Crossing the Finish Line!
As the painting for this particular project nears the finish line I got to looking at various rule sets to use. While I'm mostly a historical player, let's face it, what's the Trojan War without at least a touch of myth? Consequently, when I found a Triumph! army list for the Trojans that includes a few Amazons, I couldn't resist these Lucid Eye figures (though... they may be the most expensive figures--per piece--that I own!).
I lean towards believing the origin story of the Amazons has its roots in female Scythian warriors. Over the past few decades a couple of Scythian graves of woman warriors have been excavated and it seems that these women were warriors in life, not women buried with martial grave goods for use in the afterlife. Of course, such a small sample tells us nothing about how common female warriors were in Steppe cultures. Maybe archaeologists have stumbled over the only two or three that existed--though the odds of that are pretty slim. But clearly the Greeks took note of them. (Of course, the Greeks also took note of winged horses and centaurs and I'm fairly certain neither of those ever actually existed!)
Neither am I certain that Scythian culture extends as far back as the late Bronze Age. Consequently, I suspect the Amazons are a later addition to the Homeric tales. Nevertheless, I wanted to portray my Amazons as exotic folk from far away lands which led me to trying my hand portraying a tiger skin cloak--something that would only be available from India or East Asia. All in all, I'm happy with the results.
These are the last figures (hah!) for this project! And I finally broke down and ordered a copy of 'Midgard Heroic Battles'. Everything I've seen about these rules seems to tick off a box of what I'm looking for. Here's hoping!
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