THE CLASH OF SPEARS IS ALMOST UPON US!

It seems quite a while ago now since I signed up for the Clash of Spears Kickstarter, but here we are on the eve of the rulebook release and the dawn of a new, exciting era of Ancient skirmish gaming. As things stand today, Storm Dennis is preventing my copy of Clash from docking at some U.K. port or other. I've had my PDF copy for some time, but I'm not good at reading from a computer screen; I like to have the book in my hand and enjoy the feel of the paper!

In thirty odd years of wargaming, I've never been so enthusiastic about any set of rules, particularly so as skirmish rules for encounters in the ancient world have been very hard to find. Since signing up for the Kickstarter, I've added a few extra bits to my order and I've been looking at resources which should make playing the game more efficient. I decided upon green, yellow and red plastic counters to use as Activation Counters and I got some very small green dice to use as Fatigue Markers. I even had some customised Command Point dials made by Warbases. Of course, while the Kickstarting process has been winding its way to completion, I've been busily painting away to ensure that I have a couple of skirmish forces available so that I can start getting familiar with the rules as soon as that parcel lands on the welcome mat.

There are lots of reasons to love Clash of Spears and only having to paint half a dozen figures or so per unit is one of the main ones! These are my Celtic slingers, constructed from Victrix figures, with slinger hands from the Warlord Dark Age Warrior set attached. With no armour or shield, they will be vulnerable, but that is countered somewhat by their classification as skirmish specialists. I suspect they will be outgunned by their Balearic counterparts.

Still more painting to do; these will be 6 Juves or javelinmen when they are done. Identical stats to the slingers, they should be the youngest members of the tribe, but I have had to make do with the more mature figures from the set. There are a couple of Warlord Celtic heads in there as they have somewhat less facial hair than their Victrix equivalents. 

My Carthaginian host has acquired some re-based figures that I had painted previously, including these Iberian Scutarii. I love the Victrix Iberians and an Iberian warband is next on the Clash list after I've completed the Celts and the Carthaginians. The Scutarii have a host of traits in Clash, including 'wall of spears', 'guerrilla', 'impulsum' and 'determined', all of which makes them a very potent weapon, but I suspect quite difficult to use well.

I'm probably not going to use these Iberian Caetrati in my Carthaginian warband because I have a couple of Libyan javelin units to paint up, but there will certainly be plenty of them to be found when the Iberians start to take the field.

Backbone of the Carthaginian warband are the Punic Infantry, with lots of traits and those thrusting spears to inflict lots of damage. A bit time consuming to paint, especially the white fabric armour, they are one of my favourite troop types in the Carthaginian army.

Another re-based unit for my Clash Carthaginians are these wonderful Victrix Numidian horsemen. Somewhere down the line, I might even add a Numidian warband to my collection of Clash forces. The brilliant thing about the Numidians is that they can be used in Carthaginian, Roman and Numidian armies, so they can be employed in virtually every battle that you might fight! In Clash, they are 'mounted' 'marauders' and I think they will probably be one of the most feared troop types to be found in the Clash armoury.

So, just waiting for the effects of Storm Dennis to pass now, so that the rule set and associated goodies can be landed and delivered. In the meantime, lots more painting and basing to do to build up those warbands ready for action.