"Least Favorite Fantasy Armies?" Topic

We have have likes and dislikes – which of the familiar fantasy armies lack appeal for you?

Elves of any flavor.

Orks/Orcs

Hobbits. I don't mind them at all in Blood Bowl for some reason, but I just don't like seeing scores of the jolly little guys getting slaughtered on the table top.

Skeletons and undead in general… how are you suppose to stop them?

I can't seem to muster any enthusiasm for dwarves.

Nor for lizardmen/reptilians/etc., if they count as one of the familiar fantasy armies.

Hobbits Dark Elves Chaos/demonic armies

Elves.

Hobbits/halflings for sure. They are better as scouts or irregular or guerrilla forces

Abysmal/chaos/plague/dark/mutant/forces of nature/elemental/aqua men

Hobbits, goblins, lizards

I'm not opposed to this poll, but I don't think it really matters much whether the spear carriers have pointed ears or are green. If fantasy battles are just ancient/medieval battles with mis-shapen troops, why bother?

A fantasy game should be fought within a different, but internally consistent, reality. The zombie hordes SHOULD be almost unstoppable, but the fire warden can light a unit's swords so that they do damage that will not regenerate, while the anchoress' prayer holds them back. Something vital should be at stake, something dire threatening with every die roll. It's the STORY.

It's a bit of a tie for me; Lizardmen and Ratmen.

Elves

I don't play with Hobbits. Never have liked them, dropped them from my AD&D games during the first year. I own around three Hobbit figures because they were a part of a set I purchased. Don't even know where they are. Obviously I don't care for them in my fantasy battles, either.

I also do not care for Chaos -- what exactly are they? I've never understood Chaos, outside of Elric of Melnibone Science-Fantasy novels. They just seem contrived; they stretch my imagination to its breaking point. Cheers!

Undead/skeletons – followed closely by Chaos for many of the reasons articulated by Sgt Slag; I like Hobbits but haven't ever thought of having an army of them; maybe a support unit or two (like in a field kitchen)

The whole genre as a wargaming "period" leaves me cold. I've been trying to paint HOTT dwarf army for years and well ….meh. I'm happy to read or watch about elves dwarves orcs etc kicking 57 varieties of blood snot and gore out of each other. But game it? Nope.

Grotesquerie armies, whatever name you give them. (Anything involving "corruption" or "disease" or "warped flesh" or etc., etc..) So what's called "Chaos" today.

So-called "Amazons" or "Sisters of Battle" armies/forces.

I'm flexible on the rest, but I prefer Tolkien-style classics to the weird stuff.

Turning it around, I like:
Dwarves
Elves
"Good" Men (especially knights and cavalry)
Vs
Orcs
Old School Chaos (Mix of orcs and minotaurs and evil men and special monsters— dragons, chimera, etc..)
Undead (though I don't have any of these).

These are good enough for me.

Not too keen on Chaos stuff. Actually most modern fantasy miniatures because they are usually overproduction and/or grotesque.

Dislike Elves, they are snooty gits.

Hobbits.

I also do not care for Chaos -- what exactly are they? I've never understood Chaos, outside of Elric of Melnibone Science-Fantasy novels. They just seem contrived; they stretch my imagination to its breaking point.

That's what Reaper/Warhammer were thinking of too. In the days of Reaper it was the Asgard Miniatures Lord of Chaos/ Chaos Doomguard / Chaos soldiers that everyone was fired up by and they were very "Elric".

I don't like all the "cutesy" fantasy armies – if you have Dragon Rampant then the "killer sheep" army are a good example, and Teddy Bear and Garden Gnome armies don't really inspire me either.

I'm very glad for the people who do like them, and long may them enjoy them, but for me it's not at all what I'm looking for.

I am a puritanical Tolkein lover, anything else is heresy!

Skeletons.

Parzival

Don't forget about Tolkien's "wicked dwarves."

The Hobbit, ch IV, The Mountain Path

Chaos – how can anything chaotic be so organised as to make weapons, armour, etc and fight in units. Misnomer.

I've never understood Chaos, I've never understood Chaos

Well then, It's working, aint it?

To the OP – None lack appeal.
To the title – Hobbits. Lousy as an army, so they only play well in certain specific scenarios.

Hobbitsy armies. Always made out to be more powerful than they should be…

"Skeletons… how are you suppose to stop them?"

Dogs. An army of dogs. They'll take those skeletons apart & bury their bones… ;-)

Ogres.

Chaos and Rat-men.
Warp stones are crack for Rat-men.
Mushrooms are mushrooms for Goblins.

Most armies do well in their own homelands. Hobbits would be deadly as skirmishers, obviously, and pretty helpless otherwise. In my own Splintered Lands they live as an allied race in both the Sylvan Elves' great forest (in the Breadbasket valley) and also along the rivers in the dwarven Mountain Home. They are not magical themselves but are closely allied with the fauns, who have a lot of shamans. Hobbit villages almost always have tribes of fauns in the rougher lands around their fields. The hobbits also keep the giant wolfhounds and their Bounders can ride them. Some Bounders also ride giant hawks.

In other words, it is an entire culture, with several races or species in cooperation.

link

The Dark and Bloody Ground lies between the goblins of Moonglade and the Druids' Wyldewood. The Archdruid is Planting faun and halfling colonists there, in three towns, fortified with wooden stockades and towers and strongly garrisoned, close by friendly dryads' groves and supported from the river by an allied dwarven fleet. But a massive Moonglade invasion column is targeted at each. Battles will be fought in the deep forests or swamps of the DBG, or along the perimeters of each town if the invaders reach there. This book includes maps, orders of battle with photos of each unit, description of key individuals and of battlefields, victory conditions, and more. The back cover is 14 flags, doubled for attaching to staffs, 7 each for Moonglade and Wyldewood; players may copy these for personal use.

Chaos.

"Grotesquerie armies, whatever name you give them. (Anything involving "corruption" or "disease" or "warped flesh" or etc., etc..) So what's called "Chaos" today."

Couldn't agree more. I find these types of figures/armies disgusting. But, that's just me.

I don't care for Dark Elves, they subvert Tolkein's original vision, (and by extension, mine) of what Elves are.

I do recall how the Minifigs Vally of the Four Winds Range was really praised for all the figures inspired by Hieronymous Bosch. They were cutting edge at the time and did show a very different approach to fantasy than just the Tolkien High Fantasy or Howard Swords & Sorcery.

I liked 'em !

HMS Exeter +1
Sentient Rats and Lizards don't float my boat.

Love the Wood Elves.

I loved the VFW figs and have a few of them -- but they are not really that impressive as sculpts, today. Be fun if somebody redid them, though.

Don't like GW's take on orcs. Other orcs mostly fine.

All of them.

Basically what Parzival said. If Chaos is more like what you see in "Willow" than what you see in Warhammer then I would be ok with it.

any armies with 44dds and chainmail bikinis and stripper heels

Funny. That's my favorite.

Chaos is often a bit too silly for my tastes. Also, a bit too structured and orderly to be calling itself chaos.

I only have two fantasy genre dis-likes. Zombie anything and GWs Nurgle stuff. Don't own any, don't model it, won't play it nor play against it.