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.

 

 

WIP Undead Classical Greek Army - Skeletal Phalanx

I've pretty much finished doing the verdigris effect on my skeletal phalanx, the core of my classical Greek army. The phalanx consists of six units of skeletal hoplites (one has yet to be assembled though as I am waiting on my pack of skeleton hoplites from Bronze Age miniatures).

All miniatures are based for the war-game Piquet following the typical infantry pattern of four stands to a unit, with three figures to a stand. In Piquet, the number of figures is the number of "hits" it takes to eliminate that stand, usually three for infantry (although heavy infantry might be four and light or skirmish infantry, two).

In the game, combat is resolved by competitive dice rolls between players modified by circumstances. So, for example, when all modifications are done to our base die values (BDV), I may be rolling a d8 against my opponent's d10. If he beats my roll by 3, I lose one stand. If he beats my roll by 6, I lose two stands, etc. If he beats my roll by 2 or less (or I beat his roll by 2 or less) - nothing happens. You don't keep track of "hits" on stands. That way, combat is more decisive, with either some sort of major effect - or no effect. It's not about attrition.

In Piquet: Archon (the ancients supplement for Piquet), Greek hoplite infantry is rated as "heavy" and therefore could take four hits per stand. But I've based them here three to a stand as a) for heavy infantry, I'd need 24 more figures and b) my Greeks are armed and armoured in bronze. If they were facing similarly equipped forces I would probably rate them as heavy. But most of the forces they will come up against (dwarves, elves, orcs) have medieval level technology and will be using steel. So I'm sort of downgrading their ability somewhat.

Four of the units are comprised completely of Skeletal Hoplites from the Australian miniatures company Eureka (100SKL02), shown all together on one movement stand along with some individual stands. The figures come with different variants of legs, torsos, arms and skulls, which allows them to be assembled with great variation. They are rather fiddly though, and I have to keep repairing them with green stuff and glue. In a weird way, their fiddly-ness is actually an asset because they keep bending different ways under their own weight, giving them an unnatural posture and gait.

The first unit of these that I bought many years ago I painted with a color more coppery than bronze. Since I added the verdigris, though, it's hard to tell the difference. So...win for Nihilakh Oxide (N.O.)! In my original paint scheme I painted all the armor metal. Only later did I realize that the boxy armor is not bronze, but rather linothorax. So I am in the process of repainting these properly, with a light grey prime and then a pure white base which I will then wash and shade. The first unit is painted using a black primer coat that also acts as the base coat. The bone was then painted individually over the base, along with that coppery coat for the armor and now finished with N.O. The other three units I spray primed with Bone White from Army Painter and then dipped the figures in strong tone Quickshade, also from Army Painter. I then painted the metal with bronze from GW and then finished off with N.O.

The other unit of hoplites shown is comprised of ten figures from the two "Children of the Hydra" packs from Foundry Miniatures (WG421 & WG422). The two skeletons in the front rank on either end are from the plastic Skeleton Warriors set from Wargames Factory (WGF ML-002). All these figures were primed with Krylon Almond primer/paint, which also acts as the base coat. I then washed the models with Agrax Earthshade from GW. The metal was painted with a basecoat of bronze from GW and then finished with N.O.

As I noted above, I am waiting to get my hands on the Skeleton Hoplite pack from Bronze Age Miniatures (32SKLS1) which is comprised of five models. I'll then finish out the unit with seven more of the plastic skeletons from the Wargames Factory set. Sadly, the Wargames Factory plastic skeletons are out of production. They were a great resource, with 30 to a box and could be used for many different things. However, since they were obviously going for the "Jason and the Argonauts" feel, the arms and armour were definitely Greek; with hoplons, dorys and xiphos.

I'll then be ready to field the full phalanx against those hated dwarves, along with the rest of my classical Greek force.

WIP - Undead Classical Greek Army

One of the problems with my job is that I am usually off in some far lung part of the world without access to my miniatures. Most of the time they languish in one of my storage spaces or at my dad's house where I send most of the stuff that I buy.

I can't get mail in Afghanistan. Man I miss the APO!

But one of the benefits of being, how shall we say, "between jobs" for the past half year or so is the time it has given me to work on some of my armies.

This work has involved cataloging my extensive collection with the iOS app Sortly. It's a godsend, because I have no good list or database of everything I have, and I just can't remember whether or not I still need that old Lost Tribes figure from Citadel or not.

But also I've been whipping some of my armies into shape, assembling, converting and painting them as I can.

My undead Classical Greek army that I detailed in a previous post was the closest to completion, so I've been concentrating on that. It's almost ready for the tabletop. I just need to purchase those Bronze Age skeletal hoplites to finish my phalanx. The rest is pretty much just detailing.

Here's some of the work so far. Comments appreciated, especially with photography because I got the lighting all wrong despite having a light box and two lights.

All units are based for Piquet: Scramasax. Normally four stands of three figures per stand for infantry, four stands of two figures per stand for cavalry. Exceptions are for heavy infantry, skirmishers, x-heavy cavalry, etc. Large creatures and characters are individually based. I tend to use round bases for characters, square for creatures - but it's not a hard and fast rule.

Main hoplite phalanx

Five units of heavily armored hoplites armed with hoplon and dory/xiphos. I've yet to purchase the Bronze Age skeletal hoplites to complete the sixth unit.

76th, 77th, 78th & 79th Infantry (Hoplites)
Manufacturer: Eureaka Miniatures
Line: Skeletons
Part #: 100SKL02

The bulk of my phalanx is made up of miniatures from this Australian company. The sculpts are only so-so, and the assembly process can only be described as fiddly, as there are lots of different parts. However, that variance is also a strength because you can assemble the models in a variety of different configurations, making for a very heterogeneous phalanx. The 76th is my oldest unit, as evidenced by their differing paint job. The 78th was primed with black and then the bone parts were painted on directly or dry brushed. I also used a copper paint, when I should have used a darker bronze. The 77th, 78th and 79th I purchased back in 2013. I primed them using Skeleton Bone spray primer from Army Painter. I tend to use this also as the base coat to save time when painting bone. I'll then do some highlighting with a lighter bone color. The armor was painted with Citadel Warplock Bronze.  I then used the Army Painter strong tone Quickshade dip to finish the bone parts and make the metal look old and weathered.

80th Infantry (Hoplites)

Manufacturer: 

1. Foundry
2. Wargames Factory

Lines: 

1. Greek Mythology
2. Myths & Legends

Part #s:

1. WG421 Children of the Hydra
2. WG422 Children of the Hydra
3. ### Skeleton Warriors

Wargames Factory - New Plastics

I just bought today a new set of plastic miniatures from Wargames Factory.  They came out with this set of skeletons a few months ago.

The general concept revolves around an ancient Greek theme, ergo the hoplon and xiphos.  Very evocative of Ray Harryhausen’s Jason and the Argonauts, which is kind of the gold standard in undead presentation.  

Back in the 8th century B.C. they didn't have CGI...

The figures in the set are in multiple parts, allowing for high customization like the GW or Mantic plastics.  However, since the torsos and heads of the figures are not armored, I am not planning to fit them in with the phalanx of Eureka hoplites in my ancient Greek brigade.  I think better to use them in a generic light infantry capacity, outfitting them as peltasts or perhaps with a mix of weaponry that can stand in any facet of the Legion.

Best thing about the Wargames Factory figs, $20 for 30.  Compare to the Mantic Skeleton Regiment: about $20 for 20.  Or better yet, the Warhammer™ Vampire Counts Skeleton Warriors: $25 for 10!  Great googly-moogly!