Numidians for Saga: Age of Hannibal

The completed army

With a wave of enthusiasm following the release of Saga: Age of Hannibal I rushed out and bought a whole load of figures to make up several different armies. I finished the Gauls first (see my post from December last year), but while the Numidians were actually started before the Gauls it has taken me six months to get them finished. This was partly because I ended up buying a few more figures than intended - although following actual experience of playing with this universe on Tabletop Simulator I realise I'm going to need at least another elephant...
- Warlord
- 1 x Elephant
- 2 x Levy
- 6 x Warriors

This then is a short post with images of the completed army.

I find I have made up 9 points of troops as follows:

All figures are from  the excellent Victrix plastic figures range with the exception of the warlord. I replaced all the plastic spears with ones made from brass rod (method described here). In my view, Victrix spears are way too fragile for gaming without a lot of breakages happening. 

Basing was done by the usual method I use for desert terrain - textured with a mixture of filler, sharp sand, PVA glue and water, sprinkled over with very small stones followed by Chinchilla dust. Painted Crown Brown Sugar, highlighted Crown Biscuit - but with the addition of patches of War World Scenics Army Coarse Sand and some appropriate tufts from Gamers Grass. All figures are painted with Foundry paints.

Warlord, appropriately from Warlord Games

The warlord is the figure of Juba I of Numidia, appropriately from Warlord Miniatures. I would have converted one of the Victrix figures but this would have left me one man short of another unit! His horse is a bit thin compared to those from Victrix but even so this is a very nice figure. He's depicted with javelins (Numidian Warlords in Saga don't have javelins, but never mind). I gave him a plastic Victrix shield so tht he would better match the other troops, and replaced the javelin in his right hand with one made from brass rod, again to match the rest of the army.

One elephant (need one more...)

The elephant is a lovely model from Victrix. I added weight by filling the elephant body with plasticine on assembly. Shields added to the outside of the howdah were ones left over from a purchase of separate shields for use with my Iberians (still awaiting painting), bought from 1st Corps. 

Levy #1

Levy #2

While you can't beat transfers for shield designs, I wanted my figures to be similar enough to look good together, yet easily distinguished if separated into smaller units, so all the shields in the army are hand painted following some formulaic designs and a narrow range of colours. Using this method I have four designs for the levy (making up to four groups of six men), twelve for the warriors (allowing for twelve groups of four), and separate designs for the elephant crew and the warlord. Painting smaller numbers of the same design I have found also to be easier and quicker than bigger painting batches.

Warriors #1

Warriors #2

Warriors #3

Warriors #4

Warriors #5

Warriors #6

Victrix have done something really clever with these Numidian warriors which you probably won't notice until you put them beside other Victrix cavalry. These horses are smaller ponies, whihc in my opinion look spot on. Horse colours were chosen randomly based on advice on colours and expected proportions from reference books. I find if I am left to decide horse colours by myself I will get things wrong, so use Excel to help, with paint colours as advised by Kevin Dalimore in his excellent Foundry Painting and Modelling Guide book. This is particularly handy if like me you are colourblind. I intend to write a blog article about how I do this at some time in the future.

Looking forward to getting these chaps on the table soon!