Gods and Monsters - Introduction

 

The original WARRIORS OF ATHENA came to my attention sometime during my FROSTGRAVE days, when McCullough had been playing with the captain rules and exploring the ideas of what would become Rangers of Shadow Deep. As an aside, I love how transparent Joseph's work is, in demonstrating how the ideas build off one another, each fresh release incorporating the lessons learned from the last. Anyhow, in 2016 the original Warriors game appeared in the pages of Wargames: Soldiers & Strategy, and in time I found it. Having grown up with D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, and with nightmare-memories of Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts, I was immediately struck and had to learn more.

 It was a very short article, about five pages long that not only converted the Frostgrave rules to fit the period and low/no magic of it all, but also supplied a campaign and a lightweight leveling system. I ate this up especially given my less is more sensibilities (which even Ash Barker has commented on,) and so I began dreaming about what a little collection could look like, that would play well in a small scale exploration into these legends, or legends like them. It took a while to circle back, just about ten years for me, and less for Joseph who had come back to WOA now and again, and now again for this upcoming release from Osprey proper. The game is getting its own pair of books to start, and while I have plenty of curiosity for this ultimate fulfillment of the vision, I’m excited to see what I do with this idea, maybe even more than I am to read McCullough’s new materials.

So since I’m charting my own course, I started to think about what I wanted my adventure to look like in both scope and appearance. Unfortunately, I’ve become quite entranced with older models thanks to the Old World Army Challenge, and the YouTube Channel Kim’s Talisman, and so while trawling Noble Knight games for sheep, I decided that I could start collecting some odds and ends for my play set (these are toys after all.) I think I picked fairly well, but you can see for yourself.

For protagonists I got five Amazonian from Grenadier, who fit within a Hollywood Ancients paradigm I developed when I was younger. None of them are the Xena Warrior Princess I grew up with, but they are undeniably “A Vibe,” and are of suitably retro Sword and Sorcery fare.

Then we have a Reaper Medusa, which is heavily inspired by the Harryhausen one from Clash of the Titans. She’s top tier, and I can already imagine all sorts of mechanics that would compliment her. I imagine it’d be nice to get some generic Grecian warriors painted in grey to represent her victims, and they could pull double duty as shades, bandits, or other NPC-likes, but that’ll be for down the road I think. I’d like to sort out this campaign before I begin acquiring too many more minis for this project that is intentionally small in scope.

 I’ve also grabbed some Crypt Creatures from Grenadier, who might serve as ghouls or other generic monstrous humanoids.

Then we’ve got Ral Parth Harpies, who are charmingly ugly. They remind me of old political cartoons, with their caricatured women’s faces, and then those wings look so big and heavy, I imagine they could be used not just to bludgeon reputations but also skulls. Very excited for these as well.

And lastly from this batch we have a cyclops, who’s looking particularly bestial. I’ve really been appreciating Mirilton minis as of late (couldn’t be me finally breaking the blister of my vintage pond dragon, and not for use with my Maggotkin,) and perhaps he is the model I’m most excited to paint. I’m also tempted to save some of the sheep from my current project to be members of his flock, but we’ll see. I have a hunch I’ll be needing those for the army they’re actually dedicated to.

Ok, maybe he can have two or three, but only as a treat.

So now that I’ve talked about my touchstones in the setting, and my love of the idea of the game, what’s next? Well aside from painting this as a New Year, New Army challenge, and collecting a few more odds and ends to flesh out the world, I need to choose a rule set, and design a campaign. I’d rather not speculate on either right now, but I did find a calendar of battlemaps that I think would be super fitting, and given that its gridded, I could see myself leaning towards a Gloomhaven/Rune/Kingdom Death Monster style of game. 

Or maybe I’ll huff some volcano fumes and see what comes to me. Until next time, friends and countrymen who’ve lent me your ears! Best of luck out there in your worlds, miniature and otherwise!