When you think "rampaging barbarian horde," what do you envision (aside from Black Friday Walmart shoppers)? Hairy, axe-wielding brutes, possibly backed by forest-worshiping shamans, right? That's exactly what Creative Assembly just announced we're getting in Total War: Rome 2's Averni tribe faction.
Predictably, the Gallic Averni (based out of modern central France) are intended to be great fighters on foot, charging fearlessly into battle with spear and javelin at the ready. It's no wonder they turned out such fierce warriors, as power and position within their tribe depended mostly on how many victories and kills they could rack up; they were sort of like ancient Earth Klingons (yes, I just used a fictional race as an analogy for a historically real tribe and I feel no shame!). On the strategic level, the Averni are set up as master craftsman and goldsmiths, thus earning extra income from those sources.
These guys sound like an ideal barbarian foil to Rome's ordered ranks of Centurions and Legionaries. Along with the Iceni tribes of Britain, it will be interesting to see if Creative Assembly can come up with more barbarian factions (like the Germanic tribes) without making them feel copied-and-pasted.