Fireforge Games: Plastic Teutonic Knights Cavalry Reviewed!

Hi, today I'm privileged to review the wonderful Teutonic Knights Cavalry set made by Fireforge Games! This box caught my attention at Crisis 2011 when Fireforge Games showed some of the most awesome greens ever made! I have been following the company's news for several months and now I'm able to present these beautiful miniatures to you as the kind folk at Fireforge Games delivered me some of their sprues. As most of the plastic sprues these were made at Renedra. Fireforge Games is a relativly new wargame company as the Teutonic Knights Cavalry set is the first set they ever produced. 

The company is based in Italy and is manned by experienced wargamers. Fireforge Games intention is to create and distribute an entire wargaming system including highly detailled 28mm multi-component plastic and metal miniatures together with rulebooks! For the moment they are focussing on the Baltic Crusades as the next release in line is likely to be dismounted Teutonic Knights. 

The box

The boxed set includes more than enough components to make twelve heavily armed Teutonic Knights probably one of the most iconic knights in history! The set includes twelve barded multi-part horses in six identical sprues which can be assembled in several ways. This increases the number of avaible poses significantly. All I can say about the horse sprue is that the detail is amazing and when assembled the horses poses are really dynamic. The assembly of the horses is easy as every horse is composed out of four seperate pieces, both body parts, the head and the tail. 

The boxed set also includes two identical sprues of "Teutonic Knights Cavalry" which make up the bulk of the battle formation. Each sprue contains enough components to make four knights and gives you sufficient bits and pieces to refill your bitsbox. The detail on these component is really breath taking especially the sheer amount of different helmets and weaponry.The shields however are a bit disappointing as there are no raised details. These shields however great for excellent freehand painters will be difficult to paint for the more mediocre wargamer. But again the detail on these shields can be as easy as painting a great black cross or you can use some transfers. That can't be so difficult, I guess? 

The boxed set also includes a "command sprue". This set includes enough components to make the command of the battle formation which consists out of a valiant commander, musician, standard bearer and another knight. The detail on this sprue is also excellent! 

Assembly

As I only received these miniatures, this morning I only managed to assemble a sole knight. During the assembly I haven't found any annoying problems as most of the parts are easy to cut from their sprues and glue. The only "problem" was the sheer amount of different weapons and helmets from which I had to choose! As you can see in the following picture, the finished result looks great and really dynamic. 

Conclusion

As it's only the first boxed set of the company I was really surprised about the variety of different components. Above all these components were extremely well detailled and were really easy to assemble. The price of the boxed set which includes twelve of those beautiful knights is only 24€ and ordering above 60€ grants you free shipping worldwide!

As Deus Vult every respecting wargamer must own some of these wonderful miniatures. The Teutonic knights are also available at Wayland Games for a measly £17.00! I'm really looking forward in painting up these miniatures and also looking forward to Fireforge Games new releases such as the Templars and mounted sergeants which will be released at Salute 2012! You can find a scale comparison of these miniatures in the new Mounted Sergeants review.

Dozens of other reviews can be found here and make sure to follow this blog as more reviews, tutorials and wargame news appears every day!

Sharpe’s Rifles, an unexpected encounter

Hi, It's time for new battle report! This time I decided to play some of Sharpe's adventures and bundled them in some sort of campaign based upon the television series. The idea of this whole campaign thing was born when I bought some nicely painted Foundry 95th Riflemen and some King Philippe's War miniatures (which I used to represent some Spanish guerillas). For this small campaign I will use modified Lord of The Rings skirmish rules and all of the missions will be played on 90cm by 75cm sized table as I only want to recreate some small skirmished with at most 30 miniatures on the table. Enough talking up to the actual battle report!

"It’s 1809, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the commander of the British army fighting the French in Iberian Peninsula, is saved from three pursuing French cavalrymen by Sergeant Richard Sharpe. Wellesley rewards Sharpe with a field promotion to lieutenant and command of the "chosen men", a handful of sharpshooters previously led by Rifleman Patrick Harper. The two men take an instant dislike to each other. Wellesley has no money to pay his men; however, he has arranged for a loan from the Rothschild family. James Rothschild has set out from Vienna with a badly needed bank draft, but is overdue. Sharpe, his men, and a company under Major Dunnett are sent out to search for him. While Sharpe and his men are out scouting the terrain, the company is surprised and wiped out by enemy cavalry led by Colonel de L'Eclin and a mysterious man in black civilian clothes, with only a few survivors the band takes refuge in a small cottage and Captain Murray succumbed to his wounds. After addressing his wounds, the band decides to head back to the British lines. But then they suddenly encounter a band of Spanish guerrillas led by Commandante Teresa Moreno and Major Blas Vivar (Simón Andreu). In the confusion that follows a skirmish begins."

The goal of the mission is to route or kill the enemy or simply capture the enemy leader. The company of "chosen men" lead by the brave lieutenant Sharpe! These fine lads are equipped with their trusty rifles which have a strength of 3 and a range of 56cm. The company starts on the road at the west side of the table.

The band of experienced Spanish guerrillas led by Commandante Teresa Moreno. These miniatures are equiped with old-fashion muskets which have a strength of 3 and a miserable range of 42cm. The guerillas also have the ability of camouflage which add +1 for the British player to hit them.

During the first hour of the eleven hour during skirmish, Sharpe and his men rushed across the road. Some of his men found cover in the dense scrubbery which grew on the surrounding fields. Luckily for them they quite quickly found some good cover as the Spanish guerillas also moved towards the company.

Under the command of Commandante Teresa Moreno, the Spanish band of guerillas swiftly charged across the battlefield using the cover of the many cornfields and hedgerows. However during their swift advance they entered the range of the British rifles and endured a volley fired by Sharpe and two of his chosen men. The volley however wasn't quite succesful as the British wanted as none of the Spanish brigands on the road were hit due to their supreme camouflage and cover. Now aware of the danger the Spanish guerilla remained in the dense cornfield for several turns as they slowly advanced towards Sharpe, ready to use their short-range muskets with deadly effect.

Unable to spot the brigands in the cornfield, the British riflemen remained stationnary trying to spot the enemy for an hour with no effect! In the meanwhile the brigands were able to fire a volley, their deadly crossfire instantly killed two riflemen! Enraged by the loss of his men, Sharpe fired his trusty rifle into the smoke and managed to kill one of the bandits!

Now within charging range, Commandante Teresa Moreno attacked supported by his most loyal follower in the fierce melee that follow another chosen men was killed! Sharpe devasted by the loss of another good friend, brutally fired several rounds into the cornfield killing another brigand by using one of his two might points. But while Sharpe temporarily left his cover, El Commandante took his musket and fired a bullet at short range, wounding the brave Sharpe while he was heading towards the safety of the reeds. Now outnumbered and wounded it was only a matter of time for the Sharpe before he would be overwhelmed and captured!

As the battle continued, both players ran out of bullets and powder and were forced to resolve their fate by melee. Sharpe used his last two bullets to wound El commandante and kill one of his bandits. Again followed a brutal melee as both parties clashed near the reeds, the melee however wasn't fair as the brigand leader used his remaining might points to win the battle and wound Sharpe. Stunned by the loss of his friend and commander, the remaining riflemen surrendered! But as one of the bandits was trying to steal Sharpe's rifle, Sharpe stabbed the bandit in his arm! He was still alive but severly wounded at both chest and arms. Sharpe and the remaining riflemen were last seen heading towards the guerilla basecamp near the monastery of El Campino escorted by the famous and brave Commandante Teresa Moreno. In the meanwhile a French scout witnessed the brigand column and decided to inform his commander, it would not take much manpower to kill the small band of brigands and their captives ...

Wargame news from Victrix, Warlord Games, ...

Hi, lots has happened on the wargaming front in the last weeks! Here are some of the exciting new releases and sneak peaks that were announced. First of all we have the greens of the Indus Miniatures multi part infantry! In an attempt to make these miniatures as posable as possible you have seperate right arm and shield options. These excellent miniatures can be used from the 1700's through till the 1800's. The owner says that they would work for Plassey, Assaye, Indian Mutiny, Pulp, Pirates, Imagnations, what ever you can think of ! So don't hesitate to visit his website with online store!

Secondly we have the new "Lord of The Rings" releases from Games Workshop! These awesome releases vary from new command packs and lots of other interesting beasts such as "The Great beast of Gorgoroth", "The Watcher in the Water" and "The Dweller in the Dark". My personal favorite is the Beast of Gorgoroth of which you can see a picture below. The only shame is that the new monsters are all resin finecasts but the good news is that they are better priced than the smaller resin miniatures. Games Workshop has also released a whole shedload of new Lord of the Rings rulebooks probaly to warm us up for the upcoming miniatures of "The Hobbit"!

Secondly we have some exciting news from Victrix Miniatures! They have announced that they will release their first Ancient miniatures around April/May and the miniatures look stunning, well detailled and with realistic body proportions. They are going to release with the Greeks such as Athenians, Spartans, Thebans and then Mercenaries. With a 2 to 3 week gap between each set! Each of these sets will contain 48 figures with many variation possibilities by using interchangeable heads with separate crests. Arm positions including thrusting, at rest and sword arms. Below are some images of the master resin castings of the Athenians. And they look absolutely stunning! Other castings of the Spartans and Thebans can be found on their website, make sure you check them out as they are even more beautiful than the Athenians, hard to believe? Go to Victrix's website!

Warlord Games has also made the announcement that their Macedonian pikemen are avaible for pre order! This box contains 40 multi-part Macedonian Phalangites with sufficient shield decals and metal arrows to add extra detail to the models' bases and shields. the retail price of this boxed set is £20 which is a really good price for a full phalanx, this release will enable you to recreate the glorious battles of Alexander the Great from the vast plains of Persia to the dense forests of India!

The Perry Brothers have also released some new packs including some metal Napoleonic Russians and Austrians but their nicest new miniatures in my opinion are the medieval workers or unarmed peasants and the wounded soldiers. I really love the character of these miniatures and because they can be used to add some a realism and life to the battlefield they inhabit.

Mantic Games also announced that their Corporation Marines are avaible for pre order! These Marines can be used in almost every scifi setting and will probably end up fighting swarms of Orcs, aliens and other nasty intergalactic beasties. When they face hordes of aliens they can always call in some heavy weapon support! As always these Mantic Games miniatures are extremely well-priced! Ten figures for £12.50, well you also need lots of them!

Last but certainly not least are the gorgeous new miniatures from Lead Adventure Miniatures sculpted by the talented Igor Karpov! First of all we have the Kampftauchers in diving suits and they look extremely good, ideal for some modern and post-apoc settings! I really love the facial expressions, poses and weapons. Well, about everything really!

The second release are some Kampftauchers in their landing uniforms! These miniatures are also sculpted by the genius Igor Karpov for the "Contaminated Seas" theme. All of these miniatures will be released in February!

I hope you liked this update!

Greets,