figures mixing seamlessly. To go with the Hastati commander done previously, I've made up a cavalry division command (far left), Princeps commander (left) and two consuls for generals (right).

I figure for large, "Oh the gods! The Carthaginians are going to whip our asses again", kind of battles, while one consul is overall commander for the day, it's not out of the question to have both of them in the field.

I also continued on with the theme of having the Latin divisions made up of two legions (10th and 13th), hence why there's two eagles for the main consul (right). Also love the Etruscan foot command as it comes with trumpeters and Lictors (administrators/servile aides), which probably originated with Etruscans but were adopted by Rome.

Carts

Also got a couple of Lybian spear units done from the HaT Set 8020, Hannibal's Carthaginians - African Infantry

The LBM shield decals really make these units come alive. Would share a link to them but I see they're no longer listed on their website 😞

Got some more Princeps on the go, two units of Triarii to finish off, and some cavalry to rebase and that will be the Latin Romans completed.

2nd Punic War: Late Etruscans

First lot of Newline Design figures since everything was heartlessly put into storage nearly a year ago. Some Etruscans for the Hail Caesar ruleset and massive shift from old DMA/M basing. But these are new figures straight out of the bag.

First up some Etruscan Class III and IV Advancing based together to act as Italian Hastati or light infantry. I'd forgotten just how hard it is to get pure white shields to behave.

Next up are some Etruscan Class I and II Standing based together and re-shielded with Scutums from the Roman HaT range to act as Principes.

I've probably been too literal in my interpretation of how the Italian tribes morphed into Hastati and Principes as they were Romanized. But I figure its late in the war, somewhere between Cannae and Zama, and they've been given or taken some of the huge surplus of Roman weaponry and armor left over from previous battles. There's certainly some good detail on these Newline figures.All the shield designs were a transfer commission by a local printer that I sourced off of Google and rescaled/touched up - at this scale the individual dolphins and wreathes were a little fiddly to position correctly.

  

2nd Punic War: Carthaginian Elephants and Veteran Spear

 

I know I've caved to the wargamer's bane and completed the crown units of the army before doing the masses but I couldn't resist getting these guys converted for Hail Caesar.

War Elephants

The units have been rebased from DBA/M and a general's elephant element added.

The fighting bases are from the HaT Set 8023 War Elephants and depict the smaller African Forest Elephant with howdah. Some of them were painted nearly twenty years ago and needed quite a bit of touching up.

I also added some shield transfers I'd commissioned from a local printer and most have been based two to a base to create four HC bases.

The elephant general is from the Linear-A Set 023 Hannibal Makes a Triumphal Entry in Italy and as the name indicates, is meant to depict Hannibal riding on Surus - the last remaining elephant of that epic trip. The companions are from the same set and the HaT Set 8056 Carthaginian Command and Cavalry, shield transfers are from Big Little Men Studios Carthage Punic range.

That Surus seems to be a bigger than the other elephants supports the idea that he was an Indian/Syrian elephant - a lot larger than the smaller forest elephants. I just wish, instead of going directly backwards, Hail Caesar had similar stampede rules to the old WAB ruleset, where a scatter dice was rolled to see which direction the elephants went when they stampeded 😂  

Veteran Spear 

Another crown unit, Hannibal's veteran spear from HaT Set 8020 Hannibal's Carthaginians - African Infantry and command set from the same company mentioned above. There's also a standard bearer/officer and trumpeter from Newline Design's Carthaginian Command pack and as always, they mix in well with the HaT troops. Shield designs are also from the Little Big Men Studios Carthage range.

Again, some of these figures were painted nearly twenty years ago so have received new paint on their spears and a dose of PVA glue to stop the paint from splitting off when the spears bend. Listed as Phalanx in the army lists, these guys are four ranks deep as opposed to the normal two for HC.

With the transfers applied, they make me want to have a game of HC, better rebase and transfer some more units.

2nd Punic War: Hastati and Velites

Finally, after almost a year of living in a tiny cottage with most of our stuff in storage, we have moved and I have access to my figure mountain of shame.

And this is one of my more crazy ideas, recycling the 20mm/1/72 figures painted around the turn of the century, for a game system I've never used; Hail Caesar.

Originally for DBA, then DBM (and DBMM), then WAB, I've taken the Carts and Romans painted up for those games and started rebasing them, sometimes adding to their numbers by a factor of two. I figured, I liked Black Powder, Warmaster, and WAB, so why not give this a go... completely basing to a new standard and building the collection to nearly 500 figures... and I was trying to move away from the scale!

Both the Hastati and Velites are from the HaT set 8018, Republican Romans Hastati & Velites. Command figures are from the HaT set 8051, Roman Command. The signifier is from the HaT set 8035, Roman Catapults (even now I wonder why the Hastati and Velites in this set are 25mm).

But have to say I like the way they are based now and of all the basing standards, Hail Caesar really gives the 'impression of a unit'.

Hastati Command

One of three commands, painted as a commander of one of the main troop types for the army (Hastati, Principes, Triarii). Although they'll probably end up being the generals for a single legion.

I bought a pack of plastic gems at the local 2-dollar shop and glued them on the Signifer's pole (ooh err... um, I think its called an aquila), then hand painted the details including the little 'H' 😆

Hastati

These guys have finally come up as I'd originally imagined. The shield designs are from Little Big Men Studios Range, specifically designed for the HaT figures. They're a little bit fiddly but are excellent and well worth it. It only took one or two figures before the 'product line' kicked in.

I've gone for the tenth and thirteenth legions, a) because the 13th was Scipio's legion and b) because there were a lot of 'pig' insignia available for the 10th - though I'm not sure they fought the Carts.

Along with the LBM transfers, I got some transfers made for the command figures.

Velites

Two of about eight small light infantry units for the Romans.

Basing all the lights individually seemed like a good idea at the time, but am questioning that choice after only two units. Luckily a mate gave me a whole lot of movement trays 👍

Next up, the Cart's elephants and a veteran spear unit, and maybe some Etruscan Hastati and Principes.

DBA 3.0: First Game & Review: Punics

Had my first game for a while and after last week's post, Nick came out to break in his Marians.


Must be our first game together for about six years - time flys!

DBA 3.0
I haven't played a DBx game for probably just as long and Nick agreed to help me through the changes. Instantly liking: spear support from side elements, fast warband, and the ease at which things happen now. We had a couple of games and both totally enjoyable.

After these few games I would say that double or triple DBA would be eminently more enjoyable than DBM x, DBMM, and FoG.

First Game: Straight DBA, 12 Elements Per Side
So first up Nick went Polybian and I went Carthaginian for a good historical Punic match.

Polybians: Hastati (3xbd), Principes (3xbd), Triarii (2xSp), Velites (2xPs), Equetes (2x Cv and General)

Lots of good blade, nicely painted HaT figures.

Carts: Poeni (3xSp), Gauls (2xWbf), 1x Elephant (oh yea!), Allied Italians (1x Ax), Lybians (2xPs), Numidian (1xLH), Poeni Horse (2x Cv plus General), all a mix of HaT and Italeri

I rolled as defender and chose compulsory ploughed field x 2 and a wood. Feilds rolling up good going in turn one - that was lucky given I deployed in them!


After turn one, Nick had moved forward his foot and wheeled out his cavalry on his left flank. I countered his cavalry by ZoCing it just as the sun burst through the clouds, and I pushed up my heavy foot and elephant...

...while racing forward with the light horse and light foot on my left flank.



In turn 2 Nick's foot continued their advance.


Securing the center and setting the battle line.


Nick un-ZoCed himself and smashed into my cavalry with his and added a blade overlap for support.


Which ended well for me, recoling both his cavalry and cavalry general.



I then diced poorly and because my light horse were in the way, could only continue the advance of the heavy foot and heffalump.


So that by Turn 3 the dastardly Nick was able to re-engage his cavalry and flank my general.


Which ended well for me, recoling his cavalry with my general and V.V.


In the next few turns there was great confusion on the battlefield as my center closed with his, with mixed results.


But on my left flank the Elephant and the Gauls minced through the blades.


The cavalry went at it repeatedly, mine now supported by some African spearmen, after which a gentlemen's agreement was reached as I recolied Nick's cavalry off the table without realising we'd pushed the table edge back, so a new table edge was agreed :)


But the battle continued to rage and Nick's center was hard pressed.


Great shot of the center mid-game - not bad for well painted plastic 20mm figures; the figures on the far right are Nick's dead pool of blades.


Must have been Turn 5 by now and centre was still ebbing and flowing.


Nick's supported cavalry finally took one of mine.


So I committed into the center again with another great shot of these figures.


And into the Hastati went the elephant, the Italians and Lybians having seen off Nick's Velites.


But Nick rolled well enough for recoils.

And then this happened...


Followed by this...


Followed by this...

Game to Nick as my general was gloriously defeated... it's how he would have wanted to go.

But for some reason to do with not remembering rules, we kept on fighting without any application of my troops being demoralized, and as I had just broken Nick's army in the center, there was a moment there we thought I had won. It was nice while it lasted :)

But a great game, a lot more fun than DBA 2.1 was previously. The hardcover rule book is well laid out with lots of diagrams now and a decent historical blurb on the trillions of armies listed therein.

Good job the Barkers!

We played a double DBA game next and I'll blog that separately.