Elves for Fantastic Battles

 Between work and everything else, I have run out of steam and not done much hobby stuff recently, so I have not managed to carry on Broneslav's adventures and may have to consider not trying to map everything myself. Still, a little progress om game-related things has happened and I hope to have more time in the near future. Mind you, that's adult life, isn't it? "I'll have time for the thing I want to do next week, once I just get these fifty urgent tasks out of the way." Repeat ad nauseam.

I've been wanting to do something with the 6mm figures from our Talomir Tales campaign for a while now, but have not really been sure what. You can see the National Elf Service as it was on the Talomir Tales blog. Originally I planned to rebase them all to 60mm frontage bases from 40mm and make up fantasy equivalents of historical armies for Impetus. In tandem with this, I have carried on collecting rules sets, because, you know, you can never have too many fantasy wargame rules sets. One of those sets is Fantastic Battles, which I have not tried yet, but which reads well and offers a lot of flexibility, so I have high hopes.

Enough Elves to give an Orc a bad day

So with all these thoughts in my brain, I decided to rebase the Elves first onto 30mm x 30mm bases. Fantastic Battles states 40mm x 40 mm bases, but all my 6mm ancient and medieval armies are on 60mm x 30mm bases, so this would mean I could shove two bases together to make an opponent for a historical army using other rules. With a bit of fudging, I could also use the historical armies with Fantastic Battles, although I'll be restricted to companies with an even number of bases, unless I paint up some smaller bases to use to make change, which need not be too onerous a task.

The Elven infantry with archers in front and spears behind. The general is mounted in the centre and flanked by a druid and the famed bard Elvish, with two heroes on the outer flanks.

I could have left the Elves as they were on their 40mm frontage bases, but rebasing builds in compatibility with other parts of my collection, and I do find the 30mm/60mm base more aesthetically pleasing for no rational reason that I can think of. Also, if I ever play someone else, whose army follows the official basing, I can always use a sabot base for my own troops, so no worries there either. One thing I did consider was rebasing to 1" square bases, because Fantastic Battles uses base widths as the main measurement. As such, it would have been more convenient for game play and require a much smaller table, but it could lead to issues with larger fantastic monsters and war machines not fitting on the standard base.

A full company of Elven knights

In addition to rebasing the existing figures, I painted up the Elven knights who had languished in the Pile of Possibility (aka the Pile of Shame) for far too long. I also found some more spearelves in that pile and quickly slapped paint on them too. I like how the whole army looks. Once I have rebased the goblins, I can set up a game and test the rules properly.

In the spirit of using what I already have, the Elves are supported by a detachment of Centaur light cavalry

It's a simple army with just the core elements and can easily be expanded in the future. When I am back in the UK at Christmas, I shall dig out the Goblins and see if I can get them rebased. Who knows? I might even manage to set up and play a game.

Through the Badlands (Sellswords and Spellslingers)

Returning to Sellswords and Spellslingers, I decided to play the same scenario again, but this time with more focus on what the actual goal of the scenario was. The PCs start on one table edge and must escape off the other. Between them and safety lie four Orc Brutes and a Troll.

The baddies are all set up randomly, which resulted, once more, in the PCs being surrounded at set-up. Three Orc Brutes were within or close to charge range even before the heroes had tried to move. The other Orc Brute and the Troll were across the far side of the table, probably hoping to pick off exhausted PCs and eat them.

As our heroes moved out, Wizard tried to cast a fireball but failed, while Scout moved out yelling, "I'll find a path for you all!"

As Fighter tried to work out which way she was meant to be going, another Orc Brute appeared beside her. Cleric was so stunned she failed to move, but all of the monsters decided that this would be the best time to charge. Unfortunately, the plucky Elven Scout quickly found himself being assaulted by an Orc Brute, but he managed to wound it.  Fighter had the better of the Orc attacking her, while Cleric hammered the one facing her. Then some Orc minions wandered up, wondering what all the brouhaha was about.

The heroes fought bravely as an Orc minion leapt out of the bushes near Cleric, only to be cut down without Cleric even pausing for a breath. However, she was wounded now. Scout discovered the better part of valour, but took a wound to his back as he raced off. Wizard hid in some bushes.

Seeing her chance, Wizard launched a fireball at the group of Orc minions, burning three of them to a crisp. Distracted by the cries of their feeble companions, the Orc Brutes let down their guard. Two were slain and one was wounded again. The odds were looking better for our heroes. Swiftly dealing with her opponent, Fighter turned to aid Cleric, only to see her fall to an Orc blade. Ahead of her, Fighter could see Scout and Wizard racing across the badlands and within sight of their goal. Meanwhile, the Troll was wandering around aimlessly.

Fighter sprinted off as more Orc Brutes arrived on the battlefield. An Orc minion leapt out of a bush and thrust a spear through Scout, just as he was within an ace of his goal. The poor Elf collapsed to the ground as Wizard raced past him to safety. Fighter followed as fast as she could. It was just fast enough for her to outdistance and dodge the Orcs, and she was soon in the pub with Wizard toasting their fallen comrades.

Conclusions

This game went better than the last, mainly because I focused on the objective and not on slaughtering Orcs. However, my heroes still faced a massive number of wandering monsters. The first five times I drew an event card, it was a wandering monster! And then there were others later. In total, the five starting monsters were reinforced by 5 more Orc Brutes and 10 more Orc Warriors/Minions!

"Inconceivable!" I hear you cry, although I think that word does not mean what you think it means.

It was certainly wildly improbable, as was having the heroes surrounded at the start again. To add to the improbability, the main reason Wizard escaped so easily was rolling two 20s for activation in successive turns, so she got a massive number of actions for running. Unfortunately for Fighter and the others, they got more than their fare share of failed activations with Cleric and Fighter both suffering a couple of turns where they did not pass any activations at all.

In some ways, the whole game was gloriously random, and it was good fun, but, as I noted in the previous post on this game, I got the same feeling from it that I did from A Song of Blades and Heroes (unsurprisingly, I suppose). I am not convinced that I would want to play it as a campaign because of the randomness. It seems hard to check the fallen and rescue them with the way the activation die rolls go, and that could lead to too high a death toll of PCs. I want deaths in the party to mean something, not just be minor speed bumps along the way. I could house-rule it to create greater continuity, but I have other games that don't require that. On the other hand, I could completely see picking up Sellswords and Spellslingers for an occasional single game or maybe for a mini-campaign of a few scenarios, and I shall keep a record of Fighter and Wizard so that they can return if the mood does.

Trying out Sellswords and Spellslingers

 It's been on the cards for a very long time, but I finally found the inspiration and energy to try out Sellswords and Spellslingers. I think it has taken so long because I know it is based around a similar system to Song of Blades and Heroes, which I did not get on with despite really wanting to. I mean, who would not want to like a simple and quick-to-play fantasy game? However, I took the effort to make the cards needed for play, because I love preparing for games, and finally sat down to read the rule book.

Five minutes later I was ready to play. I exaggerate, but it's a short rulebook and a little focus will see you finishing it super quick. Then I sat down to create my warband. I opted for the traditional mix of 1 fighter, 1 magic-user, 1 cleric and 1 thief scout. With 60 XP to divide between them, you really don't get a lot to spend on each figure. The magic-user cost nearly half of that just to have the ability to cast spells and their first spell. Thankfully, there were disadvantages that I could use to ensure they had skills enough to fulfil their roles. I gave the fighter the Impulsive disadvantage, the thief scout got Greedy, while the magic-user was Weak. That sorted my points out. On to set-up.

The scenario required my heroes to get from one side of the board to the other. Simple enough, thinks I. They started at the bottom of the above photo and would attempt to get to the top.

That is when the trouble started. Random placement of enemies resulted in too many of them being right next to my heroes. Then I rolled for activation. The magic-user fired a fireball at the troll. The fireball fizzled and the magic-user was out of magic for the rest of the game (a 1 on 1d20 will do that to you). The scout shot at the nearest orc. The monsters all charged and the melee began. The cleric and the fighter charged in and dealt out a few solid blows. More orcs started to turn up. The heroes advanced slowly through the bushes, but they not got more than a quarter of the way before the magic-user found herself beset by baddies, and expired messily. The cleric checked her. Yup, dead as a doornail. The heroes continued to advance slowly.

As our heroes made slow progress, the cleric fell next. Checking her money pouch, the scout found that she was still alive but limping badly. He helped her to her feet and lightened her load so that she could move more quickly. Pushing on, the scout suddenly found himself ambushed by an orc minion, who leapt out of a nearby bush and cut him down. The minion then took the cleric out of the fight before being cut down in turn by the fighter. By now the fighter was thoroughly confused and just stood there turning circles on the spot as the orcs charged. She defended as well as she could, but her armour did not hold, her shield got shattered and it was not long before she too lay on the ground with the rest of her party. They had failed.

Conclusions

Well, that was a trifle chaotic and really did not take that long at all. If I were more experienced with the rules, it would have been an even quicker defeat, but I spent a lot of time checking the rules. I made mistakes throughout the game, but the dice did not help. When your entire party fails their activation rolls so the monsters get multiple turns, you soon get overfaced. It's the same issue I faced with A Song of Blades and Heroes. I like games where you do not have total control of your troops, but this was too chaotic for my poor warband to survive.

So, what needs to happen next is that I play the game and make sure I get all the rules right. Then I can see if experience makes a difference to how well my party does. Understanding the interaction of the system and the dice in a practical way should help me decide how best to approach any given scenario. For this scenario, for example, I really should have focused on moving my troops instead of fighting the bad guys. The fewer turns my troops are on the table, the fewer opportunities there will be for the bad guys to activate.

This was fun, and relatively quick despite my inexperience, so I do want to try again. Assuming that all the games are this chaotic though, I am not sure if using Sellswords and Spellslingers as a campaign engine will be right for me. We shall see.

On the other hand, I could totally see using this as a simple system for a quick, cooperative, pick-up game with a friend, so there is that.

Roll Call: The Seelie (Humans and related monsters for Oathmark)

 The Seelie forces are the humans and their allies against the Unseelie. The Unseelie consider humans to be a blight on the land, and they may have a point from their perspective: humans cut down holy hawthorn bushes, plant their farms over the grave mounds of the Fair Folk and block access to the Other Realm by tolling their bells and chanting their prayers so loudly that none can find their way from Here to There. Humans think that the Unseelie are being unreasonable and making a fuss about nothing.

For more on my head canon for this conflict, see my roll call of the Unseelie. There I lay out the basis for the two main forces of any future game: The Seelie versus the Unseelie.

The Figures

This is the full roll call of human-related figures. The whole force works out to somewhat over 6000 points. There are a few unit types that I do not have for the human forces, but there is still plenty of choice, especially when considering that I can draw on the other species as well. Most of the figures here are Two Dragons Vikings and Normans, with a smattering of Tabletop Games fantasy adventurers plus some ogres from Ral Partha Europe's Demonworld range, and a couple of figures plucked from boardgames.

The whole army arrayed. What are the chances I shall ever field all of it at one time?

Human leaders and champions

These are the elitest of the elite in the human armies. They lead and inspire the other humans to greatness, and many are legends in their own lunchtimes. I have way more character figures than I shall ever field in a single Oathmark army, but it is nice to have a choice.

Tally: 5 mounted and 14 dismounted

Two Dragons Normans and Essex Miniatures Vikings

Human spellcasters

Battlefield support is provided by an eclectic bunch of sorcerous types. Again, I have more than I need but they will all get names and become beloved to me as they achieve glorious sorcerous exploits.

Tally: 7

Ral Partha Europe and Tabletop Fantasy Sorcerers. The TTF ones are scrawnier but carry a much greater weight of nostalgia for me

Human soldiers (and possibly spears)

The rank and file of every human army is a person with a shield and a spear or other hand weapon. Because many of these have spears, I could field them as spear units instead if I choose to, but I am listing them here as soldiers, because I also have an idea of buying figures for a high medieval army with long spears or pikes to use as spear units. I wonder if this is one of those ideas that will never come to fruition. Either way, soldiers or spear units, they are the backbone of the army. Some of these figures have been in my Pile of Shame since the early 90s, so it is a great feeling to have got them all painted at last.

Tally: 80

Two Dragons Vikings and Normans

Human archers

These basic missile troops gain strength from their numbers rather than their individual skill. The carry a range of missile weapons from bows to crossbows to thrown rocks. I lump them all together as basic archers. After all, you cannot afford to be fussy when you are recruiting from the lower echelons of society. At least they do not smell as bad as the militia!

Tally: 43

Two Dragons Vikings, Normans and peasants

Human warriors

The better class of soldier has a chain vest or hauberk as well as their shield and sword/spear.

Tally: 25

Two Dragons Vikings and Normans with two Asgard 15mm barbarians towering over the others at the back

Human linebreakers

Men with big axes or two-handed swords are useful when the heavy cavalry are not suited to the terrain. The linebreakers are just such a shock unit. Armed with large axes and good armour, they are well-practised at cleaving their way through their foes.

Tally: 17

Two Dragons Vikings

Human militia

What they lack in quality they make up for in quantity and pungency. They are also useful for carrying things for the rest of the army.

Tally: 60

A mix of Two Dragons peasants and Essex Mniatures monks

Human cavalry

These are lightly armoured cavalry, usually younger men who have yet to prove themselves, but they are fast and can still hit hard with all the enthusiasm of youth and a young person's firm belief that they will always survive and win.

Tally: 11

Two Dragons Normans

Human heavy cavalry

The heavy cavalry are the elite of society, just one rank below the commanders and champions. They are well-armed, well-armoured and their foes know to fear their thunderous charges. While they might do poorly against a fully-formed unit of soldiers with spears readied, they will almost certainly sweep unprepared infantry away.

Tally: 24

Two Dragons Norman cavalry supported by a couple of Essex Miniatures Vikings

Ogres

These can be either normal ogres or ogre linebreakers according to whim. With the large swords and axes, they are more like the latter, while the former should technically have shields. However, the terrain that gives you ogres makes you choose either normal or linebreakers, so there will be no confusion there.

Tally: 6

Ral Partha Europe Ogres

Buggane

Buggane are large, shaggy ogre-like beings with an innate magical ability. I am using bugbears from the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame for these. They are larger than I would really like. In scale they are about 25 feet tall, which makes them as tall as giants are meant to be and thus far too large, but I have them and do not need to buy more figures, so I am content with that for now. If I play enough Oathmark, I might replace the figures with some that are more in scale and use the bugbears as giants, but that is a plan for another time.

Tally: 3

Bugbears from the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame doing sterling proxy service

Giant

Massive humanoid monsters. They are constantly hungry because it is hard to gather enough food when you are this big, so they will fight for food. This is a Mage Knight berserker, who is very giant-like when placed next to 15mm figures.

Tally: 1

Mage Knight Berserker doing service as a giant

Roll Call: The Unseelie (Orcs and related monsters for Oathmark)

 I have enjoyed Oathmark so far, and am planning to play more. So, that means it is time for a roll call and march past of my armies, especially because ... *drumroll* ... I have painted every single Orc and Goblin figure that I have in my collection (unless there are some in hiding in the attic somewhere).

Oathmark's kingdom design system does not constrain you to a single race/species for your armies. I really like this, because it allows for a glorious mix of different peoples in one and the same army, and I think that was a brilliant design decision, despite it leading to analysis paralysis on my part. I mean, with so many good choices, how do I choose just a few? Well, fortunately there are ten territories in your kingdom, so that means plenty of room for all most of my favourite figures. The problem then is deciding which ones to include in any given army for a game.

That said, this post catalogues all the figures I have for territories marked as Orc or Goblin plus Orc-related figures that stand in for other troop types, such as my bear horde which I am treating as Human Cavalry. Although the lists are for Orcs, I am using the same stats for Beastfolk and Lizardpeople, who are honorary Orcs as far as my Oathmark games are concerned.

Time to get on with the last of the human forces now, I guess.

The Seelie versus the Unseelie: My Head Canon

There is a war between the Seelie and the Unseelie. That is, those that side with the human kingdoms and those that oppose them. All non-human types are considered Fair Folk, although whether they appear fair to human eyes is variable. Some definitely do not and the Unseelie often deliberately adopt forms that are repellent to humans! The Orcs fall into this latter category. They are hard to control because they are massively individualistic, but are more numerous than their fairer cousins, the Sidhe (Elves).

Not all Orcs are opposed to the humans, just as not all humans oppose the Orcs, so you can see Orcs in some human armies. That is the joy of Oathmark! However, the majority dislike humans because they desecrate and build on the Fair Folk's sacred spaces, albeit unwittingly in many cases. Even though armies can contain figures from both factions, my plan is to use the two armies that I have for my games, until I add more. Human and Orc figures will not be mixed in the same army until I have more of both, but I am using Human and other stat lines to field equivalent figures. For example, my Bears and Iguanasaurs will be fielded using the Human cavalry stat line, while the Orcs get their air support from Harpies, who will be fielded using the Gargoyle stat line (a neutral faction).

The Figures

So, here's the full roll call. This lot adds up to about 6000 points of Orcs and Goblins, depending what options you choose for the characters. It is more than enough for a lot of gaming with a bit of variety. Despite that, I would really like to be able to field huge numbers of Goblins, but that would entail buying and painting them first. Shame, because the idea of swarming my opponent with cheap troops just appeals. I would also like to add more wolves and wolf riders, plus more Orc warriors and linebreakers to the army as well as some artillery, but that is also a project for another day

The massed forces of the Unseelie Court. That should be enough Orcs and associated types to give almost anyone a headache.

Orc leaders and champions

Big Orcs with big weapons and good armour. Nuff said!

Tally: 4 on foot, 1 mounted

Orc shamans and wizards

The Orcs have a range of spellcasters available to them to provide battlefield support.

Tally: 3

Orc soldiers

The rank and vile of any Orc army is its soldiers. Oathmark has a stat line for Orc spears, so these could be used as those. However, I feel that units of spearorcs imply more discipline and teamwork than my Orcs are supposed to have.

Tally: 80

Orc archers

I don't have many archers for the Orcs yet, but these provide a useful ranged ability. I am inclined to deploy them in small units as skirmishers for the most part. Somehow massed units of Orc archers do not feel quite right to me.

Tally: 30

Orc warriors

Tougher Orcs with better weapons and armour, who fight in a more orderly fashion.

Tally: 20

Orc linebreakers

Orcs with big choppers. They like to get stuck in fast.

Tally: 20

Orc Huntmaster

The Orc Huntmaster leads a troop of cave lizards into battle. This is actually a stat line from the Elf lists, but I felt that the cave lizards fitted this, even if the unit will be far more disciplined than the average Orc unit. I guess cave lizards are more inclined to cooperate than Orcs. Another option would have been to field them as wolves instead, but I already have a wolf pack. I suppose I could have several wolf packs...

Tally: 1 huntsman, 12 lizards, 7 medium rats

Wolves

Sometimes the Orcs and Goblins ally with wolf and rat packs, and some few wolves allow themselves to be ridden by Goblins.

Tally: 9 wolves, 4 giant rats

Bears and Iguanasaurs (Cavalry)

Orcs use bears and iguanasaurs as cavalry troops. They hit hard and fast. These guys use the human cavalry stat line. If I ever buy Orc bear riders, they will be fielded as heavy cavalry.

Tally: 22

Goblin leaders and champions

The toughest and most intelligent of the Goblins.

Tally: 4 on foot, 1 mounted

Goblin shamans and wizards

Battlefield support at a budget price, but with an opportunity cost. They are more likely to cower in cover than their Orc colleagues.

Tally: 4 on foot, 1 mounted

Goblin soldiers

Weedy by Orc standards, but they normal appear in huge numbers, although not in my army yet. I really need a lot more Goblins! Although there are only 13 of them, I could use spacer bases to bulk them out to a unit of 15 to 20, but then they would look even weedier than they do now.

Tally: 13

Goblin archers

Speed bumps? If they get lucky, they can still cause you to have a bad day. There are 13 goblins here. I reckon that fielding them using spacer bases to bulk the unit out to 15 to 20 archers would make it look like a skirmish unit, which might not be too bad for these guys.

Tally: 13

Knucker

The knucker is a giant snake with poisonous breath. Here I am using a 28mm DDM Naga figure.

Tally: 1 Knucker

Trolls

Trolls are some of the larger and more feral of the fey types.

Tally: 6

Harpies

Aerial support for the Orcs. I am using the Gargoyle stat line for these fine ladies. Although I only have 10 of them, they look ridiculous when fielded as a unit of ten because of their big wings, so I use unit spacers to make them look less ridiculous and to field a larger unit while simultaneously cutting down on painting time and saving money. Win win!

Tally: 20

Giant Spiders

These are in the Elf terrain selections, but I just associate giant spiders with Orcs and Goblins from reading The Hobbit when I was wee, so they are in the Orc list for now. I have more if the Elves want their spiders back.

Tally: 6

Orc army reinforcements! Waargh!! (Oathmark)

I'm making slow progress on getting things painted, but work means I cannot do both painting and playing. Or even much of either right now, to be honest. I hope to be able to focus properly on the important things in life (gaming) once the current deadlines have passed. Have you ever noticed how much of adult life involves telling yourself you'll have time once the current urgent thing is done, and yet there is always another urgent thing that appears after it?

Me being me, I always need to collect as many options as possible for my armies. For Oathmark, that really means being able to field as many different troop types from as many different territories as possible. My main focus at the moment is sorting out my Orcs and associated monsters. Orcs are associated with two monster types: Trolls and Knuckers. That does not mean that these monsters are only found in Orcish armies, but it does mean that it is easier for armies led by Orcs to include them.

Trolls

These trolls add one more territory to my kingdom with the option to field the maximum amount of trolls. They will have names like Rocky, Smashey, Gneissey, Chalkey and Grant (he's a bit hard!). Hopefully none of them will be too schist when they take to the field, and I really hope that they offer the Orcs something that can help deal with the human heavy cavalry, which has shown itself to be very hard-hitting.

Trolls are associated with the River terrain type in Oathmark, presumably because they live under bridges. In Utavoll, these are known as troll bridges and are usually marked at either end with a troll booth, so that unwary travellers quickly become wary.

U18-4004 Trolls (2 packs)

I really like these sculpts from the old Demonworld range that Ral Partha Europe now sells, and they were quick to paint so that is a major bonus.

Knuckers

Knuckers are giant, limbless, amphibious serpents that breath clouds of poisonous gas and live in the most inhospitable bogs and swamps. They only ever appear alone and are unmitigatedly evil from everyone else's perspective. No one has ever asked a Knucker what their perspective is on this. Or, if they did, they did not survive to report back the answer.

A giant snake with very bad breath (28mm DDM Naga)

My Knucker is a DDM Naga that I had lying around. It fits nicely on the standard big monster base for Oathmark, which is 30mm x 60mm for my 60%-scale, 15mm games, and looks suitably monstrous next to my 15mm figures. I have dipped and highlighted the pre-paint a bit, although that does not really show in the picture, except on the face. It's an acceptable level of painting for the tabletop IMO, but I am not as happy with it as I am with the trolls.

The Gnawling Horde: Beastpeople for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

 The Beastpeople of Utavoll are few these days. They live on the margins and rarely enter spaces occupied by humans. They are kin to the fae folk but do not associate much with them for reasons that are not apparent to the human geographers that have explored Utavoll.

To humans, the Beastpeople resemble a variety of animals, hence the name. This resemblance often leads humans to treat them as beasts rather than as fellow sapients. Among themselves they refer to their own kind as Gnawlings, a word that translates roughly as The People. They live in tribal groups and subsist as hunter-gatherers for the most part. A rare few trade with the humans for new technology that they do not produce themselves. Gnawling art is particularly prized by humans for its delicate, primal style.

My Gnawling collection consists solely of Demonworld Beastmen figures from Ral Partha Europe. Although it would be possible to fill out the roster with different types of beastpeople for the different groups listed in the rules, I have chosen to use only armoured and unarmoured beastpeople. These provide good flexibility at a good price. The only thing really lacking is the full range of missile weapons listed in the rules, but I am fine with using generic missile troops to represent all the types of missile weapons. It's not like my opponent is going to complain!

Unarmoured Gnawlings

The bulk of the Gnawling horde is unarmoured tribespeople, who fight when needed but are not warriors per se. They are artisans and hunters and people from many other walks of life in the tribe and are expected to pick up weapons when needed. Sometimes they go out into the world to earn a little extra loot and that is when you are most likely to encounter these people.

Unarmoured Gnawlings

Armoured Gnawlings

The armoured Gnawlings are generally those who make a living from warfare and raiding. They have more opportunities to gather better weapons and armour. Some are bodyguards to tribal leaders or personal retinues, who serve full-time in the tribal warband. Others are outcasts who fight for the love of fighting or because they prefer the life of a raider and robber to tending the herds.

Armoured Gnawlings with Leader

Missile Troops

As hunters, the Gnawlings use a range of missile weapons to bring down their prey, and these weapons also work in warfare. Although my missile troops are all javelin throwers, these can stand in for the slings and crossbows listed in the rulebook without any issues other than the aesthetic.

Gnawling Missile Troops

The Oldest Kin: Lizardpeople for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

 The Salamander Folk of the Northern Wastes are more legend than reality to most. They are the remnants of an ancient civilisation that once ruled the whole of Utavoll but their civilisation fell to internecine intrigue, murder and warfare. Now they live more peacefully in small extended-family groups. However, they can be fearsome foes when their ire is aroused and the more powerful among them know terrible magics that can rend a person limb from limb with just a gesture.

All of the Salamander Folk are from Alternative Armies, except for the Needle Fang Pack which is from Checkpoint Miniatures.

Salamander Folk with light armour

These lizardpeople will stand in for all the foes with light armour, which is most of the list. They are the ordinary clan members. Their scales are hard enough to ward off some blows and they are moderately trained, but they are not normally called to war. Many use the axes and hammers of their day jobs when they go to war, while wealthier Salamanderfolk may have bronze swords.

Salamander Folk with mixed hand weapons (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk with partial armour

Some lizardpeople are more warlike than others. These ones supplement their hard scales with a shield and train for warfare . They are the Ravager Brood, the War-Strong Brood and the Battle Champion Brood. Their role in the clan is to defend the others, so that their less warlike clan members can pursue their lives in peace.

Salamander Folk warriors

Salamander Folk with missile weapons

Salamander Folk favour javelins, but some also use bows for hunting. These figures will stand in for any missile troops they need.

The javelineers carry light shields and a small number of light spears that can be thrown or used in melee as needed. The javelin is a favoured weapon in the swampy terrain the Salamander Folk live in. It used both for spearing enemies and for spearing fish and other water dwellers for dinner.

Salamander Folk javelineers (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk who specialise in the use of the bow are generally those who have got tired of a diet of water-dwelling food. They are skilled at shooting birds from the surrounding trees and at feathering their foes with arrows whose large heads cause grievous wounds that take an age to heal, if the target survives at all.

Salamander Folk with bows (Alternative Armies)

The Cold-Blooded Priest Band

The priest caste has ruled the Salamander Folk since before records began, which is not surprising because the priest caste are the ones that keep proper records. Unkind people say that they destroyed the records from before they took over society, but all right-thinking people know this is a baseless conspiracy theory. Not all priests sit in the temples writing histories of the Folk. Some go out into the world to ensure that the Folk are maintaining religious standards and not backsliding. These are the Cold-Blooded. Most are armed with standard polearms, but a small number of them have magical polearms with jadeite blades that shoot bolts of green fire. It is said that the Jadeite Polearmes were a gift from the gods, and that only a chosen few, those most pure of heart, can use them.

Salamander Folk priests with Polearms (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk priests with enchanted polearms (Missile troops for the Cold Blooded. Alternative Armies)

Hunter Beasts

Hunter Beasts, as the Salamander Folk, call them or Iguanasaurs, as the humans call them, are lizard beasts the size of a large bull. They are used as draught beasts by the Salamander Folk when tamed. Wild Hunter Beasts are not to be messed with. The females in particular are hugely aggressive and protective of their herd, and they will attack if the unwary traveller gets too close to the herd.

Iguanasaurs (Alternative Armies)

Needle Fang Pack

Needle Fangs are the size of a large dog and similarly intelligent. They are trained by the Salamander Folk just as dogs are trained by humans. Their name comes from the many rows of needle-like fangs in their mouths. They are loyal to their trainers and protective of them and their pack. While not particularly deadly when encountered individually, they are mostly found in larger numbers that can be a threat even to experienced adventuring bands.

A pack of Needle Fangs on the hunt (Checkpoint Miniatures)