HaT 8058 Carthaginian AlliesA Review by Stephen Montague
(scanned at 72dpi & 100% - this is pretty much their actual size) You get four of these sprues per box of figures. Total of 48 miniatures. This gives you a total of...
The quality as you can see is good however the set I got had some flash on the figures. Looking at the individual figures the Gauls are rather strange in that the detail is there but indistinct. Hat have also been coy about the nudity using the swords mans shield to cover up the naughty bits and simply neutering the javalinman. All in all rather disappointing. There are no problems however with the Celtiberians these are nicely done though the poses are a little static. The two Lusitanians are good figures nicely detailed and quite a good pose. The Libyans are also good the pose of the advancing figure being particularly good. Putting the figures in descending order best to worst will get you the following list...
All in all a good set let down by the Gallic figures. For suggestions about how to use them see below.
(Close up (aprox 200%) of the top half of the sprue...)
(...the middle...)
(...and the bottom half) What can you use these figures for? The following are suggestions for using the set for DBA armies.
Carthaginian The most obvious use is the one that Hat had in mind, namely providing the various contingents for a Carthaginian army. In this case this set would be most useful for DBM, but for DBA it would provide 3x3 Wb (Celts),1x2 Ps (Libyans or Lusitanians)and possibly 1x3/4 Ax using the heavily equipped Lusitanian. Gallic For an early Gallic army this set will provide 5x3 Wb elements for the rest of the army including chariots get the Hat/Airfix ancient Brits. Alternatively if you already have the Italeri Gauls use the naked figures from that set as this will give you enough warriors to provide all the Wb elements you need. Celtiberian and Lusitanian To create these armies I would suggest you also get a box of Hat's Carthaginian Spanish infantry and when they become available the Spanish cavalry. The Celtiberians need another two elements of Wb to provide these mix in a few (fully clothed) Celts if you have them, if not use scutarii from the Spanish infantry set. The Ps can be provided from the caetrati in the Spanish infantry set though I would suggest you make one element Balearic slingers using figures from the same set. The Lusitanians need six or seven elements of Ps so again use the caetrati figures from the Spanish infantry set. You will need 3x3 Ax, for these mix the heavier equipped Lusitanian figure with the scutarii from the Spanish infantry set. Note all Lusitanian infantry were supposed to carry the small round shield so you will either have to ignore this or be prepared to do some work replacing shields if you use the scutarii from the Spanish infantry set. Lusitanians can also use 1x3 Wb instead of one of the Ps. These are Celtiberians who can be provided for by this set. Libyans To make a Libyan army you would need two boxes of figures and be prepared to scratch build a chariot or if you are using an army from after 200 BC 1x2 LH. Unfortunately the Libyans cant even be used in other peoples armies except for Carthage and perhaps Marian Roman but even here you only need 2 element and this box provides six. For the adventurous among you who fancy a Libyan army here are a few notes on how they looked. They wore a red tunic and may have painted parts of their body red though this is more likely to have been tattoos. The different tribes had different hairstyles apart from the one depicted. One tribe had their hair long at the front another long at the back. A third shaved the left of their heads and let the hair grow long on the right possibly gathering it into a braid. Plenty of scope for conversion there! For the command element try using the Numidian light cavalry as the chariot would be a rather complex scratch building program. Stephen [Thanks Stephen, that's great! If anyone want's to contact the author, please click here. Nick] 
Get your own Free Homepage |
