AHPC XV: From Mike W - Warlord Epic 15mm Numidians & Celts, plus some others! (185 Points)

 So this last week has been really disappointing in terms of free time that I could put towards painting for the challenge, with real life again throwing up unexpected obsticles to resolve! Who said being retired was easy, with nothing else to do except your hobbies, everyone seems to believe that you're the guy who can do everything at the drop of the hat! 😀

That said I have concentrated on trying to break the back of my 15mm Carthaginian army, with Light Infantry and Horse all lurching towards completion.

The bulk of this week's submission is focused on the Carthaginian's allied Numidian and Celtic forces, with the foot all being depicted as Light Infantry. I have noticed that Warlord Games do a close formation Celtic frame, so I'll be looking to acquire one of these in the near future - plus some elephants of course!

Anyway on to this week's figures, first the Numidians:

The Numidian contingent, Horse, Javelin men and Archers.

A close-up on the horse, 2 bases each of 5 men, all armed with Javelins
and their distinctive hand painted cow hide shields

Another shot of the mounted men, sorry having trouble getting a clear shot of these small guys

The Javelin men, again two bases each of five figures.

Two bases of Archers, again two bases each of five figures.

And with the rear rank brought to the front

A better shot of the Javelinmen

Now the Celts:

The Celt contingent, 2 bases of cavalry and two bases of skirmishers

Close-up on the Javelin armed skirmishers, shields are again hand painted

Another view of the Javelin men. 

Celtic Cavalry, javelin and sword armed with a mix of armoured and unarmoured figures

Another view of the Celtic horse.

And finally the others!

Two bases of Lybian Skirmishers armed with spear and shield

Rear rank brought forwards

Two bases of Iberian slingers

And the rear rank of the slingers brought forwards

Hopefully next week back to 28mm Arthurians - although I do have some 20 or so more Carthaginian Horse to get completed!

POINTS

10 x 15mm Numidian Horse @ 4Pts ea           40 Points

20 x 15mm Numidian Foot @ 2Pts ea             40 Points 

10 x 15mm Celtic Horse @ 4Pts ea                 40 Points

10 x 15mm  Celtic Foot  @ 2Pts ea                 20 Points

10 x 15mm  Iberian Slingers @ 2Pts ea           20 Points

10  x 15mm  Lybian Foot @ 2Pts ea                20 Points

TOTAL                                                           180 Points

AHPC XV: From Mike W - More 15mm Carthaginians and 28mm Landsknechts (Greed)(295 Points)

 What no Arthurians! No, not this week - but there are more on the workbench for next week...

Warlord Games, 15mm Epic,  Allied Italian Infantry

Warlord Games, 15mm Epic,  Celtiberian Infantry

First off, this week I have two more units of 15mm Warlord Games Epic Carthagininans. Namely a unit of allied Italians  and secondly, a unit of Celtiberians, each of three bases of 20 figures. 

Now I must say  that my knowledge of the Punic Wars is pretty sketchy, mostly based upon a once long running campaign run at my Wargames Club, so my uniform guide on these figures was basically taken from the Warlord Games website and the desire to base my Carthaginian Army largely based upon the Red, Black, White & Gold colours scheme of previously completed units. 

 The method of painting was similar for both units and basically the same as last week's units.

Close-up of the Allied Italian unit from the left. Again shield designs have been done free hand

Same unit from their right side, all crests and plumes on this unit are white.

Final shot of the Italians, from their rear, showing their armour
and the light grey tunis that they all wear.

I had no real idea about who the Celtiberians were, so after a quick check it appears that they were a Celtic people who lived in the north of what is now Spain - many believe that the Basque peoples are derived from these ancient guys. The Celtiberians, have been depicted with a slightly less uniform stance than other units in the Carthaginan Army. So I assume that they were somewhat less disciplined than their Lybian, Italian & Carthaginian comrades.

The Celtiberians, from the left side of the unit, again with
red, white & black shields, crests and plumes.

The same unit from thier right

And teh rear of the Celtiberian unit, showing their light brown tunics and sparce armour

Again I have to thank Nigel, from my Wargames Club, for the donation of another plastic frame of figures - this time Warlord Games 28mm Landsknecht pikemen, who will join my existing collection for the period.

As these Landsknechts mercenaries were renowned for their excessess - in particular in their clothing and carousing, I am taking the liberty to claim the Greed Bonus for 20 Points.

6 x 28mmLandsknecht Pikemen, based and ready to go!

Same guys but with the the rear rank to the front.

I must say that I enjoy painting Landsknechts, at first it seemed daunting but having discovered a 'recipe' for doing them, it is really quite fun.  As ever a white undercoat and then literally picking paints at random to colour in sections of their dress. In this case - Red, Blue, Yellow, Purple, Orange etc picking figures and painting panels and stripes as I see fit.

I used brown as a unifing colour to tie in all the leather jerkins and belts etc and the obviously silver for the armour. The secret is a watered down black ink wash that adds definition between the colours and in my mind finishes off the figures nicely.

Close-up on two of the little guys.

And aother two

And the last two!

Next week back to Arthurians and hopefully the balance of the 28mm AWI infantry frame that I started last week, as well as some 15mm Punic Wars Cavalry and Skirmishers!

SQUIRREL POINTS                                                    +1 Landsknechts

POINTS

120 x 15mm Carthaginians @ 2 Pts ea                        240 Points

6 x 28mm Landsknechts @5 Pts ea                               30 Points

Greed Bonus                                                                   20 points

TOTAL                                                                         290 Points

AHPC XV: From Mike W - 15mm Warlord Epic Carthaginians, 28mm Arthurian Cavalry and AWI American Militia

 A bit a a scrambled post this week as time has just flown by and getting this batch of little guys ready has been a challenge!

Lybian Heavy Infantry unit, 3 bases each of 20 figures.

Closer view of the Lybians

First up are two units of 15mm Warlord Games Epic Carthaginians,  ech unit of 60 figures. I have completed a unit of Lybian Heavy Infantry and a unit of Scutari.

And the other end of their line

The Lybians are Armoured in chainmail, with helmets, spears and shield. I painted them much the same way as the Romans in my recent post, however  I have given them a range of colours for their shields ( with free hand symbols on some of these) and given them either purple or blue tunics.

Rear view of the Lybians

The Scutari are spear and sword armed, with helmets and shields, their painting is simplified as they all wear cloaks. Again, I gave these guys a range of shield colours, but tried to keep the red, white and black theme going that I had with the Lydia's, albeit that these guys had some blue instead of purple shields and the Lybians had a number of brass shields.

Close up of the Scuari, with a variety of shield designs, all painted free hand

Another shot of the Scutari

And from the rear, note that a number of these guys have what appear to be covers to their helmets, much like teh 19th Century Havlocks, to protect the wearers nect from excessive sun.

Hopefully another two units for next week....

Next I present the overdue Arthurian Cavalry, 6 x Mounted guys, originally due last week, each wears mail and is armed with spear and shield on an Armoured horse. Again I have looked for a unit cohesion by using white & red shields to re-enforce  their identity.

Six Arthurian Heavy Cavaly with armoured horses.

Another shot of these fearsome guys

And a shot to get a better view of the shield designs - all white and red to give unit cohesion

Close up of two of the little guys

Another two horsemen

And the final two mounted guys

Finally, thanks to fellow club member Nigel, for gifting me a frame of Warlord Games 28mm American AWI plastic figures.

Completed group of five militiamen

I have taken five guys from this frame and painted up as Buckskin clad militia, armed with rifles. As with all of these ex Wargames Foundry kits, I find their assembly a bit fiddly but the resulting figures are OK.

Another angle

These figures were undercoated in a cream colour and then painted in a variety of browns to represent their buckskin dress. Skin was done in my usual manner and details of bags, guns, straps etc was added.

Look out for 5 x Continental Infantymen in the near future.

Next Week? Hopefully more 15mm Carthaginians, a small group of 28mm Landsknechts that I didn't finish this week and more Arthurian Infantry....

Read original post <here>

Punic Wars - Night Raid on Carthaginian Camp

Friday night saw the continuation of Rupert's Punic War campaign, after a somewhat dormant period, with the Romans in North Africa, sallying out in strength to raid the Carthaginian forces that were besieging their positions.

Initial set-ups saw the Carthaginians, asleep in their beds within the camp walls (red units, in the grey squares on map to left) with cavalry, heavy & light infantry dispersed across the camp.

The Roman (blue units) forces lined-up with 5 legions in the centre, screened by some light infantry, then on each near flank more light infantry plus heavy cavalry on each remote flank.

At this point it should be noted that each Carthaginian unit would check each turn to see if it 'wakes-up', whilst unwoken the unit cannot move and is considered disordered if attacked.

The terrain was unknown to the Romans, but known to the Carthaginians, that shown in yellow was all they were certain of, being clear terrain. All green squares were split into quarters with a one in six chance of bad terrain in each quarter of a tile.

The final scenario special rule was that given this is a night raid, the game is played with all units limited to 8" moves, only reverting to full moves again once daylight arrives on turn 21!

'Michaelus Maximus Meridians' was Commander of the Roman Army and the African Legions, loyal servant to the Emperor. Commander of the Carthaginians was one of Hannibal's minions...
 

the heght of teh battle, Carthaginians make a stand within the camp
as routers pass them by as the the Romans hesitate

The Carthaginians, not knowing where the Romans might attack from, were distributed around their camp, whilst the Roman plan was simple, a concentrated hammer blow at one end of the enemy camp. With luck, the Roman's would be into the camp quickly, hitting units before they wake and drive defeated units back through the camp, preventing any reinforcements hampering the Roman advance.

The Roman legions cracked-on once the game started, moving across the cream terrain at 6" per turn. The Carthaginians managed to wake some light infantry and cavalry, which were thrown forward to delay the advancing legions, which they managed to do for a few turns, albeit that they were driven back to the camp walls each turn.

Carthaginians streaming out of the camp's rear gates in a state of rout.

Eventually the light infantry broke, allowing the legions to surge into the camp, meanwhile on the Roman left flank the light infantry and cavalry were able to start tracking around the flank of the camp. On their right flank, the light infantry ran into bad ground, though the heavy cavalry were able to move on and check emerging Carthaginian light cavalry that had left the camp.

Then after morale checks, additional Carthaginian units began to break, all of a sudden half of the Carthaginian camp was in rout. Then the Roman forces frozen, not gaining enough command factors, two turns in a row, to move any units. In that time the Carthaginian routers cleared much of the camp and a number of units rallied.

The Romans pressed on, engaging with Carthaginian heavy infantry, several rounds of melee continued with the Romans wearing down their opponents and breaking one then two heavy infantry units.

The roman 3rd legion were battered by Carthaginian units and evenually broke.

On the flanks, Carthaginian cavalry broke the Roman light infantry on the Roman right flank, in turn the Roman heavy horse pushed forward and finally broke one of the enemy light horse. On the Roman left flank, the lights flanked and attacked advancing Carthaginian units whilst the Roman heavy horse, crashed into the rear of the camp.

More Carthaginians routers

As day broke in the game (turn 2) we reached the end of the night,the game had been planned a s a 2 week affair but there wasn't enough of a game left to allow for a second week. the Carthaginians had two heavy infantry units engaged with a veteran legion and one of these had just been hit in the flank by a fresh Roman legion, both the Carthaginian units had reached zero cohesion points and would break soon.

It was left to Rupert as umpire to deliberate the impact on the campaign,this will be communicated to the commanders in due course. An enjoyable game that a number of 'nip & tucks' / 'to and fros' despite the apparent one sided nature of the game.