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!