Scots Vs Picts

[Heedless Horseman]

OK, i don't know much... but who does?
As an 'uncertiain outcome ' scenario' for 'small games' ? Picts there, Scottii , many possibles
Brochs, Maybe? Crannogs, maybe? Probably not, Maybe ealrier, BUT... when... no-one knows?

Anyway, posted tune before, But... Imagination!  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tzE98pQH08

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Very similar tribes, should give a good game

[DecemDave]

You might find inspiration and enlightenment in   
"From Pictland to Alba: Scotland, 789-1070 "
Bit heavy going mind.   

[Heedless Horseman]

Thanks for that. MY Iron/Dark Age books are 80's... but I am still THERE! lol.
For 'earlier', there was a very interesting book  on 'Tomb Of The Eagles'... Isbister.  J W Hedges: Rather 'strange' insights into an 'unknown' period. Very Good read!

The 'Time Team' Scottish digs 'were fascinating'... so different to the 'Roman Villa/ Saxon grave'... Sadly, my DVD player won't accept 'home made discs' anymore... Lament
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dyC0AmQyGs
Or, as 'memory ain't what it was!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NL3CNiKtaYY
Would Love to visit Orkney someday...

(Wish I could 'Kerrang' up the old vids a bit... needs VERY high Vol! to do the biz!,, but if you can...)   

[Sunray]

Primary sources are rare for this period. There is general consent that Scotti were from Ireland.  At a time when that island was covered in forest and bog, the northern part (Counties Antrim & Down in Ulster)enjoyed close links with today's Scotland.

This was marked by raids, settlement, trade , inter-marriage. and the spread of  religions.

Names - we are left with the names that "foreigners" -often Romans gave the inhabitants. Not what they called themselves.  Picts simply means people covered in tattoos.

Archology. The stone circles and the inscriptions are the same for that era in both Scotland and Ulster.  The later Gaelic dominance is now accepted as a cultural/religious movement codified in a language (Q Celt) as opposed to a people group, as the new religion of worshiping ancestors/spirit world replaced worship of the Sun/Moon as  epitomised in the Solstice ceremony.  Gaelic was to this new religion as to what Latin was to Christianity.

In terms of wargames- similar weapons, tactics & dress styles. in general small tribal bands as opposed to armies.

As later dynastic families wanted to claim legitimacy for the land they occupied, there was a trait of inventing tradition. 

[Heedless Horseman]

As so little is 'kwown', so much scope for 'small' battles. From what I can remember, there was 'evidence' of ' destructive' burning of' Brochs, Duns, Crannogs'... 'at some time'.
Plenty of 'Fun' there! lol.
'Very loosely' the Picts could not hold off Roman invasion, (who Could?) . but Roman withdrawal gradually allowed Irish settlement/occupation/intermarriage to spread from the west until 'Pict land' became 'Scot land'...and then there was the 'Norse/Anglo/Norman' period.
No written accounts... so 'history' up for grabs! Centuries of it! 
From what I can gather, 'Raiding' and small 'Power projection' was the' norm' over the WHOLE of what is now, the northern UK.
With times when peoples were happily getting along... BUT that's BORING! 

My Grandmother was a 'Scottish' Kennedy. Apparently, there is a portrait in Culzean Castle which 'is the spit' of 'a relative'. lol. 

[Sunray]

I often the Romano-British era, as Empire withdraws, and the British are faced with raiding Irish, Scots and Saxons is an interesting period for a few good games.