Skeleton Army of the Necromancer

Everyone loves a Skeleton army. For one thing, the figures are super easy to paint if you use Miracle Dip -- prime white, detail weapons and shields, dip, done.

The trigger for me to paint up a skeleton army was finding the gorgeous old Grenadier Behemoth Trio -- the two Mammoths and the Wooly Rhino. Once I started, though, I could not stop. There are a lot of skeleton figures out there in plastic for relatively cheap prices. Some of these figures are really old (1970s and 80s); some are quite new.

The main idea in Fantasy Triumph for this army build is to go with lots and lots of cheap troops, and just a few stands of something special to mix it up.

Skeleton Hordes

If you have a Skeleton Army, you want it to be bigger than everyone else's armies. What's the best way to do that? These guys!

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Hordes (no battle cards): 2 pts each

The figures shown come from a bunch of different sources. There are old Ral Partha and Grenadier metal figures, plastic Wargames Atlantic (and other manufacturers), even some plastic toys from unknown source that weren't intended as miniatures, but are a good scale.

I've got about 16 of these stands. Quantity has a quality all its own!

Best Skeletons

When you put together the elite, the best, the most equipped and armored infantry that skeletons can offer, what do you get? Well, they aren't that good, but they're better than Horde, anyway.

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Heavy Foot (no battle cards): 3 pts each

The figures shown come from a wide selection of sources, just like the rest of this army. Mostly metals. The stand on the left is a General's stand (which would receive the usual battle cards of Deadly +2 and Armored +1/2), intended as a sub-general under the Necromancer in a Grand Triumph game. Grand Triumph with a huge skeleton army in 28mm is an awesome sight.

Mighty Skeletons

For a collection of the fiercest skeletons with giant axes like these guys. I've only got like one stand of these puppies; it's fun to have at least one threatening stand in the mass of Skellie Horde and Heavy Foot.

In Fantasy Triumph these are rated as:

Warband (Deadly +2): 5 pts each

Best to use these as a reserve to plug holes in your line of Horde and Heavy Foot. Like stiffening a bucket of snot by throwing a handful of rocks into it.

I think these figures are Skeleton Orcs and a Skeleton Troll from the Chainmail miniatures game, but I'm not sure.

Necromancer

The biggest, the baddest -- it's the Necromancer!

A skeleton army has to have a Necromancer, it's the law. And I wanted to have a really special one. So this took a lot of thought and construction to build. These days there are even better ones available 3D printed in resin, but I'm still proud of this guy.

The top figure and the front figures are metal. No idea where I got the top guy; the front three are very old Ral Partha metals, I think.

The four carriers are GW (Warhammer) skellies, I think -- see the oversize weapons. They have multiple parts, so I could pose their arms any way I liked. Their hands were drilled to take the two large pins I used for supports.

The platform is a wooden hexagon painted and with paths cut for the supports, then with the figure glued on afterwards.

In Fantasy Triumph this guy is rated as:

Pavise (lots of battle cards): 11 pts each

Battle cards I always include are:

Deadly +2: he's the General, always
Armored +1/2: shoot him? Not likely. Magical protection.
Unlimited Spellblast +4.5. He's got massive magical powers.

There's also the possibility of Mindblast, Negate Magic, and the like, but he's already pretty expensive as is.

Runic inscription on the scroll might actually say something -- I painted this guy 15 years or so ago, so I don't recall, but I was going through a phase of doing that sort of thing back then. Script is done with a Micron pen from Sakura.

Skelly Mammoth One

These three skeleton Behemoth figures are old Grenadier fantasy figures from the 1980s or so. I found them on ebay in the early 2000s, and they drove me to create this army. Luckily for any readers, the rights to these figures (and the molds to cast them) were bought by Mirliton Miniatures in Italy, and so you can get your very own. They are awesome.

They are also heavy -- they're metal figures.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Behemoth (Ranged Attack +1): 5 pts each

The Ranged Attack comes from the crew of archers (which were not original to the casting, they're added from other sources).

Skelly Mammoth Two

The second old Grenadier fantasy skeleton mammoth from the 1980s or so, this one with a catapult on top. I found them on ebay in the early 2000s, and they drove me to create this army. Luckily for any readers, the rights to these figures (and the molds to cast them) were bought by Mirliton Miniatures in Italy, and so you can get your very own. They are awesome.

They are also heavy -- they're metal figures.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Behemoth (Limited Spellblast Physical +3): 7 pts each

The crew of archers were not original to the casting, they're added from other sources. I used some small brass chain to hang the chest armor piece; it looks nice.

Skelly Wooly Rhino

The third old Grenadier fantasy skeleton from the 1980s or so, this one a wooly rhinocerous. Double extra cool, its ribcage is being employed as a mobile prison for various people captured during the skeleton onslaught, for purposes unknown (but probably icky). I found them on ebay in the early 2000s, and they drove me to create this army. Luckily for any readers, the rights to these figures (and the molds to cast them) were bought by Mirliton Miniatures in Italy, and so you can get your very own. They are awesome.

They are also heavy -- they're metal figures. Really heavy.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Behemoth (Ranged Attack +1): 5 pts each

The Ranged Attack comes from the crew of archers (which were not original to the casting, they're added from other sources).

Singleton Stuff

The massed forces of the Necromancer are mostly Horde, Heavy Foot, and the glorious Behemoths above. But he also has a number of specialty troops available, with different training, weapons, whatever. Mostly these are just a single stand in my Skelly army, sometimes as many as two.

Death Knights

These are old Ral Partha "Evil Knights" of some sort. They look pretty nasty, so they're fighting on the side of EEEEEvil.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Knight (no battle cards): 4 pts each

Skelly Horsebow

Not sure where these guys come from. I only have one stand, but I don't want my Skellies to be simulating the Mongols anyway, so that's fine. One wierdo stand to add variety is perfect.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Horsebow (Slow): 3.5 pts each

Slow moves these guys down to 6mu, which is still kinda fast for a Skelly army, so that works well.

Skelly Phalanx

One of the plastic skeleton multipart boxes I got had the option of these Hoplite-ish helmets, and longer than usual spears. So I decided to make a distinct unit of them, all fighting that way.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Pike (no battle cards): 3 pts each

Two stands are shown. That's all I've got, but it's fun.

Skelly Giant

This is a very old Ral Partha figure, that you can sometimes find on ebay sold as a collectible of some sort. They tried that marketing in the 90s, I think. Prices on the collectible are usually lower than on the wargaming figure, and they're essentially identical.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Knight (Slow -1/2): 3.5 pts each

The figure is a bit small for a Behemoth by itself, but I wanted it to be fierce (dangerous to the opponent). Slow gets it down to 4mu movement, which seems better for it than the normal 5mu of Knights.

Dragonbone Artillery

This is a Grenadier boxed set from the 80s, I think. Lovely, but not easy to put together.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Artillery (no battle cards): 3 pts each

Skelly Archers

Effective missile fire from skeletons is a complex enchantment, so the Necromancer only has like two stands of these guys.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Shooter (no battle cards): 4 pts each

Skelly Bow Levy

This level of effectiveness is more normal for skeletons fighting with bows -- in other words, crap.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Bow Levy (no battle cards): 2 pts each

Necromancer on Skelly Pegasus

Not the weirdest thing in my armies, but pretty peculiar all the same.

Based up on a mounted-style base, so I have lots of options for what to do with him (and I can change my mind).

If he's the leader of the army (or the general for this command in a Grand Triumph game), he needs to be more powerful, so I like something like this:

Elite Cavalry (lots of battle cards): 8.5 pts each

Battle cards used are typically something like this:

Flying Fast +2
Armored +1/2 to counteract the impact of Flying
Terror +2

If this guy is just an unusual extra in an army (not the general or subgeneral) than more likely something like this:

Horsebow (Flying Slow): 5 pts each

For this guy, the magic is that he flies at all.

Skelly Dragon

This is a metal figure. Might be Grenadier, but I don't know any more. Pretty nice, regardless.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Knight (Away +1/2, Armored +1/2): 5 pts each

The crude flying ability of this skeleton gives it the ability to move strategically up (up and away) and back down into the rear of the enemy forces, but it can't do a lot of flying in a tactical sense. Armored counteracts the negative effect of being rated as a Knight (normally +2 vs. shooting).

Skeleton Wolves

Here with a huntsman. Figures are DDM plastics and Chainmail miniatures (metal) and the center guy I have no idea where he's from.

In several armies I've got wolves and fierce dogs, and I see no reason to change that much here.

In Fantasy Triumph this is rated as:

Light Foot (Fierce -1/2): 2.5 pts each

Summon the Dead!

Fantasy Triumph allows you to do some pretty creative things with your army, and here's an example. Reaper has a green translucent plastic figure with mystic miasma rising with bones in it. Painting the bones is a real fuss (finding them in the model is a real fuss, then painting them!). But when you're done, it can be based up with broken pieces and unused heads and parts to simulate the dead rising from the ground.

Which is an awesome little diorama, first.

But also, it is a perfect representation of a "spell" cast by a Necromancer, if represented in Fantasy Triumph as follows:

Light Foot (Away +1/2, Delayed Entry -2): 1.5 pts each

Delayed Entry, in this context, is the time required after the Necromancer summons them, before they rip themselves out of the ground to fight on his behalf. And they're really cheap, so if they don't show up (if you can't find the command points to bring them in) no big deal -- just make sure to keep reminding the enemy of their existence, so he will keep worrying and allocate some of his troops to guard against their entry, and you'll often find that the troops he's using to guard against them cost him more points than the Summoned Dead do to you!

Heroes

Some Hero images for the Undead.

The Mage on the left is obviously some underling of the Necromancer, but probably capable in magic. Normal metal figure, painted up.

Below left is a really cool figure from Reaper. It comes all green translucent. To show that off the best I wanted the figure to be a mixture of translucent and black. A black drybrush identified the areas I wanted to have show as black, which were then painted black by hand. Drybrush alone wasn't a good look. Then some gold detail on the hilt of the weapon, and paint the tombstone, and there's a really cool Wraith.

Below right is originally a ghost figure, DDM. I don't think I did anything to it except rebase it -- I didn't even cut it off the base, just incorporated the base it came with into the hero base.

Center is a Ninja Skeleton. Everyone needs one of these. Metal, but dirt easy to paint.

Wraith

Skelly Ninja

Ghost (or Wraith)

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse