Monday 31 December 2012

Pikemen of various hues


Like buses, pike phalanx seem to come in threes.  Yesterday, Simon MacDowall posted his splendid Silver Shields, and I see that tonight Craig has just posted his proud Pink Pikemen (so numerous that he can't capture them all in one photo frame!).   Here is the left-most unit of my own forming Successor phalanx, the Libyan.

Their position on the extreme left of the phalanx, next to the guard units, suggests to me that they were considered more reliable than the local Egyptian phalangites.  They were led by Ammonius the Barcan.  His name sounds Punic; could there have been Carthaginian mercenaries present amongst them?  Raphia was, after all, fought in the same year as Lake Trasimene... 

The phalanx is a recent expansion and repaint of a repaint of an eBay purchase.  The purple linothorax must be due to the availability of Murex sea-snails along the Punic Coast (or could alternatively be due to me being too lazy to change the colour).  They are a real mix of the various Foundry pikemen.

Anyhow I'm delighted to squeeze these into 2012.  I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Happy New Year!


12 comments:

Simon MacDowall said...

I love the purple and bronze combination!

Paul´s Bods said...

Excellent!
Who doesn´t like the look of a good pike block
happy New year
Cheers
Paul

Curt said...

Those look gorgeous! Love the 'hedge' of pikes - its really not a wargames unit unless it can truly draw blood on the table...

Happy New Year Simon.

Cheers,

Curt

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Very nice Simon! It seems Pikes are it as I have a purple pike on the way soon as well!

Christopher

BigRedBat said...

Thanks chaps! Simon, I was nervous about the purple, but very pleased with how they came out. Curt the hedge is hopefully due to become a forest, in the fullness of time...

Happy New Year!

Simon

legatus hedlius said...

About five years ago I painted about 90 Greek skirmishers and cavalry for the Cynoscephalae Society of Ancients game. It occurs to me that with a few phalanxes I could be well on the way to a Macedonian army...

You could have just pushed me over the edge. I think I even have the figures in my lead pile!

Yours are very pretty!

Cyrus said...

Very colourful unit Simon.

Prufrock said...

Nice work, Simon. Happy new year, and all the best for 2013!

Cheers,
Aaron

BigRedBat said...

Hi and Happy New Year, again!

Stephen I recall that army, I was there with my mate's 15mm army. If you have the wings and the skirmishers, you just need to fill in the gap!

Timur said...

Beautiful phalange Simon !

About Barca, or Barcé, it was a town of Cyrenaic, not in relation with the Barca Carthaginian family : (

BigRedBat said...

Thanks Timur, it was too good to be true, then!

fireymonkeyboy said...

These look fantastic, nice work!