HaT Carthaginians
A Review

(Webmaster's note: This review was taken from a New Zealand site. The reviewer and author of the site is a DBA gamer, so reviews it from a DBA point of view. Many thanks to Nick Grant for this authoritative look at the HaT sets.)

The web master from HaT has very generously sent me some spare samples he had lying around of some of the newly released Punic war series - #8019, Hanibals Carthaginians, Spanish Infantry and #8020, Hanibals Carthaginians, African Infantry.

HaT #8019, Hanibals Carthaginians, Spanish Infantry

(Box art copyright Hat - reproduced with kind permision)

#8019, Hanibals Carthaginians, Spanish Infantry contains four [identical] sprues with:

•   6 Scutari (Spanish Heavy Infantry) with helmets, swords (two poses) or spears (two poses) and large oval shields.



•   3 Caetrati (Light Infantry) with plumed helmets, small shields and spears (two figures) or a sword (one figure).



•   and 3 Baeleric Slingers, running around with head bands and bare feet.
on each spure. So that makes 24 Scutari (6 Blade elements), 12 Caetrati (3 or 4 Auxilia) and 12 Slingers (6 Psiloi).




HaT #8020, Hanibals Carthaginians, African Infantry

(Box art copyright Hat - reproduced with kind permision)

#8020, Hanibals Carthaginians, African Infantry contains four [identical] sprues with:

•   6 Heavy Infantry (5 with spear (in three poses - three one pose, with the other two in two different poses), one with sword, all in Hoplitish armour (for the lack of a better term!) with plumed helmets, round shields and greaves)



•   3 African Light Infantry (two with spears, one with sword, large oval/rectangular shields and helmet)



•   and 3 Numidians (bare headed (and footed), tunics, round shield and spear).
on each sprue. So that'd make 24 Heavies (6 spear elements), 12 Light's (3 regular auxilia) and 12 Numidians (4 auxilia/6 psiloi depending on what you do with them).

The figures themselves are nice, well moulded and clean with very little flash on them. And all of the poses are actually usable! Not a crouching figure to be seen - a nice change when compared to all the other plastic figures I've come across!! Great value for money.




Ok, so what can you do with them (in DBA terms)?

[For the un-initiated, DBA (or De Belles Antiquites) is a nice simple fast playing set of wargame rules for fighting ancient battles, requiring only 12 elements per side (an element is a number of figures stuck onto the same base, from 2-7 depending on the troop type). They are designed for 2 mm, 10 mm, 15 mm or 25 mm figures. The scale best suited for 1/72 (20mm) plastic figures is 25mm (they actually fit nicer on the 25mm bases than 25mm metal figures. The later are just too big!).

DBA recreates combat with no record keeping and a minimum of dice rolls. All elements are classified according to how they fought, not according to what they were armed and armoured with. Mounted elements are divided into Knights (Kn), Cavalry (Cv) or Light Horse (LH), infantry are either Bow (Bx), Blades (Bd), Spears (Sp), Pikes (Pk), Warband (Wb), Auxilia (Ax) or Psiloi (Ps).

All units are on identical width bases, and square off to fight each other. Each element has a basic combat factor versus foot or mounted depending on what classification it is, and these factors are affected by terrain, supporting ranks if applicable, and whether your flanks and rear are secure.

It is quite easy to create an [infantry] army out of one box of plastic figures. The battles are played on a 4' by 4' surface (for 25mm armies), one of which I was able to pick up from a second hand building supplier for $5.50 NZ. Thus, when these rules are combined with plastic figures, they are ideal as an introduction to wargaming.

They require very little financial outlay to get started, are quick and easy to learn (most people having grasped the hang of the rules half way though their first game), widespread (it would be hard to find a group of Ancient's wargamers that doesn't contain someone who plays DBA), and, most importantly, DBA is fun to play.]

Ok, on to the army lists that can be pulled together using these HaT figures.

Well, the first thing that comes to mind are...

Later Carthaginians 275BC-146BC (DBA list #31b)
2*3Cv	Gallic Cavalry	HaT #8023 - Celtic Cavalry
2*2LH	Numidian Cavalry	HaT #8024 - Numidian Cavalry
2*4Sp	African Spearmen	HaT #8020 - African Heavies
2*4Ax	Spanish Scutari	HaT #8019 - Spanish Scutari
2*3Wb	Gallic Warband	Revel Gauls/Celts or Esci Barbarians
1*2Ps	Baeleric Slingers	HaT #8019 - Baeleric Slingers
1*El  or 3Ax	African Elephants  or Italian Auxilia	Model Elephant with Hat Numidian Cavalry crew  or HaT #8019 - Spanish Scutari / HaT #8020 - African Light Infanty

(Please note that I have pillaged the above list from the excellent DBA Resource Page, specifically from the Carthaginians page. Please visit this page for a much more in depth look at this army.)

Ok, so you'd need to get both Carthaginian packs (#8019 & #8020) plus the Celtic Cavalry (#8023) and Numidian Light Horse (#8024) packs (and Roman Cavalry (#8021) if you want to use the Greek Cav option), but once you've got those, you could then turn around and pull together Later Hoplite Greeks, Syracusan, Ancient Spanish and Numidian armies without having to get any more figures.





Later Hoplite Greek 450BC-375BC (DBA list #32)

The end of this list coincides with the start of the Later Carthaginian one, so I figure the spearmen at the end of the Greek list will be wearing pretty much the same thing as the spearmen at the start of the Later Carthaginian list. Of course, this would be even more the case if you use the Early Carthaginian list (550BC-275BC, DBA list #31a).

Later Hoplites 450BC-375BC (DBA list #32)
1*3Cv  or 1*2LH	Cavalry	HaT #8021 - Roman Cavalry  or HaT #8024 - Numidian Cavalry
1*3Cv  or Art  or 2Ps	Cavalry  or Artillery (Bolt Thrower)  or Skirmishers	HaT #8021 - Roman Cavalry  or [Scratchbuilt artillery piece - though HaT do have some in the pipe line]  or HaT #8019 - Baeleric Slingers
4*4Sp	Spearmen	HaT #8020 - African Heavies
1*4Sp  or 3/4Ax  or 2Ps	Spearmen  or Auxilia(!)  or Skirmishers	Hat #8020 - African Heavies  or HaT #8020 - African Light Infantry  or HaT #8019 - Baeleric Slingers
4*4Sp  or 2Ps	Spearmen  or Skirmishers	Hat #8020 - African Heavies  or HaT #8019 - Baeleric Slingers
1*2Ps	Skirmishers	HaT #8019 - Baeleric Slingers

(Please note that I tried to pillage the above list from the excellent DBA Resource Page, but there wasn't a specific page for them! So, I just copied the list straight from DBA and added the troop "titles" as best I could - I respectivly suggest that if your looking for a definative list with accompanying notes on the Later Hoplite Greeks, this ain't it!)





Syracusan 410BC-210BC (DBA list #34)

By Steven Montague

[Steven Montague, the fellow who wrote the Ancient Spanish and Numidian army lists on the DBA Resource Page from which I have pilfered these lists, saw this review and has suggested another army that could be used with these figures. Thanks, Steven!]

Syracusan 410 BC - 210 BC (DBA list #34)
2x3Cv2xPs	Greek cavalry	HaT #8021 Roman Cavalry
1x2LH	Greek light cavalry	Hat #8024 Numidians
2x4Sp	Greek Hoplites	HaT #8020 Heavies
2x4Aux	[See Below]
2x4Sp  or 1x3Wb(Gaul)  + 1x4Aux(Spanish)	Greek hoplites  or	Hat #8020 Heavies  or Revel Gaul's  and Hat Spanish Scutarius
1xArt	Ballista	[Scratch built]
2xPs	Greek archers and slinger's	Hat #8019 Baleric Slinger's [Archers?]

Note: I think manditory Art is a mistake and should be an option instead of 1x2Ps or 1xArt




Auxiliaries were provided by:

Greek mercenary Theurophroi	Hat #8020 Light Infantry or HaT #8019 Spanish Scutarii without the long sinews helmet
Campainians or Samnites	Hat #8019 Spanish Caetratus / Scutarii without the long sinews helmet, or Hat #8018 Roman Haststii (with no armour).
Ligurians or Sikels	Don’t know. Sikels were natives of Sicily so were probably like Greek peltasts.

Steven





Ancient Spanish 240BC-20BC (DBA list #52)
1*3Cv	Iberian Heavy Cavalry	HaT #8023 - Celtic Cavalry
1*2LH	Iberian Light Cavalry	HaT #8024 - Numidian Cavalry (Just paint 'em Spanish!)
3*3Ax	Iberian Scutari	HaT #8019 - Spanish Scutari
3*3Ax  or 2*2Ps	Iberian Scutari  or Lusitanian Caetrati	HaT #8019 - Iberian Scutari  or HaT #8019 - Spanish Caetrati
1*3Wb  or 1*2Ps	Mercenary Celtiberians  or Lusitanian Caetrati	Revel Celts  or HaT #8019 - Spanish Caetrati
3*2Ps	Lusitanian Caetrati	HaT #8019 - Spanish Caetrati

(Please note that I have pillaged the above list from the excellent DBA Resource Page, specifically from the Ancient Spanish page. Please visit this page for a much more in depth look at this army.)





Numidian 215BC-25AD (DBA list #53)
4*2LH	Numidian Cavalry	HaT #8024 - Numidian Cavalry
4*2Ps	Numidian Foot	HaT #8020 - Numidian Foot
1*2LH  or 1*El	Numidian Cavalry  or African Elephants (armies of Juba and Jugurtha)	HaT #8024 - Numidian Cavalry  or Model Elephant with HaT Numidian Cavalry crew
1*2LH  or 1*3Cv	Numidian Cavalry  or Spanish Cavalry (Juba's bodyguard)	HaT #8024 - Numidian Cavalry  or HaT #8023 - Celtic Cavalry
2*2LH  or 2*4Ax  or 2*4Bd	Numidian Cavalry  or Roman trained foot, Spainish Scutari, or Ligurian deserters  or Imitation Legionaries	HaT #8024 - Numidian Cavalry  or HaT #8019 - Spanish Scutari  or HaT #8020 - African Light Infantry

(Please note that I have pillaged the above list from the excellent DBA Resource Page, specifically from the Numidians page. Please visit this page for a much more in depth look at this army (including a cover shot of one of Tony De Lyall's Numidians from this site!).)





So, there you have it. A couple of really useful packs that you could do heaps with, way more than just the five armies listed here. I would suggest, all things considered, that these packs are great value for money and are a very welcome addition to plastic wargaming. I heartily recommend them.

If you are interested in finding out more about wargaming with plastic figures, please visit Nick Grant's DBx Wargaming with 20mm Soft Plastic Figures.

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