Ok it is historical collection but perhaps not quite fleshed out. After receiving the last pieces I needed to create my Ancient Britons, I impulsively went to work scraping, gluing and adding ‘green stuff’ bits to the plastics. I needed to add enough of these ‘cultural’ details to the skeletons to make them Celtic. Shields are an important part. Headdress is another essential aspect; but I was lacking helmets and while I tried to model a few, I changed tack and added characteristic long moustaches and long hair to give some of the skulls ‘the look’.
To stretch the numbers out as I did with the Romans, I made use of terrain pieces on each stand, be it a stone, wicker fence or an emerging body from the ground. Each unit, while theoretically some 12 figures, usual sport only 7 to 9 in number but I think still gives enough impression of masses of warriors. Of course this means large multiple bases but extra skulls provide a convenient and complimentary count markers
Excited by the effort, I played a late night game using Dragon Rampant. While these rules are solidly based upon the wonderful Lion Rampant medieval orientated rules by Dan Mercey from Osprey Publishing, this fantasy version is a great tool box for modifying units to suit specific characteristics one feels certain units require - fantastical or historical. In this case, the mad, impulsive headlong rush we envision the Celtic (and Ancient Germanics included) charge toward the enemy to be, can be simply created by making the warriors “Bellicose” having the ‘Wild Charge’ impulse and adding the ‘Hatred’ characteristic (of the invading Romans) which then bumps to an automatic charge activation. The player need not roll for a possible fail to charge but know that within move distance the charge WILL proceed. These warriors are at their best in the attack.
The Roman Legionaries for their part have the added fantastical aspect of “No Feelings” which as skeletons and hardened professional disciplined soldiers, the ability to shrug off any small losses (except for the poorest of die rolls!) without becoming ‘battered’ and losing combat ability. The penalty for this is the rolling up not down of any extra hits thus creating a few more losses. While potentially crippling, the Roman high hits=losses for their high armour and defensive “Wall of Spears” (the DR equivalent of the Medieval LR ‘Shiltron’) makes this viable and, well, so classic Legionary!
In this initial game, the Ancient Britons lined up and charged the Roman line but failed to make much of an impression. The Roman ballista rolled above average a bit and skewered one of the Warrior units in two turns. The Chariots made much use of their counter-attack capability but had a tough time piercing the attacking Legio units.
Just as the historical Britons led by Boudicca found, The Romans in battle line are very tough. It is pleasing to have the expected results from such a simple set of rules. This is not to say, it will be always a one-sided affair. Just as examples can be found in the historical record, given other circumstances, the Britons could defeat the Romans, but that in a straight up fight, both forces act as we imagine them to have had, gives us a good guideline for their abilities.
