A Handful of Numidians and a 15mm Tibetan Camp

The recently-completed Roman command packs also included a figure of the Numidian King Massinisa and, as luck would have it, I found a spare pack of Numidian horse that had become lost in the Roman pile. This was perfect in terms of providing a couple of extra figures for another Numidian command element, with the others making up an additional element of light horse:

King Massinisa was the founder of the Numidian Kingdom and was initially allied with Carthage, marrying a Carthaginian noblewoman, although he later became a trusted ally of Rome (which is obviously why he was in one of the Xytson Roman personality packs).

While on the theme of utilising surplus figures, I also completed a couple of Tibetan camps using some left-over Tibetan figures, Forged in Battle livestock and a couple of Tibetan command tents I purchased from Baueda:

According to the Baeuda website, white tents were a sign of status and they were generally reinforced along the seams with strips of black cloth. I'll take their word for this as I am no expert in Medieval Tibetan military tent design, although I'm sure there is a PhD, or at the very least an Osprey, in there somewhere:

I have a fair bit more Baueda stuff to complete and really must do more of it as it is a very enjoyable diversion.

Now back to the Romans and the last unit in the form of some Itallian allied cavalry, which I should have posted by the end of the week.

15mm Numidian Army

Following the completion of the Numidan project I got all the figures together for a group shot. I actually completed this two weeks ago, but seem to have had a busy start to the year so have not had a chance to sort through these until now:

The army actually only took me six weeks in total to complete, including a dozen elements of light horse I finished in October, although the extra time at home over Christmas and New Year certainly helped.

I am quite glad however it didn't take me any longer than that because my motivation on this one seriously waned toward the end. Nothing to do with the quality of the figures as the Xyston sculpt are up to their usual high standard, but more as a result of the lack of diversity in troop type and the rather mundane attire:

I suppose the other thing is the realisation that they are unlikely to take the field that often as they are an army lacking any real strength, composed as they are mainly of light cavalry and infantry. They will however make a useful allied contingent for other armies and, who knows, if I can convince the others in the group to put up a similar army in opposition they may yet get a run or two.

The actual army is comprised of the following:

3 General/command elements
34 Light horse elements
35 Javelin-armed elements
23 Auxiliary infantry elements
8 Sling-armed elements
8 Bow-armed elements
3 Elephants

This gives a total of 250 foot and cavalry figures, 76 horses and 3 elephants.

Next, on to some 15mm Ancient/Renaissance Tibetans, and some Republican Romans. I plan to do both at the same time, so hopefully there will be enough variety in these two projects to keep me motivated for the next few months at least.

Last of the Numidians

I managed to complete the balance of my 15mm Numidian project over the Christmas/New Year break, and based them the following week. This was comprised of twenty-three bases of Numidian auxiliary infantry, and three elephants:

The auxiliary infantry can be rated either as inferior, or upgraded to ordinary if representing Roman-trained auxiliaries:

There was the usual mix of four poses among the infantry packs:

And the same number in the command packs:

I purchased three elephants, the maximum allowed in the DBMM army list, but just the basic Xyston model with a mahout on board thinking this was possibly more likely to have been utilised in battle by the Numidians:

Unfortunately the elephants look a bit shinier and darker here than they do in the flesh in spite of the usual Testor's Dullcote, but these are the first photos taken with a new iPhone, the one with three cameras on it (which still seems like overkill in spite of having the supposed benefits explained to me), so it will no doubt take me a while to adjust to the different resolution and lighting requirements.

That's this army completed. I'll hopefully have another post up with the final group shot within the next few days.

15mm Numidian Skirmishers

I have managed to make a fair bit of progress with the Numidian project over the last few weeks, including the completion of thirty-five elements of Numidian javelin-armed light infantry:

These are the usual mix of four different poses available in the Xyston packs of eight figures each:

As with the Numidian cavalry, I kept the colours fairly simple and gave them a mix of animal-hide shields:

I also managed to complete eight elements of bow-armed light infantry, and another eight of slingers:

I found these a little more interesting to paint, mainly because they were at least carrying some equipment in the form of a quiver for the bowmen and a bag of projectiles for the sling-armed figures:

I have also managed to complete a few elements of baggage train which I am just finalising at the moment, and hope to have up in a few days' time.

15mm Numidian Light Horse and Generals, and Roman Bath House

With the recent finalisation of my Carthaginian army I wanted to return to complete my remaining Numidian cavalry, having painted twelve elements in October. That left me with another twenty-two elements and three generals, or twenty-five elements in total:

The figures are again Xyston, with the usual mix of four rider poses among the light horses and another four poses in the general packs:

As with the earlier batch, I have tried to keep the tunic colours fairly tame, and kept to a few basic shield designs:

Apart from the generals where I incorporated a bit of colour:

That's thirty-seven elements now completed, with some Numidian skirmishers next in the queue:

I also managed to complete another Roman building in the form of a 15mm Forged in Battle Roman bath-house:

This is a solid resin building so no interior, but it is nicely proportioned:

I have one Roman villa left to complete, my intention being to then combine them all into two large terrain pieces for use in DBMM.

15mm Numidian Cavalry

I had originally hoped to complete these prior to a game we had last Saturday, but they didn't make it on to the table in time. I managed to put the finishing touches on them this week, before starting on some Carthaginian elephants:

As with the Carthaginians I have continued to use the Foundry North African skin triad on these figures, and selected a variety of horse colours and experimented with a few shield designs to try to mix things up a little:

The figures are as usual Xyston, with four different poses in each pack:

I have another sixty or so of these figures to complete, but for now it was nice to be able to paint something different before returning to complete the Carthaginian army, for which they will form a useful ally:

We lost the game on Saturday and it would be nice to think things may have turned out differently if these guys had been available, but Hannibal being killed played a larger part in our defeat. That's two generals in the last two games I have now lost so I am probably being a little careless with them, although we did manage to scrape through with a win in the previous game regardless.