  We explore aspects of the phase structure of SU(2) and SU(3) lattice gauge
theories at strong coupling with many flavours $N_f$ of Wilson fermions in the
fundamental representation, including the relevance to recent searches for a
conformal window. The pseudoscalar meson mass, the quark mass and other
quantities are observed as functions of the hopping parameter, and we find
deviations from the expected analytic dependence, at least for sufficiently
large $N_f$. Implications of these effects for the phase structure and for the
existence of a (first order) bulk phase and the Aoki phase are discussed in the
case of $N_f/N_c \gg 1$.
