Spain: Barbarian Battleground

Hail, mighty warlord, and welcome to Iberia, battleground of barbarians! As you no doubt know, we Iberi, Celtae, and Celtiberi are proud of our warlike ways. As our leader, you must not only know this, but understand it well. We live to fight; we do not need to give a reason when we make war. We have fought with each other for centuries if not millennia, and only now do we begin to show a united front against the forces of evil. We no longer fight among ourselves- well, we do, but not so much, and it is nothing personal. We are an ancient people, descended from the first of the Race of Man who came out of Africa after the Great Freeze aeons ago and those men who had clung on at the feet of the Pyrenees and later recolonised the rest of our peninsula. We are hardy men, mighty warlord, capable of doing great things.

To command us, my liege, you must first tamper with the material of our world- as you are not just any warlord but an Overlord of Kings, this should not be too difficult. Simply follow the instructions in this scroll, and all becomes simple. It is well worth your time. We are a nation with many strengths and many weaknesses, and of both of these we are proud. Otherwise war would be too easy!

The Peninsula

The Celtiberian Confederacy- which the Romans just call “Spain”- encompasses both the Atlenatic and the Mediterranean coasts of the Iberian Peninsula. However, the Islas Baleares- the Balearic Islands- and the centre of our peninsula are ruled by other powers. These regions should be conquered quickly and brought into the Confederacy.


Our capital city is the large town of Asturica, in the lands of the Gallaeci. Here you will find a palisade to keep out the wild animals and a muster field for training town militia. It is a wonderfully situated settlement, my liege; a fortress of great strength. It can only be reached from one direction, through a western pass in the Cantabrian mountains. An army must march for many months through our territory to reach it, so the Gallaeci will have ample warning of their coming. It is up to you to decide how to exploit this. Oh, I remember glorious battles where we slaughtered hundreds of invaders from the Pretanic Islands. The painted corpses and the overturned chariots were piled high; a glorious victory, my liege, all those years ago, and one you may easily repeat.

Further south lies the large town of Scallabis, capital of the Lusitani, a broad ethnic group like the Gallaeci comprising many tribes. Here again is a palisade for protection, but no muster field; instead there is a practise range, which enables you to train skirmishers to fill your warhosts.

Opposite Scallabis, on the east coast of Iberia, lies Carthagenea, a settlement with a name which sounds uncannily like “New Carthage” in Greek. For this reason the Romans call it “Carthago Nova”. What fools. Why the settlement has this name is a mystery, but our holy men believe it has something to do with the future. Anyway, Carthagenea is only a small town, but its population is large enough for you to upgrade it to a large town if you wish. There is a palisade here, and you may train town militia from the muster field.

Our last settlement is Osca, capital of the Illergetes tribe, in the region named Taraconensis, after its port, Tarraco, the fishing village to the east of the settlement. It is a small town, without even a palisade, but it does have a muster field, so you can still train town militia here if you wish. Osca guards the passes through the Pyrenees from Gaul, and is also an excellent platform from which to launch invasions of the lands of the Celts.

All your settlements have quite large garrisons of troops, my liege- large enough to quickly conquer the rest of the peninsula. The Independent Celtiberian Alliance which separates our possessions on the west coast from the east is allied with Gaul, and there is quite a strong force at their mighty fortress of Numantia. They must be crushed quickly.

The Costa del Sol, the south coast, also known as Hispania Baetica, is controlled by the Phoenician merchants. Its capital, Corduba, is a rich settlement that we should most certainly take back, but the people are always malcontent and riotous so be prepared for rebellions once you have taken it. The Carthaginians also control the Balearic Isles, just off the east coast of Iberia, from Palma, the capital of the largest island, Mallorca. These islands are definitely worth conquering, as this will give you a steady supply of excellent mercenaries, whom I shall describe a little further on.

Here is one way of exploiting your opening moves as Iberia.

Soldiers and Warriors

The armies of the Celtiberian Confederacy are very similar to those employed by the Carthaginians, our close neighbours. Some of these units they copied of us, others we adopted from them. Concerning our most basic infantry, for instance, we used to employ the standard barbarian spear warband, but now we train town militia from the lowest level of barracks. Our infantry of the rank and file however is our own; Iberian infantry are swordsmen equipped with light armour, barbarians but trained in the Carthaginian fashion. They are not truly terrible units- oh, okay, I admit it, they are truly terrible units, however, they are reliable line-holders, and they are all you will have at first, so you will need them. Our top tier infantry are not great either- scutarii. They have a good missile attack, but their melee attack stat is not brilliant, and despite their armour, neither is their defence. Another pretty useless unit.

The missile troops we can train are not great either; cowardly skirmishers from the basic practice range and not much better slingers from the archery range. We have no actual archers. However, we do have good access to Balearic slingers, who are pretty damn good. They can be found in small numbers scattered all across Iberia, some of them not actually Balearic but trained in the Balearic fashion, and they can be hired in large numbers in the Balearic Islands themselves. They have better defence and attack capabilities than standard slingers, and they have better range, stamina and morale too.

Our cavalry is not brilliant either. We have only what cavalry we could borrow off the Carthaginians, and that is Roundshield Cavalry and Longshield Cavalry. Both are quite fast and good for what they are, but they are really nothing special. They look spectacular, though.

Do not be alarmed, mighty warlord! We are not useless in war! Religion and war, remember, are inseparable in our society; read on to find out what gifts our gods bring us on the battlefield. . .

Worship and Holy Places


We are not a single people, so we do not worship a single set of gods. In total, there must be thousands of different minor gods worshipped by our people. However, the four we build temples to are the four most important ones. The Gauls think so too, and worship the same ones.

Teutatis is a goddess of war, and thus attracts many warriors to her banners. Troops retrained in settlements where temples to her may be found receive experience bonuses, and from a sacred circle, even a weapons upgrade.

Epona is a goddess of war and horsemanship- the two are inseparable. Religious edifices dedicated to her worship bring progressive experience bonuses.

Abnoba, goddess of the hunt and of missiles, gives weapons upgrades to missile-wielding units. This is very useful for our people in particular, as Balearic slingers with thriceforged steel sling-“stones” to fire are pretty deadly.

Our most important divinity is Esus, god of law, order and justice. His temples give happiness bonuses to settlements where they are built; however, from a sacred grove of Esus you can train Naked Fanatics, and from a sacred circle the mighty Bull Warriors. Naked Fanatics take a whole year to train, but they are cheaper and far superior to basic Iberian Infantry, so you will find yourself using them. Also, they have the ability to warcry, which drastically increases their morale and their attack for a brief period of time, making them even more powerful. They have a strong charge and attack, but are a little weak in defence. Bull Warriors, now- these are your most powerful unit. They have a powerful charge, attack and one of the highest missile attacks in the game. They have quite average defence, but two hitpoints to make up for it. They are truly some of the most powerful infantry you could hope for: the pride of the Celtiberian warhost. Use them well and they will work wonders. They look awesome as well.

Mods

Many mods deal with the weaknesses in the Spanish unit roster, Andalus’s Additional Unit Pack, SubRosa’s Amazon- Total War, and Roma Surrectum being some of the main ones. But Rome Total Realism: The Iberian Conflict is probably the best if you are looking for a mod that really focuses down on Spain. A truly excellent mod. More about it here.

So, there you have it, my lord. A basic rundown of my people, the warlike Celtiberi. Enjoy your rule!

By Edorix