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Author Topic: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars  (Read 20625 times)

Offline Wiegraf

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Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« on: October 16, 2018, 03:46:48 AM »
Hello everyone.

I have been painting models for Hail Caesar! and gaming a fair bit with forces from the Punic Wars. Right now my main enemy is Carthage and I command a strange Roman / Syracuse / Numidian alliance (along with their pet Elephant).  The Romans are all my work. The Numidians, Elephant, and Greeks on my side were done by others.  I plan to bump out the Numidians, Greeks and Elephant once more Romans are done so I only use my own painted soldiers.

 
Here's some shots from our games.  Lots more on my blog and my YouTube channel.
https://steepledhatstudios.blogspot.com/2018/10/and.html
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUOKkH_jmQZXrbjNllcvfHQ/
















Right now I plan to do two full divisions of Mostly Romans.
The two divisions  will be clones of each other made up of 2 units of Hastati, 2 units of  principes, 1 unit of Triarii, 1 unit of Velites, then supplemented with one unit of Celtic Light Cavalry and Numidians (since Roman Cavalry are notoriously poor fighters).  In Hail Caesar! when one plays with points you must take Hastati and Principes in pairs, and you can take one unit of triarii for every two pairs of Hastati and Principes.

I want to start some other projects once these two forces are finished but I am wondering what my third division should be.  Should I buy more Romans and make a third maniple style division?  Perhaps a Gallic division? Italian allies (Samnites / Umbrians)? Spanish? What do you all think? I like everything from this era so I may end up doing it all anyways! 


Offline Utgaard

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #1 on: October 16, 2018, 05:51:35 AM »
Nice collection so far, hope to see more soon  :)

Online Erik

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #2 on: October 16, 2018, 12:44:36 PM »
I would definitely go for a Spanish army with lots of Celtic units. Then you can always expand on that Gallic army you always wanted.

Very nice miniatures by the way.


Cheers

Erik

Offline FierceKitty

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #3 on: October 16, 2018, 02:40:40 PM »
You legionaries are a delight, and I'm glad a few other gamers agree they must have decorated their shields.
The laws of probability do not apply to my dice in wargames or to my finesses in bridge.

Offline Wiegraf

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #4 on: October 16, 2018, 09:33:00 PM »
Thank you all for the comments!

Quote
I would definitely go for a Spanish army with lots of Celtic units. Then you can always expand on that Gallic army you always wanted.

The Spanish seem like the best choice.  They were long associated with Roman forces.  That and I can use them for Carthage too when I make my own. 

Quote
You legionaries are a delight, and I'm glad a few other gamers agree they must have decorated their shields.

I originally was just going to do yellows and reds on the shields, but then I got a hold of some vVV decals and liked them, so I decided to do them all up.  Triarii are going to have fancier LBMS decals :) 

Offline MGH

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #5 on: October 17, 2018, 05:04:48 AM »
Excellent work, they look great.
I would go with Spanish too. They were a tough opponent for the Romans plus they fought for Carthage too. Also as auxiliaries for Rome on occasion.

Offline FierceKitty

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #6 on: October 17, 2018, 10:17:27 AM »
My last three games have been Iberians vs Celts. Spectacular.

Offline jamopower

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #7 on: October 17, 2018, 01:18:26 PM »
Really nice and thematic work. The close up photo looks like some old painting.

Offline Hu Rhu

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #8 on: October 17, 2018, 08:54:21 PM »
Lovely figures.   :-* :-*

You are spoilt for choice with the Victrix model range.  I would plump for an Allied Italian Legion using a mix of Samnite figures (they have more energetic poses) and the Allied Legion Figures or a Spanish contingent for my allies.  Choosing Gauls limits you to the very early battle on 2nd Punic War. Thereafter they sided with the Carthaginians.  The Numidians are a good choice but only for the last battles including Zama.

Whatever you choose I'm sure you will have a lot of fun with the Hail Caesar rules.  Our previous campaign worked really well with a set of home grown campaign rules that allowed table top battles using them.

Offline Wiegraf

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #9 on: October 18, 2018, 04:54:34 AM »
Thanks for all the compliments everyone!  Seems most people favour the Spanish. Think I'll do them first (after a number of other projects!)

Quote
My last three games have been Iberians vs Celts. Spectacular.

That sounds like an excellent game.  I'd love to see photos of that. 

Quote
You are spoilt for choice with the Victrix model range.  I would plump for an Allied Italian Legion using a mix of Samnite figures (they have more energetic poses) and the Allied Legion Figures or a Spanish contingent for my allies.  Choosing Gauls limits you to the very early battle on 2nd Punic War. Thereafter they sided with the Carthaginians.  The Numidians are a good choice but only for the last battles including Zama.

Aye, that I am.  I've got all three Republican Legionnaire boxes and a few extra sprues to boot. Here's how I set up my legions:

  What I've done is given the Hastati a mix of  Pectoral armour or converted skirmishers into Hastati without body armour. There is a mix of the odd unit commander in chain or special helmet..  and the odd fellow in simple Italian allied style disc or square chest armor (whatever it is called) just for a bit of variance among the Hastati.   I've given 1 / 2 unit a "full command" , that is a musician, a clear leader model, and a standard bearer if you use Warhammer terms :P

Next my Principes are decked out in Chainmail to differentiate them from the Hastati. Their heads are all the feathered plumes, as you can see in my photos.   Only some of the unit commanders sport breast plates and fancier helmets.   

Next my Triarii are the most unique.  I've taken pieces from the Italian allied legionnaire boxes (the body plate) and mixed in bodies with the victrix chain bodies.  Next, I use helmets from all the Italian allied box set as well as the Victrix Samnite infantry box set.  I think a lot of people picture the Triarii to be wearing only ital-corinth helmets and chainmail with their long spears, but to me the Triarri are veterans - they've seen a lot and although they may have access to the best gear I wanted to make them the most unique looking, heroic units in the army.  In this way they'll have the most variance between each individual soldier and look quite different from my Hastati and Principes. Each one looks like his own special character, with his own special shield. 

My skirmishers are simply wolf hide velites or javelin men where appropriate.   

For Cavalry I am sticking with just light cavalry for now.  I have a single unit of Gauls running around and plan to do up some Warlord Numidian Cavalry. I also have Spanish light cavalry as well, and I think I'll do all three and switch them up for the different scenarios and wars. 

As for the Samnites and Spanish, I think you are right. They are the best choices.  I have hardly used any of the Italian allied legionnaire bodies. I plan to do some simple conversions to them by giving them mostly javelins and different types of shields. I will try to model them after the"Linen Legions" to be used in the Samnite wars, but then I can also place them to be used in the Roman armies as allies.  I can also use them in a Carthage based army.  I also have a box of Victrix armored Samnites, so those will fit in well for both Carthage and Rome , and the Samnite's own army. 

I only have the Spanish cavalry and some really old, out of date metal gripping beast scutarii.  But since I have so many left over skirmish bodies and quite a few bits from the cavalry set I think I can convert a good chunk of them into ancient Spanish forces, again to use in Carthage and Rome. 

I will do all of this, but I think I'm just going to get my Romans done, and then do another project, so I can have painting variation in my life :P  Initially the army will be something like 5 units of Hastati, 5 units of Principes, 2 units of Triarii, 2-3 units of velites, 2-3 units of simple skirmishers, and two light cavalry units.  One unit of Principes I plan to give long spears and make stubborn as described by the Hail Caesar! rules.. .  I've been told that this isn't really historically accurate for principes during the time, but I would like to have some variation among the Romans core units.  It's only one unit, anyways :P
« Last Edit: October 18, 2018, 04:59:26 AM by Wiegraf »

Offline Hu Rhu

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #10 on: October 18, 2018, 08:17:37 PM »
That sounds pretty good to me.  I have organised my Romans on very similar lines with a mix of pectoral armour for the Hastati and used a fair few Italian heads mixed in with my legions.  I have also used some of the Agema kneeling bodies for my Triarii.

I really recommend using the Spanish Victrix foot figures as they capture the look perfectly but the other roman velite and unarmoured bodies are too generic and barely make a good spaniard.

Offline Wiegraf

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #11 on: October 18, 2018, 09:19:09 PM »
Sounds like you have an awesome army.   I had tons of Agema models as well, but I ended up selling them off. The pilum and helmet plumes broke far too often for my liking. 

Quote
I really recommend using the Spanish Victrix foot figures as they capture the look perfectly but the other roman velite and unarmoured bodies are too generic and barely make a good spaniard.

I ordered a single sprue of Victrix spanish infantry on eBay to get the feel of them. I agree with your statement about the generic look - to doctor it up I was going to give them the various Spanish swords and cavalry heads that the victrix cavalry pack comes with. I have tons of them and I think it would be enough.  That and I own many Numidian oval shields that came in the Numidian infantry set - but even then with that combination they don't have the Spanish style of clothing that I would like.. so chances are I go and buy a box of Victrix ones later on as well.   

I also have 300 points worth of Late Republican Romans in my collection and they can also bring Spanish warriors as mercenary troops.. ah, it might just be best to buy a whole box of the Spanish infantry after all. :) Can find many uses for them for the Republican armies and Carthage.

Offline Wiegraf

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #12 on: November 05, 2018, 06:19:36 AM »
Got some Principes done... slowly I'll replace the mercenary division of non-Romans with proper Romans and Italian allies ;)


Offline Utgaard

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #13 on: November 05, 2018, 09:54:10 AM »
Very well painted!

Offline Hu Rhu

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Re: Hail Caesar! - Growing forces in the Punic Wars
« Reply #14 on: November 05, 2018, 11:07:06 AM »
Very nice indeed. :-*