Genava55

For the Elite cavalry unit, I suggest to rely only on late material. Helmets and shield bosses from the Gallic Wars and post Gallic Wars. The sword at this time is very long for horsemen. I put here some useful picture for the concept:

The unit seems to be very good like this. Body paint is something mainly attested on the British Islands (Britons and Picts). There are some people suggesting it could have been used in the continent, but it is astonishing that no author noticed it or represented it if it was the case. I would suggest to use it as a distinctive feature of the Britons. Especially since there is less choice in armor and helmet on the island, you must be creative with the other things for the advanced and elite version. Gladly, they have enough prestigious shields and the body paint can vary a lot. For the Gaesatae, I suggested to name it Bariogaisatos (furious spearman) since Gaesatae is in Latin and the Gaesatae are not accounted as naked all the time (Also Viridomaros is their king). If you are looking for some additional variations, you can add a cape on some of them and a prestigious helmet. Here my previous suggestion, but yours is good like this. Generic Name: Gallic Fast Spearman Specific Name: Bariogaisatos Class: Spearman. Hacker Armament: Heavy Spear. Appearance: Garb: Naked. With a cape or not. Helmet: No helmet or Celtic helmet type Montefortino. Shield: Medium shield. With early iron umbo. Figure(s): Face would either be bearded or have a large moustache (traditional). Torc around neck. Barefoot. o History: In the popular culture, Gaesatae are the naked warriors by excellence. But contrary to the common belief, all their accounts didn't correlate with the occurrence of naked warriors. Their king Britomaros even had a splendid armor according to the Romans. Besides, another account of naked warriors exists in the history of the Galatians, without any link to the Gaesatae. Terracotta figurines are even representing naked Galatian warriors. The choice here is to represent a general naked warrior as depicted in the Greco-Roman art. Bario- is meaning furious and Gaisatos is the translation of Gaesatae, meaning “those-who-fight-with-the-Gaisa”, a polyvalent spear that can be thrown. Naked warriors were frightening for fresh recruits. Polybius describes them as having a shield too small to cover their entire body. Garrison: 1. Function: Vulnerable to missile (low armor) but enough hit-points for close-combat. High damage delivery. Fast. Unable to change the attack mode (always aggressive). Special: Damage Bonus against low experience units (basic). Edit: The helmet suggested

Kirkburn Sword Others British Celtic swords: Lisnacrogher Irish Sword: Another reconstitution, the South Cave British sword: I may be very busy and much less available in the next few weeks. There is enough material for the Britons on the forum I think, but in case you can check for Caesar descriptions here:

It is weird, isn't it? Why this survived and not the others things from the Bronze Age? I agree, the sea peoples are maybe nothing related to the nordic world but they could be related to the nuragic. The subject of the horned helmets is very complex and it is really mysterious. Why we find nothing during the migration period? Excepted a few relief about the berserkers, the horned helmets seem to be never used. It could be something exclusive to the mythology and to the religious practices. Or maybe for the standard bearer and carnyx bearer like the Tintignac helmets and the Bormio relief suggest. Exactly like the masked helmet from the Romans, their existence doesn't mean it is something widespread in the whole army.

Originally I suggested the Mill hill Deal Warrior to be a battle-druid for the Britons, to give them something classy and different. Edit: I will maybe retract a tiny bit my previous statement about the horns. I just realized that this kind of horns is exactly the same represented on three items: the Bulgarian helmet, the Gundestrup Cauldron suggesting Thracian technology and a statuette found in Denmark, probably Thracian as well. Therefore the horns could be more related to Eastern Celts or even Celto-Germanic cultures. Edit2: I suggest to kept these helmets horns for Galatians or if we make a late elite cavalry unit from the Belgians (an idea I have). The Treveri were famous horsemen, heavily recruited by the Romans even after the Gallic Wars. The regions of Treveri is as well a major place of production of Post-Gallic Wars Celtic scabbards with bronze decoration, probably for the Celtic auxiliaries. These scabbards as been found even in Poland, probably because some Gallic and Germanic cavalrymen have been serving together in the Roman army.

It is plausible I think. It is a free interpretation from the artists but it could have been the case. The horned helmet from Bulgaria? The problem is in its basic typology, it is a Hellenistic helmet, never seen further in the continent. It could be better on a Galatian unit, probably an helmet more suited to a cavalry unit but even for an infantryman it is plausible. The problem with the horned helmets is the confusion with mythological sources and roman misconceptions. There are others depictions, mainly on the Arc of Orange, but the typology is problematic. They are clearly Hellenistic helmet as well, never seen elsewhere. It has been suggested in the literature than the Romans used sometimes common relief cliché, mixing weapons from different periods to make the battle more heroic and Homeric, even to depict their own men. The question now, are there horned helmets among the Celts? Definitely. The Gundestrup cauldron shows horsemen with horns, birds and boars. I think the type of horns from the Bulgarian helmet is good, but the helmet below is not a common type among the Gauls. There are also others strange helmets found in France, at Tintignac but they are related to a carnyx carrier and religious practice. We know the Gauls did have the equivalent of signifer, therefore it is speculated that this is the kind of helmet they could have used. The Deal warrior helmet is a kind of headdress found several times in Britain but robbed several times as well. Most of them have disappeared. The Deal warrior is suggested to be a druid and it is one of the reason than experts are casting doubt about the "Celtic monolithic culture" from previous historians, since this is a thing found only in Britain. Now they are coming backwards because they have found a Druidkrone in Germany, different but with some similarity. Honestly we absolutely don't know anyting about their function yet but there are numerous hints pointing to a religious role of the person wearing it.

I agree, it would be the easiest solution. My proposals are part of a context where other people propose to better differentiate the two factions for a long time. I think there is a real opportunity to seize and there is enough material to make two different roster. I will make a short summary of the history of Celtic warfare and how things have settled differently on the islands compared to the continent. The continental Celtic culture where the Gauls come from is known as the La Tène culture. This culture appeared in three regions around 500BC: Marne-Champagne (Northeastern-France), Hunsrück-Eifel (western Germany) and Bohemia (Czech republic). This culture has spread in all the direction in a short time and in 400BC they started to be a threat to Rome. We don't know how they spread so fast, migration and conquest are not enough to explain it. The period between 500 BC to 350 BC is often described as the Early phase of the La Tène culture. During this period, the Continental Celts (Gauls) use mainly the chariot for the war. There are plenty of burials with chariots and simultaneously a lot of javelins, of shield decorations with bronze applique and of very decorated helmets and scabbards. Between 350 to 200 BC a new phase described as Middle La Tène occurred with a progressive switch from chariot warfare to cavalry warfare. Chariots burials are far less frequent, the swords start to become longer and shield bosses are simpler but more practical with a net increase in their sizes and in their frequencies through time. A new art started to appeared, mostly on scabbards, from Central and Eastern Europe and has become very popular in the continent. During this period, the infantry start to grow in importance as well as the Romans described often Gallic armies to use different shield walls formations they called phalanx and testudo (the terms are misleading and confusing, this is not the same testudo than the imperial roman armies). Between 200 BC to 50 BC, it is a period described as Late La Tène where the transformation of the Gallic society is important. Urbanization and fortification are more frequent and more elaborated. The economy and trading boom up, a lot of import and export in direction with the Roman world start to occurs. Moreover the coins start to be accepted in the Celtic culture. The switch to a cavalry elite warfare is continuing, the swords become specialized with long version for the cavalry and slightly shorter ones for the infantrymen. Oppida are growing and are spreading from Central Europe and Southern France in direction of Northern France. When the Gallic Wars occurred, the late phase wasn't over and was still in maturation. The Belgians are described by Caesar as more belligerents and more brave. The Nervians are described as having an elite warrior class fighting in foot contrary to the others Gauls. This different description from Caesar agrees with the archeological records suggesting that the Belgians had smaller oppida, often with a role of hillfort more than cities contrary to the Arvernes for example. Therefore, the Late phase wasn't as much developed in the North-East than in the others parts of France. The uprising of Ambiorix shows striking difference with the other Gauls and Belgians in his tactics, with more skirmishing and ambushes. While the Eburones are as well the more distant tribe from the southern Gauls. The Britons have a different history. There isn't a sudden change in their culture in the whole island. The first significative change during the Iron Age occurred with the Arras culture in Yorkshire. This culture has striking similarity with the Early phase of the continental La Tène. A lot of chariot burials very decorated, a lot of javelins, decorated scabbards and decorated shield bosses with bronze applique. This habit of having prestigious weapons and chariots spread first in Wales, Cornwall and Wessex and later in the whole territory of the actual England. It was a process that took a long time, from 400 BC to 150 BC. Farming developed and hill-forts spread intensively during this period. The period after 150 BC is known to have seen the development of the Aylesford–Swarling culture, with simultaneously more connection between the Belgians tribes and the Britons. This period seen a slight development of the swords in length but generally it has kept the main basis for their warfare culture: chariots, decorated shield bosses, javelins etc. The understanding of the culture of the British Iron Age is much more complex because of far less burials. For example in Dorset they had the custom to not bury every deceased persons, probably related to different beliefs. But clearly, the warfare tradition in Britain didn't have follow the same evolution than the Gauls. They used chariots for warfare from 400 BC to 70 AD. There is also the interesting customs of using bone-javelinhead in Britain, in Scotland and in Ireland as well during the iron age. In conclusion, the Britons share more similarity with the Gauls of the Early phase of La Tène, probably with a slight transition to the cavalry when the Gallic Wars occurred and perturbed the evolution. If we add the different accounts from Roman historians, we should conclude they had different way to fight during the wars. The Gauls started to have a warfare tradition based on the chariots, on Homeric combats and mobility. Then they switched to focus first on the infantry and the cavalry as articulate pieces of the battles to finally focusing mainly on the cavalry at the end, especially among the elites warriors. While the Britons kept a focus on chariot and on mobility, with clearly the same custom of overdecorating the weapons as suggesting more Homeric combats.

Diodurus says only the nobles wears the moustach, but what is a noble in his mind? And is this custom the same from the early La Tène to the Late La Tène (500 years of history and evolution)? Generally, the experts suggest that the moustach custom was an old and ancient custom for the ruling class. The practice seems to have nearly disappeared among the Gauls during the Late La Tène and the Gallic Wars, but to have survived among the Britons. Shaved face, full beard, narrow chin beard (goatee) and collar beard (chin strap) are found in iconographic representations as well.

A point about this illustration. It is mostly based on reenactors outfits and it is mixing two or three things from different periods. Moreover, the sword is bullsh*t. For the women it could be a good enough inspiration, but for the warrior I would avoid it. The druid is legit, it is a quite simple representation. The artist didn't take any risk to represent the druid, it is halfway in the cliché and in a neutral interpretation. He probably took his inspiration from coins, there are sleeveless references: . Large neckline reference: But I don't see anything to support the square shape of the neckline.

The account from Pliny is legit and it could be a real tradition, though I won't believe easily his statement about human sacrifice since the Romans have a true problem to talk about it, often exaggerating the reality. The sickle is definitely something plausible but I don't think it is really the symbol of the Druids. It seems more to be a sacred tool used at specific events. Druids have different roles, they are also healers and chirurgeons/surgeons, guardian of laws and memory and philosophers. Therefore I suggest that the sickle could be a part of their tools but probably medical tools and divinatory tools as well. Archeologically, the subject is very very complicated but there are some findings of medical tools and even a bone helicoidal pendulum. The difficulty comes from the fact there are weapons in these burials sometimes. There is also actually something interesting in Britain with several divinatory rods in copper and iron found: About the staff, I have no idea. Nothing really prove or contradict it. Maybe a golden gilded staff is a possibility. We know there was a golden gilded tree cult in Manching, however it is not a staff nor something easier to carry. I just say that technologically, the Celts know how to gild a staff in gold. Seriously, it is one of the most complicated subject. I have read only Christian-Joseph Guyonvarc'h, Jean-Louis Brunaux and Raimund Karl on this matter and honestly... they are contradicting each others. For example Guyonvarc'h relies mostly on Irish literature whereas Brunaux avoid to use Irish literature. It is very difficult for me to take a position on this subject, there are some concordance but this is still a black box even for experts.

Superbe like this. Much better. I like it. The white is a sacrous color for the druids in Irish mythology, thus it is justifiable. I have the book from this expo. I will check tomorrow (4 am there and too much wine in my blood for the moment). I will see for an item tomorrow as well balduin.

It is a very debated and unresolved issue, with no true consensus. But generally there are a concordance of hints from Irish mythology and Classical accounts for a priestess role in the Celtic religion. Guyonvarc'h in his book thinks they are not druids since they never carry any sacrifice or any instruction. They are more related to the divination and invocation, like the germanic Vates. The problem is that some classical authors call them druids, but these accounts are very late and enigmatic (like Septimius Severus meeting one female druid) and several authors have confuse the different categories and mixed them in only one: the druids.

The cucullus is an usual cloth, popular both among the Romans and the Gauls. The only unusual word related with the cucullus is bardocucullus, that could means something related to the bard (musician). http://www.arbre-celtique.com/encyclopedie/cucullus-cuculla-manteau-314.htm The three peoples with the cucullus are often three goddesses or nymphae. Xulsigiae. Related to the roman mythology as well (Matres and Matronae). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xulsigiae https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matres_and_Matronae The problem is common with these figures. There are males representations, but often distinguishing the gender is hard. Moreover, the influence of the Roman can cause the gender to switch sometimes for some cult. There is a long debate in this article here: http://archive.fo/xcqd With an headdress like the one I proposed, it should be okay no?

I personally prefer something more remote from Asterix and XIXth century romanticism representations. If we have the possibility to give a different vision of these cultures, it is something good to do.

I think the re-enactor and the warrior in the illustration wear it like this. It is a cape folded two or three times, put on the shoulder in half way and winded on the back and on the chest in direction of the belt to fix it. The two ends of the cape are on the same side. It is something re-enactors like to do because it is practical, comfy and it even protect the body.

On the statue of Glauberg, it is a full cap. The symbol is also recurrent in the Celtic art on the continent, but it is impossible to say if it is a cap or a headband in these cases. A headband is plausible but the cap is the closer from the archeological material.

You can find some interesting papers with different views on academia.edu about this subject. True Colours: Polychromy in Ancient Greek Art and its Dissemination in Museum Collections https://www.academia.edu/37712353/True_Colours_Polychromy_in_Ancient_Greek_Art_and_its_Dissemination_in_Museum_Collections Pigment vs. the Texture and Colour of Stone. To what Extent was Stone part of the polychrome Appearance of Hellenistic Sculpture? https://www.academia.edu/6090245/Pigment_vs._the_Texture_and_Colour_of_Stone._To_what_Extent_was_Stone_part_of_the_polychrome_Appearance_of_Hellenistic_Sculpture

I have an idea. You know this headdress from Glauberg: It is actually an inspiration from sacred plant from the Celts. The mistletoe: Re-enactors have proposed this headdress for a chieftain: BUT, it could be a religious symbol used by the Druids as well, the mistletoe is known to be used by the Druids.

The temple of Serapis at Alexandria was quite famous and renown. I know a depiction about it, what do you think @Anaxandridas ho Skandiates ? https://sites.google.com/a/hanovernorwichschools.org/alexandria-tourism-commitee/attractions/the-temple-of-serapis https://www.roger-pearse.com/weblog/2015/11/09/what-did-the-serapeum-in-alexandria-actually-look-like/

If the others don't find it problematic to give a chainmail armor to a priest unit, why not. I have no problem with this, it could have been the case. Some druids took the military leadership during the Gallic Wars. However I find the texture of the cape/sagum a bit unesthetic at the bottom. Maybe a bit more on the side like this:

The quote from Plutarch: Maybe we can add some golden and silver object on the cuirass? https://ansionnachfionn.com/2017/09/20/did-leather-armour-really-exist-not-for-the-celts-romans-and-vikings/ And despite the frequent online references to the hide “battle-harness” of the legendary Irish hero, Cú Chulainn, the speculations and the early 20th century translations they are based upon are probably wrong. Almost certainly what is being referred to is layers of textiles and flexible soft leather braced with a wide cowhide belt. (Linen? Felt? Linothorax?) “Then the champion and warrior, the marshalled fence of battle of all the men of earth who was Cú Chulainn, put on his battle-array of fighting and contest and strife. Of that battle-array which he put on were the twenty-seven shirts, waxed, board-like, compact, which used to be bound with strings and ropes and thongs next to his fair body that his mind and understanding might not be deranged whenever his rage should come upon him. Outside these he put on his hero’s battle-girdle of hard leather, tough and tanned, made from the choicest part of seven yearling ox-hides which covered him from the thin part of his side to the thick part of his armpit. He wore it to repel spears and points and darts and lances and arrows, for they used to glance from it as if they had struck on stone or rock or horn. Then he put on his apron of filmy silk with its border of variegated white gold against the soft lower part of his body. Outside his apron of filmy silk he put on his dark apron of pliable brown leather made from the choicest part of four yearling ox-hides with his battle-girdle of cows’ hides about it.”

For the back: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1080040398756590&set=pb.100002519195744.-2207520000.1546426868.&type=3&theater Other useful symbols:

Yes no problem with this one. It is another way to close the chainmail shoulder protection, there are indication of this way in the few chainmail found. The Romans described his armor as very colorful and shiny. It could have been a linothorax or a leather cuirass because it is easier to color it. In my draft for the design of the Gauls, I took some liberty to suggest an addition of a square cardiophylax for the front part of the cuirass. What do you think? https://www.docdroid.net/9fLYce0/gauls-design.pdf#page=12

Why not. This illustration is based on the weapons from a tomb with both etruscan and celtic items. The author choose to use the Mars of Todi since it represents an etruscan cuirass. These cuirasses are probably what could have motivated the Celts to use them. The warrior is therefore a cisalpine warrior. Yes you can. https://medias.monuments-nationaux.fr/var/cmn_inter/storage/images/mediatheque/mediatheque-commune/images/087glanum/602353-1-fre-FR/087GLANUM.jpg Why a bronze cuirass? It is kinda uncommon in the Italic peninsula after the fifth century. I don't think any Celts of the La Tène period could have use it Europe. Maybe some Galatian bodyguards. But thats all.

To inspire you. A recent french book with nice illustrations.