Using Multiple 15mm Historical Cultures and Periods To Make Fantasy Human 15mm Armies.

One the main issues with trying to come up with interesting human armies for fantasy miniatures games comes from the fact that humanity is the default baseline from which all other fantasy races are established. 

Diverging too far from established, recognizable, human historical archetypes makes it difficult to see a human army as that leaving them seeming like sort of fantasy race instead. This becomes even more difficult as you get to smaller scales like 15mm or smaller. The details on the figures are not as distinct and it more so a matter of archetypal forms and shapes.The vagaries of smaller scales does, however, open up some opportunities for creating fantasy armies that are still human, even if they are not 100% consistent and recognizable as a historical army. 

Key to this, in my opinion is to pick a period of time and work within that period as much as you can or pulling from other instances in that period with similar aesthetics. 15mm or smaller scales allow us to do this by allowing us to focus on the shapes of armor and weapons rather than facial features that distinguish disparate ethnicity. It is important to consider the overall level of technology in the equipment depicted in the miniatures you gather together though there is room for some minor stylistic departures or instances where one troop might seem more advanced than others. In these instances you can create some reason for it like elite, magical, or something else thematically appropriate for your army.

To illustrate this, I am going to use a series of images depicting miniatures from Khurasan Miniatures. Khurasan has an excellent variety of historical armies that includes many often ignored historical forces. Khurasan also tends to have excellent photos of of painted miniatures from their ranges. I want to be clear that in this discussion I will be comparing and contrasting between examples from their range and am not condemning any of their range. Any discussion of suitability will be restricted to the context of this discussion and the example army I'll be outlining.

So, let's begin. 

Ever since I was a kid I loved the idea of all cavalry or mostly cavalry armies. When I was younger I love the Mongols and Huns and later Rohan. So the example I will go with today will be a fantasy cavalry army. To this end I think I will draw from mostly Dark Age/Early Medieval/Post-Roman sources as chain and scale armor was common here and will make the army stand out against other armies with later refined armors like plate, brigantine, half plate and the like. I know that an argument could be made that ancient armor could allow for a fantasy half-plate but let's ignore that for now.

CAVALRY SPEARS

Let's begin with basic cavalry. This will give a baseline for the army from which we can then establish heavier/elite units and other units. For this army the baseline will be medium armored cavalry armed with spears. I like round shield with circular bosses, so I'll try to avoid other shields and more ornate bosses. Miniatures that have different bosses on round shields make for easy conversions. 

Out of all of the Khurasan Ranges the Later Western German Noble Cavalry are the only figures that match my needs exactly. The Roman Principate Cavalry with Lancea would also work, though their shields are ovular. I do not own these figures, so I do not know how they scale, but if they scaled well enough you might be able to mix them into the same unit just saying that the shield variation comes from rider's tastes. Both sets of figure present shield and shorter spears.

KM-1603 Later Western German Noble Cavalry w/ Spear

KM-1610 Late Eastern German Cavalry Followers w/Spear and Trousers

Principate-CAV Principate Cavalry with Lancea

KM-1604 Late Western German Cavalry Followers w/Spear

LANCERS 

Making a distinction between the Medium Cavalry Spears and Lancers allows me to take advantage of the wide array of wonderful long lance carrying cavalry. The come in a variety of armor levels. These would represent a heavier, charging cavalry.

KM-545 Patrician/Early Byzantine Heavy Cavalry, Lance and Bow

KM-1609 Later Eastern German (Samarticising) Noble Cavalry w/ Lances

Nike-Med-Round Nikoforian Lesser Armored Cavalry with Lances (picture shows kite shields but code is for rounds)