"Best historical army for Fantasy?" Topic

Which historical army without any modification (paint schemes aside) make the best looking armies in a Fantasy setting?

Probably depends on your fantasy setting but if your going generic proto medieval fantasy I'd say Hundred years war English lots of longbows and men at arms.

Army containing the Polish Winged Hussars!

Any of the Germanic/Gothic nations of the 5th/6th century would fit well for the Nibelungen mythos.
Plenty of room for the gods, dragons, giants and Dwarves.

I agree with Prince Rupert – it will depend on the fantasy setting. A Lord of the Rings type setting could use Late Roman or early Byzantine for Gondor, Goths for Rohan and the like. A more medieval setting could use Wars of the Roses or Hundred Years War. Generic Barbarians could be represented by ancient Celts or Germans, or as easily by Vikings for a later era. And of course the WHFB world can use Landsknechte and other renaissance armies.

Byzantines. If they were good enough for Tolkien to use for Gondor, then they should be near the top of this list.

I kind of agree with the Byzantine/East European vibe over other Western European medieval troops, because of the "unusual" helmets, shields, and armor relative to standard western styles. The Dark Age or Viking figures are great if you are in a fantasy setting that matches that.

1) Later Medieval/ Italian Wars/ Swiss & Landschnekts (still my favorite)
2) Medieval Balkans (Croats, Bosnians, Hungarians, lots of exotic infantry and cav. Some gun powder too. Wizards don't look out of place mixed in.
3) Teutonic Knights (as Goodies or Badies).
4) Han Chinese (just screams Fantasy setting)
5) Yi Dynasty Korean (flamboyant melee units, very shooty including cannon & rockets).

Ottoman Turks. And you can use them for historicals across some 500 years!

Egyptians!

High Medieval would work for a lot of Fantasy

For barbarians hard to beat the Celts or Vikings

War of the Roses minus bombards for Game of Throne like settings

Agree that Byzantines would work well for Tolkienseque settings

I think it depends on the vibe you are looking for. I agree with Teutons, Byzantines, and the Ottomans/Balkan region. For plain old generic "men", HYW types would fit the bill.

Mongols

When we get to voting I will almost certainly vote 'all of the above'. As almost any troops without modernish firearms can be made to look right in some fantasy setting.

I don't Landsknechts mentioned so better get them added.

x42

I approach from the opposite,
What armies will work for my fantasy armies!
I use lots of historical lists for Fantasy ADLG;

Orcs;
Classical Indian – (giant scorpions, giants, or trolls as Elephants)
Goths, Dacians, Gauls
lots of "Biblical" armies (the irregular ones)

High Elves;
100 Years War

Dwarves;
Early Imperial Roman

etc

Lots of fun to find combos that look/work well!

Vikings, of course. And …
Ancient Syrians
Medieval Chinese
Neanderthals
Numidians
Aborigines
Early Medieval Siberians
Dahomey Amazons
Scythian Amazons
Aztecs
Chichimecs
Iroquois Nation

Normans and or Vikings

Hellenistic armies, especially Seleucids, lend themselves perfectly for big battle, big empires fantasy. Lots of troop types, including huge beasts (elephants), chariots, barbarians (Galatians, Scythians)… And one can easily incorporate fantasy elements from greek mythos (pegasi, gorgons, harpies, giants satyrs, centaurs…). And they will stand out from all the longbow/plate armour generic fantasy stuff as well :)

Is your concept of "Fantasy", Medieval European in flavour? Or Dark Ages? SE Asian? Or something else?

@Fritz, I listed Chinese and Korean armies so very much open to all interpretations of what you deem "Fantasy" like.

You can't go wrong with Pygmies…

As said before, it depends on setting and faction. Something similar to Conan, would be more dark ages portion of history. Most other settings, I see high middle ages or at least HYW. I don't see how LOTR is Byzantine, however. How did that come about?

Tolkien mentions Byzantium as Gondor a few times in various letters.

Arnor=fallen Western Roman Empire, Gondor=Byzantium

The men of Laketown in The Hobbit are Viking types, Swedes or maybe Rus.
Grelber

What! No love for the Japanese age of war?

What! No love for the Japanese age of war?

Certainly there is. I have two ~300 figure forces. And I use them in fantasy as well as historical games. I even have a nice army of oni, tengu, kappa, and various yokai, etc., though my historicals are perfectly happy fighting in non-Asian themed fantasy milieux, too.

The poll said pick "the best". I listed a dozen "bests" from my opinion. But a dozen (largest list to date on this topic) is still less than 1% of historical milieux.

That is part of why I am not a fan of the word "period" for a historical milieu. A period is a span of time. But a wargaming "period" is a span of time, geography, and politics, making "milieu" a better term IMO. During any given period of human history, there are many distinct military actions going on across the globe. Often times, there is more than one such action within a geographic area.

This could end up a "top" or "top five" poll (if it runs), but if people don't restrict their suggestions to their own high-level top faves, this could be a long poll indeed, including many, many historical milieux.

Many of my fantasy armies are historical ones with beasts added. For Age of Magic I do the following:

Saracens with Djinnis
Renaissance Spanish Inquisition (lots of Priests)
Renaissance English with Witchfinders
Unnamed Polynesian/South American Jungle Dwellers (based on Frostgrave tribals) with Forest monsters
Cultists with Cthulu Monsters

I also have Norse themed Undead and a Witches and Demons army to fight my witchfinders

No love for guns in fantasy?

I only listed two possibly gun-armed candidates (Iroquois and Dahomey Amazons), but I have played more.

I usually consider flintlock firearms to be generally fantasy compatible. In the real world, this type of firearms did not totally overwhelm close combat.

There is a ton of steampunk-fantasy crossover which has distinct subsets of "steampunk with fantasy in it" and "fantasy with some steampunk in it". Dwarves with blunderbusses and steam engines come to mind … all you would need is a historical example of short, hairy people who were technology savvy. My (and SWMBO's) Northern European relatives, for example.

Maybe someone considers a Wehrmacht or Fallschirmjäger platoon summoned across time by a necromancer as a best option for fantasy-historical crossover?

I think a full regalia clad Zulu army is the ticket, just imagine those orcs and goblins recoiling in horror at the mobs of angry pointy stick humans surging to make contact.

Romans from Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series.

Once, when in a weird mood I fielded this army for Warhammer Fantasy:
link

That Blue Dragon is awesome Bro.

Viking/Saxon/Normans

PzGeneral +10

Polish Winged Hussars rock!!!!!!!

Winged Hussars WOULD work well as Kings of War Basilean Paladins!

Mid-fifteenth century Wallachians. Nothing like legitimately claiming your army is lead by Dracula.

Conformist, I was actually just looking at Old Glorys excellent Vladimir Balkan range as a possible Kings of War army. Totally agree.