History Main / ArmyOfTheAges

* Reinhold Borsten did this in the ''Hex'' comic book series. This is how gunslinger ComicBook/JonahHex got transported to 2050. One clear example was the group that Jonah Hex once joined (against his will) called Five Warriors From Forever. The team was created by a time-based villain called Lord of Time and consisted of heroes from different historical periods, such as the Viking Prince (who is a viking), Black Pirate (who is, off course, a pirate), Miss Liberty (a vigilante from the American Revolution), and Enemy Ace (a WWI German pilot), and were gifted with various powers that allowed them to beat both the JusticeLeague and the Justice Society

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 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.

* Music/{{Sabaton}}'s eighth album, ''The Last Stand'', [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin which is entirely about grand last stands across history]], features this on the [[http://98b7695aa5bb76e7839227ab.skydustproductio.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Artwork.jpg album cover]]; showing a battle containing [[TheSpartanWay ancient Spartans]], [[TheCavalry the Polish Winged Hussar cavalry]], {{Samurai}}, and soldiers from [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarOne both wo]][[UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo rld wars]] fighting side-by-side in Castle Itter, a WWII battleground.[[note]]This is actually showing the subjects of six of the eleven original songs on the album.[[/note]]

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 it's not available, a {{Necromancer}} can still make up their own ancient army by AnimateDead.

* Reinhold Borsten did this in the ''Hex'' comic book series. This is how gunslinger ComicBook/JonahHex got transported to 2050.
** One clear example was the group that Jonah Hex once joined (against his will) called Five Warriors From Forever. The team was created by a time-based villain called Lord of Time and consisted of heroes from different historical periods, such as the Viking Prince (who is a viking), Black Pirate (who is, off course, a pirate), Miss Liberty (a vigilante from the American Revolution), and Enemy Ace (a WWI German pilot), and were gifted with various powers that allowed them to beat both the JusticeLeague and the Justice Society

* ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' has an example, but it isn't time-travel related. The fortress of the Greek god Hades is guarded by dead soldiers from all of history: Skeletal Roman legionnaires with spears are joined by undead US Marines with assault rifles.
** Nico De Angelo shows the ability to summon an army of the dead, from different periods in history. Roman troops are summoned in "The House of Hades" to defeat monsters.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

* Eternity's Rangers from ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}: Time Travel''.
* ''TabletopGame/HeroScape''
* The basic premise of the ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' CCG, with you as the summoner.

* ''Literature/TheTamuli'' has the bad guys doing this. But it's less effective than most examples as the Army of the Ages are usually bronze age soldiers who are up against knights in full plate; the characters lampshade this, noting how much military technology, tactics, and techniques have improved and how ineffective this makes the ancient armies. Their other disadvantage is that they're connected to their leader and [[NoOntologicalInertia vanish]] if he's taken out.

* The ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' expansion "Mothership Zeta" has you team up with several cryogenically-preserved warriors on the alien spaceship: a military doctor from Operation Anchorage, a contemporary slaver, a wild west cowboy, and a samurai. And a little girl from during the Great War.
** You also would've had an astronaut, but he didn't survive the thawing process.
*** You can wear his suit, though, it's actually required to [[spoiler: walk on the surface of the alien ship]], so in a way, ''you'' are the astronaut!

** The War Lord does this in the serial "The War Games".
** In the episode "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''.]]
** And the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E1AsylumOfTheDaleks Asylum of the Daleks]]" gives us an army of every Dalek in the ''Doctor Who'' series... [[NeverTrustATrailer or at least that's what the publicity said]]; in the actual episode, the main threat is an army of Creator/RussellTDavies-era Daleks gone mad, with blink-and-you'll-miss-them background cameos from classic series Dalek models. Only the RTD Daleks do something meaningful to the plot.

* Certainly invoked by ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40K''. Although not actually historical, most regiments of the Imperial Guard or Space Marine chapters take cues from historical armies. You can field Vietnam commando equivalents alongside an Alexander the Great {{Expy}}, put the Spanish Inquisition in charge of your platoon of red coat pith helmet-wearing Brits, etc. They're just all RecycledInSpace.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' expansion "Mothership Zeta" has you team up with several cryogenically-preserved warriors on the alien spaceship: a military doctor from Operation Anchorage, a contemporary slaver, a wild west cowboy, and a samurai. And a little girl from during the Great War.

* The Master pulls this trick in "The Time Thief" strip in ''Franchise/DoctorWho Annual 1974''.

* ''[[Literature/TheElenium The Tamuli]]'' has the bad guys doing this. But it's less effective than most examples as the Army of the Ages are usually bronze age soldiers who are up against knights in full plate; the characters lampshade this, noting how much military technology, tactics, and techniques have improved and how ineffective this makes the ancient armies. Their other disadvantage is that they're connected to their leader and [[NoOntologicalInertia vanish]] if he's taken out.

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 ArmyOfTheDead.

** Nico De Angelo shows the ability to summon an ArmyOfTheDead, from different periods in history. Roman troops are summoned in "The House of Hades" to defeat monsters.

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 is consist of entirely long dead people, this is ArmyOfTheDead.

** A notable example is during ''ComicBook/AvengersForever'' were Kang allies with the Avengers to fight a ArmyOfTheAges sent by his older self Immortus.

* The title characters do this to battle {{Satan}} in ''TimeBandits''.

* The Horn of Valere in ''TheWheelOfTime'' summons the spirits of ancient heroes bound to the Horn when blown.
* NealAsher's book ''Cowl'' features a Roman Legionnaire, an assassin from a cyberpunk future and a Neanderthal on the same team.
* ''[[TheElenium The Tamuli]]'' has the bad guys doing this. But it's less effective than most examples as the Army of the Ages are usually bronze age soldiers who are up against knights in full plate; the characters lampshade this, noting how much military technology, tactics, and techniques have improved and how ineffective this makes the ancient armies. Their other disadvantage is that they're connected to their leader and [[NoOntologicalInertia vanish]] if he's taken out.

* In Jeff [=VanderMeer=]'s novel ''Finch'', the surviving rebels have scattered throughout time and space and were rebuilding their armies with what ever local material is available. When the fungal men Grey Caps finally reveal their purpose in being on Earth, the rebel armies unleash a horde consisting of warriors from the past, present and future.

* In ''The Hoplite'', a short story by Creator/RobertReed, a "quantum dilator" is used to implant the consciousness of long-dead warriors into newly cloned bodies. The warriors are given a suit of PoweredArmor and [[DoomTroops no oversight when executing missions]]. The protagonist was a hoplite from Alexander the Great's army and works alongside an SS stormtrooper, a Crusader, a Aztek warrior, and a legionnaire. However, a civilian cast doubt on them being actual warriors from the past, claiming the "quantum dilator" [[QuantumMechanicsCanDoAnything is a buzzword]] and that they're just brainwashed.

* Eternity's Rangers from ''{{GURPS}}: Time Travel''.

* The basic premise of the ''MagicTheGathering'' CCG, with you as the summoner.

* This is the plot of the recent first-person shooter ''VideoGame/DarkestOfDays''. Well, the organization that recruits you out of the American Civil War apparently isn't ''evil'', and is more of a TimePolice. But they still do most of their recruitment by plucking skilled soldiers out of various wars throughout history, namely people who were considered 'missing in action' anyway.

* Common in many Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Standard villainous armies tend to include Goths, Mongols, Vandals, and the like.

* When Jack Spicer got his hands on the time-travel Shen Gong Wu Sands of Time in ''XiaolinShowdown'', his plan was to assemble a team of history's villains; Genghis Khan, Blackbeard, Billy the Kid, [[OneOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers 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.

* In ''BedknobsAndBroomsticks'', Miss Price assembles one to ward off the Nazi invasion, although they are really living suits of armour, not actual people.

* The 2008 DCComics mini-series ''TheWarThatTimeForgot'' centered on this, with various characters from DC's war books, including ComicBook/EnemyAce and ComicBook/{{Tomahawk}}, dragged through time and dropped on [[LostWorld Dinosaur Island]]. (The series is in fact named after one of the features from one of those comics that took place on Dinosaur Island.)

* ''Film/NightAtTheMuseum'''s schtick in a nutshell. Ben Stiller teams up with a ragtag group consisting of an Egyptian Pharaoh named Akmenrah, Theodore Roosevelt, Attila the Hun, Christopher Columbus, Sacajawea, miniature figures of cowboys and Roman soldiers, and a group of neanderthals to apprehend the previous night guards of the museum who stole a tablet that once belonged to said Pharaoh and was causing the exhibits to come to life.

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.

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.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452695302003323800&page=1#12

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[[caption-width-right:350:[[note]] High Priest: Yes! With stones of varying sizes! The rocks represent the pinnacle of Modern Warfare! And so long as our rocks are heavier and our sticks '''pointier''', the Gods will favor us! (...) Behold! More gifts from the heavens![[/note]]. Brought to you by ''EmpireEarth''. And ''Webcomic/PennyArcade''.]]

* In ''MahouSenseiNegima'', [[spoiler:Lifemaker summons all previous generations af Cosmo Entelechia upon his/her resurrection.]]

* Inverted in ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'', where Fitzroy tries to conquer the present (his past) with future sentinel technology. It finally backfires spectacularly when he opens a portal to a prison riot in the future, bringing in a horde of mutant inmates — Bishop follows.
* [[ComicBook/TheAvengers The Avengers's]] foe Kang once had his own team of elite warriors plucked from different time periods, The Anachronauts.

* ''NightAtTheMuseum'''s schtick in a nutshell. Ben Stiller teams up with a ragtag group consisting of an Egyptian Pharaoh named Akmenrah, Theodore Roosevelt, Attila the Hun, Christopher Columbus, Sacajawea, miniature figures of cowboys and Roman soldiers, and a group of neanderthals to apprehend the previous night guards of the museum who stole a tablet that once belonged to said Pharaoh and was causing the exhibits to come to life.

* As seen above, this is possible in the ''EmpireEarth'' series, as troops specific to one era don't disappear when reaching the next one. Can lead to interesting RockBeatsLaser situations when a ''nuclear bomber'' is shot down by guys with late-1800s rifles, or a top-of-the-line nuclear powered submarine is destroyed with complete impunity by a tower that's nothing more than a raised platform with a caveman chucking big rocks at people.
* The ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' series has a similar kind of thing going as in ''Empire Earth'' -- while newer units do make older ones obsolete and unavailable for construction, units that have been already built will stick around unless disbanded or upgraded manually. In a fairly extreme example, you can have squadrons of Bombers providing air support for an invading army of Knights and Longbowmen, for instance.

* In ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', fighters on both sides are recruited from notable eras of Hyrule's history, namely [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword the Sky Era]], [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime the Era of the Hero of Time]], and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess the Era of Twilight]]. The upcoming ''Hyrule Warriors Legends'' adds heroes from [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker the Era of the Great Sea]].

* The army of the Shadow London that rallies against the Great Enchanter in the ''Literature/DiogenesClub'' story "Sorcerer, Conjurer, Wizard, Witch".
-->In the shadows stood redcoats with muskets, knights in armour, tommies in tin hats, roundheads and cavaliers shoulder to shoulder, bloods and blades, pearly kings and queens, costers, tarts, loafers, brawlers, football fanatics with scarves and rattles, the ''haut ton'' and the ''demi-monde'', air-raid wardens, firemen, peelers, bobbies, Bow Street Runners, Chelsea pensioners, dandies, strollers and -- yes! -- Dick Whittington's Cat.

* Nearly any military force in the ''{{Riverworld}}'' books is this trope, by nature of the series.

* In ''VideoGame/HyruleWarriors'', fighters on both sides are recruited from notable eras of Hyrule's history, namely [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword the Sky Era]], [[TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime the Era of the Hero of Time]], and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess the Era of Twilight]]. The upcoming ''Hyrule Warriors Legends'' adds heroes from [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker the Era of the Great Sea]].

* ''PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' has an example, but it isn't time-travel related. The fortress of the Greek god Hades is guarded by dead soldiers from all of history: Skeletal Roman legionnaires with spears are joined by undead US Marines with assault rifles.

* As seen above, this is possible in the ''EmpireEarth'' series, as troops specific to one era don't disappear when reaching the next one.