Themed armies: Dogs of War as Amazons

By D’Argent

As Warhammer Realms: Lustria is released and the two (So far) new Regiments of Renown for Lustria based campaigns (An Amazon Serpent Priestess and Anakonda’s Amazons, in WDs 307 and 308 respectfully.) people have been asking for Games Workshop to create an Amazon army, perhaps an allied contingent. Of course, being an Enlightened Player™ of Dogs of War, I saw how that an Amazon army list just wasn’t needed. How, you say? Why, you say? Well, the Dogs of War army list, of course! The many varied units of Dogs of War can practically represent armies from as far as Nippon or Ind, let alone the tribes of the Amazons in Lustria.

So, in this series, I will be explaining how the Dogs of War army list can be used to represent other armies which Games Workshop hasn’t explored in the wide world that is Warhammer.

Of course, these will be what are known as “Proxy Lists”. They’re substitute to what a proper list could be. Preferably, all Amazons would be immune to the same encounters the Lizardmen are, as such are the Amazon Serpent Priestess and Anakonda’s Amazons. (Both have the rule “Native” which makes them immune to the same encounters as the Lizardmen. I believe this means Encounters only, and not events.) I would imagine that this would cost a single point or maybe two but this would have to be agreed with your opponent.

For the first part I will be looking at the illusive Amazons, mistresses of the jungles of Lustria. I will be matching up the Dogs of War unit to what the Amazon unit could be, trying to get an army which would look/play like an Amazon army and keeping it a legal, tournament-playable list. I will be adding notes about particular things (Like how pistols can be kept in an Amazon army and how to model them, etc.)

As there are already Amazon units in Warhammer (The Priestess and Anakonda’s Amazons.), I’ll be including them in the list where they’ll be. (As this is a Dogs of War army list, you’ll only be able to take them as they are normally allowed. I.e. A priestess takes a hero and a rare slot and Anakonda’s Amazons take a rare slot, unless you use the Conquest of the New World campaign, where you can get them as a Core Choice, I think if you pay 10 Plunder points.)

Lords

Mercenary General - Lady Chieftain, a leader of a Tribe of Amazons. Light armour would be Saurus Warrior skin (Anakonda’ Amazons use Skink skin for some reason. If Skinks don’t get a 6+ save from it, how do the Amazons get it? I would recommend in modelling them in Saurus Warrior skin.), Heavy Armour being to skin of Saurus Warriors from the Blessed Spawning of Quetzl. Both options allow you to paint them any way you want.

A pistol would be represented by a “High Age weapon”. One way of modelling it is using a Laspistol from the Warhammer 40,000 range. Most of the other weapons are simple enough to of already been discovered by the Amazons or could be explained as “High Age weapons”.

Hireling Wizard Lord - High Priestess. (Not a High Serpent Priestess, just a normal Priestess.) An interesting idea would be to base the background/colour scheme of the Priestess on what lore she uses. The lores are represented by a god, and thus a colour, in which you could connect with your Priestess.

Lord of Fire: Chotec so a Red-Orange
Lore of Beast: Sotek so a red colour.

Lore of Death: Quetzl blessed Lizardmen simply have especially thick hides and bony spurs so a colour would be hard to find. None of the other gods use the colour black in their chosen, so that would be a good choice. Maybe wearing the hide of a creature with this blessing (So a very bony hide.) would work to represent this, but then it may look as though she is wearing light/heavy armour.

Lore of Shadows: Grey would a good colour, as the Lizardman army book doesn’t give a colour for Huanchi. For, perhaps, a general “jungle” colour to represent the stealth of Huanchi. Perhaps the priestess could be modelled with the skin of a jaguar? (The Empire Knights set has a piece of it of which is the skin of a tiger/lioness creature which just needs to be painted black to look like a jaguar.)

Lore of Heavens: Tzunki uses a mottled sea-green colour on his blessed lizardmen.

Lore of Metal: Tlazcotl uses yellow to show those spawned under him that they are blessed.

Lore of Light: Purple is colour Tepok is associated with. (The Coatl is a creature related with the god Tepok, so a High Priestess of Tepok would look rather cool on a Coatl, which would be represented by a Pegasus. Ideas on how to model a creature are below.)

A horse could be a Culchan. (Large, flightless bird. See page 40 in Warhammer Realms: Lustria) A Pegasus could become a Coatl, giant snake-like creatues, with the heads of dragons and large wings (see page 43 in Warhammer Realms: Lustria).

I wouldn’t recommend barding, but I guess Lizard skins (Of Lizardmen or monsters from Lustria) could be modelled as barding. Or, a creature with barding would have to be like a Scaly Skin save, so it would have to be some sort of Cold One creature. Perhaps an Horned One, as seen in the back of the Lizardmen army book? The only thing about this is that, in the background, the Cold and Horned Ones don’t trust warm bloods and would attack them. The only way out of this is if the Amazons riding the Cold/Horned Ones cover themselves in the Cold/Horned One’s slime. This destroys the Amazon’s sense of taste and feeling, though so you would have to think about if the Amazons would go to such a length. If not, then they could just ride the Culchan with lots of skins on it.

Heroes
Mercenary Captain – Chieftain, one of the many lesser leaders of the Amazons or could lead smaller tribes. See the armour for the Lady Chieftain.

Hireling Wizard – (Lesser) Priestess. See the lores for the High Priestess.

1 Paymaster - Totem bearer. No Amazon armed force goes to war without the totem bearer, who, surprisingly, bears the totem of the Tribe. This is meant to represent the trust of the Gods in what the Amazons are doing, and if this totem were to fall in battle, those not stout of heart would flee the battle. Those with courage would stay in battle, ready to bring retribution upon those who dare meddle in the affairs of the handmaidens of the Gods.

Amazon Serpent Priestess from WD307 - See WD307. You’ll have to get opponent’s permission if you use these ladies outside of a Lustria Campaign.

Core
Pikemen/Crossbowmen - Captured/hired warriors from the Old World when they come over and try to steal things. Crossbowmen could be said to be Amazons armed with weapons of the Old Ones, make the crossbows look like las-guns or something. Or the Amazons could have discovered crossbows, who knows? Although, personally, I wouldn't include any of these in an Amazon army unless I had some really good fluff to explain it. I would use the Lost Legion as their “Spanish Conquers” look would fit in with the Amazons and the general feel of the army.

Duellists - Tribes-women. Pistols would have to be weapons of the Old Ones, perhaps to be made to look like las-pistols. All the other weaponry would be as normal, i.e throwing knifes are throwing knifes, etc.

Light Cavalry - The Amazons sometime ride large, flightless, feathered birds called Culchan. (See page 40 in Warhammer Realms: Lustria). They could be armed with anything Light Cavalry can be armed with.

Also, the Amazons could ride "Horned Ones". For reasons/fluff of how they can, see below. For more information of "Horned Ones", see pages 74 and 75 in the Lizardmen Army Book. Horned Ones rules are similar to the rules for Horses.

Heavy Cavalry - Heavy Cavalry isn't a good thing in Lustria games, as they commonly sink in quicksand and so on. They could be heavily armoured Amazons on those Culchan (See page 40 in Warhammer Realms: Lustria), but I wouldn't use them in an Amazon army. Lances would have to be some sort of stolen Weapon of the Old Ones, or some sort of special stick.

Or the Amazons could ride Cold Ones. Although, Cold Ones don't like Lizardmen, let alone "warm-bloods" (None Lizardmen), and they only allow those to ride them if they have a certain smell. As far as the background goes, only the Lizardmen from a Blessed Spawning of Itzl (Who "often have elborate bony, head crests") or the Dark Elf Cold One Knights (Who cover themselves in the "poisonous slime of the Cold Ones so the beasts will accept them") can ride them. So Heavy Cavarly Amazins could either cover themselves in the slime or be devout worshippers of Itzl. There would have to be some sort of reason why they don't suffer from Stupidity though. Maybe they’re so blessed by Itzl that the god stops the Cold Ones being so sluggish.

Special
Ogres (Bulls, Ironguts, Leadbelchers and Maneaters) - Possibly monsters of the jungle, but you might as well just say that Ogres made their way to Lustria or there is a tribe of them in Lustria. I have, though, heard of something about giant Pygmies, so you could try using that for Ogres. Ogre Maneaters can just be Ogre Maneaters as they’re meant to travel around a lot and Ogres were meant to of been one of the last creatures created by the Old Ones, given a power to resist Chaos, and the Amazins could recognise this.. If you don't wish for Ogres to be Ogres or Giant Pygmies, then they could be creatures known as the Coatl, giant snake-like creatues, with the heads of dragons and large wings. (see page 43 in Warhammer Realms: Lustria) This should only be done if you don't want Pegasus to be Coatl so the only problem with this is that the Coatl can't fly if they are represented by the Ogre statline.

Dwarfs - Tough pygmies? I personally wouldn't use these in an army for Lustria (Too slow.) but you may come up with some cool ideas. What if there were/are some Amazons in the Southlands? Perhaps the Dwarfs of the lost hold of Karak Zorn decided to ally with the Amazons there? The more I think about it, the more interesting it gets...
Halflings - Weak, but shooty, Pygmies who have allied with the Amazons? Maybe Cannibals that you see in old b-movies.

Norse Marauders - Amazon berserkers or similar/Amazons who have drunk a potion and are now in a battle frenzy. Arm 'em with anything, really. I wouldn’t have them as Norsemen, as the fluff says that the two don’t like each other much so Amazon Berserkers would be best.

0-1 Paymaster's Bodyguard - Bodyguard of the Totem Bearer. The halberd would be some sort of special stick/staff made by the Amazons or stolen weapons of the Old Ones.

Rare
Cannon - Stolen Weapon of the Old Ones. Ideas to make it would be a floating jewel on a small pyramid of gold which would shoot lasers at the enemy, some times going a bit off course, or you could make it look like a Lascannon.

Halfling Hot Pot - This is a little difficult. Pygmies could make pots of boiling liquids to shoot at people OR, the much more fun way, you could have that you "Pygmies" are the cannibal type and then you could have the post with bits of the captured and eaten enemy in it.
Or, maybe, basing it off the Engine of the Gods in the Lustria book? Some pygmies have found an ancient device? Obviously, it isn’t as powerful as the Weapon of the Gods, but it still sounds cool if a tribe of pygmies found a weaker version of it and are using it with devastating effect alongside the Amazons.

Anakonda’s Amazons – See WD 308. You’ll have to get opponent’s permission if you use these ladies outside of a Lustria Campaign.

Models

Models would be made from the Amazon war band models from the Mordheim Range or from the Amazon part of the Online Store (Found here.). You may be able to buy the "Chocobo-like" Culchan creatures on e-bay, since I remember GW making them sometime back.

Coatl and (Poss.) Culchan from 1980s for modelling ideas (Or maybe they'll turn up on Ebay?): http://www.solegends.com/citc/c29largemonstersc3.jpg
Old Amazon drawings of models, in case you wish to make your own. (Make them in green stuff, create a mold and them, when you have enough plastic, melt it into the mould. I've heard you can buy kits.) : http://www.solegends.com/citc/c30amazons.htm
Current Mordheim Amazon models: http://uk.games-workshop.com/storefront/st...&orignav=300808
Ebay - Where to get all this stuff cheap(er)! : http://www.Ebay.co.uk or http://www.Ebay.com

I watched the battle, hidden from the carnage in a piece of ancient, collapsed building, deep in the long grass.

The thick, dense jungle had opened into a small glade, rather pleasantly shaded from the unforgiving and unremitting blazing of the sun. A serene, clear river washed past, quenching the thirst of the 56 strong mercenary detachment, sent inland from the main army commanded by Vidal Sitomige, the latest Estalian troubadour to sack the virgin shores of the New World.

A body fell heavily onto the masonry that I was hiding under, the body’s arm falling over the gap I was using as a peep hole.

The man was dead, I knew before his body hit the ground. Nothing much survived a hit from those weapons the wild-women wielded so brutally.

I saw a foot, bare but from a circlet over the ankle, step down in front of the peep hole. I tried not to breath.

Beyond the foot, of which notifying the owner of my presence would leave me in a worst place than the corpse nearme, the fight was raging.

The Exiled Lord Etienne L’ Javier’s Excellent Calvary were the first to fall during the Ambush. All but the lord himself and his trumpeter were killed by mysterious flames, shooting from beside them in the undergrowth. My pikeman regiment, lead by a captain I really didn’t like, was the next, but a few quickly realised that pikes weren’t this sort of fight so dropped them and got out their swords. A couple of others and I fled, but I was the only one to survive as far as I knew at the time.

Shamus MacMoriarty’s Albion Berserkers, Santo Tancredo’s Crossbowmen and Captain Adelino Pirates were the only ones to survive the initial Ambush, being the only ones to react quickly enough to the attack. The Crossbowmen were doing good at the moment, the Pirates stopping those trying to end their ranged support to the Berserkers, who were doing rather well considering their opponents.

At this point, I realised the foot had gone off to reveal an Amazon charging a Berserker. I breathed again.

I watched as the Amazonian, armed with one of these fire-staff things, hit an Albion Berserker in the stomach. He was launched backwards by the magical blast, chest burning, into the undergrowth. I nearly cheered when a Crossbowman shot her. The bolt thudded into a shoulder blade, and she fell to the ground. The shock and pain made her turn her back to another Berserker, who thankfully chopped he head off. Deserves her right, in my humble opinion. I believe she was the one who slew three of my friends in my regiment. I would have happily killed her myself, but the danger was too much. Let the insane and the unlucky handle it. Although, if I knew what would happen on the rest of this expedition I would of charged her naked, only armed with a blunt stick.

I watched in apprehension at another of the voluptuous, for they were rather attractive if not for their general objective to kill you, “charge” up her staff, for want of a better phase. It seems that the weapons they wielded, spiked golden quarterstaffs, had some sort of reserve of power to make their already deadly weapons even more lethal. They must have been magical because I have never seen such a weapon combust their opponent in such a way, except when I was in the hire of Dwarfs and saw the mighty weapon that is the flame cannon of their Guild of Engineers. Not only, by pressing of a rune on the hilt of the weapon (I was able to look at one of their weapons later, after the immediate danger had gone.), they could regulate the strength of their weapon in close quarters, it could unleash an equally fatal fire-ball at the will of the user. Or, at least, the press of a button. I learned later that these were known as “Sun-staffs” by those who had survived them and those who have observed them in action. Those who had survived them had felt they were under the attack of the very fire of the sun, and the observers had practically been blinded by them.

- Salvador Ximen, Chronicles of a Charlatan or 20 reasons not to go to Lustria. Inside his published book is also a map of his ill-fated journey. Although it’s mainly the nasty bits of Lustria (“And here’s where Rodrigo got eaten by a giant, flying snake with the head of a dragon. A cannon soon took care of that bugger.”) many Mercenary Captains have used it to get a head start of what to expect in Lustria. Mainly death, as Ximen’s book puts it.