Mortal Gods – Greek Archers

There you go, the last two archers are done and so is the matching squad. Besides the usual snapshots of the models, this time I also read a bit about the troop type itself. I often see this when Dennis shows off a few of his models and thought I'd give it a try as well.

So for those of you who are a little more interested in Mortal Gods and have made it this far reading-wise, I'd like to say a few words about the Greek archers.

First of all, so-called Toxotai are historically a subspecies of the Psiloi in terms of troop type. I know the Mortal Gods rulebook says that Psiloi are actually naked warriors, but I think the term "naked" has been misinterpreted here, because "naked" is meant in the sense of "without armor". The term Toxotes is derived from armament, since bow is Toxo in Greek. All types of Psiloi therefore fall into the category of Light Infantry.

For my Toxotai, I allowed myself a little artistic freedom and took inspiration from Assassins Creed Odyssey, where most archers wear light helmets, at least those of the larger factions Athens and Sparta. Since I myself also want to represent a larger city-state with Corinth, I also chose a unifying color: Yellow. This was also a purely artistic decision, because real uniforms did not exist at that time, or only in a few exceptions.

In Mortal Gods, archers are a strong selection, as they cost as much as slingers, but have the distinct advantage of being reinforced by a separate veteran archer. Within three inches of him, they gain an additional attack die, making them a deadly unit, especially on playing surfaces with less terrain. However, on boards with a lot of dense terrain, they are at a disadvantage in exchange, since when they want to shoot, they can only move three inches. A shoot-and-run strategy is therefore less suited to them, and they should avoid close combat at all costs, as they only have two defense dice at their disposal and the Pegasus symbol represents a malus in this case.

For my army, I chose to only have one supporting group of archers for a bit of variety. Theoretically, however, it would also be possible to play a classic Ballerburg (Boo!).

Greetings from the Chaosbunker

Dino