When I started the Fantasy project I decided to make 3 bits of terrain specifically for each army. For my first but of tinkering I started with my undead army. So I had to come up with an undead theme. To start with I decided on a Necromancers tower. The idea I had in mind was of the tower in Ian Livingston's book Titan, a book which in my early youth killed my head with ideas. The picture of a wizards tower in the book in profile with interior visible, and that's the inspiration for this one, minus the interior.
The Tower has a number of features, it has a nice watchtower on top for the Necromancer to look out for whatever it is Necromancers look out for. On the base I have a blue pool of water washing into it for a fresh drinking supply, and at the rear it has a green brown pond with a tentacle sticking out for all the bad stuff to be dropped into.
There is a yellow stone living room, and a white marble enchanters room where the necromancer does all that stuff they like to do with dead bodies. On the top roof there is an observatory, probably for looking at whatever stars need to be looked at. Please also note the green slime dripping from the drainpipe.
Overall I was most happy with this model, Although at first I painted it grey and it didn't look all that good so I repainted it yellow/sand and I thought that was just perfect. I like the way the candles are burning too. It took me 2 days to build, not including a day for painting. Now onto my Graveyard.
This army is the start of a project so only a small force so far. I got hold of a dozen packs of pendrakens 10mm Fantasy and had a lot of fun playing with ideas while painting them, for a theme I am going for a Necromancer stroke Draugr theme. necromancers to raise the dead ofcourse and Draugr to fit in with a norse/skyrim theme of my fantasy project.
Skeleton spearmen FU2 & FU19 packs mixed together. I am using them as Draugr foot troops. Although in Norse Mythology the Draugr are zombie like creatures the skeletons represent warriors who failed in battle and could not get into Valhalla and so their spirits posses the skeletal remains in order to gain back their honour.
Skeleton blades, swords and shields, Code FU10 & FU20. As above but with swords.
My commanders. The necromancers are from the Undead command pack FU5, and the Draugr lord is FU26. The Necromancers are simply wizards who use magic to extend their influence, ie. make an army of skeletons and kill all life, I feel the same on a Monday morning. The Draugr lord on the other hand is from the Norse idea again, He is not a lost spirit but a great warrior who should have gone to Valhalla but did not go as he has unfinished business on earth, and his skeleton retainers above will follow him in his quest. well that's the idea.
Spirits, pack code FU14. I loved these guys when I unpacked them, I painted them dark blue then shaded them lighter blue repeatedly and ended with almost white at the heads and foot, giving them a look of ghosts we all know and love. The plot behind these guys is the same as the skeletons, but they lack the true force of will to reanimate a corpse, and so they wonder in a semi corporeal state following the Draugr legions in a hope of regaining a chance to settle their souls debt.
Vampires! well they didn't fit in with my undead theme, or rather my Draugr/Necromancer theme, but like in skyrim the vampires are just undead dudes who can chose to follow anyone into battle for the correct incentive. Maybe they are after something the enemy have, and so aid the Necromancer, or maybe the said wizard has some sort of hold over them. Likewise the Vampire may follow the Draugr because of the same idea, or maybe the Vampires are very old and actually knew the guy when he was alive? As I am not using Vampires as leaders so they are based as units of troops, maybe a coven of vampires if that's the correct word, maybe a coffin of vampires, hmmmm... I will get back to you with that one.
A close up of the Necromancer and Draugr.
Zombies, ah yes zombies. These are kind of ok, and fit a lot better than the Sci-fi- Zombies that Pendraken has. As to how they fit my army its quite simple. you can see from the painting they are in faded heraldry of yellow and green, so in fact are my flags for the undead as a whole. The idea is that at some point a kingdom was destroyed, their heraldry was yellow and green, maybe a defeated army, and so when the bad guys need more troops just raise the local recently dead. Unlike the skeleton's and spirits I am departing from my Norse theme. Instead they are simply plague victims, maybe there is a plague at the right time, or the Necromancer caused it. either way the plague virus is just like solanum Virus form Zombie survival guide and World War Z, they are simply common zombies from all the books and films, they shamble along and as they 'allies' are already dead they naturally gravitate towards the living, ie the enemy. Maybe a bit of pushing and shoving is involved on the part of the Draugr or maybe the necromancer has plague victims gathered up and put on carts to be released at the appropriate time during a battle. as to how good they are in combat, well read World War Z, they are stupid and slow, but they just keep on coming, yes when the undead horses march they really do use total war! Great thing is they can always infect the defenders making more zombies with each kill.
