Army Showcase - Mother Of Dragons

A number of people have produced HOTT lists for 'A Song of Ice and Fire' or the 'Game of Thrones' TV series over the years, and why not? It's a very HOTT-friendly setting. One army which grabbed my attention was the one Daenerys Targaryen assembles over time featuring, as it does, mercenary slave-soldiers, steppe horsemen, loyal heroes and, of course, dragons. But it's not an easy army to put together in any scale, needing an eclectic mix of different figures, including specific characters. I'd resigned myself to building it slowly over time, as I found appropriate figures to use, but the other week it clicked - I could print it.

So I wet into Thingiverse and trawled Dutch Mogul's collection of models, looking for appropriate figures, since I knew he did an extensive range of 18mm troops. I downloaded anything I though might be suitable, ran some test prints, rescaled figures where necessary and, after a few days, found I had almost everything I needed. A couple of evenings' printing later, I had the army ready to prep and paint. Yesterday I finished it.

And here it is:

The army is 15mm, of course. The basic list consists of:

1 x Dragon - Daenerys with her three dragons
1 x Hero general - Ser Jorah Mormont or Ser Barristan Selmy
4 x Spears - The Unsullied
2 x Riders - Dothraki
3 x Hordes - Freed slaves and pit-fighters
1 x Lurker - More freed slaves

The army I have produced is a kind of middle-ground between the TV series and the books. This list was especially helpful. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the figures with regard to either source; I went with what was available, because I'd rather have something I can play with on the table, than an idea dancing around in my head waiting for the right miniatures to come along.

Here are The Unsullied. My wife thought that they looked good, but could do with more oil on the naked chests.

The Dothraki. I'm not sure really how accurate they are at all, but cavalry figures are hard to come by on Thingiverse and I went with what was available. I added shields to make them more interesting. I haven't painted any designs on them yet, so you're not allowed to see that side of them.

The slaves. I originally went with four hordes, but switched one to a lurker when I realised that the army had no rough terrain capability. The list linked to above has some of the pit-fighters as an optional warband, but I'd have had to have lost another horde for that. I decided that slaves in ambush would give the army some ability in bad terrain. There's a real mix of figures here; it was quite fun assembling the collection and painting them.

The hero element - Ser Jorah Mormont on the right and  Ser Barristan Selmy on the left (or, as they are known in our house, 'Ser Friendzone' and 'The Old Bloke'). Again, I went with what figures were available, and was quite drawn to the heavily armoured knight with the book anyway. I rather like the idea in the Fanaticus list of running one of them as a paladin, if they operate as individual elements, but this element could be a paladin if one of the optional alternative generals is used (see below)

An optional alternative general - Daenerys herself, with Grey Worm and a Dothraki guard. This would be a rider general, and would replace one of the ordinary Dothraki elements. The hero could still remain as such, or could become a paladin.

Not all of the figures were printed. I'd found the ones required for this element at a wargames show last year. The dragons are from the Reaper Bones collection; I needed three small dragons and was thrilled to find that hey did a pack with three small dragons.

You'll notice that Daenerys appears again on this element. If the rider general is not used, then this would be her place. But if the rider general is used, then she can be detached from the base; I drilled a pin into the figure's base which slots into a hole in the rock on which she is standing.

I also made the dragon base in two parts, with Daenerys and the one dragon on one base and the other two dragons on the second. This came after I realised that an aerial hero or a flier is on a base exactly half the dept of that required for a dragon. And two fliers cost the same one dragon. This allows them to be fielded at their smaller, less dangerous, stage. It also allows for a flier general or, if you drop other troops, for Daenerys to ride her dragon as an aerial hero general.

So, I haven't quite achieved my aim of a HOTT army that is entirely 3D-printed, but this is the closest I've come. To tel the truth the resolution of the figures isn't brilliant; think low-quality 1970s stuff, and you'd be close. That's no slur on the designs; they look great as they 18mm figures they are supposed to be. The loss of resolution comes from scaling them down by 3mm and from using a cheap printer. But I was able to produce an unusual army that I wanted in my collection quickly and easily, and that's good enough for me.