Another review, this time of my latest batch of figures (a present from my wife) which arrived this week. After being impressed by the new Age of Hannibal rules (see last post), I decided my next project would be some lovely figures to use for them, my current 15mm Punic Wars armies being based on 80mm bases for Sword and Spear. After whining to Mrs the Lemming for a while, she got the hint, and agreed that they would make a great xmas present, the clincher being that I would sort out the entire order, all she’d have to do was pay for them. By this time, it was only a week or two till xmas, so I knew that they wouldn’t be arriving in time, but that didn’t bother me. However, now they have arrived, so I thought I’d do a quick review of the figures. I haven’t bought figures from the entire range, but there are over 25 different codes in my order, which should keep me going for a little bit.
The first figures are not from the Roman range, but from the Classical Greek range, AGR09 Peltasts. These will be mainly used as Alae Peltasts from the Roman Republic’s Latin allies.
Some of the figures in this batch are a little wobbly, but so far no casualties. Each stand is the same (no separate command stands and line), but with four distinct poses. I’ll be basing these on 40mm square bases (as can be seen in the pic), as will all of the following figures, and as skirmishers, I’ll be putting about six figures on each base, spread out nicely.
The second bag out of the box is also from the Greek range, being AGR04 Psiloi Bow.
These will be used mostly as Alae Archers, again representing Rome’s Latin allies. I only have a couple of bases of these, and again they’ll be skirmishers rather than massed archers. These are, if anything, flimsier than the peltasts, quite weak around the ankles, and I may have another look at some of the other ranges to replace these if they start to come apart on me. They’re nice sculpts though, a couple of firing and a couple of loading poses on each stand.
Up next is the first of the Romans, ARR03 Velites, which will represent the er… Velites.
These all seem to be the same pose, which is a little disappointing, but each veles is wearing the wolfskin that makes them instantly recognisable, so I can forgive that. Again, as skirmishers they’ll be based six figures or so to a base in a dispersed formation.
Next, ARR01, Hastati / Principes with Pilum. I’m going to be using these as Principes, who were traditionally the second line (third if we count the velites).
Only one of all the hundreds of stands I ordered had any flash on them, which was to the rear of one of the command stands. I’ve filed it down a little, but it still sticks out a bit.
As it’s a command stand, I can probably get away with putting it in the front line and trying to hide the flash line with a second row of figures. One stand out of around 500 with any flash on them is pretty good going though. As the first formed troops I’ve opened up so far, these will be based using 12 figures in either 2 or 3 rows (I haven’t yet decided which looks better), with one command stand and two line stands per base.
Next up is ARR02 Triarii, the last line of Roman warriors. I don’t have as many of these, since they were the elite.
Again these are formed troops, so each base will consist of 12 figures, 1 command and 2 line stands, in formed ranks.
Following them comes ARR05 Roman Cavalry, who will represent my Equites.
The first of my cavalry units, these are Medium Horse in AoH, and they’ll have six figures per base in two rows of three.
Next up: ARR07 Hastati / Principes with Gladius.
I’m going to be using these to portray the Hastati, the front row after the skirmishers. These are ARR01 can be used as either Hastati or Principes, but I’m using the two different codes to represent the two groups so I can more easily differentiate the two on the table – in AoH terms, they’re both Hand Weapons units, but the Princeps is classed as a veteran, so I wanted to make sure the units were distinct in some way.
Rounding out the Romans we have AIR06, from the Imperial Roman range but doing double duty in the Republican Roman range as Roman Generals.
There are two types of stands in this pack (three of one type, two of the other), and they’ll make up my commander stands, which will be on 40mm round bases rather than squares, with 5-6 figures on each one to represent the General, and 3-4 figures to represent sub-generals (lieutenants in AoH terms).
The Romans often fought with two alae (wings) of Latin allies, so I also bought some figures from the Ancient Italian range o represent these. First up are AIT01 Samnite Infantry.
These will represent Alae Light Infantry, so will be a little more dispersed than formed troops, with 8 figures per base. There are some lovely sculpts in this pack, full of action, and probably my favourite sculpts of the entire Punic range. I also had my first casualty here, one of the figures broke off at the ankles in transit, so one of my bases might end up being a little short-staffed.
Continuing the Latin allies, we have AIT02 Italian Hoplites.
With their round shields, they’ll easily stand out beside the Romans. I ended up with quite a lot of these; they formed a large part of the Roman armies of the day, and as Hannibal wandered around Italy, he ended up with quite a few Italian allies, particularly in the south, so they can do double duty.
Rounding out the Latin alae forces are ITA03, Italian Cavalry.
These will be used for Latin allied cavalry, unsurprisingly. As with the Roman Equites, these are medium cavalry, so will have 6 figures per base in two mostly formed rows.
Something common to both sides in the Punic Wars were Celtic allies. Rome fought against, subdued and allied with Gauls from Transalpine Gaul before and during the second war, and Hannibal allied with quite a few of them in his invasion of Italy. To start off the Celtic contingent, here’s ACE03 Celtic Javelinmen.
Only a couple of poses amongst this lot, but they’ll do ok. I’ll mostly be using these to portray Ligurian Infantry, skirmishers allied with Carthage. One or two might get used here and there for colour too on other Celtic bases.
Next up we have ACE08 Celtic Fanatics, Charging, who are nude Gaesati wariors.
Not too many distinct poses in this bag, but since I’ll be mixing them up with some other Celts, that’s ok. They’ll be portraying mostly Celtiberians and Gauls allied with Hannibal. I’m toying with the idea of having these on about 10 figures per base, dispersed, so caught between the more rag tag and undisciplined in look, but still with some weight to them.
On the other hand, ACE01 Celtic Infantry Stood will be used to portray Rome’s Gallic allies.
These are more disciplined in look, so they’ll do well as Roman allies. They’ll be formed troops of 12 figures again.
The other Roman allies are ACE02 Celtic Heavy Cavalry.
As heavy Gallic Cavalry, they’ll be based 8 figures per base, in two rows of 4. They’re probably the best cavalry the Romans have access to, their own and their Latin allies only being medium cavalry.
ACE07 Celtic Infantry, Charging are the other part of the Carthaginian allied Celtic warriors that are going to be mixed with the fanatics pictured above.
The command stands for these are a little more formed-like, while the line stands are individual ones. Still, there’s enough movement in the command figures that I can snip them up and place them around the base and they won’t look like they’re dawdling too much compared to the rest. Here I had the second and third casualties of the day too, two figures bent over completely and soon to snap off at the ankles.
Next, ACE09 Celtic Light Cavalry, who will be used as Carthaginian allied cavalry.
Again just one type of stand here, with 3 poses, but they’ll be ok. They’ll actually be representing medium cavalry; I considered using the same heavy cavalry as above, but just to make them stand out that little bit more, I decided to use the light cavalry to represent these.
Finally for the Celts, ACE06 Celtic Leaders.
Two different types of stand for these, who are going to be used partly for a sub-general or two, and partly with the Celtic light Cavalry above to form the Carthaginian-allied Celtic medium cavalry. I think these are my favourites of the generals packs, especially the one carrying an enemy’s head in his outstretched hand.
Another group that were used as allies by both sides, albeit mostly by the Carthaginians (particularly in the early part of the second war) were Numidians. Here’s AMO03 Moorish Cavalry.
These will be used to portray the Numidian light horse, with four dispersed figures per base. I may steal a couple to make up a Numidian sub-general (Syphax maybe?) too.
Alongside the cavalry, I also have AMO01 Moorish Infantry.
These will do well as Numidian Javelinmen, skirmish troops that again fought with both sides, though only in the latter stages of the second war with the Romans. They can also be used as Mauri troops if need be, an some of them will find their way onto the elephant stands as skirmishing elephant guards or somesuch. My final casualties of transport occurred here, another two figures bit the dust.
On to the Spanish. ASP01 Spanish Scutarii to start with.
These will mostly be used for Iberian allies of Carthage, and one of the largest contingents of their army. They can be cut individually and used as a warband, whch I may very well do, with 10 figures per base, or I may give them some form of formed look and use them with 12 per base, depending on how I feel. I might mix a few in with the charging Celts to suggest Celtiberians too.
The other Iberians I have are ASP03 Balearic Slingers.
These were highly skilled skirmishers who in AoH terms are veterans as opposed to other slingers who are normal troops. For now, they’ll do double duty as both veterans and normal troops, though I may get some other slingers to use as normal ones. I also don’t have any Spanish cavalry at all, so I may have to do a follow-up order at some point in the near future. Mabe with some Caetrati too.
And on to the Carthaginians. These are ACA04 Carthaginian Elephants.
I only got one pack of these, intending to use one per base with a few skirmishers around them, but I’m tempted to get some more and maybe double them up. Or maybe just have several more bases of them, since I really like them. And who doesn’t love elephants?
Next up: ACA05 Veteran Infantry.
These were Hannibal’s mainstays, tough soldiers that stuck with him through thick and thin.
Next up are ACA03 Libyan Cavalry.
These will be my Punic Cavalry, heavy cavalry units based 8 to a base, and probably the best cavalry in the game. Hannibal’s cavalry tended to dominate, which is good because they often didn’t have as large an infantry force.
My penultimate bag is ACA02 African Infantry.
These will represent Libyan Infantry, light troops fighting for Carthage (and occasionally against, as in their civil war), based 8 to a base. I’ll be chopping these into individuals so they won’t look quite so formed as now.
And finally, we have AGR03 Greek / Hellenistic Generals.
These are also used in the Carthaginian range to denote their generals, and unlike the other leader packs, include 2 foot stands and 3 mounted. I may use one or two of these in the Carthaginian camps.
And tha’s the lot. Out of around 1500 figures or so, I have 5 that didn’t survive transport, which is pretty good considering, and one stand that had a big chunk of flash stuck to their backs, which isn’t too bad. That’s an impressively low amount of flash. In the main, there’s a good variety of poses so my bases should look like rag-tag, battle-worn, often undisciplined forces, and there’s enough differentiation between the different ranges that I haven’t had to use the same code twice to represent different types of unit, which is excellent. Anything that helps players to discern which units are which on the table is great, especially at this scale. I’ll be starting to pant these up soon, and will probably post here as I go with progress updates.
I’ve also got my storage and transport needs sorted out, thanks to some clear plastic photo boxes from Michael’s, some magnetic business cards stuck in the bottom of said boxes, and magnetic-receptive rubber steel stuck to the bottom of each base, as can be seen below. I went with 30mm squares of rubber steel to give a little edge around the base to aid in picking them up, since the bases themselves are quite thin.
That should keep everything nice and safe in transit. I need to get some larger bases (80mm square probably) and some tents and other accoutrements to make up some camps too, so an order to Leven Miniatures is on the cards. I can get some buildings from them too to make up some villages and towns for terrain. And I’ll probably do a follow-up order to Baccus to get some more Spanish and a few more elephants…
I’m pretty impressed with the service from Baccus (Peter Berry is a fine bloke, unsurprising since he’s a fellow Yorkshireman), the standard of the sculpts, and the cost for two very large armies (three if you hive off all the Celts together). I can highly recommend these figures.