"Who did the celts fight?" Topic

I am working on my 28mm celts and romans forces but want to start on my vikings. did the celts fight the Vikings after the roman empire fell? I take it that the Romans never got a chance to mix it up with the Vikings. True?

sky

There are many fine books that have that information.

28mm Celts currently on the market probably looked nothing like the ones that were around by the time the Vikings arrived on the scene. We are talking about a time frame of at least 800 years. Even in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania, dress and fashions would change.

The Romans fought many northern barbarians, but I fear none that looked like commercially available Vikings.

Various Viking peoples did oppose Celtic peoples…notably Picts, Scots, Irish Kingdoms, and Welsh. The Vikings first appear in Britain in 793 AD. Most manufactured 28mm Celt armies focus on armies from centuries before…those that opposed Julius Caesar are the most popular. (A good book would be The World of the Celts by Simon James.)

Rather than Vikings, a Germanic army might present more options with less compromise…Franks and Goths are popular.

[edit: John posted much the same info as I was composing.]

Dear Skyking,

There are Celtic and Viking peoples around today. However, the Celts end as an army about 700 years before the Vikings start to be one.

When people talk about Celts, as a war-game army, they normally look at the period from 250 BC to about 100AD. The Viking Age is regarded as 790 AD to 1066 AD.

Mick

By the time the Vikings appeared, the Celts in England were Saxons.

Depends what you mean by Celts and by Romans.

Celt and Gaul are the names given to a range of related tribes covering much of Europe. In fairly recent times, the word had been used for the Irish, Scots and a few other groups. So if you want to describe them as Celts then yes, the Vikings fought them.

The Vikings also fought the Romans, but these were the Vikings who had traipsed through and settled in Russia, and the Romans were those centred on Constantinople and now usually known as Byzantines.

Assuming the Celts you have are typical c.3rd century to 1st century BC types, then the styles had changed pretty much by the times of the Vikings i.e. about 1000 years later. Likewise, if your Romans are for about the same time period then they are very different to the opponents of the Vikings.

You'd be better off looking at Spanish, Germans, various Italians as well as the Romans, Carthaginians, Greeks, Macedonians and other Successors, Thracians, Dacians and most of all, each other.

Vikings fought loads of folks – a classic matchup is the Anglo-Saxons.

And the Celts fought…the Celts. Go figure.

imdb.com/title/tt0062443

Viking axe beats Roman sword YouTube link

I am willing to stretch things and use my Celts against my Greek Hoplites – the Galatians were a celtic people that invaded Greece and Turkey. I think successor greeks wold be more appropriate, but hte Greeks did clash with barbarians to their North and around their black sea colonies.

Celts can be thrown in with Carthaginians against the Romans and I would have to bet they had clashes with the Germans

To my mind, Terrement had the best answer, although I suspect that the correct answer is 'anyone within reach, including each other'.

Now if anyone can explain how Celtics are not pronounced Keltics, I would like to know! Although I believe I know the answer… ;-)

Celts…Gauls…Britons…Celt-Iberians.

Celts fought the German tribes, Spanish tribes, Romans, Carthage, Greeks, Macedonian Successors, Thracians, and Gauls among others. There were Merc Gauls in many armies like Successor Egypt, and others.

RudyNelson is right

Celts/Gauls/etc. Fought just about everyone in the ancient world including many inter-tribal conflicts. Sometimes this was as a Celtic Army and in other cases as mercenaries.

Mercenaries from Gaul could be found in just about every ancient army you might want to name.

IIRC:
Saxons invaded Briton just before the Romans pulled out.
so you also have that war to pull from.

Now if anyone can explain how Celtics are not pronounced Keltics, I would like to know!

link

'Classical' Celts and Romans did not fight Vikings. You are correct in that supposition.

They fought each other and all their neighbors, just like the Romans.

…and some centuries later, the Vikings, who fought with and/or for pretty much everyone else their side of the Urals.

With most Ancients rules,anybody can fight anybody else. My Sumerians once fought Tang Chinese and Imperial Romans in the same tourney. Of course,this is the same rules system where my Angry Donkey Carts were classed as "Knights",so…