Hypothetical Hordes: Shadows of the Apt

Well, the last couple of months have been a sort of betwixt-and-between period for me as far as hobbies go - with restrictions starting to loosen again I've been able to do a bit of in-person gaming, starting with a DBA marathon with my dad over Memorial Day weekend. (We put together a bracket of eight of our various Bronze Age armies and played them off against each other - the Sea Peoples won, beating out the Hittites in the finals. The Aztecs and Maya also got their first outing, with the Aztecs beating the Maya 2-0.) And the weekend before last, I got a chance to try out Stargrave, the science-fictional version of the popular Frostgrave/Ghost Archipelago system. Meanwhile, the driving urge to paint that kept me busy through lockdown seems like it is also starting to ease up. May and June mostly saw me working on some Reaper Bones figures and painting some Mongol cavalry to fill out the options for a DBA 3.0 version of that army.

However, June also saw me plow through the second half of Adrian Tchaikovsky's Shadows of the Apt, an epic ten-book fantasy series with rich, unique worldbuilding and tons of battles - perfect material for another "Hypothetical Hordes" post!

If there's one thing you should know about Adrian Tchaikovsky, it's that he loves invertebrates of all sorts. (He's probably most famous for Children of Time, which features intelligent spiders.) In the Shadows of the Apt series, there are none of the typical fantasy races like elves or dwarves - instead, the people or "kinden" take on aspects of their totemic insects or arthropods. Ant-kinden are great at working together, Beetle-kinden are slow and solid folk, Mantids live to fight, Spiders are manipulative, Flies can fly, Wasps can sting, and so forth. The other key element of the setting is the division between the "Apt", who are technological, and the "Inapt," who are magical. At the time the story opens, magic seems to be a spent force in the world, and the fortunes of the Apt are on the rise - particularly the militaristic Wasp Empire.

COLLEGIUM

Our protagonists mostly come from this city of scholars and inventors. Most of the inhabitants are Apt Beetle-kinden, who threw off their Inapt Moth-kinden masters about five hundred years ago, when the powers of the Inapt began to wane. However, it's a very cosmopolitan place, and all sorts of people can be found there - not to mention our protagonists have a tendency to make friends and allies wherever they go. Between that and the ability of some Collegiates to whip up a crazy clockwork inventions pretty much on the spot, there's not much limit to what they could field. However, here are some possibilities:

• Spears and Shooters - troops of the Merchant Companies, armed with pikes, crossbows, or later "snapbows" (similar to muskets or rifles, but powered by compressed air - gunpowder for personal weapons isn't really a thing in this setting.) The general should probably be among them.
• Behemoths - "Automotives" either clockwork or steam-powered, and either wheeled or vaguely insectile walkers, armed with ballistae or "leadshotters" (cannon).
• Artillery - Ballistae, cannon, or an off-the-wall invention - a later book features something that is more or less a railgun.
• Flyers - Small flying machines. Ornithopters seem to be the most common, but there are also fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
• Airboats - Larger dirigible-type aircraft.
• Hordes - Desperate mobs of ordinary people defending the city with whatever they can find.

Stronghold: One of the city gates of Collegium.

THE WASP EMPIRE

The main baddies of the series, like Imperial Rome with a touch of Nazi Germany, the Wasps also fall on the Apt side of the Apt/Inapt divide. Wasp-kinden can fly, and can shoot fire from their hands, but both of these abilities seem to have somewhat limited range. However, like the Romans, they tend to recruit conquered peoples into their armies as auxiliaries. The Empire also has a strong "black and gold" color scheme going on (hence the title of the first book in the series.) A Wasp army might include some of the following:

• Riders - I was torn on how to consider the Light Airborne, who seem to be the mainstay of the Imperial forces. While they can technically fly, I don't think the Flyers of HotT really reflect their tactics all that well - and besides, the Wasps have flying machines as well. Having them as Riders seems like a good way to represent them as flexible and mobile.
• Shooters - like other Apt armies, these should be armed with crossbows or snapbows.
• Blades - the Wasps deploy a limited number of heavy infantry in full plate armor.
• Warbands - Hornet or Scorpion-kinden Auxillians
• Spears - Bee or Grasshopper-kinden Auxillians
• Sneakers - Agents of the Rekef secret police
• Flyers - early on, the Wasps have a fondness for primitive helicopters; they upgrade to more advanced machines as the series progresses, but in HotT terms these can all be considered as Flyers.
• Behemoths, Airboats, Artillery - similar to Collegium.

Stronghold: A regimented army camp, or evil-looking ziggurat.

ANT CITY-STATES

Ant-kinden are Apt, but with an almost telepathic "mindlink" that renders them rather xenophobic and insular. Their city-states tend to deploy a lot of heavy infantry, with their machines being fewer and generally about one step behind everyone else's. Their army should be mostly Spears or Blades, perhaps backed up by a Behemoth, Artillery, or a couple of Flyers. Giant ants (the insect type) could be deployed as Beasts, but this seems to be a tactic of last resort when an Ant city is in peril.

THE SPIDERLANDS

The Spiderlands are vast, and the Spider families tend to be more concerned with internal power struggles than outside threats, at least until the Wasps show up. Spider-kinden are Inapt, but seem to have powers of manipulation and persuasion that let them rule over a variety of other kinden both Apt and Inapt. Spider-kinden often seem to be skilled swordsmen, so actual Spider troops would probablt be Blades, but they are often quite happy to leave the fighting to their satraps or mercenaries. These could include almost any type of infantry, and mercenary aviators from the Exalsee could be deployed as Flyers.

THE MANTIS CLANS

In the Old Days, the Moth-kinden were mighty magicians and the Mantis-kinden were the backbone of their temporal power. These days, the remaining Moths mostly keep to themselves in dark and secret strongholds up in the mountains, while the Mantids keep on doing what they've always done - fighting. (Not winning, necessarily, but fighting oh yes.) Peerless duelists and fighters one-on-one, the Mantids tend to be outnumbered and outgunned whenever it comes to pitched battle. Sometimes they still manage to carry the day. A Mantid army might include the following:

• Heroes or Sneakers - Mantis Weaponmasters
• Warbands - Mantis holds are often located deep in the forests, and Mantid troops are generally unhindered by the terrain.
• Shooters - as Mantids are Inapt, these should be bowmen.
• Lurkers - giant mantises or other creatures of the deep woods.

Stronghold: A village well-hidden among trees, with an unsettling wooden mantis idol in the center.

THE DRAGONFLY COMMONWEAL

When the series begins, the Wasps are just concluding the Twelve-Year War with the Dragonfly realm, in which Dragonfly chivalry and daring came off second-best against Wasp ruthlessness and technology.  

• Riders - Almost uniquely, the Dragonflies do actually field cavalry in significant quantities, both mounted or horses or giant insects. The general should probably be among these.
• Heroes or Paladins - The Commonweal has a tradition of wandering heroes known as Mercers who roam the land righting wrongs and keeping the nobility in line.
• Flyers - Dragonfly-kinden are Inapt, so these would take the form of warriors mounted on actual giant dragonflies.
• Warbands - From Mantis holds located within Commonweal territory
• Lurkers - guerrillas or other dangers of the forests.
• Hordes - conscripted peasant infantry. Some could be classified as Spears instead if you're feeling generous.
• Cleric - A seer or other mystic.

Stronghold: A large and airy but impractical castle.

I'll stop there, I think - there are a few other potential factions I can think of, but perhaps they should be left as a surprise for the reader. The series reminds me of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom books in how frequently new kinden turn up - you never know when you might run across a strange lost city, and in some places magic is not quite so easy to dismiss...

Hypothetical Hordes: Uprooted

This past weekend, I finished reading Naomi Novik's Uprooted, about a girl who is taken from her village by the wizard who rules her valley. A large part of the story is the ongoing conflict between the protagonists' homeland and a mysterious and insidious magical forest known as the Wood, which the wizard is guarding against. As I got to the end of the book, I found myself pondering the mix of forces on both sides. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to revive an occasional feature of this blog, where I take a look at building Hordes of the Things armies based on a particular book or other work of fiction.

POLNYA
The main setting of the story, Polnya seems to control a fair amount of territory besides the valley that contains The Wood. It has a significant border with its rival Rosya, which also borders on The Wood. (In fact, as the story goes on, it becomes apparent that the Wood is stoking the rivalry between the two nations for its own purposes.) The two countries have a bit more of an Eastern European flair than your typical fairy-tale fantasy countries. As the name suggests, Polnya seems based on Poland - it even has an monarch that seems to be elected (or at least acclaimed) by the 'Magnati' nobility, where as Rosya is presumably Russian. Cannons make an appearance, but I don't recall any references to personal firearms, so a 15th or 16th-century level of technology seems appropriate. A Polnyan army could include:

• A Hero General (Prince Marek) or a Knight General (if led by his more sensible brother Prince Sigmund)
• A Magician (one or more of the court wizards like the Dragon or the Falcon.)
• A Cleric (Either a priest with holy relics, or Agnieszka, whose magic seems to be notably different from that of the court wizards.)
• Artillery (Early cannon, but firing enchanted cannonballs.)
• Knights and/or Riders (Heavy or light Polish-style cavalry, though there's no mention of anything like the famous winged hussars.)
• Spears (Infantry armed with pikes.)
• Blades (Infantry armed with axes for venturing into the Wood.)
• Hordes (Peasants with torches and agricultural implements.)

The stronghold could either be the Dragon's mysterious tower on the edge of the Wood (remnant of an earlier Lost Age) or a Eastern European city wall and gate. A Rosyan army would probably be quite similar, though we learn very little about the personalities on the other side of the border.

THE WOOD

The Wood had lain dormant in its valley for a very long time, ever since it destroyed a previous civilization, of which the Dragon's tower seems to be the last remnant. At some point, the ancestors of the Polnyans and Rosyans moved into the valley, and the Wood awoke again, its hatred for humanity as strong as ever. Fire and salt can hold it at bay, and powerful magic can drive it back for a little while, but the Wood is always growing, always encroaching on the settled lands. Weird creatures and strange, twisted animals live in the Wood, but the greatest threat is corruption - contact with any part of the Wood, even the drifting clouds of pollen, can turn a person into its tool. Forces of the Wood might include:

• A Magician General (The Wood-queen - a humanoid figure covered in bark and leaves.)
• Behemoths (Large magical creatures like chimeras or hydras.)
• Beasts (Corrupted animals such as wolves or cattle.)
• Warbands (Stick-like Walkers, who snatch the unwary and carry them into the Wood.)
• Knights or Blades (Giant silvery mantises that guard the heart-trees.)
• Hordes (Humans in an early stage of corruption.)
• Lurkers (Grasping tree branches, brambles, pit traps, sudden betrayals by fellow soldiers who have let their guard down - the Wood is full of dangers.)
• Any of the Polnyan elements, being used as pawns of the Wood.

The stronghold could be a heart-tree with silver bark and sickeningly sweet golden fruit, either deep in the Wood or planted in an abandoned village.

If you wanted to make the game more of a challenge for the Polnyans, you could also develop some scenario-specific rules. If the Wood is the defender, much of the table should be bad going - it is a forest, after all, and those Lurkers need somewhere to deploy. It might also be appropriate for the Wood not to have a General - the Wood-queen doesn't really show up in physical form until near the end of the story. And finally, it might be interesting to have the Wood take control of elements that are attacking it - either by letting it deploy Polnyan elements that were destroyed in combat, or perhaps (more insidiously) ones that merely came in contact with elements of the Wood's.

All in all, these armies would be much more feasible than some of my previous Hypothetical Hordes musings. There are plenty of historical figures who could be used for the Polnyans, and various animals and plant-creatures are available for the Wood. I'm almost tempted to see what I could podge together from what I have on hand already...

Hypothetical Hordes: A Song of Ice and Fire Part 1--Westeros

April has been a bit of a slack month as far as wargaming goes, so to pass away the time here's another look at how the armies of a fantasy setting might be translated into Hordes of the Things. This time I'll be examining "A Song of Ice and Fire;" George R. R. Martin's well-known fantasy series and the basis for the TV show Game of Thrones. (As someone who started reading the books in high school, it occasionally boggles my mind that they've become so popular, and even more so that there's a successful TV version...)

Anyway, ASoIaF differs from the settings I've previously examined in a couple of key ways--firstly, it would not actually be impossible to build these armies, particularly if you're willing to do a bit of conversion work. The continents of Westeros and Essos contain a vast range of cultures, but they're (almost) all ordinary humans with standard medieval weaponry--no six-legged flying buffalo here. Secondly, the number of plausible armies is in fact so large that I will split this into two posts, one on the armies of present-day Westeros, the second on the armies of the eastern continent of Essos as well as some notable armies from the setting's history.

A word of warning here: while these army lists are not going to reveal any of the big plot twists, minor spoilers are definitely possible, particularly for those who are not up to date with the show. And now, without further ado, some armies:

THE SEVEN KINGDOMS

Given that the seven kingdoms cover most of a continent, it may seem a bit brusque to lump them all together. Still, with a few exceptions which I will examine separately, the Great Houses of Westeros all seem to share a common military tradition that mostly mirrors that of medieval Europe with armored knights supported by a variety of foot troops. Thus, any Stark, Lannister, Tully, Arryn, Baratheon, or Tyrell army will probably contain some proportion of:

• Knights (mounted men in full armor, plate or chain, with shield and lance)
• Riders (lighter-armored mounted troops with melee weapons)
• Spears (Or pikes, but Hordes of the Things makes no distinction)
• Shooters (Armed with either bows or crossbows)

Richer houses like the Lannisters or Tyrells can probably field a higher proportion of Knights, but cavalry should probably never exceed more than about half the army. One of the Knights should be the General in most cases, though in some cases a Hero might be around to pull rank. Now, let's look at a few specialist units that might be used to add a little variety:

• Heroes--certain figures like Jaime Lannister, Robb Stark, Gregor Clegane, or Loras Tyrell demonstrate enough martial prowess to be classed as Heroes. (Behavior-wise... well, there won't be many Paladins in Westeros.)
• Blades--some dismounted knights could conceivably be deployed as Blades.
• Lurkers--ambush parties
• Warband--Tyrion's mountain clansmen could be added to a Lannister army
• Hordes--conscripted peasants, or city guards like the Gold Cloaks of King's Landing.
• Sneaker--one of Melisandre's shadow children for Stannis' army.

Stronghold: Castles of every shape and size. Or a regular medieval camp would work too.

DORNE
The southeastern-most of the Seven Kingdoms, Dorne is hotter and more arid than most of the rest of the realm, and might be more analogous to historical Arabs, Berbers, or the medieval Spanish than the kingdoms to the north. A Dornish army should probably feature lighter-armed Riders in place of Knights, and possibly Warbands in place of Spears or Blades. The Red Viper might be deployed as a Hero.

Stronghold: Spanish or Saracen castle

THE IRON ISLANDS

A small archipelago off the western coast, these guys are basically Vikings. Unlike mainland Westerosi armies, the Ironborn don't really do the whole mounted combat thing. Their army should be made up of some proportion of Blades and Warband. A stand or two of Shooters might be added as well. There are a couple of potential Heroes--Euron Greyjoy, maybe.

Stronghold: a couple of beached longships, or a castle.

THE NIGHT'S WATCH
Sort of like a cross between the Foreign Legion and the Teutonic Knights, they protect Westeros from threats to the north--the barbarian Wildings and the supernatural Others. Most of their strength is spent manning the Wall, a colossal fort of ice and stone that stretches across the continent, but they do send scouting parties north of the Wall at times. The Watch generally remains neutral in the affairs of the Seven Kingdoms, so their main opponents will be the Wildings and the Others. The Night's Watch should probably be a mix of infantry--Blades, Spears, and Shooters, with perhaps a stand or two of mounted rangers. All should be dressed in black. (Makes for easy painting...) For a little variety, the Watch could include a Hero, (Jon Snow or Lord Commander Mormont) a Horde or two (stewards or builders pressed into service to defend the wall) and possibly a Sneaker (a scouting party.)

Stronghold: It would be really neat to lay out a section of the Wall along an entire board edge with one of the castles serving as the stronghold proper. A less ambitious stronghold could take the form of a temporary camp.

THE WILDLINGS
A broad term for "everyone living north of the Wall," the Wildlings of Mance Rayder's army are drawn from a host of disparate peoples, united by a desire to live somewhere warmer with less of an undead problem. Some possible elements are as follows:

• Warbands--warriors from various tribes, these should make up the core of the army. Not much armor; variety of hand weapons. Garb ranges from Inuit-like for northern tribes to standard fantasy barbarian furs and leather to ordinary medieval winter clothes.
• Shooters--as above, but armed with longbows.
• Knights--Frozen Shore warriors in walrus-bone chariots drawn by dogs
• Behemoths--giants riding mammoths. Giants in ASoIaF are only about twice as tall as humans, robust and hairy.
• Riders--Wildings on shaggy horses.
• Hero General--Mance Rayder, the King Beyond The Wall
• Beasts--a skinchanger with the animals he controls
• Sneakers--a Wall-climbing party
• Hordes--a less charitable take on the average Wildling warrior.

Stronghold: A vast collection of ragged tents, yurts, igloos, etc. or possibly a grove of weirwood trees.

THE OTHERS

Sometimes also known as the White Walkers, the Others are a mysterious supernatural race with a long-standing animosity towards humans. Most of their armies will consist of undead wights--reanimated human corpses with icy blue eyes. These would probably be best represented as Hordes. The Others themselves, including the general, would probably be best as Blades, armed with strange crystalline swords that can cut through steel. Others mounted on undead horses as Knights would also be a possibility. One story about the Other describes them as hunting with "packs of pale spiders as big as dogs" which could make for an interesting stand or two of beasts.

Stronghold: There really isn't enough information yet to know what the abode of the Others might be. A glacier might do, or some sort of otherworldly crystal castle.

These should cover main combatants in any Westerosi campaign, though I have left out some minor factions like the Brotherhood Without Banners, the mountain clansmen, and the crannogmen (twenty Lurkers and a Shooter general?) A future post (hopefully not too far in the future) will take a look at the armies of Essos--the Dothraki, Astapor, and more.

Hypothetical Hordes: Elfquest

A few months back, I wrote up a post exploring how one might put together some Hordes of the Things armies for Avatar: the Last Airbender. This time, I'll be looking at a different setting--the World of Two Moons, home of the Elfquest comic series.

(For background on Elfquest, here are the Wikipedia page and the TVTropes entry. Or you could read the comics themselves, which are freely (and legally!) available online. For purposes of today's discussion, I'll just be looking at the original series, though some of the later series would provide additional army possibilities. The story centers around the adventures of Cutter, chief of the Wolfriders, a tribe of elves who are forced to leave their forest home, and who encounter quite a number of other elves and other people along the way. Note that the elves of Elfquest differ significantly from the Tolkein-derived elves who inhabit a number of fantasy worlds: they tend to be somewhat slight of stature compared to humans, have pointy ears and four digits per hand, inhabit a wide range of biomes, not just forests. Some individuals exhibit a variety of psychic powers which border on magic, most notably telepathy, healing, occasional shapeshifting, and the ability to mold certain materials such as wood and stone. They are also aliens--their ancestors crashed on the World of Two Moons some millennia ago, where they were set upon by the natives of this world: humans.)

Anyway, on to the armies. Spoilers are entirely possible from here on out; you have been warned!

THE WOLFRIDERS
The protagonists of the story, the Wolfriders have one main problem from a Hordes of the Things standpoint--there aren't very many of them. As in, maybe a couple of dozen, max. So the ranks are going to have to stretch a little thin here. Fortunately, they have all these wolves handy, and despite the name, they're not just for riding, so we have some dismounted options as well. Possible troop types include:

• Heroes. Pretty much a must. Cutter should definitely be deployed as a Hero General, and it might be possible to throw in his buddy Skywise as a second Hero. (Basing them together would be a reasonable option too, if it weren't for the numbers problem.)
• A Cleric--namely Cutter's lifemate Leetah, who's a healer, and provides some magical defense at times. This will be handy from a balance standpoint as well, since Heroes can be kind of vulnerable to Magicians. She's actually from a different tribe, the Sun Folk, but we'll get to that in a minute.
• Shooters--Strongbow and maybe one or two other tribe members who demonstrate some missile capability. Probably no more than one stand of these. Everyone else is:
• Warband/Riders. Depending on whether they're riding their wolves or not. Probably two or three stands worth of these.
• Beasts--additional wolves without riders. Use these to fill out the remainder of the army.
• Lurkers--Having a cleric does cause one slight problem, in that the 3-point cost means you'll need another odd-numbered point cost to make up 24. In this case, I think the best option is some Preservers--tiny butterfly-winged humanoids (elvenoids?) who hang out in wooded areas and enjoy spitting preservative webbing on anything that sits still for too long. (While they can fly, I don't think they really have the endurance or the mass to be real Flyers, and besides, lurking suits their behavior much better anyway...)

Stronghold: The Holt--a grove of trees which have been shaped into dwelling places and protected by magically-enhanced thorns and such.

THE SUN FOLK

The first new group of elves encountered by the Wolfriders, the Sun Folk are dark-skinned, desert-dwelling farmers who have faced no outside threats in generations. While not really army material (many of them may not know which end of a sword to pick up) they are included here for completeness' sake. A few more adventurous examples may be found in other armies.

• Magicians, Heroes, and Clerics. Savah, the Mother of Memory, certainly has a great deal of power, though it's difficult to imagine her using it for offensive purposes. Like her student Leetah, she might be better classed as a Cleric. Her other student, Rayek, has the temperament to be a Magician, but perhaps not the level of power required--at least when we first encounter him. He might be better off as a Hero.
• Behemoth--the Sun Folk have a few tamed zwoots--big, bad-tempered semi-cameloid things, which sometimes carry a couple of riders. As possible Behemoths go, they're kind of on the small side, though.
• Hordes. As the most ineffectual foot unit, this is probably the best match for the majority of the Sun Folk.
• Wolfrider allies--any of the above listed. After some initial misunderstandings, the Wolfriders end up on pretty good terms with the Sun Folk, and would most likely come to their defense if the need arose.

Stronghold: Village of rounded pastel-colored adobe buildings. Sun Folk architecture seems to have taken the teapot as its model...

THE GLIDERS OF BLUE MOUNTAIN

These enigmatic and vaguely sinister elves live within a mountain--only a few ever venture into the outside world, borne on the backs of giant birds. A number of them can levitate or even fly using their innate powers as well, hence their name. They claim to be the true heirs to the original High Ones (the ancestral elves) and are about as close as Elfquest gets to the Vestigial Empire trope.

• Magician: Probably the Magician as far as Elfquest goes, we have one of the most famous villains of the series: Winnowill, who demonstrates a number of unpleasant uses for elf-magic, including some ranged psychic attacks. Though Lord Voll is nominally the leader in Blue Mountain, it's pretty much inevitable that Winnowill is going to be the general of any Glider army.
• Flyers--Elves mounted on giant birds. Ideally there would be exactly eight of them, as the Chosen Eight are Winnowill's primary minions and the ones with the greatest access to the outside world. (Clearly the success of this army will depend on its ability to roll well for PIPs, what with all the aerials and the magician...)
• Hordes--Human servants drawn from the Hoan G'Tay Sho tribe, who worship the Gliders.

Stronghold: Magically-operated door set into a mountainside.

THE GO-BACKS

The last group encountered by the Wolfriders, the Go-Backs inhabit the far north, where they are locked in an age-long war with Trolls over the Palace of the High Ones (the ship which brought them to this world.) Noted for their low levels of magic capability and higher birthrate. (For elves, anyway.) Troops include:

• Hero General--Kahvi, the chieftess of the Go-Backs.
• Knights/Riders. Mounted on elk or reindeer.
• Warbands. Go-Backs on foot.
• Blades & Wolfrider allies--during the final phase of the Troll War, precipitated by the arrival of the Wolfriders, the two tribes acquire plate armor and improved weaponry, which would justify them being classed as the generally superior Blades.

Stronghold: A sort of lodge, partly underground, partly constructed of wood. 

Besides the elves, there are two other groups to consider:

HUMANS

The setting of the original Elfquest series shows the human inhabitants of the World of Two Moons at a basically Neolithic level of technology. None of the tribes shown seem to have much by way of domestic animals, nor do they exhibit any of the elven magic or psychic abilities. Therefore, human armies would be pretty simple:

• Heroes--particular champions.
• Warbands--the bulk of the human forces.
• Shooters--one or two stands of humans with bows, slings, or javelins.

Stronghold: village of simple huts.

TROLLS

Squat, green-skinned, skilled at metal-working and preferring to live underground, the Trolls of Elfquest are more like orcs and dwarves of other settings than the usual fantasy troll. Along with the Preservers, their ancestors were brought to this world by the High Ones. Troll armies might include:

• Spears--well-trained guards of King Guttlecraw. Could potentially be Warbands or Blades as well, but Spears would offer some variety, and polearms of sorts do seem to be among the common Troll weapons.
• Shooters--Trolls with crossbows.
• Artillery--At one point a crew of trolls is shown operating something like a ballista.
• Sneaker--enslaved rockshaper and Troll handlers.
• Hordes--low-grade cannon-fodder Trolls.

Stronghold: Extensive network of caverns.

With that, I will end another look at "Hordes of the Things armies I will never build." If there are other fantasy settings you might be interested in seeing me cover at some point, let me know in the comments!

Hypothetical Hordes: Avatar: The Last Airbender

One of the great things about Hordes of the Things is that the troop categories are so loose that it's easy to generate army lists for just about any work of fiction--even ones that would be really difficult to actually find figures for. Since I haven't been getting a whole lot of painting done lately, (certainly not compared to last October) I thought I might have a bit of fun sketching out some Hordes of the Things armies that I will almost certainly never build anyway. First up on the list: the armies of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

(Alright, for anyone who's not familiar with Avatar and is too lazy to read either the Wikipedia page or the TVTropes entry, here's the quick version. Avatar is set in a heavily Asian-influenced fantasy world with a martial arts-like magic system based around the four classical elements of earth, water, air, and fire. The four main factions each use one of these elements. The Avatar, who is supposed to maintain the balance, can use them all, and is reincarnated into a different faction every generation. At the beginning of the story, the Avatar is a kid named Aang, who is the titular last airbender--the rest of the Air Nomads having been wiped out by the Fire Nation sometime prior. If you want to avoid spoilers for the show, you may want to stop reading at about this point.)

THE FIRE NATION
The show's main villains, the Fire Nation tends to be vaguely Japanese in style, but with a fairly unique "Asian-steampunk" aesthetic and a not particularly unique black/red/orange color scheme. Given their propensity for coming up with threatening new steam-powered war machines as the plot demands, their army list is a fairly flexible one. Possibilities include:

• Heroes (Zuko in bad-guy mode or any of the various Fire Nation Generals or Admirals.) *
• Magician (Fire Lord Ozai, possibly Iroh or Azula) *
• Behemoths (Sinister steam tanks)
• Airboats (Sinister steam zeppelins)
• Artillery (Catapults or primitive cannon)
• Sneakers (Another possibility for Azula and her gang)
• Blades (Regular foot troops) *
• Shooters (Low-level firebenders or conventional missile troops)
• Knights (Mounted on sort of rhino-lizard things)
• Hordes (A less charitable take on the average Fire Nation mook)

*Potential General options

Stronghold: Vaguely Japanese fortress and/or smoke-belching factory

THE EARTH KINGDOM

The Fire Nation's most militarily formidable opponent, and certainly the most populous of the major factions. Tend to appear vaguely Chinese in style, with a green/brown/yellow color scheme. Again, a fair number of possibilities as far as troop types go. Possibilities include:

• Heroes (Bumi or other powerful earthbenders) *
• Behemoths (Blocky centipede-like stone "tanks" controlled by earthbenders)
• Sneakers (Agents of the Dai Li)
• Spears (Regular foot troops) *
• Shooters (Low-level earthbenders or conventional missile troops)
• Riders (Mounted on sort of ostrich-horse things)
• Hordes (Conscript troops)
• Lurkers (Jet's guerillas)

*Potential General options

Stronghold: A section of the invincible walls of Ba Sing Se or other Earth Kingdom city

THE WATER TRIBES

Divided into the Northern and Southern Water tribes, they inhabit the polar regions. Vaguely Inuit in appearance, with a blue/violet/white color scheme. Of the major factions, they probably have the least variation displayed on the show and thus the fewest options as far as HotT troop types go. Possibilities include:

• Heroes (Chief Hakoda, arguably) *
• Magician (Master Pakku or other powerful waterbenders) *
• Warbands (Less disciplined than Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation soldiers.) *
• Shooters (You know the drill)

*Potential General options

Stronghold: Small village of igloos for the Southern Water Tribe, giant ice fortress for the Northern Water Tribe.

THE AIR NOMADS

Just kidding! These guys are all dead, and besides, they claimed to be pacifists, bearing a striking resemblance to modern Tibetan monks, and quite unlike historical Tibetans. An army of theirs would be a very chancy thing, given that it would have to consist almost entirely of Magicians, Flyers and Airboats--and to make matters worse, those "airboats" are actually six-legged flying yaks. Good luck finding models of those.

Stronghold: Mountaintop monastery.

TEAM AVATAR

Instead, let's take a look at our protagonists and a few of the miscellaneous people they meet on their travels. Note that this list could also draw from pretty much anything on the Earth Kingdom or Water Tribe lists as well.

• Heroes (I'd group the main cast together as a single hero stand. Upgrade to Aerial Hero if you can find a satisfactory Appa the sky bison...)
• God (Aang in the Avatar State.)
• Cleric (Guru Pathik)
• Sneakers (Wandering minstrels)
• Blades (Kyoshi warrior ladies armed with fans)
• Flyers (Gliders or the Mechanist's balloons)
• Lurkers (Foggy Swamp Tribe)

Stronghold: Random village, or any of the non-Fire Nation options

Unfortunately, despite the real-world influences, the visual appearance of the world of Avatar is pretty distinctive. I expect that putting these armies together could be difficult even in 25mm, and pretty much impossible in 20mm, as Asia is a chronically under-represented area of the world. Maybe in ten years, if Caesar Miniatures keeps issuing sets like these...

Anyway, I may do a few more "Hypothetical Hordes" entries at some point. If you have one you'd particularly like to see, feel free to leave a note in the comments...