Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of Myths, Gods and Empires => Topic started by: Goliad on 29 December 2020, 08:34:11 PM
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I am interested in Septimius Severus' and Caracalla's early 3rd century AD campaigns in Scotland for an Infamy Infamy setting but am not sure what figures would be best for Caledonian tribes. The few contemporary (e.g. 3rd century Moroccan Roman gateway) and book representations (Osprey) I have seen look like earlier Celts so would just buying a box of say Victrix Gallic warriors be as good as anything? Still seems a bit anachronistic though. How about Pict minis?
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Funny, I was just noticing the other day how it seemed several companies were doing Picts now. I can't remember all of them off the top of my head, but Footsore do a range, they have an army deal, and I think there's still a few days left of their holiday sale:
https://footsoreminiatures.co.uk/collections/picts
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Also, Gripping Beast https://www.grippingbeast.co.uk/The_Picts--category--78.html
Splintered Light http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/picts.html
1st Corp https://1stcorps.co.uk/product-tag/28mm-picts/
West Wind https://westwindproductions.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=144
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Tricky one, I think the theory is that it was Severus campaigns that led to the Picts, either by creating a power vacuum or forcing a new confederation. So could be either or figurewise. I agree "ancient" figures wouldn't look right. Maybe Picts with a scattering of older style shields?
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From what I know the Pictish ranges by Footsore, Gripping Beast ,1st Corps and Westwind are all late 5-6th century figures ....."Age of Arthur" or Saxon Invasion period. That said I don't know what the Picts looked like 250-300 years earlier!
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Funnily enough I've been looking at doing something similar, and came to the conclusion that all the commercially available Pict minis were too late for my purposes.
What I've decided to do is use Vitrix gallic warriors as a base (mostly because I really want to have a go with that set) and use Westwind Pict heads and Footsore Pict shields to make them look a bit less Gallic.
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I can't really comment on proper clothing for the period, but I think Wargames Atlantic Irish might also be of some use.
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Thanks all. I might try a bit of everything and see what sticks - kit-bash Victrix Germans and Atlantic Irish, throw is some Picts and the odd Gaul and stock up on Celtic oval shields and bucklers to help with the consistency.
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The Caledonians were a confederation of different tribal groups. So you could use different existing ranges of British Celts to represent them, even adding Pictish figures if you like.
As regards clothing simple tunics and breeches were worn through the bronze and iron ages into the dark ages, so you needn't worry to much about that. I'd suggest differentiating your tribal units by using different colours, shield designs or even shield types.
For example a western tribe could have a scattering of Irish, a northern one a more Pictish look while the southern tribes might look more like Britons. The use of Pictish heads on British Celt figures might be a simple way of making them look different.
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Thanks Emir! That's very useful perspective/advice.
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There are zero images of Caledonians of the time but given that earlier medieval books like the Book of Kells show Irish warriors of the time wearing similar clothing to the warriors on the Gundestrup cauldron from the middle of Europe and several centuries earlier it's reasonable to assume that fashion didn't change much without outside interference. The poem Y Gododdin is thought to have been composed around the early 7th century ad and it refers to warriors wearing torcs. Whether they still did at this time it was still considered something that a warrior should wear and that is 3-400 years after the period you're referring to. I think it quite reasonable that the Caledonians of the 3rd century ad were quite similar in appearance to the Caledonians who fought at Mons Graupius 200 years earlier. Perhaps the better question is did they ever look similar to Gauls back then or something else? The Irish had trousers and several tribes/septs appear to have ancestry from the Belgic Gauls so why do they later have bare legs? The same goes for the Picts assuming they did have bare legs.
I'll reiterate what some have said in that the southern Picts would most likely be like the old Britons from further south because the only barrier between the Picts and the Britons was one the Romans created when they built the Antonine Wall which was situated at a narrow point between the Firth and Clyde and had nothing to do with cultural considerations.
Northern Picts could have been anything, the land to the north was mountainous terrain full of bogs and heavily forested. Small regional cultures could have existed aplenty.