Ars Mortis: Eleftheira Kai Thanatos!

Eleftheria kai thanatos. Both Freedom AND death! Why choose?

As I've noted in the past, my Skeleton Legion has grown to such proportions that it is impossible for me to actually field the entire Legion in one game, so I have taken to breaking it down into several army or corps level contingents. I like to build them around certain themes, and this one is probably my favorite: an undead 5th century B.C. classical Greek hoplite army with mythological elements.

This army is built around a core infantry phalanx of six individual units of skeletal hoplites. Four of these units are built up from Eureka's armored skeleton hoplite figures. The other two units being filled out with ten Foundry armored hoplites from their two "Children of the Hydra" blisters, five armored hoplites from Bronze Age and the remaining unarmored (but armed with hoplons and dorys) figures from Wargames Factory's plastic skeleton set. These unarmored figures I'm thinking of designating as Ekdromoi or "outrunners" used by some cities in their phalanxes - notably the Spartans and the Thebans in later periods. These were younger soldiers who wore little or no armor, but could leave the phalanx formation on command to chase away skirmishers or to quickly take some strategic terrain and hold it until the phalanx arrived. Although there aren't specific rules for Ekdromoi in either Scramasax or Archon (the ancient warfare supplement for Piquet), it would be pretty easy to portray this - just allow the Ekdromoi to deploy into a separate open order formation on a "Deploy" card. Unfortunately, in Scramasax, the undead do not normally have a "Deploy" card in their deck! So, the whole issue is pretty much moot for me.

Screening the phalanx is a unit of skeletal satyr toxotai (bow-armed psiloi). This light infantry unit is composed of eight models of skeleton satyrs from Mythic Articulations. These are lovely little models that are actually 3D printed in high detail resin. I haven't worked much with 3D prints, but they actually paint up quite nicely. I really like that I am able to incorporate the mythical elements of Greek culture here. I see the models as highly appropriate as actual toxotai would not be trained militia like the hoplites but shepherds, hunters, etc. using their bow skills to harass the enemy phalanx or screen their phalanx from other psiloi (light troops). The satyr fits this shepherd/hunter model perfectly, while bringing a mythological flavor to the army.

I also am working on using some excess Wargames Factory skeletons to build an eight man unit of skeleton peltasts (javelin armed psiloi) as the single satyr toxotai unit is not enough to screen the entire phalanx. I'd love to have them be some sort of mythological creature, but it is easy to outfit the human plastic skeletons with the distinctive crescent shaped peltast shield (the pelta) and a few javelins. But if I ever gain some sculpting skills, the first thing I'm going to do is design some skeletal satyr slingers. That's what I really want!

On the left, the phalanx is supported by a block of Thracian ogres in war-band formation. These are made up of skeletons from Spartan Games "Heroes of Myth & Legend" line, sadly now out of print. There were five blister packs of three figures each, armed with Greek weapons and shields (and in pack 'E' - hoplite armor). These figures were cast in a strange scale for war-gaming - 42mm. Thus they are ogre-sized when put next to regular 28-32mm figures. This turns out to be perfect for me though as I've stylized them as Thracian ogres (pack 'D' are specifically decked out in Thracian garb). The ancient Greeks of the classical era considered the Thracians barbarians as they divided themselves on a tribal basis and built no cities. Outrageous tales abounded about ferocious giant warriors from Thrace, with wild red hair and primitive mores. Perfect for a unit of mythological ogres! In actual practice Thracians were highly sought after as mercenaries in Greek armies (and Perisan as well) due to their reputation for ferocity. They also had a reputation for unrestricted rape and plunder. Thracian mercenaries usually fought as peltasts in Greek armies, or as allied cavalry as they were excellent horsemen. The classical Greek polis did not have a substantial cavalry contingent at this time, although this would begin to change in later periods. I have them here as a block of troops in loose, tribal war-band but not as peltasts, as the figures are not armed/armored as such. I have them kitted out in what is a pretty standard ogre fashion for Scramasax; a two-slot creature with one slot devoted to the ability "Melee Adjustment" (unit is up one die type for melee) and one slot devoted to "Intelligence" (allows creatures to become normal troops and ignore special monster rules).

On the right, the phalanx is supported by a block of giant skeleton cyclopes, again in war-band formation. This unit is made up of four skeleton cyclops from various companies including; the classic Undead Giant Cyclops from Grenadier's Fantasy Lords range, a skeleton cyclops from Ral Partha's Legion of Doom: Lords of the Dead boxed set released in 1998, a rare skeleton cyclops from Grim Reaper Casting's Nasteez line and a "meh" plastic skeleton cyclops from Wizkids. I've kitted them out with my standard giant characteristics for Scramasax; a four-slot creature with one slot devoted to the ability "Tough" (requires one extra hit for stand loss), another slot devoted to "Cause Fear" (target melees on its unadjusted morale die, not its melee die vs. the creature's unadjusted melee die), and two slots devoted to "Melee Adjustment" (creature is up two die types for melee).

On the left flank is a scrum of mythological beasts; 2 undead chimeras and 3 undead cerberuses. They're fairly lightweight, but mobile and can put up a fight to keep the enemy off the flanks until the phalanx is engaged. This group is made up of the old Rogue Necromancy chimera model from Wyrd miniatures, and then another model of its new resculpt. The other three are composed of a Reaper undead cerberus, one or more of the skeletal cerberuses from Mythic Articulations (they're small so I might mount more than one to a stand) and the stand out figure, the beautiful undead cerberus from the sadly defunct Rackham Miniatures (but revived by Cadwallon!). The chimeras are kitted out as such; 4-slot creatures with one slot devoted to "Flight", one slot devoted to "Breath Weapon" (the chimera breathed fire), one slot devoted to "Cause Fear" and one slot devoted to "Melee Adjustment" (creature up one die type for melee). The cerberuses are fitted a little differently. They are still 4-slot creatures with two slots devoted to "Multiple Attacks" (3 heads baby!), one slot devoted to "Natural Weapons" (allows creature to ignore the Weapon Interaction Table - which is important because otherwise teeth and claws are "irregular weapons") and one slot devoted to "Tough" (requires one extra hit for stand loss).

Immediately behind the chimeras and cerberuses - but soon to be out front - are two skeletal pegai (plural of pegasus) with riders from Mythic Articulations. I'm sort of at a loss as how to score these. Ideally I would get a few more models and just treat them as a regular cavalry unit with the extraordinary ability of "Flight". Or I could classify them as two-ability creatures with "Flight" and "Weapons Skill" (allows creatures to use weapons - in this case the spear of the riders). That's a pretty brittle creature though and doesn't really capture the flavor of the horse/rider combination. I just can't see upping it to a four-ability creature though.

On the right flank is the cavalry wing. As mentioned before, during this period, cavalry was not a big component of Hellenistic armies. That did begin to change in later periods after the Pelopponesian War, Thebes being a leader in this area (and my army is commanded by Epaminondas after all!). But cavalry was used to screen flanks, to drive off psiloi and to pursue broken units. The cavalry here is set to screen the flanks, but I can also move to the far right if I have room to maneuver and try to pursue opportunities on my opponent's flank. Then I can let the monsters behind move up to fill the gap (and get out of their way if they fail a control test!).

I generally position cavalry with the heaviest towards the center and the lightest and most mobile at the tip of the wing.

The closest cavalry unit to the center is a well armored medium cav unit made up of the 4 beautiful heavily armored centaurs from Rackham. I actually imported these directly from France before Rackham had an American distributor, they are so cool. The rest of the unit is filled out with the two undead centaurs from Grenadier's Fantasy Lords line, and the two melee armed skeleton centaurs from Dark Horse.

The next unit is a light cavalry lance made up of 8 Greek skeletal horse and riders from Eureka. These models are outfitted with hoplons and Greek weaponry. They are unremarkable, but historically accurate.

The next unit is a light cavalry group built from more skeleton centaurs from Dark Horse and some converted cavalry from GW's old plastic skeleton boxed sets. It's a pretty easy conversion, just cut of the horse head and attach a human skeleton upper torso with some putty. If you shape the putty correctly, it looks great when painted.

The final unit at the extreme right of the line is a missile armed light centaur cavalry group mustered from 4 armored skeleton centaur archers from Rackham, 2 unarmored skeleton centaur archers from Dark Horse and 2 skeleton centaur archer conversions from the old GW plastic skeleton boxed set. As undead are just as crappy at missile fire as they are melee in Scramasax, the utility of this unit may turn out to be more at blocking movement around my flank, but with luck, they can get behind the enemy and stick him with pointy things. Besides they look beautiful.

Behind the cavalry wing is a mob of giant creatures composed of 1 Ral Partha Skeleton Titan (armed and armored as a hoplite), and 5 giant minotaurs; a classic Grenadier undead minotaur, an old GW Minotaur Lord with the chaos skull variation, a minotaur skeleton from Mythic Articulations, Ahnamoth (a zombie minotaur) from Enigma and a new zombie minotaur from the recent Die Hard iniatures kickstarter that I am anxiously waiting on. I have a bunch of other undead minotaurs but only five of them are large sized. I think that in this setting, a Cretan type minotaur has to be a giant sized creature - the others are not so impressive. I can just use them as beastmen in my undead Chaos Horde. Two of these models, the ones from Mythic Articulations and Enigma are titan sized, so I will be classifying them as 6 sot creatures.

Lastly, I have a few individual characters. I have only 1 magic user that I can really use, a WOTC plastic figure from their Demonweb expansion, the triple "Skull Lord". Although not billed as such, I am listing this figure as an aspect of Hecate; the Greek goddess of magic and necromancy. Despite being the goddess of necromancy Hecate was usually portrayed as having 3 faces, or 3 fused bodies - so the triple faced skull lord is a good fit. I'll base him/her with some undead dogs as well, which were representative of Hecate.

I'll then be using the 3 figures from Spartan Games Heroes of Myth and Legend Pack "E" as the CINC and heroes. Armed and armored as hoplites, I've named the two heroes as Achilles and Ajax.

The CINC is Epaminondas, the Theban general who ended Spartan domination of Greece. Not only was Epaminondas an innovative general who introduced new tactics into hoplite warfare, he was a great strategist. I often refer to him as "the first neo-con" because he was the first to understand that the nature of regimes matter. Until Epaminondas, competition between the Greek city states was always thought of in terms of Thucydiean Realism. States all act the same; out of interest, fear or search for glory. Epaminondas was the first to realize that it was the nature of the Spartan regime that made them dangerous, and until that regime was changed, Thebes would always be under threat. The Spartan regime bred its men for war from age 7 onward. They fielded the only professional army in Greece, all others being citizen militias. The Spartans could do this because their society contained an entire slave class, the helots, who were the descendants of citizens from cities conquered by the Spartans in previous centuries. Other Greek cities had slavery, but Sparta was the only polis that had an entire slave class - and their way of life was built on it. The helots were the farmers, the artisans and the traders. They supported the Spartan military class. Epaminondas realized that if the Spartans did not have the helots, they would ceases to be a threat because the entire nature of the regime would have to change. Therefore, he invaded Lacadaemon (during the winter - unheard of!) with the express war aim of liberating the Spartan slaves.

Epaminondas' army was the first army dedicated to setting other men free. How ironic that his army is now enslaved to the powers of darkness!