Inspire me! - Human army ideas?

[Comrade Wraith]

I'd like to make a fantasy human army using mantic rules (not necassarily using the human army list, but with human miniatures). My initial idea was using perry miniatures war of the roses and mercenaries box sets, and while this is the level of cost effectiveness I'm after, I was wondering if anyone here could give me a more interesting idea than medieval/rennaissance humans.

My criteria are:
25-28mm humans
examples of miniatures as cheap as possible (40 miniatures for £18 is my current benchmark)
- In fact if theres a fantasy equivelent of the warzone miniatures bag 'o' 80 for about a tenner I'm more than wiling to do some conversion work
something a bit different from Warhammer Empire equivelents

Thanks in advance!

[mattjgilbert]

Vikings or Saxons.

Fantasy Romans

[darkPrince010]

Check out Wargames factory. Their models run around 30 for ~12 pounds ($20 USD), and have ranges from Vikings, Romans, Samurai, British Imperialist, British pre-WWII (Zulu War type models), Greeks, Persians, etc.

http://wargamesfactory.com/webstore/

[The Devourer]

Since the release of the human list i've been considering making a spartan/ancient greek army (love the idea of including some greek mythology units). Warlord games have a good range of models with the core units being around £20 for 40.

[Comrade Wraith]

Thanks guys! It seems historicals is definitely the route to take.

I think I've settled on a Dark-age fantasy army (though I'm not quite certain yet). I've bought wargames factory vikings before and really liked them. Annoyingly it may actually be cheaper to go the perry miniatures renaissance route, but I'm definitely determined to steer clear of that theme.

I was strongly contemplating greeks but it seems the only plastic miniatures available are hoplites, I haven't been able to find plastic cavalry or peltasts, though the distinction between armoured and un-armoured hoplites seems doable according to most descriptions.

Romans was one I had not considered before and I really like this idea given how easily they can be made to look into some really evocative fantasy miniatures, but again it seems only variants on shield-bearing swords and javelins are available (I noticed wargames factory has some nice roman cavalry though).

It'll be about a month before I'll have some time to start a new project so I have time to settle on a theme.
But in case it helps anyone:
- I have some 20 leftover armoured vikings which I'm giving some fantasy equipment (OTT pauldrons and the like) for the foot guard.
- I'll probably use WF viking bondi for shieldwall, spearmen and archers.
- WF german or celtic cavalry for mounted scouts and some armour added for mounted sergeants
- Trolls, either converted LOTR cave trolls or GW river trolls as Ogres
- Possibly Mantic Dwarf allies (mostly because I needed an excuse to buy more mantic miniatures...)

If I keep to this theme, I'll be trying to achieve a "fantasy,general dark-age" theme rather than "fantasy vikings", so I may mix in saxons and celts, but I think I'd want to get some conversions done where I can.

Thanks for the links and suggestions so far, by all means keep them coming! They may well be helpful for others as well as me

Edit: Dammit there are so many lovely historical miniatures out there! Warlord's romans are looking better all the time, are there any compatible archers and the like.

[Darwin_green]

as far as trolls go, there's always Crocodile Games Wendigo's.
https://www.crocodilegames.com/store...34&sort=prodID

also reaper makes some amazing frost giants. here's a scale shot of one from a blog I found.

http://killshotproductions.blogspot.com/

[LuciusAR]

Gripping Beasts Viking and Saxon ranges are well worth considering and are in your price bracket. Personally I think them far superior to Wargames Factory but I admit that that’s a matter of personal taste. The only downside is that the only things in plastic are the infantry, you will have to go down the metal route for Cavalry, though you could use GW riders of Rohan which look suitably ‘Dark Ages’ and go for a pittance on EBay.

[Grimmeth]

I've always said that if I went for a KoW human list it would be using the Perry Samurai minis - they are absolutely stunning, but unfortunately all metal.
Still, they're not ridiculously priced even then.

Those Reaper Frost Giants are incredible minis though, that sort of thing could definitely change my mind!

[Neldoreth]

I think for the money, you should do Ancient Achaemenid Persians! They are super cheap over on Wargames Factory at the moment:

Persian Infantry Sprus

And you could pretty much do a vanilla version of their historical army given their insanely colourful outfits. Mix in a few ogres and you're laughing!



n.

[Neldoreth]

There's also Vikings that come cheap in plastic are Wargames Factory and Gripping Beast:



Celts from Wargames Factory or Warlord Games in plastic:



Romans from Wargames Factory or Warlord:



Or greeks from Wargames Factory or Warlord:



Throw in some Norman knights from Conquest to any saxon/viking army:



The list is endless man, endless!

Also, there's the new Teutonic nights from FireForge games as well, some very snazzy stuff.

Hope that can offer some inspiration!

n.

[Comrade Wraith]

Thanks Neldoreth! I've actually come across your blog many times before and spent hours drooling over the armies.

I think I'll have to give in and make many little forces, although I think fantasy-dark ages will be first on the list.
Thanks guys, you've been very helpful.

[Neldoreth]

I've always said that if I went for a KoW human list it would be using the Perry Samurai minis - they are absolutely stunning, but unfortunately all metal.
Still, they're not ridiculously priced even then.

Wargames Factory actually has droves of Samurai in plastic... Some nice figs there, and reasonable priced!

n.

[Neldoreth]

Thanks Neldoreth! I've actually come across your blog many times before and spent hours drooling over the armies.

I think I'll have to give in and make many little forces, although I think fantasy-dark ages will be first on the list.
Thanks guys, you've been very helpful.

Thanks a lot for the kind words, I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

n.

[Darwin_green]

Those Reaper Frost Giants are incredible minis though, that sort of thing could definitely change my mind!

the two in the back are Reaper, the smaller ones are Helsvact from Red-box Games.

http://red-box-games.com/index.php?m...a0c54ef9febb8a

here's some more of the reaper frost giants.
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/frost%20giant
and ogres.
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/ogre

[Grimmeth]

Wargames Factory actually has droves of Samurai in plastic... Some nice figs there, and reasonable priced!

n.

Yeah, I saw the CAD pictures and wasn't impressed, but just after making that post did a bit of hunting around for some better product reviews and they look better than I originally thought - I might invest in a box or two and see what I think!

@ Darwin_green
I especially like this one:
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStor...sku-down/03431

Although would this 'ogre' be seen as an unfair advantage in KoW?
http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/ogre/latest/07034