The use of elephants in war developed in Asia, and was first introduced into Europe following Alexander the Great’s campaign in India. After that, elephants were a popular element in Successor armies, but the first time that the Romans faced them was at the Battle of Heraclea, in 280 BCE, when King Pyrrhus of Epirus brought an army to southern Italy to help defend the inhabitants from a Roman invasion. That army included 20 elephants, and these are credited with winning him the battle as the Roman horses in particular were routed by these new and terrifying creatures. The following year the Romans faced Pyrrhus again, at the Battle of Asculum, but this time they thought they were ready for the elephants. They had fitted out 300 ox-carts with various devices to injure or frighten the elephants, but these seem to have been ineffective, since such carts were never used again. The Romans lost at Asculum too, and in future they would come up with other countermeasures for the elephant menace, but the story of these carts has caught the imagination of future generations to this day.

Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who lived centuries later, has left us a description of those wagons, but shamefully he did not provide sufficiently detailed specs to allow future modellers and wargamers to confidently recreate their look. He described wagons fitted with swivelling beams with tridents, spikes or scythed tips, and cranes that could hurl heavy grappling irons that were wrapped in tow and pitch and set alight. He said the Romans intended to shoot various missiles, opening the possibility that some had a ballista on board, and he said the wagons were protected by wattle sides, and driven by oxen. Over the centuries, several recreations based on this one description have been made, and the truth is no one knows exactly how they looked. The model you see above closely follows a reconstruction in the Nicholas Sekunda book listed below, which the author freely admits is entirely speculative.

The model has many details, some of which are not clear from our usual image, so there are popup closeups in this description, some with the roof removed. The wagon body is 34 mm wide and 45 mm long. It runs on four large, solid wheels, and the sides are sculpted as wattle, though only on the outside. Protruding from the front are two beams each 30 mm long, at the end of which is some burning material. The wagon has an opening on the front panel, through which a ballista is pointing. Motion is provided by a pair of oxen which are harnessed at the rear, driven by a pair of soldiers holding a bar (presumably a primitive steering device); one is holding a whip in the air. The wagon itself has a crew of four, two of which are handling the ballista at the front of the cab. There is a roof over this front section, so a closeup of the ballista and crew can be seen here. On the right of the cab there is an archer, and on the left, a man is controlling a long pole with a scythe on the end, pivoted on an upright.

So this model incorporates many of the described or implied features mentioned by Dionysius. It is as good a guess as any, but as we have said, no one knows what they looked like for sure, or indeed if they all looked similar. In our view the most debateable element here is the rear-mounted ox team. Doing it this way allows the wagon to get right up to the elephant, and have the flaming torches to the front, so it makes some sense, but it also delivers a number of new problems, most importantly how to steer. Using the mechanism modelled here looks to be extremely difficult at best, and other reconstructions generally have the oxen at the front, in the traditional manner, although clearly this would leave them very susceptible to enemy missiles as well as impeding the ability of the wagon to reach and scare the target. Since the reality will never be known, we have not scored this set for accuracy, but this model is plausible, and certainly makes for a dramatic vehicle.

The wagon is made up of a number of parts, all of which are 3D printed. Although there are no instructions on or in the box, we found it easy enough to put together. Some of the parts certainly need gluing, however, especially as the sides were slightly off-square, so needed convincing to stay in the holes of the wagon floor. As can be seen from our main photo, we found the roof section, which is a separate piece, was considerably warped, such that it did not sit well on the walls, and indeed would not reach the walls at all because it is interfered with by the heads of the ballista crew. Since it cannot have been printed like this, it is presumably a function of later bending as the material dried, but it really spoils the overall look. Whether all copies of this set suffer in the same way we do not know. The oxen team and their handlers were a bit more fiddley to put together, but nothing too onerous, and all the pegs fit into their respective holes pretty well. Since the material is hard, and there is no flash, no trimming is required (although the wheels are very tight, and benefit from slightly enlarging the hole), so you get a really good, satisfying model at the end.

All the crew figures are produced to the same high standards that we have come to expect of Linear-A 3D printed products. All are beautifully detailed, and in very natural poses with great proportions and plenty of action – this wagon is clearly in the midst of battle. The four crew in the wagon have no bases, but pegs on their feet which fit into holes in the floor, and the two animal handlers are moulded together as one single piece along with their control bar. All are dressed in much the same way, with unadorned Montefortino helmets, a full mail shirt over their tunic, and the usual ‘caligae’ boots; the archer provides the only variety by also wearing a cloak. We were not sure whether this was rather heavy protection for such wagon crews – clearly they would be at the front of any battle line, but would they have been so expensively protected? Most have a belt with a sword on their left hip, but that of the archer is on the right instead. The poses are perfect – the ballista crew really interact with their weapon, and the man with the pole is utterly convincing. The oxen too are well done and look completely realistic, with good poses that are not inhibited by the limitations of traditional injection moulding.

Other elements implied by Dionysius are missing, because you can’t get everything into one single wagon, but it is worth highlighting that the set contains just one wagon and crew. For some reason the kit comes in the most enormous box, but the actual contents could easily fit into a standard one. The back of the box shows a well-painted example, which helps with assembly, but also shows that to our eye no one has ever been able to paint flames realistically, so the front torches are not ideal in our opinion.

So this is a great set, with lots of interest and action. The warped roof does spoil what is otherwise a good kit, and the only problem we have with the lovely figures is that they are much too big for Romans, or anyone else, of the period. However, as they are mostly crammed inside the wagon, this might not be too apparent next to true 1/72 scale figures. In reality such wagons were a failure, as they were never tried again. We are told the elephant crews and light infantry accompanying them tore down the sides of the wagons, killed the Romans with javelins and arrows, and crippled the oxen. Yet they are an interesting if brief aspect of ancient warfare, and while better ways of dealing with elephants would be found, these remain a fascinating subject that has been really nicely done in this set.