AN UNEXPECTED ARMY I never planned to build a Spanish army. They just weren't really on my radar except as useful contingents in Mike's Carthaginian army. I had vague thoughts of building a Gallic army someday, but until then my Republican Roman legions would have to content themselves with fighting my later Germans/Goths pretending to be Early Germans, or "Barry's Barbarian Horde" (who usually left their chariots in the box and came out as Early Germans as well). No one really thinks of the Spanish when listing Rome's enemies; they didn't invade Italy and threaten Rome, there wasn't a big memorable battle and no one wrote about the campaigns in the same detailed manner as Caesar's Gallic Wars or Tacitus and the campaigns in Germany. Then one day a box of 15mm Spanish warriors showed up in the mail. A well-to-do friend had scooped up a partially painted army at a good price and thought "James will like these!" Turns out he was right. SOME POTTED HISTORY The Spanish, or Iberians as the Romans called them, were a fiercely independent collection of tribes who stayed in their hills unless encroached upon by larger Imperial powers like the Carthaginians or Romans. The Iberian peninsula was very much Rome's NorthWest Frontier; a long running, low-intensity colonial war against disunited and independent tribes who made good auxiliaries when on your side and bitter enemies when not. Many Roman consuls made reputations campaigning in Spain and financed their political careers with loot from a sacked town. Carthage switched her attentions to Spain after being forced out of Sicily at the end of the First Punic War. Hamilcar Barca, assisted by his son Hannibal, carved out a large sphere of influence in the southern and eastern parts of the peninsula. The expansion of this sphere of influence brought them into conflict with Rome who had the city of Saguntum under its protection. The Second Punic War was on. A good deal of Hannibal's army was Spanish infantry and cavalry who fought up and down the Italian boot for some 15 years until being withdrawn to Africa to be brought down at Zama in 202 B.C. At the same time armies were clashing in Spain and both sides made use of allied Spanish tribes. Scipio's release of the Spanish hostages held by the Carthaginians in New Carthage caused many of the tribes to switch their allegiance from Carthage to Rome. Spanish troops made a significant contribution to Scipio's victory at Ilipia (206 B.C.) which was decisive in pushing the Carthaginians out of Spain. The defeat of Carthage brought Rome to the Iberian Peninsula, and for the next 200 years Roman armies would slowly push the frontiers of the province north and west. The long war was mostly one of raid and ambush. Adrian Goldsworthy postulates that the change from the manipular legion to the cohort based legion occurred during the Spanish campaigns when commanders needed a tactical unit bigger than a maniple but smaller than a legion in the low-level fighting encountered. For further reading I would highly recommend Livy's and Polybius' accounts of the Punic Wars, Caesar's Civil War and Plutarch's Life of Sertorius (contained in the Penguin volume Makers of Rome). Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars (WRG Press) by Duncan Head and the Osprey Men-at-Arms 180: Rome's Enemies (4) Spain 218 BC-19 BC are also very useful. SPANISH TROOP TYPES The Spanish style of fighting, as described in the primary sources, is very flexible. Warriors would dash forward throwing javelins and then retire if pressed. Loose formations were adopted for rapid maneuvering in the rocky hills. Sudden raids and ambushes were the preferred method of fighting, although Spanish warriors could stand fast and fight hand-to-hand with their sharp swords if they had to. Hannibal considered his Iberian soldiers steadier than the Celts and used both in the center of his battleline. Therefore I class most Spanish infantry from the south and west as 'auxilia'. In Legion and Empire, auxilia are the equivalent of other rules `loose medium infantry' or `light heavy infantry'. Auxilia can disperse into open, skirmish order, but they can also reform and close ranks and fight like heavy infantry. An in between `loose order' really doesn't work for hand-to-hand combat troops. Troops in a so-called `loose order' really may as well be in open order when attacked by anything other than skirmishers since heavy infantry or cavalry would cut through the unsupported warriors. So in Legion and Empire there is no `loose order'. There is heavy infantry in close order and light infantry in skirmish order. Troops classed as 'auxilia' can do both. Iberian warriors from the southern and eastern tribes are called scutari because of their large oval shields (scutum). Warriors from the west, or Lusitania, are called caetrati, because they preferred the small round caetra buckler. Both warriors carried javelins and have the option of the all-iron, armor piercing throwing spear called a soliferreum. In the north and central parts of Spain there were also the Celtiberian tribes who were a racial and cultural mix of native Iberians with migrant Celts. The Celtiberians seem to have combined Celtic ferocity with Iberian stubbornness and according to Livy they were hampered by rough and rocky terrain. The preferred tactic was forming up in a deep column and making an all-out charge behind a shower of javelins. Celtiberian scutari are therefore classed as 'warbands' and receive an extra bonus when they charge. The nobles and their retainers provided excellent cavalry who were well thought of by both Hannibal and Julius Caesar. Well armored scutari equipped with large oval shields and stabbing spears were supported by unarmored caetrati who had small round shields and javelins. Groups of scutari could provide bodyguards to leaders and were sworn to die with him on the battlefield. Detachments of caetrati provided excellent light cavalry who were more than a match for the Numidian light cavalry fighting for Rome. The Osprey Men-at-Arms book on the ancient Spanish speculates about horse-armor, but if it existed there was never enough for more than a few individuals. The most useful part of a Spanish army is the light infantry; caetrati with javelins, slingers from the Balearic Isles and a few huntsmen with bows. The caetrati light infantry with their bucklers, javelins, swords and ferocity are handy for disputing rough terrain with Roman velites, working around the enemy flanks and supporting the cavalry. Spanish cavalry would often let skirmishers ride behind them and then dismount to fight. Caetrati were used a lot by late Republican generals and appear frequently in Caesar's Commentaries. The Balearic stingers are quite famous, hired as mercenaries first by the Carthaginians and then the Romans. According to legend a Balearic boy had to hit a loaf of bread with his sling in order to eat. Each stinger carried three slings of different lengths for use at different ranges. The slings not in use were wound around the head like a headband. Slingshot was impossible to see while in flight, so soldiers would not be able to raise their shields to ward off the blow. Also the concussive effect of the shot was quite effective against armored targets. These troops provide a lot of firepower and are especially useful when shooting at a Roman flank from the safety of a hill. However, they are only armed with large knives and lack shields, which leaves them vulnerable in hand-to-hand should the enemy get too close. I included some of these troops in the Carthaginian army list that was published with the main rules last issue. Here now is the complete list for fielding Spanish armies to fight either Carthaginians or Romans. Roman armies could be early Republican manipular legions, late Republican cohort based legions or even very Early Imperial legions with leather armored auxiliary cohorts. In a Spanish army, the player may have one stand of cavalry and one stand of light infantry for every two stands of warrior infantry. One unit of cavalry may be Scutari. One unit of cavalry may be Caetrati. The rest of the cavalry are mixed. Light infantry and cavalry units should be 2 to 6 stands strong. Warbands of heavy infantry should be 4 to 10 stands strong. Iberian, Celtiberian and Lusitanian infantry, if used in the same army, must all be in separate commands representing different tribes. An army may use only one warrior type if desired. For every 5 stands of warriors, the Spanish player may field one stand of Veterans. Veterans must be of the same tribe as the other warriors in their command. SERTORIUS The astute among you will notice that I have not included an option for Roman legionaries like many Spanish army lists do. After Cornelius Sulla defeated the party of Gains Marius and established his dictatorship, Sertorius fled to Spain to raise a rebellion with a mixed army of Roman legionaries and Spanish tribesmen. Sertorius was a brilliant general who held off superior numbers of Roman legions for many years until he finally succumbed to an assassin's blade. Consequently many Spanish army lists allow the option of Roman troops. In Legion and Empire I take the view that Sertorius was a Roman general, leading an essentially Roman army that contained a high percentage of Spanish auxiliaries. PAINTING THE ARMY The figures I got were all Old Glory 15s in varying stages of completion from flocked bases to primed and raw pewter. I had already purchased a bag of SP-07 Cretan Archers/Balearic Stingers and SP-08 Spanish Medium Cavalry to use as auxiliaries for my late Republican army so I added them to the mix and managed to organize the following units: 4 stands of archers 16 stands of stingers divided into 4 units 16 stands of light javelinmen divided into 4 units 8 stands of light cavalry 6 stands of heavy cavalry  8 stands of Lusitanian infantry divided into 2 units 12 stands of Iberian spearmen divided into 3 units 9 stands of Celtiberian swordsmen in one unit 1 command stand. The cavalry usually fight in mixed units of 2 stands of heavies and 2 stands of lights to represent the regular cavalry leaving, me with a 2 stand unit of light cavalry for scouting. Sometimes I will change the Order of Battle and give the cavalry commander a 2 stand unit of Scutari heavies, 2 units of mixed cavalry and a 4 stand unit of lights. The Lusitanians, Iberians and Celtiberians all fight in separate divisions each with attached units of slingers and light javelinmen. The lack of suitable command figures to make inspiring command stands means that I use the command stand for one of the units to also double as the over all division commander. I have hopes that Corvus Belli will make some suitably inspiring Spanish command packs (they are after all a Spanish company, you'd think they'd have done them to the same level as their excellent Celts) to go along with their 15mm Punic Wars line. But so far I wait in vain. The Lusitanian infantry (code SP-09) are all modeled after figure 114 in Duncan Head's Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars, thus they are all in chain mail. If I could do the army again I would make my Lusitanian tribesmen with another bag of SP-06 Spanish Light Infantry just based as auxiliaries. Sometimes I will upgrade one unit to mail armored veterans and just ignore the armor on the second. In order to quickly rationalize a very different painting style with my own and figures of varying levels of completeness I was forced to evolve my own painting technique. Everyone got a base coat of dark brown. I started out using Games Workshop brown ink wash, but that is expensive. Thinned out acrylic paint works better and is cheaper. I then blocked in all the main colors leaving the brown showing for folds, creases, leatherwork and the hard to reach bits like the backs of shields and under arms. Tunics were varying shades of off-white and light brown although the occasional figure got a red or blue tunic. Borders around the hems and sleeves were painted on in red, purple, blue or green to add some variety. More color was used in the richer cavalry. Duncan Head notes that sources indicate the Lusitanians wore a lot of black, so one unit of Lusitanians are all in black and dark grey; tunics, shields and helmet plumes to mark them out as somber `death or glory' veterans if needs be. Head also notes that a source records the Celtiberians all wearing black cloaks and red helmet crests, so my big column of Celtiberian swordsmen are unified by those, but they all have different shields with Celtic and Spanish inspired designs. The leader on the Celtiberian command stand is holding up a clenched fist without any weapon, so I glued a broken off Roman signum into his hand as a trophy to help inspire the warriors. The Iberian scutari units I envisioned coming from more settled areas and possibly serving with my friend's Carthaginian army, so I gave each unit a distinct shield pattern. For the shields I made extensive use of fine point art pens to draw the fish-hook and violin-S patterns that seemed to be popular with the Spanish. The darker pens work well over a white or yellow base coat, but one will have to use a fine brush and paint to do white or yellow patterns on a blue, red or green base. TAKING THE FIELD I've trotted the Spanish out at convention games a lot since I finished them. Their tactical flexibility and large amounts of missile fire helps them out against the tougher legions and they've had about equal honors versus the Eagles. Since they're always in Spain, the table is quite liberally strewn with wooded hills and often a small stream. The Lusitanians are usually sent into the most rugged terrain to harass a Roman flank. The sturdy Iberian scutari supported by slingshot will block a valley and the Celtiberians will form up into a deep column and try to get in a line cracking charge. The cavalry, often with an attached unit of javelinmen, will find some suitable ground and try to turn a flank. They can hold their own against the Numidians and Roman equites, but are more evenly matched against Celts and German auxiliaries. The most recent scenario featured a Roman army campaigning in Spain has found that the rebellious tribal alliance has gotten between them and their supply depot guarded by a green legion. Consequently they must cut their way through and re-establish communications with the base to ensure their supply of wine and pickled fish sauce. The Spanish must give the Romans a thorough thrashing. One green legion (12 stands) with all the baggage and 6 stands of artillery was set up in a camp in one corner of the table. A stream separated the camp from the Spanish. Along the opposite long table edge but towards the opposite corner from the camp was the remainder of the Roman army deployed for battle; Gallic and Numidian cavalry on the left, three legions in acies triplex (veterans on the right) and then Italian, German and Numidian cavalry on the right flank. Assorted archers (Numidian and Cretan) and slingers (Numidian) and some javelinmen (Greek and Spanish) out front. In between were a lot of wooded hills bisecting the table and the Spanish army. A dense mass of hills and woods were on the Roman right hand corner so they couldn't just slide along the edges to avoid the Spanish. A big hill was in front of the Roman deployment zone with the two units of Lusitanians, some slingers, the archers and a some javelinmen lead by the +3 CiC. Covering the camp and the Roman right flank were the 3 units of Iberian scutari with some light javelinmen and more slingers. Plugging the gap in the middle were cavalry and the big block of Celtiberian scutari waving their captured signum. The Roman left wing cavalry moved around the hill and the Spanish cavalry moved to counter. The Roman right wing cavalry sent the Numidians to charge some slingers holding a wood while the heavies moved off to the right. The Numidian LC lost their fight with the slingers (took too many hits coming in and the slingers were defending woods). The slingers, to everyone's surprise, destroyed the Numidians in pursuit (gotta hate those low rolls!) but in turn got trashed by some Greek javelinmen. The legions spent a lot of time trying to wheel off to the right, rather than form columns behind the lights and march away or oblique. Around the second turn the Roman players asked if the artillery in the camp could shoot and the Iberian commander started pulling away under a hail of I and 10 mina shot. Fortunately his formations were shallow so he only had to suffer a few hits each turn which he usually managed to rally off. The Lusitanian player was doing a good job of harassing the legions and shooting up their skirmish screen. Both warbands came down off the hill to cause mischief, one got too deep into the middle of the Romans and was counterattacked by hastily formed columns that sent it reeling back with heavy losses. They were eventually broken and then destroyed before they could get back to the hill. The other warband missed an opportunity to cause some serious harm; the player had put four hits on a unit of legionaries, disordering them, but he choose to throw javelins and then retire behind his skirmishers with the Lusitanians rather than charge downhill into the disordered Romans, take a chance of breaking them and carrying on into the line behind. But he was being cautious and dodgy, his lights always evaded even when attacked by other lights. On the Roman left the Gallic cavalry finally got to grips with the Spanish cavalry, they charged, traded hits and both recoiled with equal honors. At the hill, the Roman legionaries charged uphill with some Numidian archers attacking on their flank. The Lusitanians broke the legionaries and destroyed them in the pursuit, but then got broken themselves when they ran into the second line. Meanwhile, the Numidian light infantry had beaten up some Spanish archers and then drove away the Spanish CiC who was nursing some wounds. The Lusitanians, retreating back up hill after their encounter with the Roman second line, ran into the flank of the Numidians. A bit of a discussion ensued; the Lusitanians are broken, but the Numidians are hit in flank... we decided to have the Numidians get out of the way while the Lusitanians kept running. Further along the hill the Romans were finally driving a line of cohorts up the slope and into the woods, sweeping the slingers and javelinmen before them. In the center the Celtiberians looked menacing, but let their skirmishers do all the fighting. On the right the Spanish javelinmen were making life miserable for the Roman cavalry commander, who didn't know which way to face; the German cavalry got hit in flank and broken, but they rallied. The Italian HC ran down one unit of pesky javelinmen and managed to narrowly avoid getting stuck into the mass of scutari advancing in support. The garrison of the camp was issuing out and starting to cross the stream in the Iberian rear. So when the game ended the Lusitanians had inflicted a lot of damage (5 or 6 stands of legionaries, plus assorted LI), but were not in any shape to carry on. The Iberians were in good shape after beating the crap out of the Roman right wing cavalry, but were in a bad position with Romans to front and rear! It was time for the Spanish to withdraw covered by their cavalry and s gers. We decided it was a minor Roman victory worthy of an ovation in the Senate, but the Spanish could claim bragging rights and roast a few bulls in celebration. Other good games had the Spanish tribes defending a hill top town from converging columns of Romans who wanted to sack it, and the Spanish ambushing a Roman army on the march. This last game saw the Celtiberians charge downhill into a very badly deployed legion who broke and had no reserve line to rally behind. The Romans got stopped in their tracks and had to write home for more men. I never intended to build a Spanish army, but I'm glad I did. They're as colorful as the Celts and tactically they're more interesting than either the Celts or Germans. With them I have more options for historical opponents then I would have with the Celts or Germans. There is also the added benefit that Spanish units are very useful as auxiliaries for both Carthaginian and Republican Roman armies, up to the Civil Wars. A serendipitous army indeed. Back to MWAN # 133 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2005 by Legio X This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com