15mm Carthaginian Sacred Band

One of the few units to be made up of actual Carthaginians as opposed to mercenaries, the Sacred Band were well-armoured citizen spearmen who fought in a spear phalanx. They were highly-regarded troops but were wiped out twice, once in Sicily against the Greek Timoleon who surprised them while crossing the Crimissus River and the second time in Tunis, after which they were never reformed. Consequently they are only included in early army lists, but are a more than useful addition for Carthaginian armies of that period:

The citizens forming the Sacred Band apparently equipped themselves with expensive armour, so I depicted them all with bronze armour and shields which is in line with some interpretations of what they may have worn:

The command figures were drawn from the usual Xyston Carthaginian command pack, although I selected those which looked earlier appearance:

The figures are as usual Xyston, with eight stands and thirty-two figures in all:

Next up will be some citizen spearmen, and then the cavalry, elephants and chariots to complete the army.