Stygian Mace-Axe

DrSkull

Mongoose
I bought a dozen or so Egyptian miniatures from Essex to use as Stygians. I had ordered them sight-unseen and when I got to the "axemen" I found that their weapons looked a bit unusual. It looked like a heavy metal ball with a tapering axe blade attached. So I decided to stat up a "Stygian mace-axe"

Stygian Mace-Axe
One-Handed Exotic Melee Weapon
Damage 1d12
AP 4
Crit x3
Can be used either to inflict Slashing or Bludgeoning damage.

It is about the equivalent of a 1-handed Warsword only with Axe critical.
 
Dr. Skull,

Great idea! I'm working on my latest adventure submission to mongoose and your "Mace-Axe" was a great idea! The adventure takes place along the Shem/Stygian border, centered around the ruins of Kaetta. I have been looking for several ideas and creatures to include in the adventure and have found that "Stygian" ideas are very difficult to find.

I know, I could just steal all the "Egyptian" ideas, but I was hoping for a little more originality. Besides, when you plan to deal with a lot of stuff about the God Ibis, foe of Set, than nothing less than originality will do.

Eric in Vegas :)
 
Hmmm... This sounded interesting so I decided to follow it up. Osprey's Men-at-Arms Series has an excellent volume on Ancient Armies of the Middle East. I have a rather old copy of that, but very serviceable mind you (I would highly recommend it if you are running adventures in Stygia; gorgeous colour plates).

There is a list of illustrations of historical ancient Egyptian weapons (pg. 18 ), and there is something along the lines of what you described. The author calls it a pole-axe. So its just probably a short-hafted pole-axe, or just some variant of axe.

Those miniatures are pretty accurate historically it seems. :)

Dimitri
 
Dr. Skull,

I went to their site and now I understand the "sight unseen" part of your post. How do these minis stack up against other minis? I'm assumming that they are a true 25mm. Do they look overly small against other minis or do they hold their own size wise?

By the way, once again I would like to thank you for posting the excellent adventures on your site.
 
This was the first time I bought from Essex and I was generally pleased. The axemen and spearmen seemed a little "stiff" but the Pharaoh, Prince, Standard-Bearer, archers and slingers I got were all really good. I found all of them painted up very nicely.

They are indeed true 25mm scale, which is just perfect for me. They are a nice match for the Old Glory 25's, Gripping Beast 28's, Dixon 25's, and the various old Grenadier figures I bought in the 80's (as well as the stuff I got from Discount Hobbies recently).

If your collection is all from Reaper, however, the Essex guys will seem small. I have a few GW Brettonian men-at-arms and they don't seem to be too large in comparison.

(Mild Rant Mode on)
How come historical miniatures always make you glue on spears and sometimes other weapons too? I mean Old Glory even makes you provide your own spears (broom straw is the best for ease of gluing on) Fanatasy miniatures always manage to have the weapons firmly pre-attached. I really have come to hate gluing on weapons to miniatures. Sppppppiiiiitttttt.
(Mild Rant Mode Off)
 
I've been thinking of picking up some of the figures from Old Glory and some of the Discount Hobby stuff. The price is right and they are the same size as the figures I bought in the 80's and now use for NPC's. I guess if they are mainly used for NPC's the size isn't that big of deal. Makes the Reaper PC's look more heroic.

Thanks for the tip on making spears.
 
I bought a selection of Celtos barbarians for use as Cimmerians and have come up with a new weapon specific to them,Cimmerian Spearsling. Having read the ROK background it seems that our grumpy black haired hillmen despise the bow as a weapon of war and i thought that this offered a viable alternative.
Cimmerian spear sling.
Exotic Ranged Weapon
Dam d10
AP1**
CRIT X3
Range 50ft
Bludgeoning dam.
This is the favoured missile for hunting and war amongst a number of the Cimmerian clans.It's popularity stems from the fact that you have a missile and melee weapon combined. It is basically a hunting spear with a leather sling attached to the butt end like the DnD staff sling.
 
No guys,not an atlatl. I cant seem to find I-Kore's site anymore but if you go to New Wave Entertainment's site and look for Celtos mini's in the miniature games section you will see the weapon that I refer to. Its a staffsling with a spearpoint.
 
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