Showing posts with label Numidians. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Numidians. Show all posts

Monday, 23 October 2017

Ruspina 46 BCE

"Caesar once again returned to the town of Ruspina, drew up his camp there, and then set out himself with thirty cohorts in light order to forage."

Yesterday I ran an extended version of the Ruspina 46 BCE battle that is one of my favourite ancient engagements. NB all photos are clickable! 

Below are the massed Numidian cavalry, thaaaasands of them (well, 120).



The miniatures are almost all Foundry Numidians or Caesarians, with a degree of admixture of Crusader and conversions from other ranges. 


Above, lines of grim-faced legionaries. Below Caesar surveys the situation. In To the Strongest! terms he is a brilliant general, and very handy, too!
  


More Numidians, above and below.



Above, I based some palms with the minis, just for fun. Below, you can see how well the BatBases blend in with the Sagebrush Steppe design mat. Look- no straight lines!


We played the first part of the battle, twice, with novice players; everyone seemed to have fun, especially the kids, one of whom played for the third year in a row. SELWG is always a fun show! Huge thanks to chum Ian for the beautiful photography and to Mike Brian and his son Alex, and Robert, for helping with setup, and to the SELWGers. Thanks also to Foundry for the nellie and hippo and 1st Corps for all the sheep!  :-)

PS We have one place left on Saturday for a rerun of the battle at the Wargames Holiday Centre, near Basingstoke,; I'm also running the battle of Gaza with Demetrius Poliocretes, elephants and a forest of pikes.  If you are free drop me a line, i believe the day's gaming costs £75.

Friday, 20 October 2017

Out of Africa(ns)


With the above Numidians based, I have finally have as many as I anticipate needing for the foreseeable futire.... These minis, mostly lovely Wargames Foundry from the Caesarians range, bring me to a total of 120 light horse which should be enough for most battles, even those battles where both sides had Numidian cavalry, such as Zama.The minis were painted by Shaun McTague and finished by me; the bases are my famous Batbases.

I'll be running the big Ruspina game at SELWG on Sunday  and we'll see how they do! If you are coming and want to play, please drop me a line. I won't be selling anything at SELWG, but if anyone wants to order things from the BigRedbatShop by, say, 6PM on Saturday, I can bring them along for collection and refund your postage.

Monday, 20 March 2017

2017 Flockathon- part III- Numidians


Last week's Successors are all completely based; photos to follow. Above are the second and final plase of the Flockathon. This is (most of) my Numidian army, which has roughly doubles in size and been completely re-based onto 20cm BatBases. I hope to have them flocked and tufted by the weekend.

Tuesday, 17 January 2017

Juba-lation


I am jubilant because these command minis are just about the last required minis for my Numidian army. Here is Juba I, King of Numidia and his bodyguard of Spanish mercenaries. Juba's Numidia was a strong kingdom, but no match for Caesar. Photos are clickable.


I'm really pleased with Juba- I converted him from a Foundry German! The miniatures are Foundry, Companion and A&A miniatures. All of these minis were painted by Nick Speller with some additional detailing by me. The bases are my usual Batbases.


I now just have the bases on the medium infantry to paint and the flocking of most of the army- around three weeks work, I reckon. These are intended for the Ruspina game at the end of March.

Thursday, 12 January 2017

Panzer Army Africa 48 BCE


In 48 BCE after the Pompeian defeat at Pharsalus, Caesar's erstwhile lieutenant Titus Labienus led his surviving German (and Gallic) veterans to Africa to join the Pompeian cause. They fought at Ruspina in 46 BCE, and later at Thapsus. I'll be using them in the former battle in the WHC at the end of March; I might do a second regiment if time permits.

It seems to me that these veterans of the Gallic War must have become somewhat regularised during their long period of employment in Roman service so I have given them the odd bit of Roman gear and some almost-matching German shield designs from LBMS. The minis are Foundry Germans with conversions, by various painters including me. The bases are my latest Bat Bases- AN END TO THE HEGEMONY OF SQUARE BASES!  ;-)


Wednesday, 4 January 2017

Even more scruffy Numidians


Here are the next bunch of Numidian medium infantry that I'm currently re-basing and expanding. They will also serve as African spearmen in my projected Carthaginian army. Many were speed-painted by mate Greg Privat for our big Zama game of 2010, others recently painted, to match, by Shaun McTague and myself. They now constitute six units of 22 minis each that can double up to form deep units. Each unit splits in two along the centre, which makes it easy to depict disorder.

They will first see action on 31st March to 2nd April at the Ancients Wargames Holiday Centre weekend in Basingstoke- we still have 2 places left - if interested, please mail me for details at the address on the left.

Thursday, 8 December 2016

Turning out the lights


Over the summer and autumn, I've been refitting and extending my Numidian army. The above photo is of the light troops, who will form just over half of the completed army. So far, I have 22 units of nine light infantry and 22 of  five light cavalry, grouped into pairs (for TtS! players, they will be 2 hit light units each with 4 ammo). None of the bases are properly flocked, yet, I have that joy to come!


All are based on my magnetic "bat bases" which are 19cm wide. They fit together in pairs with a disguised seam. The cloth they are on is the sagebrush steppe design (which is much greener than the Deep-Cut photos suggest) and which is great for North Africa.


A lot of the minis were painted by Shaun McTague and Nick Speller, others came from eBay. I even painted a few, myself.


The minis are a mix of the excellent Foundry Numidians, Foundry Greeks and some A&A miniatures for variety. I do love the Foundry range- next time I see them I'll suggest they add some more minis to round the range out.


The other half of the army (not shown) will comprise King Juba I, General Petreius, Marcus Labienus, Spanish and German heavy cavalry, a mass of formed infantry and, of course, the elephant corp.

The completed army will have its first outing on the next Wargames Holiday Centre Ancients weekend- 31st March to 2nd April 2017. This time Mark Freeth and I have booked a large room at the Basingstoke Hilton hotel to accommodate what promise to be four (perhaps five) extremely large games. I'll talk more about the other games in the coming weeks, but they include a rather larger Successor game than was Raphia. We have a maximum capacity of 20 but are already more than half booked so if you fancy coming please email me or Mark, ASAP.

Friday, 19 August 2016

Yet more basing

Here's another project I have been working on this summer for a gig at the Wargames Holiday Centre in late September. Each unit consists of nine or ten Numidian light cavalry mounted on two of my 20cm grid bat bases that lock together. The riders are depicted circling to throw javelins, and include some Roman casualties. All are metal miniatures, mostly Foundry, A&A, Companion and conversions.


I have more or less finished basing seven-and-a-half units (below) out of a required ten. A lot of the minis are from my collection, retouched and re-based, but others have been freshly painted by mate Shaun McTague.


I am also in the process of basing eleven units each of 18 light infantry. When fully mustered this army will include 100 light cavalry without bridles, 200 light infantry, 100 formed infantry, 6 elephants and some bodyguard cavalry. Enough to fill 10 Really Useful Boxes...

We still have a couple of spaces for the gaming weekend which will be held in Basingstoke over the weekend 22nd to 24th September- if you fancy coming along, please email me at the address on my blog and I'll mail you details.

Tuesday, 8 October 2013

The other Numidians...

The remaining 2 units of Numidian warband.  No elephants were harmed during the basing of these units.


During Caesar's African campaign, Numidian infantry were numerous, if not particularly effective.  I tend to mix them in with my Numidian skirmishers for games with my "To the Strongest!" rules.  


The figures are a mix of Foundry (Greek and Numidian), Companion and Crusader, I painted around half of them, and finished others from eBay and that I bought from Stephen Hales.  

I have lots more of these unpainted in the loft, and will return to this army again.  BTW, if anyone has any spare Companion imitation legionaries, I'm after some.  Juba apparently had 4 legions-worth, which would be around 190 minis in the scale I'm doing, and so far I only have 40.

Monday, 7 October 2013

Poor dead nellie


I've finished a few more Numidian units, which I'll post during the course of this week.  To make these (clickable) skirmishers a little different to the previous four units, I have deployed one of my Aventine dead nellies.

Monday, 23 September 2013

Numidian reinforcements

My Roman army has recently expanded rather more quickly than that of its Numidian opponents, so I have decided to add a few more units before the final Thapsus game at SELWG.  Here they are, part based.  A few more cavalry and lights will follow.


I painted somewhat more than half of these, with others from eBay and a few more possibly painted by Redzed.  Tonight I'll get some grout on those bases. I am also delighted to have recently sourced a small but rare unpainted Companion Miniatures Numidian army from mate "Happy", that should add lustre to Juba's hopes of an African Empire.

In other news, Aaron has recently had a crack at the ancient rule-set called "To the Strongest!" that I am developing, and wrote a very enjoyable account of the battle.  If anyone would like to try them, please pop me an email at the addess on the front of my blog.  

Wednesday, 13 February 2013

Somewhere near Utica...

Somewhere near Utica, a Pompeian army under Cato (left), with local Numidian allies under Juba (some shown in foreground), faces a smaller but more confident Caesarian force (right).


Below, elephants trot past the city gates.  It's a short but a glorious life, in the elephant corp!  I got to use all my elephant casualty markers by 9 PM.



Above, the very numerous and colourful Numidian city militia and hordes of light horse, wisely hung back to let the Romans sort it our between themselves.  Below, Cato confers with a subordinate.  The newly-raised Pompeian legions turned out to be surprisingly effective force...



Above a Pompeian cohort of inferior troops, charged by superior Caesarian foes, and having failed to counter charge,  pulls off something of a coup by dint of expert dice rolling!  Several wins by the aggressive (and phenomenally lucky) Cato drove a deep wedge into the Caesarian lines.



Eventually they broke through (above) and subsequently turned, ready to roll up the Caesarian line (below).  Although there were still a lot of Caesarians on the table, we felt that they would now need to retire from the field.


The game, played with a couple of local opponents, Nigel and Jay, proved to be a very enjoyable and relaxed play-test of my rules.  I've taken away a bunch of new ideas and will tweak the rules, for another run through, hopefully next week.


Thursday, 4 March 2010

Numidian Royal Bodyguard

These miniatures were splendidly painted by my mate Nick Speller, and based by me.  They form the Royal bodyguard of my Numidian army.  Numidian Kings often recruited Spanish cavalry "with bridles" for this role (at least in Caesar's time).  They are also the final unit my the Numidian army, which now has just under 300 minis.

I've used whatever figures came to hand; some (late lamented) Companion miniatures, sent to me by Mike Adams in the US, two Crusader Spanish and a couple of A&A Numidians.  The horses include some Aventines, and the splendid standard is Aventine.  I added rosettes and fringes to the horses to give them a Spanish flavour.


 And here they are from behind.  This shows the irregular basing style I favour on all my cavalry.


These'll be Masinissa's bodyguard at Zama.  

In other news... I hope to start the 6th terrain board today.  We also have a table number at Salute, but I don't know exactly where in the hall it is, at the moment.

Thursday, 18 February 2010

Viva Espana!

I received an unexpected package in the post from Nick Speller today, containing the Spanish cavalrymen for my Numidian General's bodyguard.  He's done a fine job on these, as ever!   The minis are Companion, Foundry and Crusader, mounted on whatever horses I could find; a couple of the Aventine horses mixed in very nicely.  I added rosettes, medallions and fringes to some of the horses, for a Spanish flavour.  Ole!

 
I'll base them over the next week, and post a proper picture when they are done.  They may well become my nicest cavalry unit.

Monday, 11 January 2010

Numidians Done'n'Dusted

I've finished the bulk of my Numidians (most of which were painted by Greg) and I thought it might be interesting to run through what I have, and how I store them.

2 generals; Juba and Masinissa
96 citizen levy, troops raised from the urban centres
36 tribesmen from the hinterland
4 dead horses below:-


40 tribesmen with javelins
10 tribesmen with slings
10 tribesmen with bows
6 elephants (cohabiting with my Macedonian phalanx) below:-


66 light cavalry without bridles (mostly below):-


Other Numidian troops I need for Zama:-
2 more elephants (hopefully the Aventine Africans will be ready in time)
9 cavalry with bridles; mostly Spanish mercenaries.  Nick is painting these, and I'm really looking forward to them as they will be very distinctive.
6 more cavalry without bridles... just so that I have a round 12 units, or 4 "wings" of 3 units as I think of them.
8 elephant casualties
Sundry other casualty figures

And at some stage in the next year I will want a couple of units of Imitation Legionaries, in mixed Roman and Greek successor gear.  I'm hoping that I may be able to work it so that they can also serve as Pontic and Judean ILs.

The storage boxes (below) are the "Really Useful Boxes", which I store all my minis and terrain in.  I line them with steel paper from Coritani.  I chose them because they are fairly cheap, rugged, waterproof and because they stack neatly.  I am, unfortunately, running out of places to put additional boxes; I may have to sell some minis from armies I'm less passionate about, so that I have room to store the Roman and successor armies that I'll be painting over the next year or so.



Sunday, 13 December 2009

When the levy breaks...

... Hannibal will need to throw in the Veterans!



These are the last 48 of the Carthaginian second line for Zama; levy citizen spearmen.  Essentially speedbumps to slow down the Roman army; we are going to make each unit fight as Auxilia, but with 2 hits instead of the more usual 4.    Gloarmy Greg painted these for me (merci!!) but most were smashed up in the post, hence the detatched shields, spears and general chipping.  :-(  On the plus side, they are recovering very nicely in the BigRedBat equivalent of Toy Hospital, and I hope to have them ready by Xmas.  So far, I've refixed all the spears, cleaned the old glue off the shield backs and started on restoring the paintwork.

The other 144 levy figures are finished (48 similar minis, 96 Thureophoroi standing in as levy). 

Friday, 4 December 2009

Masinissa's Cavalry- Completed!

Here are the 66 Numidian light cavalry, Prince Masinissa himself, and 4 horse casualties for our big Zama project.  I've just finished around half of them, and retouched the bases on the older batch to match.  The picture is clickable...




The figures are a total mish-mash; Foundry Numidians and Greeks, A&A, Gripping Beast, Crusader and Renegade, but work rather well together.  They had their first outing last night, and I'll be doing an after action review of their first battle, over the weekend.



I'm really pleased with the overall impression.  I might wack some "dust clouds" on the bases...   Next year I'll add a final 6 figures to take the number to 72.  And Nick is painting a Spanish bodyguard unit for Masinissa...

Thursday, 19 November 2009

Numidian Cavalry ready for basing


30 yes 30 cavalry!  And I painted all but 2.  I'm going to need to leave them for a while before basing, as the linseed oil on some of the horses is still not fully dried.


My Aventine reinforcements have arrived.  The left two columns are my two new Pyrrhic nellies, and a selection of spare parts that Keith has sent me which I'll use for conversions... more anon.  I appear to have enough crew for 5 elephants!  The centre two columns are reinforcements for Zama, and on the right are a host of beautiful transfers from LBMS.

Monday, 16 November 2009

More Noobidoobians


I painted 7 of these, to match two I bought ready painted on eBay.  The bases will all need to come off, as I will be multibasing.  I'll try to salvage as much of the terrain as possible, as it is well done.  I've not painted most of the javelin heads as I intend to do this later after matt varnishing (I bought out Antenociti's entire stock of Testors last week!).

Next I have to mount the 21 other Numidians on their horses, and do some snagging.  I should be able to start basing the whole lot later this week.  Huzzah!  With a bit of luck I should have them finished in around a week, so I can get back to the final 4 regiments of Numidian foot that need finishing and basing.  It'll all be over by Xmas.