Army choice - where to go with Italian Allies

Time for some maths!

I have a box of HaT's Italian Allies foot and another of horse.

I have a few elements already with my Later Carts.

Then, I have these:

What I can do with them is, II/8 Apulian/Campanian/Lucanian/Bruttian, or II/13 Samnite.

The Samnites are the most attractive (psychologically) but I would need:
1x3Cv, at least 10x4Ax, 1x2Ps (javelins) - and optionally 2 more 4Ax! Now if I reworked those 2x3Ax with my Later Carts, I could do that.

Apulians are next most attractive because they get 3 cavalry elements. The foot were (according to Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars) lightly armored. Some of the foot are like that, but the requirements are:
Apulian: 1xCvGen, 2x3Cv, 7x3Ax, 2x2Ps (javelin). Would I get 21 lightly armored rankers? No.

Campanians are next, with two cavalry. They were more of a Hellenistic style army, and require:
Campanian: 1xCvGen, 1x3Cv, 4x4Sp, 4x3Ax, 2x2Ps (javelin). This is quite viable, especially since I can use the round-shield foot as Hoplites and the Rhomboid and Scutum style shields as Warriors.

Finally Bruttian and Lucanian are interchangeable in fit-out. The challenge with these guys is the should have 2 Horde elements of peasants! Other than those the requirements are:
Bruttian/Lucanian: 1xCvGen, 9x3Ax or 4Ax, 2x2Ps (javelin). As I say the challenge would be the Hd. If I still had a full box of Airfix Robin Hood it would be easy - the quarterstaff-wielding mob would be a good fit.


These Italiots are the last army I know I can build out of what I have, for my 'Struggle for Italy' theme. I would like to have Syracusans but I probably don't have the material for that, aside from a bolt-thrower and some spare Greeks.

II/39 Ancient Spanish - Iberians

This weekend featured a 24-hour flu... and I revived today and polished off the Iberians!

A number of these were already built for my Later Carts, but here they all are:


Cavalry (long-shield) general, and round-shield light horse:

The standard born by the standard-bearer is a HaT standard. Though you can't see it from the front, the rider on the left has a minor conversion - he is a round-shield in the box so that gets chopped away and a long shield tacked over it.

Heavy foot (4Ax):

One element of these bad boys was already in my LtrCarts so to match it I had to find another four. Some of the HaT foot are very poorly moulded and once you carve away the mismatched sides, some stick-like legs result. I decided to leave a couple of faces mismatched, or there would be no face left!

Regular foot (3Ax):

Now in DBA there is no reason for Iberian to have 3Ax over 4Ax - but in terms of numbers of long-shield foot, I could only come up with this combination.

One interesting feature of the finish on the minis is that I have used a sharpie permanent marker to scrawl the shield motifs. The main advantage over painting is speed.

Caetrati skirmishers (2Ps):

Again, one element is part of the LtrCarts. I have a couple more, waving swords, but they are in reserve in case the Celtiberians need them. (If they ever get finished!)

The full army:

Getting my life back

Over the past 6 weeks I did this:*
http://www.stats.govt.nz/browse_for_stats/people_and_communities/maori/tatauranga-umanga-2016.aspx

But now with secondment over and hours of work not stretching over weekends, it's time to get my life (and painting minis) back on track.

I can hardly remember what my Iberians are up to, they are on all stages from nearly finished to base coated. And I have that side-track, Celtiberians, cluttering my table as well.

This evening I put flesh base (very dark indeed, flesh and sienna) on most of the foot.

*not single-handed, but yeah, mostly