Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Impetvs- Carthaginians and Celts

Work continues  (slowly) on my Carthaginian and Celt armies. Last night I painted up two stands of Spanish skirmishers (Caetrati) to finish off the 400 pt Carthaginian army and over Easter managed to paint up a couple of stands of armoured Celts to act as my heavy foot soldurii (VBU 6) in my Celtic army. These will be the heavy hitters and unlike the rest of the force are FP so somewhat slower on the tabletop. I was a bit ambivalent about the BTD Celt sculpts (though I do love the Germans)  but painted up they look fine and will add a few more as my warband grows. I now have 18 stands of Celtic Warband done so the army is getting to be a decent size and can easily make 500 + points. I need to paint up another 4 stands of rear rank warband and also 2 stands of Javelin armed skirmishers, overall though the army is getting there.

 400 pt Carthaginian Army

Command structure good
Commander: Fair (+2)
1x FP Veterans (Gen)
1x FP Libyans
2x FL Veteran Gallic Warriors
2x CL Numidian Cav
2x S Numidians
           
Commander: Fair (+2)
1x FP Veterans (Gen)
1x FP Libyans
2x CM Spanish  Cavalry
2x FL Spanish Scutarii
2x S Spanish Caetrati

At 500 pts I simply add 2x Carthaginian Vet cavalry and 2x elephants. Done






 



My latest 400 pt Celtic army is:
 Commander: Fair (+2)
2x CM Cavalry 
1x FL  Vet Warriors-large (Gen)
1x FL  Vet Warriors-large VBU 5
2x FL Warriors- rear rank
2x FL Warriors
2x S Javelinmen
           

Commander: Fair (+2)
2x CM Cavalry  
2x FP Soldurii (Gen)
2x FP rear rank (regular warriors)
2x FL  Vet Warriors-large VBU 5
2x FL Warriors- rear rank
2x FL Warriors
3x S Javelinmen





 Below: Warband (left) and Soldurii (right). There is quite a difference in size between the Foundry Celts (the three figures in the front rank on the left base) and the BTD armoured Celts (right). Both fit with the plastic Celts from Warlord though- the Foundry being slightly shorter and the BTD a bit taller and definitely chunkier. The general figure is Warlord Games metal and fits better with the BTD range, overall though as long as Foundry and BTD figures are on separate bases the difference isn't too bad and not enough to worry about.
Thoughts on using Warband armies in Impetvs
I really enjoy using the Celts and my Ancient German warband armies in Impetvs. They are unpredictable and hard to manage, and timing of the charge is everything so they take a bit of getting used to. Much more fun to use than the oh so predictable Roman Legionnaires.   The German especially suffer at the hands of the Imperial Romans whose interleaved auxillia cancel the Germans one ace, their Impetvs bonus, but even so they make for challenging and fun games.

With my Celtic/Gallic/Galatian army the smaller warbands act to protect the flanks and fill any gaps that emerge while the large warbands, operating in pairs, do the heavy lifting. I have found the key to their success is holding the warbands back on opportunity for a turn or two to see what develops. I tend to lead with a skirmisher screen of javelins and possibly cavalry to disrupt the enemy line before releasing the warband and then tryng to get into contact with the Impetvs bonus intact. Not exactly rocket science when it comes to tactics and cunning with this lot.

One thing I do want to experiment with is more FP for the Celts, being slower they won’t race off quite as quickly, but of course it means that they cannot dominate the bad going to the same degree. 

Craig

10 comments:

  1. Greate looking armys !!!

    Best regards Michael

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    1. Thanks Michael, it is hard to go wrong with hairy, unkempt barbarians. You just need lots of them to get the right "mass"

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  2. Greate AAR !

    Very nice looking minis !!!

    Best regards Michael

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  3. Very nice armies, the celts are a favorite of mine too, although mine still await rebasing for Impetus.

    I wouldnt worry too much about the different figure sizes, especially in a warband type army anyway, they look great to me!

    Steve

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    1. Cheers Yorkie

      As long as there aren't too many smaller Foundry's per base they should look fine, I am tempted to add a few A&A figures soon as well. It is an army that will definitely keep growing

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  4. Great looking armies, a fantastic work!
    Phil.

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  5. Thanks Phil, much appreciated.

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  6. Nice.....some of your Spanish are Crusader ? looks like it. Warbands are fun to use and trying to get them in en masse is definitely the key. Dispersing FL in amounts his FP's is very gamey hmmmm.....not fair :-( ....still what can you do. Bring up the skirmishers and pelt them to death.....all you can do and try and bring him out of position. Fun army, good luck with it :-)

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  7. Well spotted Tarty, those Crusader miniatures do have a face all of their own (Fred Flintstone-esque). They are not my favourite manufacturer for that reason, some aren't too bad but others are well, a bit weird looking.

    Re tactics, agreed but wargamers are wargamers and some are gamers first history/tactic geeks second. Makes it a bit more of a challenge but make victory all that much sweeter. Having the auxillia in front of the FP also allows them to blunt the charge and then the fP finish off my warband so its a bit of swings and roundabouts really. The best answer we have come up with is 4 or so commands and try to swamp them by hitting them all over the place- has brought my Germans the closest to victory yet. The Carthaginains not having any auxillia means my opponent is struggling to deal with the warband for a change :)

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    1. Yep auxillia FL and FPs combined is a cruel combination on warband based armies....nothing more to do but suck it up...... hahahaha :-) 4 commands eh ? interesting solution I must try that out, they would have been brittle though ( small ).

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