Celt Shield Question

[Oninotaki]

I have looked at the pictures of the celts sprues on the front page of warlord games, and when I count up all the bits and bobs on them they seem to be coming up short on shields. There appear to only be 5 shields per sprue of 10 men, and I was wondering if the box set was going to come with enough shields to equip everyone with one?

[Phil]

No, it doesn't (or at least, the pre-production sprues I've got don't). There are extra weapons, severed heads, and, of course, a carynx and two standards, as well as the shields. Some will be unshielded and by carrying nothing in their left hands - I reckon about 9 or so out of the 30, if my count is correct. I think they'll look fine like that.

Phil

[Paul @ Warlord Games]

Celts, along with other Barbarian armies were formed from individual warriors in the tribe. They didn;t have the same military doctrine as the likes of the Roman war machine - certainly no standard issue equipment or disciplined approach to kitting out each warrior. As such we've represented that in a variety of ways - one of which is not giving every model a shield.

As Phil says there are plenty of options available to the modeller - extra spears, swords and javelins, armed with only one weapon, holding severed heads as well as some holding standards and Carynx horns.

All told in a unit of 30 you'll have about 10 unshielded. We've found they look very characterful as a unit rather than everyone being largely the same.

Cheers,

Paul

[Jim]

G'day All,

If you did want to have all your celtic infantry armed with shield you could always use the spare shields from the legionaries box. The mixture in the round and rectangle shields combined with the celtic shields would look very ramshackle and effective I reckon.

Has anyone already done this? If so can you please post a picture? Does it look any good?

Regards

Jim

[philbagnall]

Just caught up with this via TMP's discussion board. Sorry guys but I'm afraid the lack of enough shields for all the celts is enough to stop me buying this set. There's no documentary evidence AFAIK that half the warband troops would be shieldless (and from the sprue pics there are only 5 shields per 10 warrior/command sprue), I don't buy Jim's suggestion of castoff roman shields either. I think this was a mistake; most historical gamers that I know would be more interested in a full set of shields than the trophy heads etc that have reached the sprues. Then again I'm not from a Warhammer (Ancients or fantasy) background so I lament the lack of plastic spear-armed auxillia for the Romans which in most rules are used in equal numbers to "formal" legionaries

[Phil]

philbagnall said:

Just caught up with this via TMP's discussion board. Sorry guys but I'm afraid the lack of enough shields for all the celts is enough to stop me buying this set. There's no documentary evidence AFAIK that half the warband troops would be shieldless (and from the sprue pics there are only 5 shields per 10 warrior/command sprue),

I lament the lack of plastic spear-armed auxillia for the Romans which in most rules are used in equal numbers to “formal” legionaries

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I'm not aware of any documentary evidence for them all being shielded either. If I were you, I'd hold off on my condemnation of them until I'd at least seen photos of a unit built up and painted...

Which shouldn't be more than another couple of days, barring accidents, storms, wars, etc. I've just got the basing to do, the shields to finish off, and a coat of matt varnish over everything.

I too regret the lack of plastic auxiliaries. I intend my force to be at least 50% auxiliaries, probably rather more - as seems likely in Britannia to judge by the number of cohorts attested. And it'd be handy to have more placcy bits to play around with and do conversions on/with.

Phil

[Guest]

Phil said:

I too regret the lack of plastic auxiliaries. I intend my force to be at least 50% auxiliaries, probably rather more - as seems likely in Britannia to judge by the number of cohorts attested. And it'd be handy to have more placcy bits to play around with and do conversions on/with.

Phil

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I second this!

Cheers

S.P.

[Morsleib]

Phil said:

I too regret the lack of plastic auxiliaries. I intend my force to be at least 50% auxiliaries, probably rather more - as seems likely in Britannia to judge by the number of cohorts attested. And it'd be handy to have more placcy bits to play around with and do conversions on/with.

Phil

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I understand the economics of production. IE large volume models use cheap(ish) material (plastic) and expensive tooling whilst low volume models use expensive material (whitemetal) and cheap(ish) tooling.

I know that the Legionaries are more sexy so will sell better than Auxiliaries but they should still be a volume product at least for true army builders. Maybe this is something that should be looked into as the range develops. Over to the big guys...

Terry

[Noble]

Considering that a shield was the only means of protection for the poorer part of the populace, and was relatively cheap in production (like spears), I highely doubt we would see medium to heavy infantry without them.

Everything I know and see suggests next to everyone grabbed a shield in Antiquity.

But I guess you can explain away everything the same way you can explain it…

Would Warlord Games perhaps consider making an “armoury” pack, which would contain additional shields, weapons, bling, etc?

Or is this an hommage to WAB? Let me guess, celtic warbands can choose to go shieldless?

edit:

Agreed on the Auxiliary question btw - having to buy half my core troops in metal, as well as stunts like the celtic shields, which would force me to buy three packs to equip two, will somewhat defeat Warlord Games' until now reasonable pricing

[Paul Hicks]

Maybe Warlord games could make a pack of extra shields in metal for those that just cannot do without the odd figure holding a shield. I think the use of the small round shield from the Roman box is a great idea.

Looking at all the extra gubbins you get on the sprues you would be mad not to use it. What would you rather a warrior holding a shield and severed heads or warrior holding a sword and severed heads.

Paul Hick