'Aztec' type army - Warriors of the Sun

Since forever I have always wanted an Aztec army in 28mm but the cost and lack of miniatures on the market as well as the ruleset with which to play them made it unlikely that I would ever actually have one. That is until the arrival of 3d printing and a set of rules which allows Aztecs to compete with both historical and fantasy armies.

The 3d STLs that make up the vast majority of my Aztec army are by red copper miniatures who released this set as a kickstarter a couple of years ago and I was in straight away - as i have been on their subsequent work! The rules are my own set Legions Antiquitata which have been in development and playtesting for 5 years and are almost readt to be published. These allow players with Historical and fantasy armies to play eachother with their armies requiring no rebasing. More often Historical armies become Hybrid with fantasy elements!

The General

Before we start I need to admit that I am no expert on Mesoamerican warfare or any aspect of it so in painting these I have relied mostly on the famous Codices and better qualified people than myself. Above is my general with brilliant headdress. The Aztec general is more of a command guy than many of the other army's generals and his pose suits this role.

Eagle Knights

Again the colours are speculative and ruled by the rule of cool where I am unsure. One of the two full time professional orders in the Aztec army. I am not sure if they had a specific role in the army other than being shock troops but I have read that they used bows more than the Jaguar warriors. Whether this is actually true I dont know but in my lists they have that ability.

Jaguar Knights

Another cool professional unit although as usual it seems uncertain whether they actually wore leopard skins and to be honest this seems unlikely to me just because of the sheer number of skins they would need! However this has not stopped me from representing leopard skin garb.

Cuachic fanatics

From what i can gather this was a unit based in the temples and made up of religious fanatics which makes them a sort of glass cannon shock unit a bit like the naked Galatians in Celtic armies. The yellow suit makes them stand out on the table and what you see here is the maximum 3 units allowed unless you choose an Aztec temple army from the lists.

Otomi

Huge confusion here for me as the Otomi are variously descibed both as a rank of suit wearer and a separate ethnic mercenary group. In either case I have them as a mercenary unit of good quality who can fight but also can ambush and evade as is the want of mercenaries who want to live until payday.

Cuextacatl - 2 prisoner men

The Cuextacatl are warriors who have elevated themselves from the herd by capturing 2 prisoners for sacrifice and earning the funky red and black outfit above. In my rules this does not provide any game advantage over the ordinary warriors but adds plenty of colour to the ordinary units.

Priests

Here we have a priest mid sacrifice with his priestly bodyguard. Priests in L.A. have the functions of wizards/magic users in the Aztec army and have the nice army ability of granting a reroll or draw of a new card every time an enemy unit is killed. The Priest's abilities are increased if accompanied by the Altar shown at the Head of the Blog which allows rerolls and acts as a Banner for those troops in range who can see it!

Warriors

Standard warriors without suits and armed with obsidian edged weapons. These guys are looking to take prisoners and stay alive to earn a snazzy red and black suit. I again have no idea how it was tracked who had captured a prisoner. It seems a bit of a bureaucratic nightmare to be honest as surely you couldnt just leave the battle once you had one!

Bowmen

5 foot bows were used by the the Aztecs but were not widely used after the proper battle began as prisoners with arrows in them were not much use, even less if dead. The AtlAtl javelins below have the same issue so were used at the start of a battle to break enemy formations and morale rather than as battle winning weapons of choice.

AtlAtl men

Conquistadors

What? Conquistadors? Surely not! Yes afraid so as the Aztec list also subsumes the Tlaxcallan armies (whose figures are also available via Red Copper Miniatures). These are not Red Copper (who have Conquistadors in their Inca range) but are much older Wargames Foundry minis from maybe 30 years ago. In what I call a 'Coyote list@ the Warriors of the sun can put together a small but expensive list which includes both small numbers of Conquistadors, lots of Tlaxcallan warriors and more Otomi mercenaries than allowed in the standard Aztec list.

Historical gamers may wish to stop reading here as from here on the fantastical elements arrive in the list!

Triceratops

The Triceratops provides a sort of mobile archery tower and can be fitted with a crew of missile men or a ballista type weapon. This STL is from the One Page Rules range of Saurians which is excellent for more traditional Lizardmen and just about fits on a 75mm base ata squeeze.

Flying Serpent

As you can see this Miguel Zavala free stl has not yet been completed and needs quite a bit more work but I wanted to use him in a game so just splashe some 'speed paints' on. Once it warms up I think I might make him a bit bigger as at the moment he doesnt really have the presence. That or print the Lost Kingdom version which is much more detailed but also 18 Euros and I am a tightwad.

Crocodile

Genuinely cannot remember where I picked this STL up but I think it may be Gadgetworks. On the question of whether they have Crocodiles in Central America the answer is yes and plenty of them. I always assumed it was Alligators but no there are two common types in Mexico and Guatamala. In game terms they are ambush units lurking unseen to attack any enemy approaching the terrain they occupy.

Raptors

Obviously much less common than Crocodiles Raptors are a sort of fast attack unit for the Warriors of the Sun. Only 2 are allowed and they are quite expensive glass cannons being susceptible to missile fire but decent if you can launch them at an enemy big beast such as a dragon or elephant

Tyrannosaur

The most expensive unit in the list and only one allowed costing as much as a set of Eagle Knights. For me it has never performed up to its points and is regularly targeted for death by every enemy missile unit but I assume in better hands than mine and backed up with a priest to heal it every turn it might be good. STL by Blue Giant studios and yes I know it is just a Raptor printed bigger!

Ahuizotl

Another free STL from Miguel Zavala which I have not printed well hence the very visble layers on the head. Ahuizotls are mythological creatures who lure the unwary near water then grab them with their tail hand and drown them for some reason. In the game they can use the lure spell to drag enemies out of position, especially low Willpower units such as other beasts etc. I have read that Cortez reported one of his men was lost to an Ahuizotl but I do not know if this is true. The report not the death!!

Pterosaur

Another dinosaur but this time a relatively flimsy one whose value is in its mobility in helping to grab or deny objectives. It can attack other 'Flyers' but can also 'Swoop' and pick up a normal size unit and drop it away from an objective if its weakish attack gets through. I am afraid I can't remeber where this STL is from.

Snakes big and small

The Giant snake has some use especially against troop units with its venom and strength while swarms of snakes can be summoned if a priest has nothing better to do!

Chaneques

Chaneques are amphibious creatures with some magical abilities but no attack ability. They have decent Lure and 'Confuse' spells which can draw out both Beasts with Low Willpower and break up and confuse troop units. These two are actually dual use as characters in my Burrows and Badgers Wildling team! STL by Epic miniatures.

Jaguars (er actually a Cheetah!)

Listen it's got spots and is proxying at the moment for the much more fearsome Jaguar whose STL by Resin Warfare I am awaiting warmer weather before printing! Jaguars are good in the Warriors of the Sun list as they have Ambush and an ability called Critical Heroes which makes them better at damaging generals, mages and other heroes then legging it when attacked!

And that is all for now. There are a few units waiting with the Jaguars until warmer weather chief amongst which are a Pochteca merchant Spy and Tlaxcallan warriors but I will add them in here once done.