History Main / ArmyOfTheAges

* ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}''. In "Warriors in Time", a future devastated by plague and an asteroid impact sees the rise of an [[YellowPeril Eastern warlord]] called [[NameOfCain Khane]]. When people start resisting him, he discovers an Eastern bloc time machine and uses it to recruit well disciplined and ruthless soldiers from Earth's past like Waffen SS or Soviet security troops. So LaResistance find another time machine in the West and use it to recruit soldiers in the past who've fought for freedom.

One of the standard uses of TimeTravel for an EvilOverlord is to pluck warriors from various wars throughout history and bring them through to the future (the EvilOverlord's present) and assemble them into an unbeatable army. The technique of TimeTravel isn't mandatory -- even if it's not available, a {{Necromancer}} can still make up their own ancient army by use of AnimateDead, or a [[OurGodsAreDifferent god of death]] by enlisting the souls of dead soldiers and warriors.

%%* ''TabletopGame/HeroScape''

* ''WesternAnimation/XiaolinShowdown'': When Jack Spicer gets his hands on the time-travel Shen Gong Wu Sands of Time, his plan is to assemble a team of history's villains; Genghis Khan, Blackbeard, Billy the Kid, [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers his first grade teacher Mrs. Cornhaven]], and his future self from the very distant future. It ultimately fails when Omi uses the Sands of Time to bring his own future self to the present.

* Wargames Atlantic's "Death Fields" miniatures line (with a respective game rule set still on the works) involves human armies abducted from Earth by aliens at regular intervals and placed on a deadly war game (and also used as mercenaries). By the time the game's "modern day" happens, the available armies are composed of descendants of armies of Napoleonic War France, Vikings, World War I British, 22nd-Century United States Marines and Germany, [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores and a whole lot of cannon fodder prisoners]].

* Wargames Atlantic's "Death Fields" miniatures line (with a respective game rule set still on the works) involves human armies abducted from Earth by aliens at regular intervals and placed on a deadly war game (and also used as mercenaries). By the time the game's "modern day" happens, the available armies are composed of descendants of armies of Napoleonic War France, Vikings, World War I Germany, 22nd-Century United States Marines, [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores and a whole lot of cannon fodder prisoners]].

* Wargames Atlantic's "Death Fields" miniatures line (with a respective game rule set still on the works) involves human armies regularly abducted from Earth by aliens at regular intervals and placed on a deadly war game (and also as mercenaries). By the time the game's "modern day" happens, the available armies are composed of descendants of armies of Napoleonic War France, Vikings, World War I Germany, 22nd-Century United States Marines, [[ArmyOfThievesAndWhores and a whole lot of cannon fodder prisoners]].

*** Unique units last for five epochs, being impossibly advanced for the first two or three (the Japanese have samurai in prehistory and a Zero in WW1; the French have catapults and a Rafale jet fighter as well as Napoleonic cavalry in the Middle Ages), [[BreakOutTheMuseumPiece then usually obsolete by the end]].

* This is the setting for Creator/FritzLeiber's ''Literature/ChangeWar'' stories, featuring a war fought by soldiers recruited from throughout history, but the stories are all told by grunts who have no understanding of the big picture.

%%%

%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!

* Spoofed in [[http://fav.me/dcpzqnd an art piece]] depicting a battle between two necromancers. One, specializing in human remains, commands the walking corpses of a Roman legionary, a Continental Army rifleman, a Viking, a medieval French knight, and a samurai. The other, a "zoo-mancer", leads the animated remains of a spinosaur, a mammoth, a giant carnosaur, a tyrannosaur, a gliptodont, and a saber-toothed cat, with a bandicoot as a mascot.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2011'': Ares, god of war, is able to call up an army of the shades of soldiers from every past armed conflict on earth interestingly they are specifically those who ''survived'' and returned from the war front and lived a full life afterward.

** In the sequel, Stiller leads an army consisting of Amelia Earhart, General Custer (and most of his army), and several returning characters from the first film against Kahmunrah (who claimed to be Akmenrah's older brother) and his own Army Of the ages led by [[HistorysCrimeWave Al Capone, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Ivan the Terrible]].

When an army is made up solely of recognised historical figures, that's an ArchivedArmy. And if a group of dead people are brought together to pass judgement on the living, that's a JuryOfTheDamned. If an army consists of entirely long dead people, this is NightOfTheLivingMooks.

* ''Webcomic/{{Chitra}}'': When the eponymous Chitra completes the quests assigned to her by the Gods of the RPGMechanicsVerse she's been [[{{Isekai}} isekai'd]] into, she is rewarded with handsome male supporters randomly dispensed from a [[LootBox divine gacha system]]. The high level drops grant her [[ArchivedArmy world-renowned warriors, mages, or strategists]] from history, and the average drops result in average soldiers and tradespeople from the past. But "the past" was a time when magic was better understood and more commonly deployed in all facets of life, not just warfare. The "average" archer or architect or farmer from the past was augmented with enhanced speed, stamina, and minor magical abilities that allowed them to heal more quickly from injuries, build faster, or produce more crops.

** With the Imperial Guard, for example you can field a mix of Vietnam commando equivalents (Catachan Devils) and Tzarist Russian lookalikes (Vostroyan Firstborn) alongside an Alexander the Great {{Expy}} (Lord Commander Solar Macharius), or put the Spanish Inquisition (Imperial Inquisition) in charge of your platoon of red coat pith helmet-wearing Brits (Praetorians).

* ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}''. In "Warriors in Time", a future devestated by plague and an asteroid impact sees the rise of an [[YellowPeril Eastern warlord]] called [[NameOfCain Khane]]. When people start resisting him, he discovers an Eastern bloc time machine and uses it to recruit well disciplined and ruthless soldiers from Earth's past like Waffen SS or Soviet security troops. So LaResistance find another time machine in the West and use it to recruit soldiers in the past who've fought for freedom.

* A variation in the Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata series where alien technology is used to rejuvinate elderly combat veterans so they can be soldiers in the galactic war. In ''Watch on the Rhine'' this includes [[GodzillaThreshold former members of the Waffen SS]].

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E7AGoodManGoesToWar "A Good Man Goes to War"]], [[spoiler: the Doctor himself does this. He recruits the space-spitfires from Churchill's England, space pirates, a Sontaran nurse, a lesbian Victorian detective Silurian, her girlfriend Jenny, and an entire army of Silurians. WordOfGod says that he wanted the immortal Captain Jack Harkness by his side as well, but the actor was busy making ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay''.]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Commando}}''. In "Warriors in Time", a future devestated by plague and an asteroid impact sees the rise of an [[YellowPeril Eastern warlord]] called [[NameOfCain Khane]]. When people start resisting him, he discovers an Eastern bloc time machine and uses it to recruit well disciplined and ruthless soldiers from Earth's past like Waffen SS or Soviet security troops. So LaResistence find another time machine in the West and use it to recruit soldiers in the past who've fought for freedom.

** Taken UpToEleven in the sequel, as Stiller leads an army consisting of Amelia Earhart, General Custer (and most of his army), and several returning characters from the first film against Kahmunrah (who claimed to be Akmenrah's older brother) and his own Army Of the ages led by [[HistorysCrimeWave Al Capone, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Ivan the Terrible]].

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman2011'': Ares, god of war, is able to call up an army of the shades of soldiers from every past armed conflict on earth

* Spoofed in [[https://www.deviantart.com/nazrigar/art/Inktober-2018-Necromancer-Duel-769252009 an art piece]] depicting a battle between two necromancers. One, specializing in human remains, commands the walking corpses of a Roman legionary, a Continental Army rifleman, a Viking, a medieval French knight, and a samurai. The other, a "zoo-mancer", leads the animated remains of a spinosaur, a mammoth, a giant carnosaur, a tyrannosaur, a gliptodont, and a saber-toothed cat, with a bandicoot as a mascot.