Celt-Iberians for SAGA

All good things come in threes, so here's candidate number 3 as a further participant of the Ancient Saga, against Romans and Germans - the ancient spanish. Or to be precise, (Celt-)Iberians.

Shouldn't I have already enough on my plate? Well, yes - but! I have this set of Armoured Iberian Warriors by Victrix since Salute, covered it in a review, so why should I put it to waste? As I covered the german part in the last article about SAGA, it is only fair to complete the "heritage" driven warbands by adding a celtiberian warband of cantabrian warriors.

And once again, SAGA is an easy friend to make. I need three different type of soldiers and a warlord. Using the Victrix set, I'm covered with Scutarii and Caetrati, which will take the roles of hearthguard and warriors. As for the levies, the legendary balearic slingers will make good levies with slings. The matching battleboard for ancient spanish / iberians is definitely the welsh - All carrying javelins - works for me and the miniatures (beside the slingers mentioned above). The welsh battleboard even gives me an excuse to buy a set of Iberian Cavalry, as hearthguard and warriors may be mounted.

With the Victrix bag of Iberians and an additional blister of Warlords Balearic Slingers, I'll be able to field this;

0 P - Warlord
1 P – 4 Hearthguard
1 P – 4 Hearthguard
1 P – 8 Warrior
1 P – 8 Warrior
1 P – 8 Warrior
1 P – 12 Levies with Slings

Compared to the Romans and Germans, this might be the most historic accurate warband of the three. I'm staying with the Iberians, Celt-Iberians of the Northwestern part of the iberian peninsula and with the tribe of the Cantabri from the central northern part. To give you an impression and in case you missed the older article "Inspiration from Northern Spain", here are a few pictures from the mountain area of the Picos de Europa in the area, the Cantabri used to live in. In Santander there is even a momument to honour the Cantabri people near the beach. The name "cantabri" stands for highlanders, and gave the name to the cantabrian wars of the local tribes against the roman conquest in that area between 29 - 19 B.C. It might be a bit of s stretch to field them against the Germans, but you know - for gamings sake - we'll find a way.

My only "problem", compared to the romans and the germans, the iberians lack an impressive Warlord. The available miniatures beside the Victrix are Wargames Foundry (a bit old), Crusader Miniatures (solid, but just solid) and the recent Warlord Games (okay-ish as well) and none of these ranges cover a properly heroic looking character. Seems like I have to build something from the plastic sprues, to have a good recreation of a cantabrian leader on the table.

As for ressources, these are fierce in context of the (celt-)iberians, especially with the cantabrians. I managed to visit the MUPAC in Santander and found a few sources online, but other than that, I only have an Osprey MAA #180 - Rome's Enemies 4 Spanish Armies.

That is the set of three, Romans, Germans and Iberians, for ancient SAGA. Still waiting for Aetius & Arthur, so there might be a follow up article on the german (and maybe roman) setup, but other than that, there projects are currently in the building process. It is most likely that I can do some progress between the holidays, but maybe, with a bit of luck and motivation from my loyal readers, I might get some done in the late days of this calendar.