Newbie

[Eljas]

I've been wargaming the last few years with my brother mainly renaissance using piquet, band of brothers. My brother has started to paint two peninsular war armies using Republic to Empire. His painting has inspired me to have ago & as a result I have decided to delve into the world of Ancients. At the moment it is a painting project purely for stress relief, however in the future I would like to field two armies for a game (probably using Hail caesar). My question is I wish to paint Romans & either Macedonian or Carthaginians (as I love the thought of fielding Elephants & phalanx) however looking at different web sites I am unsure which Romans I would put against either of these opponents (my preference is legionaries carrying the rectangular scutum). Sorry for my naivety however as stated I am a newbie just after any friendly advice.

P.S fancy starting on an Elephant (any suggestions ?)

[BigMike]

Firstly hi and welcome to the Forum, good to have you on board!

Sadly if you're going to want to fight Carthaginians and phalanxes a lot you're going to want Republican rather than Imperial Romans (they're the guys with the rounded edges to the shields which come a little earlier in history. If you can find them in plastic you need to let me know, and i'll get interested really quickly!!
If it's elephants you're after i'd suggest you have a little look on the Aventine Miniatures website as they have some super ones.
Hope this help
Mike

[Eljas]

perhaps i need to re think my opposing armies ?

[zedeyejoe]

Again I would favour Republican Roman and Carthaginian, because:

Great battles
Both used the same allies, so allied units can be swapped between sides
The allied/mercenary troops are the starting points for so many other armies; Gallic, Spanish, Numidian, Greek, Hellenistic

so you are really getting good bang for your buck.

[Invisible officer]

The Republicans look very nice too.


Against them you can field Hellenistic forces from Greek or Asia, Punic forces, Spanish and not to forget Celts.

Battles against civilized armies, not only the barbarian horde type the later Romans mostly fought again. And not everybody fields them.

[Eljas]

Thanks guys for your replies and I think I will go with your suggestions. My only other question is - Aventine miniatures have been mentioned are they a good source of figure for all I need or are there any better suppliers or any that mix well ? Many thanks in advance.

[zedeyejoe]

I find this a very useful source of info for all sorts of info on 25/28mm gaming
http://warhammer.org.uk/phpBB/viewtopic ... 11&t=21409

[Eljas]

Invisible officer,

who manufactures those figures as I'm not sure which ones to use ?

[Invisible officer]

These are Foundry ones, no longer available. But there are some other makers that do nice ones. The beast Romans and others are nice.

[clivethecelt]

Renegade and Crusader do a whole raft of Punic Wars minis (Romans, Carthagians, Balearics, etc, etc).