Sid's Hordes on Mars 

The two Barsoomian army lists in HotT hardly do justice to the Red Planet as a venue for Hordes gaming. Although Edgar Rice Burroughs only used one plot in the whole of his Martian series (villain snatches princess; hero pursues villain to uncharted corner of Mars, meets weird people, kills villain, marries princess) he does come up with an entertaining variety of strange and universally bloodthirsty creatures. Here is a synopsis of the John Carter novels – which saves you having to read them – with attached army lists, and VERY BROAD HINTS to figure manufacturers.

John Carter, ex-Confederate officer, is transported for no good reason to Mars.  The first creature he meets is Tars Tarkas, a green Martian. [Greens are about twelve feet tall, have piggy faces with tusks and antennae ears, and a spare pair of arms sprouting from the bottom of the ribcage.  They specialise in the use of radium rifles, swords and lances when mounted on wild thoats. Thoats are eight-legged beasties with long flat tails and lots of teeth, used as transport.]  Tars Tarkas is, naturally, the finest warrior on all of Mars, and the only green to have ‘human’ emotions. In due course he becomes the jeddak (king) of the Tharks, who are of course the largest and toughest of the green hordes.

Meanwhile, JC rescues a princess of the red Martians, Dejah Thoris (“the incomparable”) from the greens, and eventually marries her to become a prince of Helium, which is (of course) the largest and most sophisticated of the red Martian nations. [Red Martians are basically human looking.  They have minimal clothing, but lots of belts, pouches and paraphernalia. They also fight with swords and rifles, and occasionally ride smaller domesticated thoats; but they also have air navies, ranging from one-man fliers (a sort of flying surfboard with the pilot lying on top) to vessels the size of a battleship.  They work by anti-gravity, so don’t need wings or anything fancy; I visualise an airboat looking something like a small launch or MTB.] At the end of the book he is, much to his irritation, suddenly transported back to Earth.

Army of Helium*

Army of Thark* 

Army of generic Red Martians* 

Army of generic Green Martians* 

Ten years later, JC gets back to Mars to find out (though not until the end of the book, of course) that he has a fully-grown son, Carthoris.  On his return, the first person he meets is, well, Tars Tarkas. (Proving that Mars is literally a ‘small world’).  They are in the Valley Dor at the South Pole, home of the Holy Therns, a Barsoomian priest cult, and their goddess, Issus.  The therns are not nice people; they protect their homes with banths, great white apes and plant men [Therns are like red men, but white; they specialise in the use of radium rifles.  Banths are ten footed carnivores about twelve feet long, with a lion-like mane and lots of teeth.  Great white apes are twelve feet tall with Mohican hairstyles and an extra pair of arms (like the greens). Plant men are ten feet tall and have one enormous eye, long flat tails and short rubbery arms with mouths on the end.] JC escapes by being captured by the Black Pirates, who live inside the Temple of Issus.  [Black Pirates are like red and white men, only (you guessed it) black. They raid the planet with their great air navies.] Naturally, the first Black Pirate he meets is the only nice one, named Xodar, who eventually becomes Jeddak.  Meanwhile Thurid, a nasty Black Pirate, and the evil Matai Shang (high priest of the Therns, with great psychic powers) have abducted Dejah Thoris. JC follows them to the North Pole, where the yellow men of Okar live. [The yellows use two swords, and differ from red, white and black men only in being heavily clothed and in being yellow (!). They have no fliers, because there is an enormous magnet attached to the North Pole that attracts and destroys air fleets. They keep apts for hunting, guarding and warfare; apts are large and hairy with four legs, two small arms, and hippo heads with enormous eyes and long tusks.  A group of apts live in the Carrion Caves, which is the only route into Okar] After a duel with Solan, ‘the finest swordsman I ever encountered’, JC polishes off the baddies – including the Okarian jeddak, Salensus Oll – rescues the rest of the Heliumite royal family who are imprisoned there, and returns in triumph to live happily ever after.

Army of Therns 

Army of Black Pirates* 

Army of Okar 

And that’s only the first three books!  In the next one, Carthoris stars when baddies steal his fiancée, Thuvia of Ptarth, and carry her off to the uncharted land of Lothar, home of a group of ancient white Martians with incredible mental powers.  They specialise in creating illusions, particularly of an army of invincible archers who kill their enemies by making them believe they are dead. The greatest of the Lotharians is Tario, who has created an illusion so strong that it has gained an independent life; Kar Komak the bowman. [Lotharians look like therns, as do their illusory armies. The Lotharians also keep banths to tidy up after battles.]

Army of Lothar 

The next princess on the snatch list is JC’s daughter, Tara of Helium. Her suitor, Gahan of Gathol, follows her to Manator, an uncharted etc etc inhabited by a lost nation of red men, who have never developed the airship or rifle.  By the time they leave, A-Kor (the only nice Manatorian) has become jeddak.

Army of Manator

Two books later, at last! A twist in the plot! The princess Sanoma Tora is kidnapped by Tul Axtar, jeddak of Jahar, and Tan Tadron sets out on her trail.  Then he discovers that Sanoma Tora is No Better Than She Should Be, and spurns her in favour of the slave girl, Tavia (who eventually turns out to be.. ..a previously abducted princess.  Oh, well.).  But Tul Axtar is a real nasty character.  He has encouraged his mad scientist Phor Tak to design first a disintegrating ray which destroys fliers, then a special paint to protect his own ships from the ray, and finally another paint to make the ships invisible! Not content with this, he has been breeding Jaharians until in some provinces the population is out of control, and has turned cannibal!

Army of Jahar 

Ras Thavas, the greatest scientist on Barsoom, first appears in ‘The Master Mind of Mars’.  He returns three books later as the prisoner of his own discovery; synthetic life. The hormads are humanoid warriors grown in a vat who have captured their creator and forced him to create vast armies for world domination. In addition, they have forced Ras Thavas to transplant their leaders’ brains into the bodies of captured red men, and to re-create prehistoric birds called malagors for transport from their base at Morbus. (There’s a captured princess and a hero in this book too, but I won’t bother you with all that.)  [The hormads are humanoid but deformed, while the malagors look pretty much like pterodactyls.]

Army of Morbus 

That’s about it. There are other books, featuring other weird creatures such as marsupial men, invisible men, a 100ft tall mechanical man, giant wasps that live in the forests (forests? On Mars???) and intelligent heads that ride around on non-sentient bodies.  There’s even a trip to one of the moons, which is inhabited by intelligent cat-people. Sadly, I couldn’t find material for other, interesting army lists among them.  Don’t let that stop other people trying!

These eleven lists give new variations in HotT with a wide range of the element types (including the first all-aerial army – the Black Pirates!) even if I have been a bit extravagant with my classifications.  What they need now is figures!  One range of scantily clad swordsmen will do for all the red, white and black races, flyers and airboats go with a lot of the armies, and I’m sure some designer could have a lot of fun with the beasties.  If anyone wants to have a go at producing the range, I’d be glad to assist (so far, I’ve only designed the Jhama – it’s a base carrying a flying wire with nothing on the other end).

So here’s my outline of the figures needed:
1.                   Red warriors with swords, pistols and rifles (also suitable for therns)*
2.                   Ancient red warriors with swords and bows (Manatorians and Lotharian illusions)
3.                   Red warriors on small thoats
4.                   Okarians with furs and swords
5.                   Jaharian rabble with pointed sticks
6.                   Green warriors with swords and rifles*
7.                   Green warriors on large thoats*
8.                   Hormads with swords
9.                   Fliers and airboats with crew (red or black men)*
10.                The giant magnet
11.                Disintegrator ray with crew
12.                White apes, plant men, banths, apts and malagors
13.                Some personalities; Matai Shang, Tario, Tul Axtar, Ras Thavas: John Carter, Tars Tarkas
* These figures are now available from Peter Pig.