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Hi there.

Just as the title says, I'm looking for some recommendations for miniature wargames with a mythology theme. What I mean by that is a wargame where each faction represents a specific pantheon of gods and their associated monsters, heroes and historical warriors. Such as the following examples of what such historical fantasy armies would look like:

1. a Greek Pantheon Faction with Zeus as a General/Unit, Centaur Cavalry and Hoplite Infantry.

2. a Norse Pantheon Faction with Odin as a General/Unit, Valkyrie Cavalry, Elf Archers, Dwarf Shock Troops and human Vikings/Berserkers.

3. a Japanese Pantheon Faction with Amaterasu as a General/Unit, various kinds of Youkai Troops as well as Samurai, Ninja and Ashigaru human soldiers.

If the game I'm looking for doesn't exist as described I understand. I'm just wondering if there's any mythology themed wargame that uses units from actual mythologies/pantheons that exist in the public domain. Something like Warhammer Fantasy Battles where you can deploy troops on trays except it's based on IRL mythologies rather than Tolkien style fantasy. Feel free to post whatever recommendations you have. With that out of the way, I hope you all have a great weekend!

Wargods of Aegyptus (Egypt) and Wargods of Olympus (Greece) from Crocodile Games. Theres also Wargods of Hyperborea which is just one faction called the Wendigo, but thats more of a one-off miniexpansion kind of thing. Supposedly they are working on additional pantheons, but they've only managed to release Olympus and Aegyptus over the past 20 years so I wouldn't hold my breath for more anytime soon.

Warlord Games Mythic Americas https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/mythic-americas might suit, humans from many American civilizations + assorted mythical creatures associted with them

maya, aztec, inca & tribal nations

Paymaster games https://www.paymastergames.com/ also offer a decent selection of american and polynesian minis (human and monster) plus a of rule sets Going Native: Warpath

and wargames atlantic have now got a box of plastic aztecs out too

Of Gods and Mortals from Osprey pretty much covers that. No dedicated minis, but that can be an advantage depending on how you look at it.

I know of another game in development that takes some classic myth and brings them into the modern age, but it's sadly slow going. (Yes, self-plug, lol.)

chaos0xomega wrote:Wargods of Aegyptus (Egypt) and Wargods of Olympus (Greece) from Crocodile Games. Theres also Wargods of Hyperborea which is just one faction called the Wendigo, but thats more of a one-off miniexpansion kind of thing. Supposedly they are working on additional pantheons, but they've only managed to release Olympus and Aegyptus over the past 20 years so I wouldn't hold my breath for more anytime soon.

Only two pantheons in the span of 20 years? That's a long time. But I liked what I saw when I looked up their website. Did they specify which pantheons they were gonna work on after the Egyptian and Greek ones? If so, where can I read their dev diaries if they have one? (Like how Wargames Atlantic has a news & articles section for their project announcements.)

OrlandotheTechnicoloured wrote:Warlord Games Mythic Americas https://store.warlordgames.com/collections/mythic-americas might suit, humans from many American civilizations + assorted mythical creatures associted with them

maya, aztec, inca & tribal nations

Paymaster games https://www.paymastergames.com/ also offer a decent selection of american and polynesian minis (human and monster) plus a of rule sets Going Native: Warpath

and wargames atlantic have now got a box of plastic aztecs out too

Funny thing is, right after making this thread I discovered Mythic Americas while browsing Warlord Games's website. So I'm glad that you mentioned it. But I wasn't aware of Paymaster Games's Going Native Warpath, so I was pleasantly surprised. What I like about this wargame is that there are units for individual gods/mythical people. Such as Itzpapalotl, Tlazolteotl, Coatlicue, Quatzalcoatl, Xiuhcoatl, Mixcoatl and Cipactli, for the Aztecs, Maui for the Polynesians, White Buffalo Calf Woman for the Plains Indians, Camazotz for the Mayans, Yahui of the Mixtecs and Ai Apeac of the Mochica. Back to the topic of Mythic Americas, do you think they'll do a "Mythic Europe", "Mythic Asia", "Mythic Africa" or "Mythic Oceania" wargaming spinoff for the mythologies of those specific continents?

Valander wrote:Of Gods and Mortals from Osprey pretty much covers that. No dedicated minis, but that can be an advantage depending on how you look at it.

I know of another game in development that takes some classic myth and brings them into the modern age, but it's sadly slow going. (Yes, self-plug, lol.)

Normally I would consider no dedicated minis to be a disadvantage. But the previous posts that I quoted above provide examples of minis I could use for Of Gods and Mortals. Plus I found some models for it on this website: https://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=159&page=1 Anyways, could you possibly go into more detail about that project of yours? Is it a homebrew passion project or an official product in the works? Could you go into more detail about it or are you under an NDA contract? Either way, I hope that one day your wargame (or any other potential wargame IP) becomes popular enough to become the 40k or GW of mythological wargaming.

Mythic Battles Pantheon has 2 of the 3 (with Egypt being next but a few years away as Norse hasn't been delivered yet). It looks like a boardgame but is very much a wargame and pretty good rules as well.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186751/mythic-battles-pantheon

For what it's worth Reaper has a good selection of Greek and Egyptian themed models with their giants able to pass for a god/avatar.

There was a great Greek set in Bones V but I don't think it's hit retail.

 K9ofChaos wrote:

Valander wrote:Of Gods and Mortals from Osprey pretty much covers that. No dedicated minis, but that can be an advantage depending on how you look at it.

I know of another game in development that takes some classic myth and brings them into the modern age, but it's sadly slow going. (Yes, self-plug, lol.)

Normally I would consider no dedicated minis to be a disadvantage. But the previous posts that I quoted above provide examples of minis I could use for Of Gods and Mortals. Plus I found some models for it on this website: https://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=159&page=1 Anyways, could you possibly go into more detail about that project of yours? Is it a homebrew passion project or an official product in the works? Could you go into more detail about it or are you under an NDA contract? Either way, I hope that one day your wargame (or any other potential wargame IP) becomes popular enough to become the 40k or GW of mythological wargaming.

Oh, there's no NDA unless I want to pose on upon myself, since it's my own little LLC.

It's something that I've been developing for a few years now. Most play testing is kinda done, at least for core stuff, but there is a lot of balance work to go through, and I'm still commissioning art and so on. I plan on having dedicated miniatures, but paying sculptors is not cheap, nor is production. As this is a side-thing compared to my "day job," it's taking a while. Generally, though, it's a modern day setting with the idea that different mythologies were, at some point, real and the planes where they reside come into and out of conjunction with our world. Each pantheon actually wants to come here, because humans have a unique "resource" of the ability to dream and imagine, something many of these races cannot do. Each uses it for different types of magic and so on.

Mechanically, it's a deck-building miniatures game. Yeah, I know, crazy idea. Currently I've developed pantheons for Yggdrasil (Norse), Olympus (Greece), Tir na nOg (Celtic), and Nawia (Slavic). If I ever manage to get it released (self publishing), and it proves popular, I'll add more as other realms come into alignment.

It's a bit on semi-back burner while I work on another, minis-agnostic game currently (which is in final play testing, just honing some scenarios), for a co-op/solo 1920s horror theme.

 K9ofChaos wrote:

chaos0xomega wrote:Wargods of Aegyptus (Egypt) and Wargods of Olympus (Greece) from Crocodile Games. Theres also Wargods of Hyperborea which is just one faction called the Wendigo, but thats more of a one-off miniexpansion kind of thing. Supposedly they are working on additional pantheons, but they've only managed to release Olympus and Aegyptus over the past 20 years so I wouldn't hold my breath for more anytime soon.

Only two pantheons in the span of 20 years? That's a long time. But I liked what I saw when I looked up their website. Did they specify which pantheons they were gonna work on after the Egyptian and Greek ones? If so, where can I read their dev diaries if they have one? (Like how Wargames Atlantic has a news & articles section for their project announcements.)

I have the rulebooks but don't follow the game closely beyond that. I think I remember seeing something that they would be doing Norse next but thats about the extent of my knowledge. Otherwise their most recent activity has been releasing more miniatures and resculpts, etc. for both Aegyptus and Olympus so I don't know that a new pantheon is necessarily coming "soon" vs the ongoing work for the existing pantheons.

Back to the topic of Mythic Americas, do you think they'll do a "Mythic Europe", "Mythic Asia", "Mythic Africa" or "Mythic Oceania" wargaming spinoff for the mythologies of those specific continents?

Yes, they have an entire Mythic World concept, but development atm is a bit of a mess and tied up with various business dealings, competing interests, and differing opinions of how things should be handled. It might be a while before we see further development beyond the Americas, for the time being they are working on getting minis for additional factions and units out the door.

 Monkeysloth wrote:
Mythic Battles Pantheon has 2 of the 3 (with Egypt being next but a few years away as Norse hasn't been delivered yet). It looks like a boardgame but is very much a wargame and pretty good rules as well.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/186751/mythic-battles-pantheon

I forgot about mythic battles! Big fan of it myself, great gameplay, only thing I would say that sucks is that your regular/"line" units are limited in quantity and size, etc. so you can't really build the type of army that would necessarily appeal to a wargamer with multiple decently sized units of hoplites or viking marauders, etc. being led by some heroes/monsters/gods.

I can vouch for both Paymaster, and Crocodile game companies.

BOTH creators are fully accessible, and will get back with you as soon as humanly possible.

Both are great and approachable individuals wholly invested in their game, and both games have their place.

I am not seeing Saga, or Warlords Hail Caesar, SPQR, or Ancient Armies in there, but there you go.

I quite enjoyed Of God's and Mortals. It's a smaller scope game than Wargods, but at least it's something to play as you build your Armies. Fairly flexible as far as army composition but that does come with allot of abstraction.

Figures already exist for virtually any historical human group and almost any mythological creatures or pantheon. It's just a matter of choosing the rules.