Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts

And gifted we have been! Skeletal Greek hoplites, once a niche filled only by Eureka Miniatures and a few one-offs from other companies, is now a thing and has allowed me to field an entire Undead Classical Greek army.

And the minis don't seem to stop coming. In the past few months, there have been some exciting new sources for undead Greek warriors and I'm heavily invested in all of them.

Warlords of Erehwon Skeleton Warriors
Warlord Games

These are not actually new figures, but rather a reissue of the old Wargames Factory plastic skeletons. The loss of these skeletons when Wargames Factory was bought out by Warlord was hard felt, as they were the only plastic skeletons out on the market without clothing or armor, and thus, excellent for use in conversions. Although unarmored, the weaponry was decidedly Greek, with a dory, xiphos or falcata. The shields were definitely hoplons. So they fit very well into a phalanx.

For years, Warlord has said they intend to re-release the WF skeletons, and now that time has come as they push their new Warlords of Erehwon game (written by Rick Priestly!) 

Mortal Gods Skeleton Infantry

Wargames Atlantic

It never rains, it pours. Just as Warlord re-released its plastic skeletons, along comes Wargames Atlantic to release - yes, more Greek themed plastic skeletons. Mostly naked, these skeletons do come with some armored heads with transverse crests, along with hoplons, dorys and xiphos. There's even a goat head standard (or you can use the goat head for a beastman). Best of all, the sprues also contain longer sarissas and the smaller telamon shields so you can build a Macedonian phalanx as well!

Necropolis Guard

Lubart Miniatures

Lubart is a company from Belarus which makes some very impressive figures with the 9th Age project specifically in mind. I've been following them ever since their, unfortunately, unsuccessful Indiegogo campaign raising money for "The Vermin Swarm" - a line of Skaven Ratmen. They have a unique perspective and designed the Ratmen with a sort of WWI vibe. I happened to really appreciate the vision and was sorry not to support them (hey - I don't play rats).

Similarly, Lubart's concept for the 9th Age Undying Dynasties doesn't take its inspiration from Ancient Egypt, but rather Ancient Greece. Which of course I think is fantastic, because I can't count how many Egyptian undead I have. But now I have more models for the phalanx!

Skeleton Warriors - Ranks 1&2
Lubart Miniatures

Skeleton Warriors Ranks 3&4
Lubart Miniatures

Skeleton Archers

Lubart Miniatures

Undead Greek Warriors
Dead Through Time Kickstarter
Studio Miniatures

Lastly, we have some examples from Studio Miniatures' "Dead Through Time" Kickstarter. The renders are really nice, and if the models come out anywhere near as good, I'll have some more great undead for the phalanx - including a musician. The only issue for me is that they are zombies, instead of skeletons, but the rule of cool does apply here. I may not make full units out of them but will sprinkle them liberally through my phalanx. Plus I may do some conversion work to replace the heads with helmeted skulls to make them bonier.

The best part is, the KS did not only include Greeks. There are zombie Persians (companions for my sparabara unit), Vikings and Anglo-Saxons which I can use with my now viable Dark Age Anglo-Saxon/Danish Draugr army. Unfortunately, the KS did not accrue enough money to unlock the zombie Romans, Celts and Sengoku Japanese - but Studio promises that another KS down the line will be bringing these to life.

 

 

Behold!

It's weird how there have been, over the years, certain lacunae in models available in undead form. Certain things you have a complete glut, like dragons. Boy, do sculptors love to make undead dragons! And then you get completely nothing in things you think would be fairly obvious - like an undead hydra. And then, you go decades without undead representation for some fairly common races/creatures like say, ogres, and then all of a sudden everyone has the same idea within a short amount of time and you get a whole bunch.

I always wanted an undead representation of one of the most iconic D&D monsters, one of the few wholly original creatures in original D&D, the beholder. 

For years there was no undead beholder representation, but around 2007 Wizards of the Coast put out this Beholder Liche for its prepainted D&D miniature line.

Wizards of the Coast D&D Unhallowed #31 Beholder Liche

For a prepainted plastic, the quality of this piece is really good. Although it suffers from all the issues that prepainted plastics do, the sculpt itself is not bad and probably deserves a reissue in resin. The paint job is ok, but could really pop with a quick prime and repaint. Of particular interest is the missing central eye, which could be attributed to rot, but apparently was part of the original lore of the beholder liche. I'm not a lore guy, and I really couldn't care less about fluff, but when the idea of a beholder liche became a thing, part of the process for becoming an undead magic user required the beholder to blind itself. Which I think is a pretty cool detail, seeing how the large central eye is the defining characteristic of the creature.

And there's this zombie beholder from the defunct Magnificent Egos Miniatures circa 2005.

Magnificent Egos MEO4037 Oculus, The Rotten Eye

A full metal piece. Not the greatest sculpt, but very interesting. I particularly like how the guts spilling out of the mouth forms the flying base. The excellent paint job above done by Dragon Eye Miniatures.

But aside from those two figures, there was nothing. I figured I could use one or both of the two as a random monster in one of my undead chaos armies, but certainly not put together a unit or anything.

But now, it's raining undead beholders!

Wizards of the Coast D&D Dungeon of the Mad Mage #44 Death Tyrant

Wizards of the Coast D&D Dungeon of the Mad Mage #29 Zombie Beholder

Two new prepainted plastics from Wizards of the Coast's D&D line. The Eye Tyrant is a larger figure and I think a better sculpt than the Zombie Beholder. Again, I like how the Eye Tyrant reflects the current D&D lore with the creature being solely skeletal, but with the eyes still magically revolving around the head long after the stalks have rotted away.

And because we live in a world of 3D printing where you can actually create anything you can dream up...

Jax Miniatures Death Tyrant

3D printed Death Tyrant from Jax Miniatures located on Shapeways

Death Tyrant by Duncan Shadow Louca

Above is a magnificent sculpt by the extremely talented 3D artist Duncan "Shadow" Louca. You can buy a number of his prints from shops on Etsy or contribute to his Patreon and print your own!

Dungeonworks Death Tyrant

A 3D printable Death Tyrant from the recent Dungeonworks Monstrous Encounters - Undead Rising Kickstarter. It looks really cool. Again, I like what they do with the ghostly eye stalks. Of course, I'll let you all know, once I get my freaking Ender 3 to freaking print!