Ysians - Age of Magic

So, when I picked up Age of Magic my intention was to make use of my collection of awesome Darklands stuff from Mierce Miniatures.  I'm starting to pull together my thoughts as to which Battle Board and unit type to use the various options from Mierce for.

So, starting with those twisted Ysians - in my case themed as the 'piratical Kernowek' as referred to in the background to Darklands.  I'll take each unit type in turn, and which of the Mierce Miniatures Ysian range I think best fits.  To my mind, the best fit is The Horde battle board - as Ysians feature a very wide range of monsters, if you wanted an army of just those you could use the Morrow Island legendary warbands rules too.

Warlord

I intend to use Carrowek of Carn Dhu as my warlord - he's the biggest, strongest and beefiest of the Warlord miniatures available through Mierce for the Ysians.  Pretty much any of the 'Warlords' or 'Warchiefs' miniatures on the Ysian catalogue page would work - although I'd personally stay away from the ones suited to represent magic-users (more on that in a bit), or the  Brutes or Abhorrents (unless using the Morrow Island list variation).  There are options on horses or mounted on something a little more monstrous too if you want to take either of those options.

Lieutenant

Pretty much everything above applies to the options for Lieutenant - I plan to use Crom of Carn Wrach as my Lieutenant; his more action pose (and the lifting of a grisly trophy) compared to Carrowek marks him out as the Champion of the army in my eyes. 

Sorceror

Again - look to the Warlords and Warchiefs section of the Ysian catalogue page.  I plan to use Kernour primarily, but Kerazek, Zethag and Gondard are all viable options (maybe even the Rose of Ker-Ys).  Some are also available on mounts too if you are interested in those options.

Monsters

There are lots of options here to fill this slot - but the Monstrous Beasts section on the Ysian catalogue page is the main place to look!  I have Druc, Meat-Hulk so plan to include him as a Behemoth.  The justifiably-famous Terror of Fortriu, Chimaera is a perfect choice to represent a Scouge option.  If you are playing the basing rules as written, then the Brutes and Abhorrents would make a very thematic Morrow Island list.

Creatures

As alluded to above - the bases of Brutes and Abhorrents are larger than the stated maximum for Creatures under the Age of Magic rules.  But I don't care because the Brute miniatures are some of my favourites ever and that's justification enough for me!  The Brutes of Gondard unit was part of what convinced me to collect Ysians after all, so I'm sure most lists I play will include at least a couple!  For quadruped Creatures, the Hounds of Ys would be pretty perfect (coming later this year).

Hearthguards

I plan to use various Warchiefs models from the Ysians range for units of Hearthguard - given how savage the miniatures are they will work equally well for the Berserkers option available to The Horde too.

Warriors

There are a couple of options here depending on personal preference - I'm going Ax-Drune but if you don't mind nudity (and deliberately buxom miniatures), the Sword-Melusines are another option (especially if you've gone for miniatures like Annik, Alix or the Rose of Ker-Ys as your characters).  If you want mounted Warriors you could go for a unit of Ax-Margh-Drune, but they aren't out until late 2021.

Levies

Again, there's a couple of options - I'm going Bow-Drune (and bought a couple extra as I originally only had 10).  The other option would be the Rogues of Carn Bran unit (but that's quite some way off being released).

War Chariots and War Machines

Sorry, the range as is wouldn't cater for either of these - of course it could be possible to convert something up if you really wanted to, but if you are anything like me it'll be a struggle to fit all the gnarly beasts as it is!


So, whilst not quite matching with everything available to an army chosen from The Horse, it's perfectly possible to have a range of styles of list for this battle board whilst keeping it to just the Ysians range.  

I'll share my thoughts on another Kindred soon, so check back for more Saga X Darklands.