The Army of the Lizardman Empire - Core Units

Next up for my Fighting Fantasy campaign is the invading army of the Lizardman Empire! As mentioned previously, each army would consist of six core units that would always be available to each player as the campaign progressed. These could then be supplemented by allied and auxiliary units depending on the territories controlled by the army. Thankfully, for inspiration for the Lizardmen forces I had far more source material to which I could refer than I did for the Vymornan army. 

My first port of call was one of the first Fighting Fantasy books I can remember reading - 'Island of the Lizard King'. Set on Fire Island off the western coast of Allansia, the hero is charged with rescuing human captives from the island's Lizardmen slavers. At which point we should pause in a moment of silence to remember my first adventuring companion, Mungo, the sailor who helps the hero reach Fire Island only to be rewarded by being eaten by a giant crab *dips head in silent contemplation*.

Alan Langford illustrated the book and there are some outstanding illustrations. There was also, of course, the absolutely iconic front cover featuring a Lizard king wielding a vicious scimitar and holding the chain leash of a panther. I actually managed to procure a superb miniature of this from the, I believe, now defunt Atlantis Miniatures. I've yet to paint him but I'll share the results when I do. 

The next piece of source material was 'Battleblade Warrior'. This was one of the few game books written by Marc Gascoigne, who also compiled 'Titan", and again illustrated by Alan Langford. And is very appropriate for my purposes as the setting is the siege of Vymorna itself. In Battleblade Warrior the reader assumes the role of a prince of Vymorna who is visited by a vision of the god Telak advising them that they must leave Vymorna in order to find a magic weapon that will lift the siege of the city and defeat the Lizardmen. Along with Alan Langford's great illustrations this was also a brilliant source for the wider background for my campaign, more of which I'll cover in a later post. 

Finally, my original inspiration for this project, 'Titan - The Fighting Fantasy World', and 'Out of the Pit'. In addition to all the great art work I had to reference, I also had some pretty clear descriptions of what I should be looking for in my Lizardmen. Out of the Pit stating that "they are like fat humans with a lizard's head and a long tail. A ridge of spikes runs up their backs, and two horns project from the top of their heads. 

With a pretty clear idea of the type of miniatures I wanted I set to scouring the badlands of the internet for suitable manufacturers. Pretty quickly I landed on Reaper Miniatures who produce a range of Lizardmen that would cover most units for the army. They have spear, sword, and bow armed Lizardmen as well as a range of Lizardman brutes wielding crude stone headed clubs. There was also even a suitable miniature to represent a Lizard King.

For the first four units of the Lizardmen army I opted to match up the Vymornan army and go firstly with two units of Lizardman warriors that would be Light Foot and then two units of Lizardmen archers that would be Light Missiles. Reaper provided me with all of these miniatures as well as command miniatures in the form of a leader, drummer, and standard bearer. They were less armoured than most of the illustrations but I thought this would be appropriate enough for the rank and file of the army. 

Next up I chose a unit of Mutant Lizardmen who would be classed as Bellicose Foot. In the Dragon Rampant rules Bellicose Foot are impetuous foot troops who are fierce in attack but vulnerable when defending. Out of the Pit describes Mutant Lizardmen as having irregular deformities and forming the battle line of the Lizardmen armies. The miniatures I decided on weren't deformed but they certainly looked like they could hold a battle line together. As they were sizeable miniatures I went with a 'Reduced Model Unit' of 6 rather than the normal 12. 

For the final unit for the core Lizardman Army I chose a unit of Royal Guard who would be classed as Elite Foot. His bodyguard were some excellent 3d printed models I found on Etsy. I have enough miniatures to paint without entering the vortex of 3d printing. God knows where I would end up! With my two armies now complete next step would be compiling the various units of allies, auxiliaries and mercenaries that would, territory dependent, be available to each army.