Saturday, January 23, 2021

RGD Gaming: Plastic Centaur and Faun Warbands Reviewed!


Today we will take a closer look at the recently released Centaur and Faun Warband boxed sets by RGD Gaming, which is a relatively new wargaming company founded by the avid tabletop wargamer Robert Dunham. These new 28mm plastic fantasy miniatures are the first figures released by this company but more kits are already being developed as we speak including Satyr, Scythian Warriors and Ant Warriors. During this review we will take a look at both the Centaur and Faun Warband boxed sets in a single review as both of these boxed sets contain the same sprues but in different numbers as you will see later.

These new miniatures are announced as the following by RGD Gaming: "They are the Centaur horsemen, the elusive wonders of the forest. They bring thunder to the ground, and beaten paths from their hooves. In return for wine, they muster the blades of their kin and revel in their drunken stupor." and "Charging from the woods, they are the fauns, a mix of beast and man. Ever protective of their woodlands, these tribesmen bring battle to the humans with blade, bow and axe."



The Boxed Set Contents

As mentionned above we will take a look at both the Centaur and Faun Warband boxed sets as these share the same plastic sprues but in different quantities depending on the particular focus of the kit. So before we will take a look at the actual sprues we will first share the sprue composition of each boxed set to make things more clear and avoid possible confusing during the rest of this thorough review.

First of all the Centaur Warband contains enough parts to create 12 Centaurs and an optional 6 Fauns. The boxed set contains 6 plastic sprues each containing enough parts to assemble two Centaur models with another two sprues each containing enough parts to create three Fauns with a unique sprue for both male and female Fauns. 

Second we have the Faun Warband which contains enough parts to create 24 Fauns and an optional 2 Centaurs. The boxed set contains no less than 8 sprues each containing enough parts to assemble 3 Faun models with another sprue containing enough parts to create two Centaurs. The Faun sprues in the boxed sets are divided in four male and four female Faun sprues.



The Centaur and Faun Sprues

Now that we have checked out the different boxed set compositions we will check the different sprues in closer detail. So we have no less than three different sprues being the Centaur sprue, the male Faun sprue and female Faun sprue to further examinate. One very important point is that the parts of these three unique sprues are compatible offering a whole range of possibilities and so explaining why these sprues are part of each boxed set.

First we have the Centaur sprue which contains enough parts to assemble two mighty Centaurs armed with a large variety of interesting weapons. The horse parts of these models can be assembled in 4 different poses using the interchangeable right halves on each sprue while you can also add different human male or female torsos for even more unique and dynamic poses. The head options seem to include more or less normal male human heads and female horned heads.

The Centaur miniatures can be armed with a large range of weapons such as single close combat weapons, dual wielding axes and falx swords, as well as two handed pole arms with options for various weapons heads, shields and javelins. Armor options include shoulder pads, heavy plate armor, leather cuirass, bare skin, thracian, wicker, and bark style shields so quite some great and useful options. Note that there are both male and female arms with the female arms being noticable thinner.


Then we have the Male Faun sprue which contains enough parts to assemble three male warriors armed with a excellent assortment of weapons. The Faun miniatures are supplied in individual body and leg parts allowing you to further customize your warriors. This sprue contains six horned heads to customize your warriors. While the faun miniatures can be armed with even more weapons including bows, two handed weapons, spears, hand weapons and javelins. These sprues also contain shields, quivers, musical horns and shoulder pads. Last but not least we have the Female Faun sprue which also contains enough parts to assemble three female models and has a more or less identical content as the male sprue but as noted before these female parts are slightly more slender than their male counterparts.



Looking at all these new miniatures, they offer a fair value for their money although I would have prefered these miniatures being a bit more bulkier as they are rather slender compared with the more bulkier and heroic miniatures of other well-known miniature companies such as Games Workshop Warhammer, Wargames Atlantic, Northstar Miniatures Oathmark and Frostgrave, Shieldwolf Miniatures and others. That said these miniatures look very good when fully assembled due to the amount of available components and assembly options so let's a take a closer look at the assembly first before formulating an opinion on these particular miniatures.

Assembling your Centaurs and Fauns

The composition of these two new plastic sets is quite unique as three different sprues are shared between these two sets but in different amounts as mentionned before. This allows you to mix the parts of three different sprues among each other creating even more possibilities to assemble either your Centaurs or Fauns. Although not all parts are fully compatible, the very large majority is allowing you to equip your Fauns with Centaur weaponry and the other way around, you can also change shields and heads around if you would like to create even more unique warriors for your armies and warbands. 

As mentionned before these new miniatures are less bulkier than the more usual plastic heroic fantasy miniatures of other companies. Although I would have personally preferred more bulkier miniatures as those would fit in better with other fantasy miniatures, these miniatures really started to grow on me during the assembly stage as the amount of parts and the unique more slender look of these miniatures really made an impression that I didn't had when I first opened the boxed sets and looked at the sprues.

Although I like the slender look of these miniatures, this of course also translates in smaller and thinner parts which are a bit harder to remove from the sprues and clean but that said with some patience you can really create some fine looking miniatures. When opening the box and looking at the components I thought that these would be very fragile especially the thin weapons but surprisingly I haven't broken any parts during the assembly stage which is in my opinion prove of their durability although that might depend on your own handling of these parts while assembling and when playing with these miniatures on the tabletop.

Looking back at the assembly, I must admit that these were easier to assemble than I first thought after opening the boxed sets as the miniatures looked more slender than usual also resulting in smaller and thinner parts. As the parts are smaller, you must take some more time to carefully remove and clean these components but overall I have not experienced too much problems with removing and cleaning the parts with the exception of some issues with awkwardly positioned sprue vents. In the following pictures you can see the assembled Centaur and Faun miniatures which look really good.







The Scale Comparison

In the pictures below you can see the scale comparison pictures of the new RGD Gaming Fauns and Centaurs alongside science fiction, fantasy and historical miniatures from other popular wargame companies. As you can see in the pictures these miniatures are slightly larger than the historical Gripping Beast miniatures although more slender as they are designed as nimble woodland warriors. 

When comparing these miniatures with modern heroic fantasy and science fiction miniatures you can see that the Fauns are less heroic in size and bulkiness but are really nice alternatives to the popular Beastman Ungor in my opinion. Although I thought that the scale would be a bigger issue I must admit that as these are fantasy creatures they don't look odd next to human sized miniatures as they can be seen as an entire different species so you can easily explain the size difference that way on the tabletop.

The Fauns are quite good when compared in scale with other miniatures but I think the Centaurs are really too small compared with other horse sized miniatures from other wargame companies. I would have preferred some larger horse bodies to make them slightly larger but that said they mix in well with the Fauns hence explaining their much smaller size compared with regular horses. As miniature scaling is hard to judge as much depends on your own taste, I have tried to supply sufficient pictures so you can judge for yourself.





The Conclusion

These interesting and unique fantasy miniatures by RGD Gaming are nice miniatures although less bulkier than other more heroic scaled miniatures available on the market by other companies such as Games Workshop, Northstar Miniatures and Shieldwolf Miniatures. The choice for this more slender look is interesting but makes it harder to mix these miniatures with other other plastic fantasy kits in conversions or armies. That said these miniatures are designed as a nimble fantasy race so the somewhat more slender look can easily be explained by this. Would this have been human warriors the scale issue would be a huge problem but as this is an entire different species I wouldn't mind too much. 

But it is nice to see these more unusual races being released in plastic as these aren't very well covered by other companies and especially not in quality hard-plastic and at very affordable prices compared to their metal alternatives. So if you're looking to create new fantasy armies at competive prices or just need a bunch of cool characters to use in your miniature roleplaying games, you might want to consider these fine miniatures as they are pretty well-priced compared with other alternatives and are modular in design offering plenty of interesting options to create unique characters and more diverse wargame armies. The quality of the plastic casting is pretty good with only some mouldlines but the design could be still improved looking at the different parts and some of the details.

The Faun Warband hard plastic set includes enough to build 24 multi-piece fauns. Altogether there are 12 females and 12 males, and an optional 2 centaurs while the Centaur Warband hard plastic set includes 12 centaurs and an optional 6 fauns. The quality and price of these miniatures is good, with these boxed sets retailling for $34.95. You can buy these very useful miniatures now directly from RGD Gaming or from other distributors and retailers worldwide. Picture of the painted miniatures below taken from RGD Gaming.

As we speak RGD Gaming is also raising funds on Kickstarter to release even more cool fantasy miniatures! If you're interested in some really nice Satyr Warriors, Scythians and Amazons, make sure to take a look here and join the project to fund these cool and more unusual miniatures in plastic!



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Disclaimer - We received these miniatures from RGD Gaming for reviewing purposes. Please note that this doesn't influence our review as we always strive to supply you with our own independent and honest opinion about the wargame products reviewed.

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