Friday 19 June 2020

Lockdown Day 88: Fantasy Armies With a Difference

Hi!

After a bit of thought, I have decided on collecting and painting up a fantasy army with a bit of a difference.

I'd originally planned on going for a more traditional army such as Wood Elves or Dwarves but I was sat watching a National Geographic documentary called Lost Treasure of the Maya which had an episode about a mighty fortification built into a hillside defending the Mayan civilisation against their enemies and it got me to thinking about Conan the Barbarian and the Hyperborean world.

A bit of rummaging later, I found my old copy of the Osprey Publishing Aztec, Mixtec and Zapotec Armies:



I thought of creating a Slann type of civilisation but with nearly all human figures instead of frogs which then got me thinking about using Of Gods and Mortals as the basis of some small skirmishing as I work up to a larger army.

Just looking through the Man-At-Arms book, it's full of exotic looking troop choices and absolutely full of colour which is a plus and the cultures themselves are fascinating to read about but is it possible to take elements from these, such as the troop types and re-imagine them as something else? 

Imagine a blood soaked and savage empire of pyramid cities hidden in lush jungles but fortified against some unknown foe with all manner of possibilities to play around with from non human attacks to other tribes or even old worlder Conquistadores turning up to hunt for gold...


Sadly when I had a peruse online the two companies I'd planned on making my initial purchases from are currently closed so I think I'm going to have to rethink my plan somewhat!

I do like the idea of using some historical figures to play about with a fantasy game and instead of going high fantasy, go for a world almost entirely populated by humans but with non human beasties still lurking in the out of the way areas but as I cannot get the figures at present, I'm going to go with something I can get so I'll have to get my thinking hat on again!

In the meantime, I think I am going to write a bit of background for one of these cities so that when the figures become available again, I can place a modest order to get some odds and ends to try out the ideas I have...

I'll have another peruse of my assorted rulebooks and see if there's a different force I fancy having a go at collecting but my post tomorrow will be the initial plan for my Sci-Fi theme of July so watch this space and in the meantime, All the best!

7 comments:

  1. http://www.gringo40s.com/28mm-mesoamerican.html I know of one company that is making fantasy Native American range. But Cant remember the name of it. I will see if I can find it.

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  2. Tekumel is also a decent idea to look over. http://tekumelcollecting.com/

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  3. This is a project I would like to see. I had planned to start a 15mm Mayan warband for Tribal, but fell in love with their Primeval setting instead.

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    1. I'll have to wait till the companies I've been looking at open up again but it's an interesting project!

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