This is a preliminary list for possible manufacturers and ranges for the Knight/Castle/”human” faction. Most will be physical products, with a few .stl files for 3d-printing if available.
HoMM2 army:
1.Peasants (HoMM2)
This useless fella was the basic Knight unit in HoMM2, and its main function was help the Necromancer build his army of skeletons.
There are a a few options for the wargaming willing to field throngs of worthless peasants.
a. Baccus 6mm WEC13 – Armed Peasants
b.Microworlds Peasant Rabble
c.Irregular Miniatures ME 13 Peasants (where there are also many other useful medieval troops)
As usual, Microworld’s are the most expensive ones, but also the ones that seem to have more detail. I don’t know how they compare, but just looking at the pictures it seems clear both Microworld and Baccus have larger, more expressive faces, while Irregular Miniatures are simpler, but somewhat more proportional.
2.Pikeman (HoMM2 & 3)
The pikeman was a moderately advanced unit in HoMM2 but the basic grunt in HoMM3. I have gone with the latter interpreation as it fits the tabletop wargaming style better. It also fits the history as spearmen and pikemen have been the building block of many armies through history. It is noticeable that the unit is called pikemen, not spearmen, yet it actually carries a spear-length weapon. I assume this might be due to size limitations of the sprite and HoMM’s orthographic perspective… as making the weapon too long could perhaps get in the way of the unit above? HoMM IV does have a more traditional-looking pikeman:
In any event, what is needed is dudes with long spears. And finding them with short ones will be almost impossible anyway. Or, rather, it will be impossible to find them not carrying shield.
a. Baccus 6mm, Mercenary Pikemen
These are from their War of the Roses range, and it’s in my opinion the best option out there.
For 3d-printing, a good alternative is this pack of miniatures by the Lazy Forger. There’s also an entire army bundle that includes ranged units and cavalry (and a larger one with siege equipment.) With this one you can get half your Castle army done.
I bought the first pack and the miniatures are good, although I noticed that they were not exactly 6mm, more like 7-8mm or so. Scaling them down a bit should fix that, although that means the miniature can get perhaps too thin, which is a common issue in 3d-printing, especially at these lower scales (compared to physical miniatures, which are quite chonky.) That pack also has one of the few medieval-looking shield + sword unit available in 6mm, as that combination at that time was uncommon, the sword being a secondary weapon most of the time. That might be useful for other units as I will mention later.
2.5 Halberdiers (HoMM3)
The upgraded version of the Pikeman above. There isn’t anything quite like that as far as I have been able to find, but you can get something close enough using billmen or other soldiers carrying polearms.
Baccus 6mm, Billman in Livery (from the War of the Roses range, too)
On thingiverse you can find 10mm proxies for the Warmaster game that are quite good
I’d recommend not using the ones with the shield. But, remember, these are 10mm, so you’d have to scale them down. I did so, but then they have a tendency to break at the ankles and sometimes just below the blade of the halberd. In fact, changing those models so I could print them in 6mm is one of the things that prompted me to learn 3d-modelling. Anyway, it can be done, you basically just need to thicken them a bit (scaling them up on the x and y axis would probably be enough.) Decimating the model (i.e. reducing the number of faces and polygons) is probably needed, too, as they have more detail than you’ll ever need in 6mm.
Check out the rest of grumpusbumpus things. He has many 10mm Warmaster proxies that, with some tinkering, can be converted into 6mm.
3. Archers (HoMM2)
Although HoMM3 has a unit called “archer,” it doesn’t use a bow but a crossbow. If you want a HoMM2 Archer
you’d need, well, just people with bows. There are many options:
a. Baccus 6mm, Welsh Archers (From the Crusades and Feudal Europe range)
These are cool because they look more like your usual Robinhood brigands, and some even have cloaks, rather than later longbowmen. But these are also fine:
b. Baccus’ Longbowman in Livery (War of the Roses)
You might have noticed that HoMM2 archers are, for whatever reason, women. That’s virtually impossible to find in this scale (or perhaps even tell the difference,) but Baccus actually has a small Amazons range, although they have an ancient, bronze-age-era look that might not be appropriate here.
There are 120 units in the pack, using bows and javelins.
4. “archer” & Marksman (HoMM3)
Crossbowmen, basically. The only difference one is better armored. This can be replicated using these two units from Baccuss:
WOR05 Crossbowmen (War of the Roses, as above)
I have no idea what, if any, armor are these guys wearing, but it’s probably gambeson or something which can be painted as clothes. Then you can use:
EMN07 Norman Crossbowmen
For the upgraded version.
Alternativelly, using crossbowmen with pavises can be a way to represent the upgraded version.
4. Swordmen & Crusader (HoMM2 & 3)
HoMM2 had a beefy soldier armed with a sword and a shield:
That is not an easy thing to find, but there are some options.
Irregular, ME 3, Dismounted Knights
The Western Army for 3d printing mentioned above has swordsmen with shield, too.
HoMM2 had a Crusades unit, but I’ll leave that for later. In HoMM3, the Crusader was downgraded as the upgraded version of the common swordsman, who looks like some bodybuilder knight.
Forget about finding something like that. I’d use the minis mentioned above. As for the upgraded version, the Crusader
You could either use the miniatures mentioned above and paint parts of the armor gold, or you could try these guys at the back:
Those are Irregular Miniatures, LR30 Sword and Buckler Men, from their Conquest of Mexico range.
5. Cavalier/Champion (HoMM2 & 3)
There are a few options for cavalry, but it depends on the look you want to give your army.
My choice would be to use XIII-century or so cavalry for the normal version, and late XV or XVI-century cavalry for the upgraded version.
a. Baccus CFR01, Frankish Knights, late 12thC
b. Baccus WOR13, Light Cavalry (War of the Roses)
c.Baccus WOR10 Mounted Men at Arms (same)
d. Irregular Miniatures, IW18, Armoured Gendarmes in Skirts and plumes (Italian Wars)
It’s not easy to see what they are, but they look like very flamboyant, Gothic-style knights to me, so that’s a good option.
Grumpusbumpus has some very nice knights for Warmaster, which I have scaled down and printed. Again, you’d probably have to thicken them a bit to avoid three-legged horses. The models are actually two types of knights, one more “gothic” than the other, so you can use one type for the normal version and the other for the upgraded version. For those who know their Warhammer Fantasy, what I’m saying is that you should use Bretonnia for the normal knights, and the Empire for the upgraded.
6. Griffins (HoMM 2 & 3)
Griphons appear in HoMM 2 and 3 as part of the Warlock army, but in 3 they had a change of heart and went to the good guys.
Rapier Miniatures sells Griphons in packs of four, £1.5. The pose is quite similar to the one in the videogame. The only downside is that it is the only pose.
A unit of 60 of these might look a bit boring, granted. To my knowledge, there’s no 3d models that would be useful here as all griphons are 28mm and usually very monumental and detailed, so a lot of tinkering would be needed before they can be used in 6mm. It probably would be better to just sculpt your own model—which I might do eventually.
7. Angels (HoMM3)
HoMM3 introduced Angels, which according to the lore are robots or whatever. It doesn’t matter, as they are basically big dudes with wings.
“Big” is the keyword here, as they seem to be ogre-size, like 3m tall or something. Conveniently, there is 10mm angels:
Magister Militium (10mm)
And Angelic foot soldiers, too.
I don’t know if these are 10mm-scale human, or larger-than-human 10mm-scale. But I think they probably work either way.
You can find a few free .stl files for angels, but they are 28mm scale.
7.Paladin & Crusader (HoMM2)
HoMM2 had the amazing-looking (and sounding) paladins and the upgraded Crusaders:
Microworld Games Armed Greatswordsmen could work these, but they lack the drip, I guess.
8. Monk & Zealot (Homm 2 & 3)
The monk and the zealot are quite powerful creatures. They are the Castle/Knight equivalent of the druid from HoMM2, as both are cowled guys throwing magical balls at their enemies. I haven’t found any manufacturers doing anything like this, however.
There are some wizard or priest miniatures for 3dprinting that could do the trick, but I might end up sculpting them myself.
HoMM6mm 