Slitherine

On another thread some mentioned picking armies at random. "Hmmmm", I thought, "Let's give it a try."

My starting point is existing my existing armies are Classical Greek (X 2, One Spartan and one not), Early Achaemenid Persian, Mid-Republican Roman, Early or Late Carthaginian, War of the Roses (X 2, any type) at about 1000 points each, except for the Persians who weigh in at 1400 points. So, having convinced my wife that having many thousands of miniatures to paint is a healthy thing - which, perhaps, doesn't say much for either of us , what would it matter to add just a couple hundred more????

Here are the picks, generated by random selection from the table of contents:

Swifter than Eagles - Later Hebrew
Lost Scrolls - Italian Hill Tribes
Immortal Fire - Thracian
Rise of Rome - Later Ptolemaic
Legions Trimuphant - Early Visigothic or Early Vandal
Decline and Fall - Italian Ostrogothic
Wolves from the Sea - Post-Roman British
Swords and Scimitars - Middle Serbian
Oath of Fealty - Post-Viking Scandanvian
Storm of Arrows - Later Medieval Swedish
Eternal Empire - Tartar
Empires of the Dragon - Later Horse Nomad
Blood and Gold - Mayan

Any thoughts on selecting one of these that would be fun - emphasis on the fun (i.e., not one-sided and not boring) - to play against one of my existing armies. I'm not doing tournaments, so winning against all comers isn't required. I've looked through the famous FoG wiki of Madaxeman's and have few ideas from that; and, of course, we all know that Tartars and Later Horse Nomad are evil, evil, evil...burn the witch evil.

Anyway, this is what boredom will do for you....either that or it's subliminal messaging from mini manufacturers.

shadowdragon wrote:Swifter than Eagles - Later Hebrew

Good and challenging in theme, well if uratian and assyrian are a challenge

Lost Scrolls - Italian Hill Tribes

only for masochistic fun

Immortal Fire - Thracian

Morally bankrupt or not is the Q. But a normal version will play ok against historical opponents

Rise of Rome - Later Ptolemaic

ok

Legions Trimuphant - Early Visigothic or Early Vandal

bloody rubbish, ask Hammy

Decline and Fall - Italian Ostrogothic

F****ng superb

Wolves from the Sea - Post-Roman British

ok and worth playing v's other brit armies. Hard in total theme

Swords and Scimitars - Middle Serbian

Hmmm

Oath of Fealty - Post-Viking Scandanvian

not fun see brits above

Storm of Arrows - Later Medieval Swedish

Yes

Eternal Empire - Tartar

fun and thinking mans army

Empires of the Dragon - Later Horse Nomad

Early ould be more fun. This is hard to use due to undrilled cav.

Blood and Gold - Mayan

fun in theme. As is the rest of B&G

You might visit the individual army discussions along with player ratings and comments at www.madaxeman.com. Some armies have more input than others.

Thanks for your comments, philqw78. It's pretty much along the lines I've been thinking. I've mostly got infantry heavy armies and would prefer to go mounted.

Italian Hill Tribes - agreed. Only for masochists.

Later Hebrew / Mayan, while good / fun in theme aren't "in theme" with the rest of my armies.

Thracian / Later Ptolemaic - interesting and fit in with my earlier armies. Could go with a predominantely mounted Thracian army, but there are better choices. Other than that...too much infantry.

Early Visigothic - agreed. Rubbish. All Adrianople shows is that nearly everyone gets lucky sometime.

Post-Roman British - only as a morph from another in theme army. Although, it would look nice.

Middle Serbian / Post-Viking Scandanavian - better choices in the random list.

Later Medieval Swedish - very do-able from my existing figures with a few extra interesting add-ins like mounted crossbows and handgunners.

Italian Ostrogothic - worth a shot (if you are a longbowman ). Several BG's of armoured lancers would look very good. Although it would encourage me to add in a Late Roman / Early Byzantine foe. Would be fun and, I suspect, F****ng superb.

Tartar (and it's morph - the Later Horse Nomad) - fun and an intereseting challenge for the other armies. I'd be interested in how it goes up against my EAP army or a WotR army.

So, it's either Tartar or Italian Ostrogothic to mark my mini-dometer going over the 10K mark.

MikeK wrote:You might visit the individual army discussions along with player ratings and comments at www.madaxeman.com. Some armies have more input than others.

Yes, indeed. I've been following the Tartar army thread in this forum and like the 10 LH BG, 4 armoured superior Cav option that Tim has settled on.[/quote]

SD, for what it is worth, IIRC Phil is the reigning British National Champion with the I Ostros (from a field of 40 plus players) where he beat the reigning European Champion.

timmy1 wrote:SD, for what it is worth, IIRC Phil is the reigning British National Champion with the I Ostros (from a field of 40 plus players) where he beat the reigning European Champion.

I figured as much, and also that this is Phil giving Tim Porter's Romans a bloody nose:

http://www.madaxeman.com/reports/britcon_2009_4.php

timmy1 wrote:SD, for what it is worth, IIRC Phil is the reigning British National Champion with the I Ostros (from a field of 40 plus players) where he beat the reigning European Champion.

And at Britcon I beat the now reigning world champion with it (well12-8 ). Unfortunately he spanked me on his way to the world title last week (24-1). But I wasn't using the Goths then.

shadowdragon wrote:

timmy1 wrote:SD, for what it is worth, IIRC Phil is the reigning British National Champion with the I Ostros (from a field of 40 plus players) where he beat the reigning European Champion.

I figured as much, and also that this is Phil giving Tim Porter's Romans a bloody nose:

http://www.madaxeman.com/reports/britcon_2009_4.php

Yes a thing I didn't like in that game was Tim's routers didn't burst through any of his other BG. Since my lancers were on the other side of them. But my highlight was my LF charging some of his auxilia in the rough and surviving. (They had to to stop a possible intercept)

philqw78 wrote:Yes a thing I didn't like in that game was Tim's routers didn't burst through any of his other BG. Since my lancers were on the other side of them.

Wasn't that because Tim's routers were too busy dying?

So, it seems like Italian Ostrogothic is the choice - in good part because I've an interest in the period 400-600 AD of "Roman" history.

In terms of army design, it seems straight forward. The Allies and the spearmen seem pointless unless one is recreating a specific historical battle involving them. The Huns seem essential - as do a few (2-4) BG of LF; and then the rest is armoured, superior lancers. *Blanches at the prospect of painting 100-ish cavalry*

Now to devise a strategy to defeat those pesky English longbowmen!