Carthaginian Veterans for Clash of Spears.

Included in the Clash of Spears Carthaginian army list is a troop classification referred to as 'Veteran Punic Infantry'. These are not the infantry type normally found in Carthaginian armies, which represent the veterans in Hannibal's army in Italy during the Second Punic War and are usually depicted wearing captured Roman armour. The Veteran Punic Infantry class gives you the opportunity to field the more experienced troops, which could be found in Carthaginian armies prior to Hannibal's crossing of the Alps and are useful for games where Carthage faces other armies such as Celts, Syracuse or the many Iberian tribes.

These veterans offer something of a challenge for us ordinary gamers who rely on the Victrix Carthaginian boxed set for our troops, as the only 'veterans' included in there are the ones wearing captured Roman mail shirts. A recent post on the Clash of Spears Facebook page, showing a group of half a dozen veterans NOT wearing Roman armour has inspired me to spend some of my enforced isolation doing a bit of conversion work using an old box of Victrix Athenian hoplites I had tucked away in the cupboard at the back of the garage, which were going to be employed as Hoplites in a Syracusan Clash warband.

The core of the veteran infantry is a torso (and legs) from the Hoplite boxed set, which includes a figure wearing a bronze cuirass over a linothorax, which seems to me to be more appropriate for a soldier of veteran status than the Punic infantry figures found in the Carthaginian set. In the Clash lists, the Veteran Punic Infantry can be upgraded to full armour and this cuirass gives them that extra level of protection over and above the ordinary Punic spearmen.

The heads for these conversions are not a problem as the heads from the two boxes are completely interchangeable. More of a problem are the arms, as none of those in the Hoplite set have long sleeves like some of the Carthaginians do. The only solution I could think of, was to use the sleeved right arms, complete with the long spear, straight from the Carthaginian sprue and use Green Stuff to add a 'sleeve' to a bare Greek left shield arm from the Hoplite sprue. The advantage of doing this is that the large shield will cover up most of the left arm anyway, so if my sculpting wasn't quite up to the mark it wont be too visible! Of course, some of the hoplite arms do have a short sleeve which meant that they could be used either directly or with some minor conversion. The figure below has a right spear arm that was hacked completely from a Punic figure and trimmed to fit the somewhat thinner hoplite torso and a Hoplite shield arm with Green Stuff sleeve added.

The only other issue to solve, was that the Punic spearmen have their swords cast on as part of the figure, while the hoplites have a sword belt that needs to have a weapon attached. Because the swords are cast on, there are no swords on the Carthaginian sprue that can be used for this purpose. At this point, I assumed that my gallant veterans would have been involved in enough conflicts around the Mediterranean to pick up an assortment of weapons, so I have given them swords from Celtic, Greek and Iberian sprues.

If this unit had been for some other set of rules and needed a couple of dozen figures, I don't think I would have bothered doing the conversions but, only having six to do for Clash of Spears has made it an achievable, although challenging project. As my thinking progressed for this unit, I firstly considered using the 'Romanised' infantry from the Carthaginian set and accepting the chronological inconsistencies when playing games from the pre-Alps crossing period. Secondly, I thought that I could simply use the Punic spearmen from the Carthaginian boxed set and make them look a little grander by decorating them in some way that would make them stand apart from the other 'ordinary' spearmen. As it turned out, that chance encounter with a post on the Clash of Spears page sparked off, what has been a really enjoyable few days of modelling, and I have a unit which can be used in any Carthaginian warband, be it in Italy with Hannibal or fighting Iberian tribesmen in Spain or, indeed, trying to overcome the ingenious contrivances of Archimedes at the walls of Syracuse.

Carthaginians Completed for Clash of Spears.

It is one of the glories of the human spirit that, even in times of the greatest adversity, we can create something, no matter how inconsequential it may be in the greater scheme of things, that brings a little bit of light into our darkest of hours. This week, I put down my brushes having completed the painting part of the last unit of my Clash of Spears Carthaginian warband! Yes, I know it’ll not be remembered when the history books are written about these terrible times, but it made me smile and that ought to be something to celebrate.

According to the “Clashculator”, I have 804 points worth of troops, in 7 units for a total of 41 figures! They look like this:

My little skirmish force is made up of the following:

A Leader… haven’t really decided what level he is yet.

6 Balearic Slingers… no shield, no armour but plenty of hitting power from a range of up to 16 inches!

6 North African Javelinmen… small shield, no armour but some pretty impressive hair cuts.

8 Punic Spearmen… really enjoyed painting these and I think I might paint another lot so that the Iberian Scutarii can be used in an Iberian army when the sides fight against each other.

8 Iberian Scutarii… deadly throwing spears and more traits than you can shake a stick at! Most of these were originally Caetrati until I realised that Scutarii are supposed to be unarmoured in Carthaginian armies.

6 Veteran Punic Spearmen… the most challenging unit done so far as I wanted my veterans to look different to the ordinary spearmen, but I didn’t want to use the Roman equipped figures. These guys have Hoplite armoured bodies but arms converted by using Green Stuff to give the all important sleeves! Stick on a Carthaginian head and apply Carthaginian shield designs (from LBMS of course) and there you have it… armoured spearmen without the Romanisation!

And finally… my favourite unit in this or any other army… 6 Numidian Light Cavalry. I absolutely love these figures and, although I have no idea whatsoever how to handle cavalry properly, they will appear in every skirmish the Carthaginians fight, even if they end up just sitting at the back looking pretty.

Painting these 41 figures has taken a lot longer than it should have done, but then, since I first started working on them, long before Clash of Spears appeared on the horizon, I have painted a load of WWII Soviets, a whole Romano-British warband and a Celtic warband to fight against these guys, it is understandable really.

Bit of a painting break ahead for me, while I get these and the Celts based and ready for Clash of Spears. After that… more Clash stuff I think… can’t quite decide whether to use up my Victrix Iberians in an army of their own or go a bit off the wall and paint up a Syracusan warband with Hoplites and lots of Peltasts. Decisions! Decisions!