II/53 Ancient British

These guys have been in progress for a long time.   They started out as five partially-painted chariots I bought on eBay while looking for a chariot for my Picts.  It was a great deal, but I had these four extra chariots, so I've purchased other figures here and there to build an army around them.

Here is the full army, with camp.  The Ancient British, of course, were the folks that the Romans found when they arrived in Britannia in 55BC or so, under Julius Caesar.   In temperament and equipment, they resemble their Gallic cousins across the English channel.*

1xLch (general), 3xLch, 2xLh, 5x3Wb, 1x3Wb or 2Ps, 2xPs

Half of the army is Warbands, and this is where I spent the most time painting.   I used another painter's work (Hour of Wolves and Shattered Shields) as inspiration for these guys.  His are nicer than these, but even so, I like how they turned out. 

These are the psiloi (javelin-armed skirmisher) stands.   both these figures and the ones above are Old Glory 15mms.   I think they may have been from the same pack, and I just pulled out the spear-armed figures to use as skirmishers.   Buying a 32-figure pack of miniatures for 6 figures seemed excessive.

 For a long time the army languished like that, lacking only cavalry.  So when I ordered some Roman cav (see here for images) from Warmodelling.com, I added a pack of British cav to finish off the army.   They aren't my favorite Warmoddelling figures--I like the Romans better. 



DBA also requires each army have a camp, sort of a "home base," but custom gives great flexibility in what it looks like.  The Ancient British were known for "screaming women" and druids.  I combined those in this camp, of a man bringing his sheep for a druidic sacrifice--to ensure victory in the coming battle, of course.  The priestess is actually from a Chariot Miniatures wizards pack, and the man is from a Falcon Figures civilian pack.  The sheep I actually got from some HO railroad aficionado friends of my father.   I wasn't quite sure how the 15mm and HO scales would match, but it turned out quite well.  The altar I made with Sculpey.

It should be a fun army to play, with Warbands for the CHARGE! part, and chariots & Light Horse for the maneuvering part.  Colorful, too.

*I've read linguists arguing that the lack of Celtic words/structures in English suggests that the ancient British were more Germanic than Celtic.