Here’s my third attempt at a Dragon Rampant force. This time… the complete army is done! Previous attempts stalled because a) I switched scales and b) I didn’t wanna paint all orcs. 

I took inspiration from the “Old School Fantasy” lists in the Lion Rampant books. I might not wanna paint 50 orcs, but I’ll paint 12. The thought of getting to play and paint with the different Oathmark models appealed. Most of these figs are from that line with a few Reaper and a Gripping Beast. I also added a few extra models so I could use these with the LR ruleset as well.

I’ve always liked this old cover to Dragon Magazine, and along with the Old School Fantasy lists in LR having each unit be a separate race, I was finally able settle on my DR force. And like I mentioned, painting several different creature units seemed more fun than a whole army of the same creature.

As a regular reader of Dragon Magazine in the 80s, I felt like I saw a hundred Clyde Caldwell paintings of a female character of some flavor with a small dragon familiar nearby. Maybe there weren’t as many as I thought, but they seemed to have stood out. I’ve also always wanted to do a larger base for a SMU leader or hero, so that was the approach I took with the leader of this warband.

In my head cannon, I envision the sorceress being to MotU’s Skeletor as the unit leaders are to Beastman, merman, evil Lynn, and the like. That’s why they’re all different skin colors, like Skeletor’s lackeys. Unified in a muted scheme but also clearly their own unique creature. It’s not an obvious nod, but part of the inspiration when I created the force, and why I arranged them around her in the first photo.

I painted up 7 or 13 models for each of the normal human sized units so I can pull the leaders of each out into an elite foot leader group in Lion Rampant (in place of the SMU sorceress) while still having 6/12 models in each unit. Now… let’s look at these units.

Dire boar SMU – lesser warbeast maybe with hatred or cunning

Stone Trolls RMU – bellicose foot

Goblin wolf riders – heavy or light riders

Gnolls – scouts maybe with fearful

Night orcs – scouts

Orcs – heavy foot with offensive

Skeletons – light foot with undead

This is all over 24pts, but still fits in a single Really Useful Box. Since taking these photos, I’ve received my copy of Dragon Rampant 2nd edition which greatly expands the Fantastical Upgrade a Spell Lists. The new book increases the standard game to 30pts, but 24 is still viable. So, after spending a little time with this new tome of wonder, I’ll need to revise the units here. But that part is easy, the hard part…putting paint to models…is done. This is a big relief and I’m pleased with the result.

What are your thoughts of this Old School Evil army of mixed units?