I knew that I wanted the leader of the Amazons to be a Rider stand, but I found that any form of mounted female was scarce. The few manufacturers that put something out either had a limited selection or very poor quality figs.

In the end, I decided on using the brand new Black Raven chariots and swapped out a few of the figures. The flag bearer is from the Black Raven Amazon command pack, while the general herself (no, not the naked one) is a Bouddica personality figure from Corvus Belli. The unicorns are a mix of Chariot Miniatures and the Black Raven which came with the chariot pack.

When the breeding program works, it works with a vengeance. These two Hero stands were meant to be the core "punch" of the army, paired up with the Rider General they can cross the field in rapid succession to attack an enemy's rear or stronghold.

The central large figures are Foundry Fantasy nymphs. The wolf is a warg from an Alternative Armies sampler pack. The tiger-skinned figure was the only Viking Forge "female Seleucid" that I opted to use, as their line was somewhat lacking both in sculpture and casting quality. The mounted figures are Falcon UK female Seleucids (much more appropriately equipped and dressed), one of whom has had her torso turned around to fire on the other side of her mount.

When I saw these Copplestone minis, I just couldn't bear to not have them included in the army somewhere. I figure that the breeding process occasionally has somewhat more feral throwbacks (especially when mating with the Hill Giants), and these two Cavewomen certainly qualify.

These have more of a "One Million Years B.C." look to them than the other figures in the Copplestone pack, which can look positively ogrish in their ferocity.

No good army of Amazons can ignore the legendary Amazonian archers, and this army is no exception. The Black Raven Amazon Archer pack is probably the most consistent of all their troops. To add variety, I mixed in the archers from the Black Raven Chariot pack in as well (though those archers appear more to have been breeding with Grey Aliens.)

Inspired by the origin of the Minotaur (and the tale of the Wooden Cow of Pasiphae), I decided to use my bag of Black Raven Minotaurs to make a pair of Beast stands. Since the army was rapidly shifting to being very strong in the bad going, it made perfect sense.

The overseer mistress is also Black Raven, but from the Amazon Command pack.

The minotaurs were painted in one night at a painting party hosted in Cincinnati by Eric Luczaj. His recently completed Ice Elves inspired the distinctive blue-skinned pallor on the shrunken heads.

When I noticed that the Amazon chariots were drawn by unicorns, it occured to me that if the white unicorns were willing to subject themselves to such an indignity, that a pair of Dark Unicorns might be willing to indulge their bloodlust in their own unique fashion.

I had a few extra Chariot Miniatures unicorns after swapping out a couple of the Black Raven's on the chariot, so I figured I'd paint them up. They were initially going to have Valkyrie figs riding them, but in the end I decided they worked better as an additional Beast stand.

I like the idea of Strongholds being modeled with prisoners because the HOTT rules system says that bespelled Heroes that come back come back in contact with the Stronghold. This gives a good "jailbreak" feel to things

Combining that with the theme of keeping Giants as breeding stock made the Stronghold an easy decision. The moral of the story is, when you've been chosen by the Giant Queen of the Amazons for forced breeding purposes...please her.

The Amazonian guards and the drum, fife, and flag corps are all from the Black Raven melee and command packs. The Queen is from the Foundry nymph pack. The beheaded giant and one of the captives are from the old Harlequin Lord of the Rings line. The other captive is from the Mithril Miniatures Lord of the Rings line. The cage is a Jet Dry basket from my dishwasher.