Saturday, June 26, 2010

Review/comparesment Victrix v Warlord

Ok, first some good news, I stopped by my local game store, the only reason I stop by there is for primer spray, as they only carry boring sucky GW stuff.
But they have moved, so I had to trek about half a mile futher down town, the new store local is big, they are still in the prosses getting everything in order. they have started to carry large and cool boxes of LEGO.
I found my primer spray and something els, something I've actualy dreamt about, they had HISTORIC figs, even figs I use, namly victrix Napoleoincs, and also lots of pike and shotte figs from warlord.
The prices are about a 100kr above international prices, but that's not half bad for norway, and when you add shipping the diffrence is probebly only about 50kr, or half the price of a beer in the more expencive resturants.
I bought a box of victrix British right there and then, pluss a Wargame Illustrated which is also cool that they had.
But that box of pike and shotte figs haunted me, it was a big box over 100 figs in it, I've always been fasinated by the pike and shot era, but know very little about it, I knew the figs were ECW not TYW but I had to have them, it cost 649kr or £66 the same box cost £50 directly from warlord, but it is a plesure to actualy go down to a store and buying the box and getting it right there and then, no waiting 2-3 weeks for it. So I bought it.
My plan is to make a swedish army, but someone pointed out theise don't look very much like the sweds, luckely Sweden like all countries during this period had large quanteties of Mercenetries. Even english ones. and what better figs to make English mercs out of then ECW figs.
I also read some basic info on what the diffrent mercs used, it said most British mercs had bluegray stockings so that was the only standard color I gave to all, it also said that english troops often had blue coats so I gave the majority just that. Aswell as blue sash becasue I read that troops under swedish command often had something blue on them, blue sashes, hat bands ect. I'm just saying this so people know I have put some thought behind the colors.

I'm not sure about the unit, it's very small, 12 figs is for me to small for a unit, hell it's half of what I usualy at minimum call a unit. So the only way of fixing that is to have MANY units, if I usualy have 20 units of 24-32 then I should have atleast 40 units of 12,

I also had problems with the rules, and after reading a few here and there, I've decided to wait for Carnage and glory 2 to come out with it's ECW/TYW rules.

Anywayover to the Reveiw:

Victrix

I've now painted quite a few Victrix, it does take some time to get used to a few range of figures.
The Victrix are highly detailed figs, on par with any metal range out there, their faces are well made and tho I still can't paint faces very well, the detailes makes it easier to paint the half well.
The asebaly is a pain, and it's not always easy to get the arms to sit right.

Warlord

I had not payed much attention to this maker, infact I payed so little attention I thought warlord and wargames factroy was the same, because the cam out with plastic Romans ect. at the same time. And I don't care much for Ancient stuff. But these pike and "shotte" figs got me intrested.
They are much easier to put to geather then victrix, simply becasue they have less stuff to put on, and less variation, all you need to put in is the hat, and arms, compeard to, head, backpack, arms, some times legs ect. The pices just fit better. The figs seem smaller then victrix, but when hold next to eachother the are about the same size, but somehow you feel they look and seem smaller, the detail is fine, it's hard to realy compare one period againt another, but they do seem to have somewhat less detail then victrix, and thier faces are not as good, but overall the figs are as detailed as you could want some figs, and the price is right, even with norwegian overpricing the price for a single fig is less then a AB 15mm, and this is not taking into acount that 24 of the figs are cav, so the price would be even lower compeard to AB.


Here is the Victrix 22 figs, I'll add another 16 flank company figs later so it will have 38 figs when done. That would be a big 760 strong battalion




And there they are, my very first TYW figs.

As I said most of the figs have blue coats, I painted most coats as sleeveless, with regular indyed wool on the arms, the shading is very soubtle and dosn't show up that well on the pics, they they are highlighted and shadded, the buff is shaded with yellow, the wool is is shaded with gray, the brown with deeper brown and the blue with quite dark blue.
As I said this will be a English merc unit, I'll make two german mercs to, then finnaly I'll make some Swedish in all yellow uniforms, that I think will look spiffy.




The sashes are a slightly diffrent blue, all hats are diffrent hues of gray.
The leather works are diffrent to, painted randomly, some are very dark other is a lighter type, some units have just drak leather, other just light, and some have both.
Anyway this is post 99, Next time I post I will hopefully have LOTS of figs to show,

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