Off the Workbench-Heavy Chariots

I finished up 4 more bases of Carthaginian Heavy Chariots...just in time to be temporarily retired with the rest of my Carthaginian army.  The Old Glory chariots are good with a few caveats: 

1.  You'll need a pin drill to drill out the hole where the axle goes into the wheel. Try to force a wheel on and  you'll bend the tiny axle back and maybe even let out a swear or two.
2.  Don't glue the wheels on until AFTER you've painted and detailed the chariot. Obvious to most people but I overlooked it with the first batch I painted.
3.  These chariots come with a grooved diamond pattern in them.  You'll want to create a paint scheme based on this pattern or risk poor results. I tried putting a stripe across one but the paint bled under the tape due to the grooves.  D'oh!

With the difficulties I had in coming up with a snazzy scheme for the chariot frames, I spent extra time on the wheels.  The trick that worked for me was to paint them black and then add contrasting colors that popped against the black.  I like the way the wheels turned out but I'm less happy with the chariots themselves. 

Now that summer is over, it's time to start a new army.  I've been eyeing Xyston Miniatures but almost anything I paint of theirs would duplicate an army that someone in our club already has.  A number of players run Medieval armies and with my ancient armies, I rarely get to play them.  I decided to focus on the Medieval era. After reading about Matthias Corvinus and his Black Army of Hungary, I settled on a Later Hungarian army.  Later Hungarians have an interesting and colorful mix of units.  Plus the Hungarians make a great tabletop opponent for my Ottoman Turks.

The last hurdle was to find miniatures.  Unfortunately, Old Glory doesn't have an Eastern European Medieval line.  I tried to scratch up units that could stand in for Later Hungarian but it was difficult.  Then I stumbled across a US distributor of Essex clearing their figures out at 50% off.  While their Medieval lineup has been well looted at this price, I did find enough Hungarians to build a Later Hungarian army.  Figures shipped today...I can't wait to get started!

Onward Carthaginian Soldier

Saturday's game featured a Carthaginian versus Roman showdown with each of the 4 players fielding a 650 point army. Battle was fought on a 9' x 4' field.  The terrain set up turned out poorly for the Romans, with their center attracting a gully, open field, village and a plantation. The upside was the Roman village did look awfully nice!

I ran a Later Carthaginian army, loaded with elephants.  My teammate Klay ran Early Carthaginian, loaded with heavy chariots and the Sacred Band. We concentrated our African Spear in the center of the table with orders to hold in place. On our right flank, I planned to push forward and meet the Romans head on. On our left, Klay aimed to swing wide around the Roman flank and bend their line back, hoping to create gaps and opportunities for flank attacks.  The battle was shaping up to be another demonstration of Roman quality versus Carthaginian quantity. 

The early game progressed well for Carthage, with our right and left flanks advancing sharply.   In the center, Mark struggled to move his legions and medium archers up due to the village and gully.  The wall of Carthaginian chariots and cavalry presented the Romans with a challenge. What would they do in the face of Klay's flanking movement?

Two units of my Numidian light horse caught and ran down Roman slingers.  During the pursuit, my Numidians Light Horse discovered Lanciarii in ambush in a plantation.  The Lanciarii charged and succeeded in running down one of my light horse from behind.  In pursuing the broken horse, they  forced my 2nd battlegroup of light horse to evade through my elephants, disrupting them! 

Luck was with me on this day because my Elephants managed to fight the Lanciarii to a draw and then subsequently rally out of disorder.  The Elephants proceeded to win in subsequent turns and broke the Lanciarii, sending them back to join the routed Roman slingers.  While the Lanciarii and Elephants battled it out, two legions advanced into what would turn out to be a trap.  

The Scutarii trap is sprung.  Elephants moving up on the right, Scutarii in the center and just out of sight, another unit of Scutarii coming up on the left.  With only 2 legions to face down enemies on three sides, this did not end well for the Romans.  

Meanwhile, Mark's Romans advanced relentlessly on our wall of African Spear in the center, disregarding our superior numbers.  And for good reason, apparently, as one unit of Spear broke from bowfire alone!  In melee, a legion broke a second unit of Spear and just like that, our center was crumbling and now in doubt. 

On the Carthaginian left flank, nothing went quite like it should have.  Brandt skillfully deployed his legions and countered Klay's every threat. By game's end, my partner had failed to eliminate a single Roman base or break any units. His chariot charges failed as did a charge and melee by the Sacred Band!

At the finish, we scored the Carthaginians as up on the right flank, Romans up in the center and Carthaginians neutralized on the left flank.  The 6 bases of elephants were key on my front.  They are faster than heavy foot and in melee, they neutralized the Roman advantage in armor and superior sword skill.  Then again, its easy to shine when you have the rare fortune of catching your opponent in the flank.  

This is as good a point as any to rest my Carthaginian army. I have 3 other armies to play, one of which has never seen the tabletop. I'm planning to fast forward 1700 years and run my Later Ottoman Turks at our next meet.  After getting slapped around by Roman Medium bowmen, I'm looking forward to running my Janissary Medium bowmen. 

Spotlight on the Carthaginian Army

The story of Hannibal and his 15 year campaign in Italy against Rome is one of the great stories of history.  After reading “Hannibal” by Theodore Dodge, I decided to paint up an Old Glory Carthaginian army as my first army in Field of Glory.  The great thing about painting up Carthaginians is that they have a very diverse list and many of the battlegroups can be ported to other Army lists. The Carthaginians also present you with a two-for-one.  Paint up a Later Carthaginian army, add 8 bases of heavy chariots and the Sacred Band and voila!!! You have an Early Carthaginian army!  In addition, they are a natural foil for the many Roman armies lurking in the closets of your ancient gaming brethren.  

African Spear:  This is your bedrock unit. You only need 18 bases for the Later Carthaginian list but I recommend painting 24-28 bases. The extra bases come into play if you run the "Hannibal in Italy" special campaign list or if you want to run an Early Carthaginian list.  Early Carthaginians are fun to run because you get Heavy Chariots and the Sacred Band.  On the other hand, Early Carthaginians doesn't have elephants.  African Spear are decent Heavy Foot but you'll have trouble against Armored Superior Roman legions and horse based armies.  If you are bumping up against Romans regularly, consider a "Hannibal in Italy" list so you can upgrade these fellows to Armored Superior. 

Unless you are a Master Painter, you'll want to consider shield transfers. I used Little Big Man Studios but I hear the Veni Vidi Vici transfers are excellent as well.

Elephants:  If you're going to run Later Carthaginians, you have to have elephants and if you are going to have elephants, double down on crazy and max them out. That means 6 bases of thundering madness and if that doesn't sate your elephantine obsessions, you can bring in 2 more with a Numidian ally! Elephants are fun but dicey to run.  I've had them break from missile fire alone when I failed to keep skirmishers in front of them. I've also seen them stomp through an armored elite Soldurii unit. Just remember to keep them away from your cavalry. 

When asked to explain his obsession for fielding elephants in battle, Hannibal reportedly responded “Go big or go home."

Gallic Foot:   Gallic foot can be run as medium or heavy foot. These impact foot swordsmen gives you a different tool in your Carthaginian army toolbox. Think of them as a down payment on a future Gallic army. Once you've painted up your first Gallic Foot and Cavalry battlegroup for your Carthaginian list, you are on your way to your next army!                                          

 

Spanish Scutarii: Medium Impact foot swordsman.  I love the look of these guys and even though I have a Gallic army, I think about painting up a Spanish army from time to time.  Because the Gallic army and Spanish army are really mirror images of each other, it doesn't really make sense to do this so I'll probably settle for painting up more bases this fall or winter.

 

Balearic Slingers: They are one of the few superior skirmishers in the game and I count them as a must-have.  I've had them put away their slings and go mano-a-mano in melee. Being superior, they stomped their skirmish opponent but good. You'll thank me every time you get to reroll 1s in the shooting phase.

Numidian and Libyan Javelinmen: Javelinmen are the first to the front and first to the rear. Mundane but necessary. The Libyans sport the mohawk and apparently, when they shaved their heads, some of them also shaved off their ears.  Not the best sculptures...

Numidian Light Cavalry:  I recommend maxing out your light cavalry to 12 bases and if that's not enough for you, bring in more with a Numidian ally.  I really like these figures and by the 3rd battlegroup, I learned that basing them at angles and farther apart made them look more wild and skirmishy.

Spanish, Libyphoenician and Gallic Cavalry: This is the cavalry arm of the Carthaginian army.  Carthaginian cavalry is good but may run into trouble when matched up with lancer-armed cavalry.

Camp:  Every army needs a camp and this one is fairly docile.  I should have made up a "No looting" sign for it.  Then again, its not like barbarians can read.

After Romans, Carthaginians are probably the second most popular army in ancient miniature gaming.  They are colorful, rich in history and their battles well documented.   You'll find many Roman accounts (fair and balanced!) and resources for creating battles and campaigns.  

 

If you're thinking of painting up a Carthaginian army, I'd recommend Old Glory.  Their figures are affordable and nicely sculpted for the most part.  If you have the $, you might also look at Xyston Miniature's as their figures are perhaps the best in this field.  I've been eyeing their website for some time.  First though, I have to decide what army I want to paint next.