Questions about Galatians (basing, appearance, etc.)

[Fremitus Borealis]

One of the 50 different plates I have spinning right now for my Seleucid/Bactrian combo army is a unit (or two?) of Galatians. I started off with a box of plastic Warlord "Celtic Warriors", with a handful of their metal "linebreaker" figures mixed in.

As I've mentioned in my other threads, I've defaulted to basing for Hail Caesar, so that's what I originally was thinking with these guys. The thing is: 1) they recommend for a 40-model warband, which... to me, that's just a bit much. I go mad trying to get through a 32-model phalanx, so.... Also 2) as you see in the attached photo, even at 32 figures (4 rows of , these lads are reallllly crowded, to the point where the thought of putting much detail into any of them gives me pause.

So: my first question is, if you've done Galatians (or I guess, "warbands" in general), what have you done for basing? The HC rules seem to allow for up to 200mm frontage for warbands, so maybe I just spread the 32 figures out a little bit? Or, if I scale them down, what might I do for numbers for it to still "look right"? I'll have to dig through my boxes (and emails, in case I have any outstanding orders from across the pond  ), but I *might* actually have enough figures to do two units of 24... that just strikes me as maybe a bit thin? Not sure.


Okay, second main question, regarding what these buggers even look like. A lot of the images I've seen online and in books and magazines (actually this month's Ancient Warfare has one on the front!) show Galatians as basically indistinguishable from the standard La Tène Celts that Caesar fought, but I'm wondering to what extent this was true. In addition to probably being a warrior aristocracy ruling over Phrygian peasants, they had long-enough contact with Greek culture that it seems to me they would have to have a slightly different look... right? Like even accepting the conceit that by today's standards, ancient people were all cultural bigots, it still seems to me like no warrior in their right mind is going to, for instance, *not* use a nicely crafted Greek or Macedonian helmet just because it doesn't look like what his great-great-grandfather wore. And, while I'm somewhat willing to accept the continued use of awesome Gallic plaid (it does get cold in Ankara, after all), I admit it stretches belief that in any given warband you wouldn't have at least a few fellows with more tanned complexion and darker hair, especially the farther into time after the Gallic arrival in Anatolia you get.

So with this in mind, I am thinking of doing a handful of headswaps, maybe even add in some different shields as well ("My great-grandpappy lifted this fancy shield from Delphi, dangnabbit! It's good enough for me!!). I'm also thinking of adding some Green Stuff cloaks; maybe a couple plaid ones, to go with a handful of blue ones, as I remember reading somewhere Galatians being distinguished by their blue cloaks. My Green Stuff skills have been limited to beards thus far, but I could also break out the magnifying glass and do some mustaches on the new heads, perhaps.

Anyway, as always I appreciate your thoughts and recommendations!

[Westbury]

Regardless of the rules, a 40 figure unit does seem excessive and smacks a little bit of 'lets sell a load of these guys!'
My memory is that HC is 40mm square bases? For the look I'd go three figures per base rather than four, that way when they come hurtling into your pike phalanx they will at least look different. If the basing is different (I still haven't play tested yet - real world has intervened) I think you get my drift, less figures irregularly positioned. What might help is cutting away some of the plastic base to help with the positioning, they do look rather big.

[Westbury]

Oh, forgot to say, Gauls, Galatians, Celts, there really is little difference in this period.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thanks for the thoughts! HC is actually really forgiving when it comes to basing... Actually almost too much for a n00b like me sometimes! They're mainly concerned with frontage, although even this is pretty flexible. In the photo  I have most of the figures on 40x40, though this was mostly because I figured I'd never be able to get them all to fit with individual 20x20 bases.

[bluewillow]

It seems no real difference, although I think gnaeus manlius vulso mentions some of them fought naked

Just paint them like normal Gauls I suggest, base as many as you can fit, the warlord figures are tough to base tightly. Looking forward to your painted result

Cheers
Matt

[Jjonas]

My various old and new 28mm Galatians are based on 20mm Fender washers so they can ranked up on magnet sabot trays. I find these work well with Warlord action poses as they can be turned or jiggled to fit together.

You can see some here:

http://www.ancientbattles.com/Galatians/galatian_warriors_AB_01.html

[Jjonas]

Miniatures used on the above pages

Ferocious enemies, allies, or mercenaries- the Galatians made an impact in all Hellenistic armies

Relic Miniatures:
https://www.relicminiatures.com/

Aventine Miniatures:
https://aventineminiatures.co.uk/

Gorgon Studios:
https://gorgon-studios.myshopify.com/collections/characters/products/varmarix

Old Glory Miniatures USA:
https://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/products.asp?cat=141

Wargames Foundry:
https://www.wargamesfoundry.com/collections/gauls

Newline Designs:
https://newlinedesigns.co.uk/product-category/newline-designs-28mm-ranges/newline-designs-28mm-ranges-ancients/

[Jjonas]

Aventine has new Galatians that I really like. They came out since I did the above Galatian photo shoot for Wargames Soldiers & Strategy Issue 98.

The new Aventines have a more La Tene early appearance with bronze cuirasses, than many of the Northern Gaul/Briton plastics which are now all the rage:

https://www.aventineminiatures.org/store/Galatians-c54117526

https://d2j6dbq0eux0bg.cloudfront.net/images/24863013/1502018716.jpg

I want to get some time to paint them up.

[Jjonas]

As for palette. I went with a more subdued set of earth tones for my Celts, based on the classic Angus McBride painting. Some of the blue shields and capes are based on Ptolemaic references.
Here are some of the common tones, and you can see how I approach the bases:


You can see the tones and subtle tartan on these characters. I usually do the tartan later, and mostly do solid colors  then jazz some up later.

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thanks as always, Jeff. Great stuff. I admit I hadn't thought about using magnet trays.

[tallyho]

I don't get why people agonise over figure counts and stand sizes for Hail ceasar.

You could easily get away with as few as 10 figures on a base, two based per unit, and still have a decent warband unit.

[Fremitus Borealis]

I don't get why people agonise over figure counts and stand sizes for Hail ceasar.

You could easily get away with as few as 10 figures on a base, two based per unit, and still have a decent warband unit.

Because I started the hobby after COVID so I'm still learning?   

[Jjonas]

Note that with 20mm bases some plastic figure bases will need to be clipped.



60mm frontage using plywood and Magnetic sticky backed sheets to make sabots.

One can dress them up more by adding tufts or more rocks.

Relic Miniatures Galatians are more true 28mm than many and have nice proportions

[Ockius]

I have lots of Warlord plastic Celts, as well as the line breaker blister, and have mixed some Crusader metals among them for variety too.
I have them based for Hail Caesar, and I put a mix of 3/4 models on each 40x40 base, which is more economical on cost and (more importantly) painting time, but also looks right in my opinion.

I also use the Hail Caesar rules but used 120mm as my unit frontage just because 160 (four stands) is pretty large, especially when you are painting up warbands!


Regarding Galatians, and in fact all Celts in general, I always think that people forget that if they were successful mercenaries they probably would have accumulated quite a lot of war gear, so I imagine that middle and later Galatians would have been well armoured. The same with other marauding barbarians - if you have an army with little armour, but win a battle against guys with armour, you aren’t going to miss the chance to take it for yourself. I think most rules just class them as warbands, but I think that would probably be inaccurate for the Galatians that the Successor states hired, who I imagine would have been more organised and armoured heavy infantry ( I am not expert by the way, so lots of this is semi-educated conjecture!)

[Fremitus Borealis]

Thanks, I might try rearranging them to fit three on each 40x40 square and see how it looks! And yes I agree that over enough time, Galatians (or any other Ancient warrior, for that matter) would accumulate new gear and if they were in the eastern Med, it would obviously tend to be Greek/Macedonian stuff past a certain point.

I'll definitely do a few head swaps with that in mind. Just gotta make sure to add some moustaches!