The Wizard (HoMM2) and Tower (HoMM3) faction share many similarities. Despite this, they are distinct enough, or quite different, depending on how fastidious you are about these things.
In their original appearance, the Wizard “biome” was some kind of dry land, desertic even. This was still the case in the Might & Magic RPG, Heroes VI, published in late 1998, where they went with a Egyptian/Arabian look. But in HoMM III (released in March 1999,) there were already many “desert/brown” factions, so maybe that’s why they were changed into the only snow faction (and they were moved to another landscape, as HoMM2 and 3 aren’t set in the same continent.)
That may or may not be important, depending on how much do you care about basing and other details. In any event, these are the armies:
1.Halfling (HoMM2)
The halfling was the basic Wizard unit in HoMM2. They appear as neutral units in HoMM3. They are armed with slings and are weak but cheap, and you can amass hundreds of them. Mine usually died by the hundreds, too.
Irregular Miniatures sells 6mm halflings, but no slingers (although there are handgunners, which might be more useful that it seems at first look—see the gremlins below)
There is an alternative, which may or might not work, but here it goes:
These are Magister Militum 3mm skirmishing slingers, which at 6mm look like… children, so halflings. You can get 160 of them, enough to annoy a dragon*, for £8.00.
*Actually, in the game, the 160 halflings would kill the dragon.
1.5.Gremlin and Master Gremlin (Homm3)
Gremlins, also known as Necromancer’s Fodder, are one of the silliest and weakest units in the game, and that’s why I like them. They are apparenlty indentured servants who work for the mages, and that’s why they carry a giant iron ball around, which they use as a weapon. If they are good bois, they get promoted to Master Gremlins, still servants but now without the chain and ball… which they still carry around probably because they have grown attached to them, I guess. They still use it as a weapon, but they hurl it (or them, since they can throw it 8 times before running out of ammo) across the entire battlefield. You might think this would be a devastating weapon in realistic terms, but in-game it’s actually quite pathetic and barely does any damage unless you have hundreds of them.
In game terms, they are analogous to the HoMM2 halflings, with similar stats and purpose, just sillier. I mention this because while seeing one of these creatures throw a giant metal ball across an abstract hex map is amusing, on a tabletop game, with possibly hundreds of them, with realistic distances and weapon ranges, it becomes… weird. This is one of those things than work within videogame logic but collapse when applied somewhere else. As much as I love these guys, I’ll probably have to change them if I want to have them in 6mm. Options:
1.Just replace them with halflings. They works more or less the same anyway.
2.Give them other weapons. It could be slings or something else. One option I like is giving them crude guns, like archebuses. And remember, their masters, the mages, are alchemists and proto-scientists, so it makes sense. In fact, HoMM V did that.
A line formation or pike & shoot formation of gremlins supported by golems and flying gargoyles would be quite a sight! As for miniatures. That is difficult, and I’ll probably end up 3dsculpting them myself. However, this might work:
Wait, these are just goblins! Indeed, but notice their robes. These are 6mm goblins from Microworld Games, clearly imitating the famous Warhammer Night Goblins. But if you paint their robes blue or green and the skin in a more desaturated green… you might get something similar to gremlins, I believe.
Also, the comparison goes further because Night Goblins also have one of the most unique Warhammer minis, the fanatic:
There is potential there.
2.Gargoyles (HoMM2 & 3)
Flying beasts made of stone or similar material. In 6mm, the flying part might be a problem since wings might be too weak and fragile. Usually, they are sculpted too large, thick, and stiff. Winged creatures in 6mm are notoriously ugly in my experience. That might be less of a problem if 3dprinted, I believe. On the other hand, as long as the mini just looks somewhat like a gargoyle, painting it as such will complete the illusion.
There are no gargoyle miniatures AFAIK, but there are imps:
Unfortunately, they carry pitchforks, but if you are very patient, they could be removed, I guess. There’s also the issue that the Infernal faction has imps, and you might want to use the models above just for that.
There is no shortage of free and premium 3dfiles for both imps and gargoyles, though. I’m not going to link to any one specific, there are literally dozens.
The upgraded version, obsydian gargoyle, doesn’t have any distinctive features, so you could just paint them black, but perhaps finding or printing a slightly larger model would work, too. Alternatively, you could make the obsidian gargoyle a unique monster, like a giant-sized gargoyle.
3.Golems (HoMM2 & 3)
In HoMM2 there were 2 golems for the Wizard faction, Iron (although they look like wood) and Steel:
In HoMM3 these were replacaed with Stone as the basic and Iron as the upgraded, but their function and stats are similar.
There’s also two Neutral and fairly powerful golems, gold and diamond.
Since D&D, golems have become a standard fantasy creature, and designers like them because you can keep creating new types of golems to pad out those monster manual you need to publish: wood golem, jelly golem, bone golem, flesh golem, dolly golem, whatever golem, etc.
Flesh and bone golem are a bit creepy for the Wizard faction. As for the rest, I’ll keep it simple: clay, stone, iron/steel, gold, and diamon. Clay is a D&D classic but doesn’t appear in HoMM, so I’ll leave it for the end as an optional type.
Despite their simplicity, finding miniatures for golems might be a problem. Since this is 6mm, what you want is 10mm-tall or so miniatures. Unfortunately, there are none to my knowledge. You can find 10mm-scale golems, but being larger creatures, they are probably larger than 10mm, so 15mm or so, and I don’t think they would look good that large. Magister Militum has these, but I don’t know their real size:
They are generic looking, so you can paint them as any material you want, really. But there are only 9 in each pack, and the price tells me that means they are fairly large miniatures, giant-sized in 6mm. But they could be used as golem “leaders” if that is a thing you feel your unit needs. These would look great as Gold Golem, but they are probably too large as well:
For 3dprinting, as usual, my advice is too use the generic, simpler models. This one, this, or this one are good options. You’ll have to scale them down, naturally, and most likely thicken them or resculpt some parts. As for Diamond golems, you can either try your luck with a “crystal golem” or print them using some kind of transparent resin. There might be some egyptian-themed models useful as Gold Golems.
Finally: Clay Golems. I believe in D&D and other games, clay golems are usually shows as wet clay… like mud, really, or at least that’s how they are represented in newer editions. But I actually think of them as dry clay, as in terracota statues, which is, as a matter of fact, how one artist chose to represent them in AD&D 2E.
That’s how I imagine clay golems here, as relatively weaker golems, perhaps even armed with weapons like spears or pikes. That’s goos news because it means you can use either 6mm (if you want them smaller) or 10mm Chinese miniatures (or whatever you believe fits the setting) and paint them as clay/terracota (i.e., desaturated, slightly reddish browns.)
Magister Militum sells Qin-dinasty 10mm soldiers, Irregular Miniatures sells 10mm Sung Chinese, and I believe their 6mm Khmer could work too:
Ideally, I’d go for 8mm, but you can’t have everything! Unless you sculpt them yourself, of course.
4.Boars (HoMM2)
I’d like to know what weird logic led some designer to come up with this troop. Not board-mounted soldiers, which is weird enough, just… boars. Lots of them.
Microworld Games sells Dire Boars, and they are the only company producing something similar AFAIK:
5.Mage & Archmage (HoMM2 & 3)
Mages are just that, old men in robes. Honestly, I am not sure how I would get these. Buying them is probably out of the question as nobody sells mages in bulk; they are unique heroes, not a type of troop. In fact, that is an option: make them just heroes, leaders, or a part of the general’s retinue, rather than a type of infantry.
Making the models myself wouldn’t be too much of a problem, but the issue of what to do with them still remains. I suspect I might end up using them as squad leaders. Nothing wrong with printing 40 old men with pointy hats and walking sticks and putting them on a single base, but it just feels off.
6. Roc (HoMM2)
See Stronghold Roc
7.Genie
Except, I believe, in VI, Genies have appeared in all HoMM games, even in the first one, when they were quite brutal and looked like this:
I believe nobody makes something like that, so I’ll have to make them myself.
Check the Efreet section in the Inferno page since the difference between a genie and an efreet is usually just the color of the skin.
8.Nagas (HoMM3)
Nagas are serpent-human hybrids, mythical creatures common in some Asiatic cultures, especially in India. Here they appear as large women with six arms and the lower body of some kind of snake. They clearly don’t care about the cold.
Nobody makes something like that, and the closest thing I have found are these Demons of Khali by Magister Militum, which you’d have to convert to half snakes somehow.
If you want to 3d-print them, that’s somewhat easier. Just search “Marilith.” That’s the name of a classic D&D demon who looks exactly like a naga. The desiger Miguel Zavala has two free models that are perfect for this and are also relatively low in detail. You’ll probably need to thicken the model and reinforce the weak parts like the head (which might be too small for 6mm,) wrists, and so on. In my view, in this scale, the miniature should be 12-15mm tall.
9.Giants & Titans (HoMM 2 & 3)
How tall is a giant/titan supposed to be, I do not know, and I’m not going to do trigonometric calculations while analizing the few seconds where one appears in the HoMM3 intro. I believe 4-5 times as large as a normal person might be accurate. That means these creatures are around the 25-28mm-scale range. Since they look like Greco-Roman soldiers, it might be possible to find a suitable miniature in that style, convert it a little, and paint it to look like a statue (I don’t know if these creatures are supposed to be organic or some kind of construct.)
I would advise against using “epic” 28mm miniatures as they tend to be too tall and, especially, too wide, and their poses too cinematic (or just silly.) A more realistic Greek soldier (probably and officer to avoid the spear and shield) might be better. A roman could work, too. If you are good at converting, you can add a lightning sword or, which is a subtle but very useful trick, lower its head as if looking down at some punny human.
There are many .stl files out there that would be useful for this, as well, and learning a bit of meshmixing would allow you to craft your own giant/titan. Also, as 3dprinting allows precise manipulation of scale, you could print the titans slightly larger (say, 28mm) than the giants (e.g., at 22-25mm.)
HoMM6mm 