A Tale of a Frugal Gamer - Episode 1

Sometimes I really like to go to the cheap side with my gaming.  Not always but occasionally.

I thought it might be interesting to talk about some of my efforts to cheap out.

Today I'm going to talk about Undead.  

I picked up a bunch of old GW undead models for pretty cheap at some point.  I've had them for a while and thought they could make a good basis for a Mighty Armies force.

Mighty Armies is made for 15mm but it is easy to scale it up.  I built the army a while ago and played it once or twice.  I liked the game but it didn't gain much traction with my group.

Now my group is thinking about Kings of War.  I've got a good start but need to build larger units.  In an effort to keep this army on the cheap side I sought out some cheap skeletons.  

I found some on Amazon and they run about $14 for 100 models.  I figured I would give them a try and if they didn't work I'd only be out $14.

I got the models and they are big.  Real big.  Way to big to be human skeletons in a 28-32mm army.

But... Maybe all isn't lost.  I think I can make these work somehow.  There are several different weapon combinations.

I've come up with a couple ideas.

1.  Maybe these are the skeletons of ogres.  Why not use these models for an undead themed ogre army.  I can use the ogre list and just use the skeletons as ogres.  I will need to find some suitable models for characters, war machines, and beasts.  I think I can find some Reaper Bones models for some of them.

2.  Use these models as regular Undead. Multi-base these on bases that would be correct for regular skeletons.  The idea is that the necromancer raised a bunch of ogres to form some units in the army.

3.  Similar to #2... Throw a couple of these big boys into a regiment/horde/legion of skeletons.  They will take up a bigger space on the base and they will just be filler on the base.  I'm thinking I will do some bases with these big models 28mm models and 15mm models.  Kind of a hodgepodge of undead races.

4.  I painted and based a unit of 3 models up.  I plan to use them as a proxy for zombie trolls.

None of these will necessarily be legal in a tournament but I can't imagine any of your local group would have a problem with you fielding this army.

This can make for an interesting themed army and could give you a cool army that didn't cost much.

What kind of ideas have you got for these guys?

Do you have any cheap cheats for your gaming?