Joel Gregory wrote:
I am interested in knowing if anyone has an alternate army for Skeletons besides the undead that is listed in the HOTT book? Or, if they could suggest any resource or book that has a Skeleton army.

Charlie replied:
It took a long time but I finally learned that in HOTTs you don't need a list. None. . .of any kind. You don't need any "historical" background either. I know this hard. It was hard for me too. Use the Bible and bring on them dry bones. Or watch that movie with the Dragons teeth skeletons. Sinbad I think. Or Army of Darkness. Or use the VC list from the Stronghold, only use skeleton figs instead of Charlie.

Alan Saunders replied:
I have a vague recollection of the Biblical reference to dry bones. The dragon's teeth skeletons are in 'Jason and the Argonauts', but there is a giant skeleton in (I think) 'The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad'. But is there a tradition of skeleton armies in film or literature? The film examples are single skeletons or a group that may just merit an element. Is there an entire army anywhere?

The only examples of undead forces I can think of from my, admittedly limited, knowledge of fantasy literature are the Dead Men of Dunharrow in 'The Lord of the Rings' or the things that Corum can summon in Moorcock's 'Swords' trilogy. These would really just be single elements in a larger army.

Mike Walsh replied:
One of the guys at our club has a HOTT army of WWII german skeleton stormtroopers, complete with 2 Tiger Tank behemoths. I think that he classes the rest as shooters and riders.

He has used 20mm WWII Germans from Irregular miniatures and 15mm Skeletonsfrom Irregular miniatures, he has transplanted the skulls onto the bodies of the soldiers, they are mostly wearing greatcoats, it does look pretty cool,some of the skeletons come with German helmets. I think that he sat down at the manufacturers and picked out the ones with German helmets. Suprisingly the scale difference doesn't show, the Irregular skeletons are quite large.He has based them as 15mm figures.The tanks are scale models, I think 1/72 and are slightly over the 40mm base but it doesn't seem to matter.

Roger Court replied:
Unless there is a well-defined milieu associated with a particular army (usually derived from the literature the army came from), I tend to construct my lists according to whatever would fit in with the figures I have at the time. If I still had my Grenadier 25mm skeleton army, it would go something like this:

(Most figures are generic plastic infantry, with some plastic cavalry and chariots in support. Also has a metal command set and undead war mammoth.On top of these, I scratch-built a catapult from bits of plastic chariot, which looked surprisingly good.)

1 Hero general @ 4AP (Command set)
1 Magician @ 4AP (Command set)
1 Behemoth @ 4AP (War Mammoth)
2 Riders @ 2AP (Plastic Cavalry)
8 Hordes @ 1AP (Plastic Infantry)
Stronghold: Necromancer's tower.

Options: Artillery (scratch-built catapult) @3AP, knights (plastic chariots) @2AP.

Skeletons work especially well as Hordes, since if they break you can just animate a few more, dragon's-teeth style. I thought of including shooters, since many of the infantry had bows, but since skeletons are not renowned for their grace or accuracy I decided not to. On the bright side, there used to be a lovely Skeletal Dragon which could have been useful, although I never had one in my army.

Joel Gregory replied:
Thank you for the thoughts on the Skeleton army. Your answer is what I was looking for before I based my army. Now I will give my thoughts on how I came up with the army that I did - thought I have created some other elements for an army expansion:

I made death a God because according the HOTTS book, any God used in the game should not be an ethical monothestic god. In scripture, Death mocks at God, for it claims the power over human life, it causes fear within humanity, and it is unethical as it takes humanity at its whim without reason or explanation.

In the book of Revelation, Hades is always the companion of Death. Hades is not equal to death, for it follows and serves death where ever it goes.

Part of the mockery of Death and Hades is that they have their own false prophets - leaders who decieve and lead astray others so that they serve Death and Hades.

My skeleton army may not follow the true skeleton armies of fantasy novels. And as I was painting up the army and was thinking about the vision within Ezekiel, I realised that the events of Revelation tie in well with the events in Ezekiel, though the two armies are not the same. But, more important, scripture equates a fool (one who despises wisdom and God) as one who dwells with skeletons in depths of sheol. (Proverbs 9:13 - 18) Last note, to add to my Skeleton army I have a death barge and two ghost Trireme ships.

Jonesy wrote:
I've just finsished painting a 15mm skeleton army, lead figures from Essex. I followed the generic army list in the book mostly, didn't do any knights basically 'cos I couldn't find the figures. For flyers I used a pack of 4 vultures from Games Workshop. They are actually Warhamster 10mm but they look fine. There were 4 figures but only 3 stands 'cos your supposed to mount 2 of the vultures onto one of the stands that looks like a tree. So I mounted them individually on a cut up banjo string, so that there was a bit of give if they were accidently knocked.

Herby wrote:
Personally I base my Skeleton army on early Persian. Lots of spears and shooters and some chariots. I'm also thinking about an Egyptian undead army. Very similar but with Mummies in command and for better troops. It's fantasy, have fun, be creative.

Jeff Bolton writes:
I have a few thoughts (all opinionated, but based on the published fantasy fiction that I have read) about skeleton armies:

Every skeleton army needs an animating mystical/magical NON-skeletal presence that must also serve as the General: A Cleric or Mage.

The army should NOT include any troops exhibiting initiative, charisma, or passion: Paladins, Warbands, Knights, Sneakers, and Heroes.

Skeleton troop elements should ignore RECOIL results EXCEPT when an enemy element is in full front edge contact with the skeleton element's rear edge. When required to flee, however, the skeleton element does recoil first.

Skeleton elements lost in combat (or fleeing the game area) do NOT count for the army breaking. Note that the army breaks when it's animator is eliminated or when half of its NON-skeletal elements are lost. Or its Stronghold goes under.

But Thomo The Lost replied:
Rare as it is, I find myself disagreeing with you about a couple of minor points.

1. Whilst it is true that generally a skeleton army would require someone of substance to persuade them into existence (and I use that term loosely) again, note that many skeletons (the dragon's teeth, for example, leaped into existence without being persuaded by a substantial Necromancer type. Also, it is true that owners tend to come to look more and more like their pets, so a magician, fondly attached to his bones (and I will mercifully avoid all bone jokes and songs) may eventually start to look somewhat skeletal.
2. And why can't skeletons have heroes? Not all heroes are charismatic or passionate and heroes tend to be reactive rather than exhibiting great quantities of initiative. Generally someone (a magician or some such) pointsand tells them to "go over there and pick up that xxxxxx (insert whatever magical talisman seems appropriate)". I would have thought heroes wereperfect for skeletons!

As did Sebastian Rogers:
A question is why not represent them as Hordes? Thus the loss of a fair few does not matter as they can always be got back. Seems a cleaner solution and allows the victory conditions to stay the same.

Mike Walsh also commented:
I would think that a Liche as hero or magician would perhaps be appropriate, commanding undead hordes, based solely on RPG experiences, can't think of any fictional equivalent. However I agree that an "animater" that controls all of the undead in an army is needed and if the animater is destroyed the undead should be immediately destroyed.

I sometimes use my skeletons as warband and knights and Hd(S). Based on the killing automaton model, ie that REH/Conan story ( City of Skulls??) with the Undead guard. Basically they don't stop until the enemy are dead.Also I use Heroes as per the Conan story "thing in the crypt" basically it doesn't make sense that a powerful evil Lord/Prince/Hero type that goes to the trouble of being reanimated as a skeleton won't retain his prowess and skill. Mine rides in an antique bronzed chariot drawn by skeletal horses.My HOTT skeleton army has a sketetal wraith figure as a sneaker, a minor death able to kill individual heroes etc...Paladins, I could make a case for Anti-Paladins but I think that they are covered adequately by heroes

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