An old battle

I have been asked if I use my figures for wargames, or they are just for display. While I am flattered that some people think they are good enough to be used for display, my main reason for painting them is to use them in wargames.

I do not get to wargame as often as I would like to, mainly because it requires me to clear my painting space, and convert it to my gaming place. But once in a while I actually do it. This battle that I am about to show you was played out some 6 years ago I believe. I took pictures, not knowing if I was ever going to use them, and I played out the game without remembering to take pictures of the end...

But here are some of the pictures of my Ancient Egyptian Army, as it looked back then, with Punic Libyan and Nubian allies.

As can be seen, if you click on the picture, they are fighting Republican Romans. I remember that the Egyptians won the initiative and thus got to set-up first, and had advanced parties on the board. The Romans had to enter from the edge of the table.

Here they are, with most of the Republican Roman Army deployed.

And here is a closer look at the Egyptian deployment.

Back then I did not know how different the Punic war Libyans looked from the tribal libyans at the time of the Egyptians. So today, this battleline would have looked different. The Republican Romans are finally deployed...

And battle begins as the skirmishers from each side start to meet up...

And here we have a view of some of the Romans. Notice the skirmishers with black skins, and ahistorical geometrically designed shields... they are fleeing from the missile fire that the Egyptian bowmen has been hailing down on them.

Roman skirmishers engage Libyans in this picture. Some Atlantic Egyptians painted up as Nubians, watch, as they themselves have made a unit of Republican Roman skirmishers (velites) retreat.

The Libyans turn out to be no match for the Velites, as can be seen in this picture. The Romans seem to be winning the early battles in hand to hand combat.

On the right flank (as seen from the Egyptians) the Republican Roman Cavalry is almost ready to charge the Nubian bowmen.

And the last picture I will leave you with is a shot of what happens in the center, seen from the Republican Roman vantage point of view...

As I said in the beginning of this post: I don´t recall who won. But my thought would be the Republican Romans... But you will have to imagine the ending yourself, as I did not take any more pictures..

~Claus

Punic War Libyans

I generally buy everything that is of reasonable quality, and fits my definition of ancients (anything before gunpowder), and the Carthaginian Allies, by HaT fit into this category. So with the purchase of this set i got my first Punic War Libyans (along with a number of other figures). Later when i purchased Zvezdas Carthaginian Infantry i got a few more. 

These form the back bone of my Punic War Libyan ally contingent. I would hesitate to call it an army, since I think it is too small. Here is the entire "tribe" lined up and ready for battle. 

As can be seen it consists of 4 seperate units. Three more or less identical units, of spearmen (from the HaT set) with various shield patterns, and of course a "mohawk" which was dyed red. All accurate according to my sources.

Then there is a unit of Libyan spearmen as they look when made by Zvezda. They have somewhat cruder shields, but they have an iron rim. Also they are very clearly wooden, so it would be hard to mix these figures with the ones from HaT, that seem to have hide over there shields.

And then.... we have the command element. I like to group these with the Zvezda Libyans, to make a bigger unit. There are after all only 6 Libyans from the 2 boxes of Zvezda Carthaginian Infantry I picked up. Here we have them.

Only 2 of them are ordinary figures, that can be bought of the shelf, both from the HaT set. Two of the others are simple head swaps. (Can you recognize what set they come from?) And the last two, the Tribal Leader and his standard bearer are alittle more complex conversions. Have a closer look:

Standard bearer:

Tribal Leader:

Generally i like the work i did on these Libyans. However one thing bugs me. Are they supposed to have black skin? Or should they have been more like the rest of the Carthaginians? If you know the answer, feel free to tell me. Don´t think I will repaint the figures, as I like the look of black skin and red hair. But I am curious to what the answer might be.

~Claus