The Plan: Part II

This installment in my series on mapping out my four-army Macedonian and Punic Wars project will focus on the Punic Wars contingent — Hannibal's Carthaginian army, and a Republican Roman force to oppose him.

With an ambitious scheme forming, I went back to my initial Cannae project. These two armies (Hannibal's Carthaginians and Republican Romans) would constitute half of my four-army project, and half of the factions in my planned campaign.

Map of Cannae, courtesy of livius.org

Order of Battle

First I determined an OOB for Cannae by choosing reasonable troop-estimates from the (often self-contradicting) Wikipedia article (because yes, I am that lazy), and boiling those down to numbers which I felt would work equally well in Hail Caesar, Warhammer Ancient Battles, or any other ruleset suitable to large numbers of 28mm figures, which gave me:

Hannibal

Heavy Infantry — 8,000 Libyans; 8,000 Iberians; 16,000 Gauls (half left out of action as camp-guards); 5,500 Gaetulians

Light Infantry/Skirmishers: 8,000 (Including Balearic Slingers and "mixed nationality spearmen")

Cavalry — 4,000 Numidian; 2,000 Iberian; 4,000 Gallic; 450 Liby-Phoenician

Varro

4-8 Roman Legions with accompanying Latin Auxilliary Alae

1 Legion: 1,200 Velites/Leves, 1,200 Hastati, 1,200 Principes, 600 Triarii, 300 Equites [1];
Total: 4,200 infantry, 300 cavalry

1 Latin Ala: Identical, but with 900 cavalry rather than 300.

(Polybios [2] asserts that the legions were raised at "emergency strength" of 5,000 infantry and 300 cavalry; Alae at 5,000 foot and 900 horse).

The Roman figures are difficult to pin down for two reasons: firstly, the practice of using "emergency-strength" legions, with more men than the standard, and the fact that losing 90,000 men in a single battle stretches the boundaries of plausibility. That said, every source agrees that Hannibal was heavily outnumbered, so I essentially decided to just fudge the specific numbers and make sure the ratios were correct-ish.

As for Carthage, the precise ratios (1:1:1:1 Libyan/Iberian/Gallic/Skirmishers) makes coming up with a representative army-plan simpler, but there are still a few sticking-points. For instance, the Gaetulians. I had a devil of a time figuring out who precisely they were — a North-African Berber tribe, probably not too-dissimilar from the Numidians, except even less civilized, and notorious for wearing animal skins and living off milk and raw meat. Most representations of them seem to depict them as fast-moving, unarmoured warriors, practicing a skirmish-centric combat style (again, much like the Numidians). Why then are they listed under heavy infantry?

As best I can tell, this is a fairly accurate depiction of Gaetulian Infantry. From the Ancient Empires mod for Total War: Attila

Since there are no options for Gaetulian figures of which I am aware, I decided to simply erase them from my army-plan for the moment, and drop the extra 5,500 men into my Light Infantry total.

Which brings us to the next sticking point, Light Infantry being described as "mixed nationality spearmen". I presume this is due to the difficulty of Polybios referring to Javelinmen as ""Peltasts" or "Peltophoroi" and "Peltophoroi" being confused with pelta-bearing Phalangitai. This has led to many translations of Polybios referring to "Light infantry and pikemen" being sent on missions that should be given to skirmishers, such as occupying hills in front of the main body of troops. Luke Ueda-Sarson wrote an excellent, convincing, and exhaustive pair of articles on this subject.

Suffice it to say, I feel comfortable counting these as light infantry and skirmishers, and slotting in the Caetrati here so I can have more Iberians since they are my favorite component of Carthaginian armies. Alongside the Caetrati and Balearic Slingers (of whom 8 is probably far too high a number, since most armies had fewer than 1,000 slingers, but any fewer than 8 figures wouldn't feel or look right on the table, so I'm comfortable fudging this) a contingent of Libyan Javelinmen is included as well (wouldn't be "mixed nationality" if they were all Iberian!).

Victrix Unarmoured Iberians equipped as Caetrati; Photo from the Victrix Store-Page

After playing around with the numbers a good deal, I arrived at the following figures:

Carthaginian

Heavy Infantry: 48 Liby-Phoenician Spearmen, 48 Gauls, 48 Iberian Scutari
Skirmishers: 16 Libyan Javelinmen, 8 Balearic Slingers, 16 Iberian Caetrati, 16 Gallic Javelinmen
Cavalry: 24 Gallic Cavalry, 24 Numidian Cavalry, 12 Iberian Cavalry (the 450 Punic cavalry would be represented by Hannibal and his standard-bearer)
Total: 260 miniatures (200 Infantry, 60 Cavalry)

Republican Roman

Infantry: 2 Roman Manipular Legions and 2 Latin Alae Socii each consisting of roughly 12 Velites, 24 Hastati, 24 Pincipes and 12 Triarii per legion/Ala for a total of 48 Velites, 96 Hastati, 96 Principes, and 48 Triarii
Cavalry: 6 Roman Equites and 18 Allied Equites (deployed as 2x12 Equites
Total: 312 miniatures (288 Infantry, 24 Cavalry)

Getting the Armies on the Table

The feasibility of such a vast undertaking, as I mentioned previously, hinged on the large (and increasing) variety of plastic kits available. For the Punic Wars half of my project, I decided I would rely primarily on Victrix miniatures, supplemented with Warlord Games and the beautiful Agema Miniatures legionaries and Velites boxed-sets.

Agema Miniatures' Princeps, Hastatus, and Triarius

In particular, Victrix's releases of Iberian infantry and cavalry, and Numidian cavalry would be essential, as would their current Carthaginian and Roman sets. Since I find the Agema legionaries far more aesthetically pleasing than the Victrix, I decided that I would use three boxes of Agema legionaries (each provides 16 Hastati, 16 Principes, and 8 Triarii) for the two Roman Legions, and Victrix's Pectoral and Allied Auxiliary sets, each providing 60 figures including Leader/Standard/Musician commands, of which all can be constructed as Hastati/Principes, up to 18 as Velites, and 18 long spears for Triarii/Extraordinarii, for the Allied Legions (Alae Socii).

Victrix Italian Allies, from the Victrix store-page

The trick to the Victrix Roman sets is their versatility. Each sprue comes with six armoured bodies (chainmail, pectoral, or a mix for the Allied box) and two unarmoured, 2 bucklers and 8 scutum shields. So the unarmoured bodies can be given javelins, bucklers, and skirmisher heads to operate as Velites, or scutae, pilae, and legionary heads, to operate as unarmoured Hastati (the different units of the legion being most easily differentiated by including a mix of unarmoured and pectoral for Hastati, pectoral/chainmail for Principes, and chainmail/musculata cuirass for Triarii). This means you can build up to 18 Velites, or use all the unarmoured bodies as legionaries, and so on.

In order to get 48 Hastati, 48 Principes and 24 Triarii out of two Victrix Roman sets, the latter is the route I would have to go, and as such this necessitates the additional purchase of 3 boxes of Agema Velites (48 total, 12 per legion/ala).

Victrix has a running army deal called the "Victrix/Aventine Roman Infantry and Cavalry Deal" which includes any two Roman legionary boxes plus 12 (excellent-looking) Aventine Miniatures Equites for about $100 (dependent on the fluctuating USD/GBP exchange-rate). This is perfect for the project, as it provides almost half the Romans I need for a very affordable price.

Victrix/Aventine Deal

Victrix's newly-announced Greek/Macedonian Cavalry set will provide figures wearing bronze musculata cuirasses and Boeotian helmets, with options for spined cavalry shields and javelins/shorter spears (shorter, that is, than the Companions' Xyston) which could easily be made serviceable as Republican Roman Equites. The Republican cavalry are thought to have switched from bronze cuirass to chainmail sometime around the end of the 2nd Punic War, but it is very likely that both would have appeared side-by-side during the 50-year or so transition period, particularly since pre-Marian Roman soldiers purchased their own equipment. Depending on how Victrix's plastics scale up with Aventine's metals, it may even be possible to put a mix of figures in my two units of Equites. Warlord has also just released a Caesarian/Late Republican Equites set, which is another option for the second half of my needed Roman cavalry (though Warlord only provides 10 figures per box).

 For Hannibal's army, the Victrix Carthaginian box contains 48 Liby-Phoenician heavy spearmen (24 "Veterans" in Roman equipment, and 24 "regulars" in Hoplite panoply) along with 14 Libyan Skirmishers, which nearly covers the African infantry contingent.

"Hannibal's Veterans" by Victrix Ltd.

Two boxes of Victrix Iberians (one armoured, one unarmoured) would provide enough for 2x24 Scutarii and 2x16 Caetrati (slightly more than I need, but I really like Iberians so I'm not complaining), with one-quarter (8) of the Caetrati wearing armour, and one third (16) of the Scutarii unarmoured (by combining the two boxes) for a more realistic and aesthetically pleasing variety within the units.

Two boxes of Warlord Games Celts would give me 80 Gauls, more than enough for the 48 Warband and 16 Skirmishers I would need; the excess can be built with a higher proportion of shirtless torsos and painted with blue pants and white/blue shields and provide a Galatian contingent (though Victrix has let slip on their Facebook page that they will probably be releasing their own Gallic Celt sets, probably including cavalry, so I may bide my time and see what they look like before choosing between the two manufacturers).

For the Balearic slingers (of whom I want more than were probably present at the battle because they're cool) I had a couple of options, but will most likely use the slingers which come with the Victrix Peltast set (which I need to buy for my Successors armies anyway); alternatively, Victrix makes their own Balearic Slingers, but these don't look that different from the Greek slingers, and 12 of the Balearics come to a set, which is more than the 8 I need. I may eventually buy proper Balearic Slingers anyway, but the goal is to get these armies up and running ASAP, so in the meantime, Greeks will suffice.

Victrix Iberian Cavalry, courtesy of Victrix Facebook page

For the cavalry, Warlord Gauls (10 per box) and Victrix's Iberians and Numidians are the only options in plastic, and both companies' offerings look great. At roughly $24 USD (£19.95) for 12 cavalry from Victrix, their pricing blows metal competitors out of the water (Warlord's are a bit pricier and are plastic/metal hybrids, but still more affordable than the metal options I've been seeing).

572 miniatures, and that would only be two of the four total armies! Obviously, this would have to be more of a long-term goal, in the immediate term, simply getting armies that were large enough to use would have to suffice.

With these plans laid out for my Western factions, I will next turn to the Eastern Mediterranean...

DISCLAIMER: I am not a paid spokesman for any of the miniatures manufacturers whom I have linked in this post; I am linking to anything I refer to that I think someone might want to easily learn more about, because this series of intro-posts is intended to be a useful source of information, particularly for people who are new to historical wargaming and interested in getting started in this era.

Sources:
[1] Nic Fields: Roman Republican Legionary. Osprey (21-22)
[2] Polybius: Histories. 3.107.