Classical Armies for Fantastic Battles

I have sold off much of my 15mm Classical Antiquity collection, but decided to retain two armies for playing Fantastic Battles.  I don't intend to add to them.

 

My Carthaginian (-275 to -146) army, with three generals and 47 companies, weighs in at 1326 pts, without counting Strategies or Relics.

As befits cavalry of this period, none of those who make up the Carthaginian army are classified as Mounted.  Instead, they are Fast Irregular Companies.  Difficult terrain affects them less, but on the other hand they are neither particularly hard-hitting, nor resistant.  Some cavalry have Armour (for which I use Doughty).  The best mounted troops - the Carthaginian heavy cavalry and the Numidian light horse - are Drilled. 

Gauls, who make up around a third of the army, include some chariots.  Making them Reckless gives them extra speed and striking power, whilst making them very fragile, which seemed fitting, and classifying them as Berserk adds an element of randomness to their combat abilities.   

Eight companies of Gallic foot are one of the core elements of the army, and it is tempting to group them together with the new Horde rules.  They are Impulsive, of course, and have Feast.  No, not even the Gaesati ate their dead foes; this trait represents the invigorating effect of victory on their unit cohesion.  In initial testing, I have them Furious Charge, but given the bonuses the Horde rules already offer, I think that particular trait should be reserved for only very select units.  It would give a 4-company wide unit of charging Gauls no less that 32 dice !

The second core element of the army are ten companies of Italiote foot.  As Foresters they are very mobile; I made them Unreliable to represent the difficulties a multi-cultural Carthaginian army might face.  I could have characterised each Italiote people differently, but found that overly complicated.

For similar reasons, I used the usual makeup for the Numidian and Libyan light infantry, but made both the Italiote and Gallic psiloi both Rabble and Expendable. 

 

Their enemies, the Syracusan Greeks (-481 to -210), field three generals and 44 companies, for a total of weighs in at 1464 pts, again not counting Strategies or Relics.

Their cavalry follows the same model as their enemies; the Greek nobles are Proud, and the Tarentines are Drilled. 

The hoplites are divided up into three categories.  Both the Mercenary Bodyguard and the Greek Hoplites have Armour (Doughty), but the Syracusans, less able to hold a steady formation,  do not.   The Bodyguard (who are classified as an Elite Company) have Shieldwall, to reflect their cohesion.  Thanks to Regenerate, the Greek Hoplites can reform, locking shields or digging in the rear ranks, be it whilst taunting the enemy to charge, or in the heat of combat.   The Syracusans, on the other hand, are Rabble, but the Long Spears which of course all hoplites have in common, make them hard to tackle head on.

Syracuse's Gallic mercenaries are medium rather than heavy infantry.  Reckless enables them to close rapidly with the enemy whilst retaining striking power, whilst their fragility on the way in can be compensated by good use of Forester.  Syracuse being less renowned than Carthage for the treatment of its mercenaries, I make their Gauls Belligerent - they are more desperate but therefore also more dangerous to their supposed employer.

Giving both Ephemeral and Barrage to the Greek Peltasts seemed a good way to represent their tactics.  They are trained to manoeuvre through obstacles and friendly troops, to deliver a sustained volleys of javelins. Militia represents the fact that they can fight in hand-to-hand combat, but are not really designated for it.

Attributing Poison to the balistae, who only have two dice during shooting, helps ensure that they will likely do damage with both of them, no matter the target, unless of course they are firing at Skirmishers.

Syracuse's psiloi are both Rabble and Expendable, but have proven that they can still hold their own in rough terrain. The numerous Cretan archers, on the other hand, are a force to be reckoned with.