Part 2

Part 3

Chaos

List

Notes

This army was designed to use up spare figures I had lying around. As it happened most of them turned out to be unsuitable and most figures were bought specially for it. It was also intended to use as many troop types as possible - an original blueprint had every element as a different type.

The Troll Champion is a very old Asgard figure I have had lying around for over fifteen years or so. The rats and lizards are from Citadel's Warhammer range. Although designed for their '25mm' (term used loosely) figures, they work just as well for 15mm. The Hordes are a mixture of figures in 15mm and 6mm from Irregular Miniatures and Peter Pig. There are one or two odd figures whose manufacturers I am unsure of; the Killer Penguin for example. Peter Pig supplied the Men Being Rude from their Renaissance range. Other figures are from Irregular Miniatures; the knights are a mixture of Chaos Knights from the fantasy range and more conventional ones from the Medieval range. The Champion is the most impressive of their Chaos Knights. The Chaos Dwarves are straight out of their fantasy range. The God is entirely scratchbuilt from 6mm Citadel Space Marine, Ork and Eldar figures; his giant body (he stands some 3 or 4 inches high) is made up of numerous small bodies. The stronghold is made up of a GW Space Marine barrage template (a vortex weapon of some sort), with a stone circle made up from garden stones.

Eagle Riders

List

Notes

This is a ready-made army bought from Peter Pig. The grading for most of the figures in the pack was obvious. The only decision was with the swordsmen; they looked wild enough to be Warbands, but the swords are so large and impressive that Blades seemed better. This army is a command control nightmare as both the wizard and the flying troops eat PIPs. The stronghold is a piece of house-brick topped by a nest built of twigs and a plasticene egg.

Garden Gnome

List

Notes

This is a ready-made army bought from Peter Pig. The pack contains a range of figures and classification proved difficult. The Gnomes with fishing rods are definitely Spears, and the one on the toadstool is almost certainly a Magician. The ones on snails had to be Behemoths. Problems were caused by the stone-throwing Gnomes; the only possibility for these seemed to be Shooters. The Gnomes carrying flowers and the one with a sword and crown were assumed to be the standard bearers and general, and were added to one of the Spear elements. A few figures are carrying an unidentified object. For want of any other use for them they were added to the Shooter elements. The stronghold is scratchbuilt from card and clear plastic with plasticene toadstools. It has lily pads made of the bases of 6mm Space Marines.

Pirates

List

Notes

The pirates were not only an opportunity to build a Warband based army, but also to make use of Peter Pig's comprehensive range of figures. The Airboat is, in fact, from Irregular Miniatures' 6mm Fantasy Boats range - the Human Galleon. It's a big vessel though and I have crewed it with figures from the Peter Pig Pirate Personalities pack (alliteration or what?), whilst the Warband is made up of various sword and pistol armed pirates. Pirates with Muskets were used for the Shooters. The Sharks also come from the Peter Pig range. The cannon and crew is from an unknown manufacturer; something I just had lying around. The Pirate stronghold is the same palisade used by the Nomadic Goblins.

Maya

List

Stronghold: A step pyramid.

Notes

Actually, I wanted a Meso-American historical army, but to make one for DBM would require more figures and painting than I was willing to stand. Eventually I bought a Gladiator Miniatures' Maya DBA army, then used some extra bits to create the fantasy element. The army is also useable for DBA with the addition of three elements of archers and slingers (Psiloi) and another of Blades and the removal of the Heroes. The majority of the figures, therefore, are from the DBA army. The Heroes are plastic Aztec from Revell, actually 20mm figures so they tower over the army in a suitably demi-god-like fashion. An earlier incarnation of this army had a winged serpent (Flyer), but this has departed and features in my Aztec army.

Chinese

List

Notes

What other army could give me more than one Dragon? Most of the figures were originally from Irregular Miniatures' Chinese and Asian range, but I found them rather dull, so replaced them with Han Chinese figures from Gladiator. The only figures not from this range are the Magician, which has been poached from the Peter Pig Eagles army and the Dragons. One of the Dragons is a resin ornament and the other is by Inquisition Miniatures of Australia.

Fantasy Renaissance

List

Notes

The core of this army is made up of a selection of Renaissance figures I picked up second-hand. I have no idea what they are, or even what manufacturer produced them. But they were ready painted and there were plenty of them, so it seemed too good a chance to miss. Anyway, the basic troop types are made up of these figures, suitably rebased where necessary. The cleric is a single knight accompanied by a standard bearer on foot. The airboat is a modified Micro-Machine pirate craft crewed with some suitable figures, but will be replaced by an airship once I convert or scratchbuild a suitable model. The tank is scratchbuilt from card and the remains of a Vivid Imaginations 'Thunderbirds' vehicle, again with a crew of suitable figures. The stronghold is a fish tank ornament.

Green Martian

List

Notes

This is an army from Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian novels. It is produced by Peter Pig as one of their fantasy boxed sets, although I have added a couple of extra figures to change the makeup slightly. The original army has one less Knight, and the general should be graded as a Hero.

High Narnian

List

Notes

This army is taken from the Narnian lists elsewhere on this site. It is based on the Narnian army which fights the Calormenes in 'The Horse and His Boy', but is probably typical of the troops in use during the reign of the Pevensie children.

Once again, many of the figures are by Irregular Miniatures. The Hero and Knights are 15mm Normans and Medievals. One element of Shooters are made up of Medievals, the other was Dwarven archers from the fantasy range. Irregular Dwarves, however, are taller than their 15mm humans, so for the look of things I have replaced them with Peter Pig Dwarf crossbowmen. The weapon may not be quite right, but the classification is the same, and the figures look better. The Beasts consist of a 15mm lion and two dogs from the Peter Pig Eagles army. Aslan is a 25mm lion so he looks more impressive than that on the Beast element. The giant used to be from the Irregular fantasy range, but the Giant from the GW Warmaster Orc range is a much nicer figure, and has replaced him. The unicorn is converted from an Irregular horse and the centaur is also from their fantasy range.

I have extra elements to modify this army into the one from 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe'. The list is:

	Type	Troops	Cost
1	Hero General @ 4AP	Peter, Edmund Lucy and Susan	4
1	Paladin @ 4AP	Aslan	4
2	Hordes @ 1AP	Narnians	2
1	Warband @ 2AP	Dwarfs	2
1	Behemoth @ 4AP	Friendly Giant	4
2	Riders @ 2AP	Unicorns and Centaurs	4
2	Beasts @ 2AP	Lions and other Animals	4

Picture

This uses some of the elements from the above army. The Hero general has been replaced by one depicting the four Pevensie children. These have been converted from a Napoleonic naval gun crew, with two of the figures being given skirts to make the girls. The boys have been armed with swords and shields, and Susan carries a bow. The Hordes are a mixture of figures. The elements include dryads (converted from Khmer maiden guard), fauns (converted from Falcon Nubian infantry), fairies (from Ral Partha) and various animals such as a fox, badger, squirrel, weasel, hedgehog and rabbits (from Langley Models OO scale railway range). Another Irregular centaur and converted unicorn make up the second Rider, and an Irregular lion based with a Langley Models fox and stag make up the other Beast element.

Aztec

List

Pictures

Notes

This army is pretty much identical to the Aztec list in the rules, except that I have substituted a Warband element for the Shooters. All of the figures, apart from the flying serpent, are from Gladiator's Aztec range, the same range that provided the figures for the Mayan army above. Although sold in packs of 10, Gladiator very kindly sold me an army of single figures according to the specification I provided. In this way I got a spendid mix of different poses. The original list had the Shooters, but the Cuahchic were such nice figures that I felt they needed to be an element in their own right, so I relegated the archers and slingers to the Hordes.

The flying serpent used to reside in the Mayan army. It consists of a giant snake from an unkhown manufacturer, with wings from a Citadel Angel of Law.

Red Martian (Helium)

List

Pictures

Notes

This is another army based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' 'Martian Novels'. It is another fantasy boxed set from Peter Pig, although it is described as 'Small Aliens', presumably to get around licensing restrictions or somesuch. Although the Airboats do not look very 'Barsoomian' (more '50s Sci-Fi), the rest of the figures are very nice. The sworsmen are actually armed with both sword and pistol, but the sword is the favoured weapon, so they are treated as Blades. About half of the 'swordsmen' seem to be women, which is also un-Barsoomian. Fortunately, although bare-chested they are not as well-endowed as most female fantasy figures, so a little work with a file was all that was needed to give them a sex-change. I didn't like the provided 'Hero' figure so I used one of the other swordsmen to represent John Carter. His different skin tone means that he still stands out. The set also comes with a Dejah Thoris to accompany him, and get kidnapped at inconvenient moments.

I have replace the airboats provided with this army with a couple of Chaos cruisers from Games Workshop's 'Battlefleet Gothic' range. Although these don't really look like Barsoomian airships, they have a better feel, and certainly look more like large warships than the things Peter Pig provide.

Jadis Narnian

List

Pictures

Notes

This is the second of my armies from C.S.Lewis's Narnian Chronicles. This is the army of the White Witch, Jadis, from 'The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe' and is a pretty standard generic evil magician army with a powerful general, a few other decent elements, and a pile of dross.

The Witch herself is a plastic figure of Sleeping Beauty given away with a Disney promotion a few years ago. I have given her a wand made from plastic rod, and mounted her in a scratchbuilt sleigh, with a Peter Pig dwarf driver and drawn by two reindeer (actually 25mm prehistoric deer from Steve Barber Models). The rest of the army is a selection of figures from various manufacturers. These include wolves (that's what Maugrim is, for the uninitiated), skeletons, minotaurs and ghouls from Chariot Miniatures, a small dragon, spider, goblins (ok, 'snotlings') and Epic Carnifexes from Citadel, and a creature of some sort from Inquisition Miniatures. Other figures come from Irregular and Ral Partha, and I have no idea where the giant minotaur comes from; I've had it for about twenty years.

Picture

Conquistador

List

Notes

This army is designed to complement the Aztec, Maya and Inca armies I have. Once I have come up with some sort of Rainforest Indian army I will have sufficient troops to try a fantasy campaign based on the Conquest of the Americas. It is based on the 'romantic' depiction of Conquistadors rather than the reality, as well as having some of the supernatural elements attributed to them by their Indian opponents. With the Paladin and the Cleric, this army is virtually immune to heathen magic.

The figures are mainly Naismith, who have a dedicated range of nice figures, albeit in limited and static poses. The exceptions are the priests, which are Irregular monks, and the Flyer, which is an old Citadel Avenging Angel of Law. The Paladin is one of the Naismith Conquistador, painted with the obligatory white armour and horse.

Inca

List

Pictures

Notes

This army is made up entirely of Naismith figures, and elements made up pretty much straight out of the packs. It is notable in that the Horde elements are 'regular', in that they all the figures on a given element have the same pose, same 'uniform', and are arranged in a regular fashion on the base. This seems to best refelect the style of the army. For notes on the different troops represented, see John Garvey's Inca army list. The Huaca is the mummy of a revered ancestor, carried on a litter and used to bring good fortune. It's defensive magical role seemed to suggest grading as a Cleric.

Like most of my armies these days, I have yet to build or buy the stronghold.

Experience with this army has suggested that grading the Cuzco Regiments as Blades may be a little extreme, as it makes the army very tough against 'historical' opponents. It may be better to class them as 'Warband', which better reflects their movement and rough terrain capabilities. The other alternative is to use less of them and fill out the army with Hordes or other subject troops, but this would mean losing some of the nice figures in the army!

Arab

List

Notes

This army is straight out of the lists at the back of the rules, and is actually one of Peter Pig's ready made armies. What more can I say? I have not modified the figures in any way, or changed the composition.

The stronghold is a lovely Arab watchtower, a 1/130th scale resin model made by Emirates (the airline). It is perfect as a stronghold, as it is ready based and (more important) ready painted. I picked it up at a jumble sale for a quid, along with a 1/300th scale desert fort from the same range. The moral is, scour those jumble sales.

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