Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Age of Myths, Gods and Empires => Topic started by: Prof.Witchheimer on February 28, 2014, 10:20:51 AM
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I'm not that into possible visual defferences between Huns and Mongols therefore I wonder if these coming Fireforge goodies (and they look good!) would work as Huns? From what I see I can't make out anything no-go-for-Late-Ancient on them. But please feel free to put me right if I'm wrong.
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I'd like to see them compared to the Gripping Beast Steppe Warriors too. Great minis both, but I'm not a fan of plastic, mostly because of the fiddly assembly process.
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I'm not that into possible visual defferences between Huns and Mongols
I guess very few people are. There's a distinct shortage of pictorial and archeological evidence to tell those "Nomadic tribesmen" apart. And I'd think Fireforge went deliberately down the 'generic' route anyway in order to appeal to a wider audience.
For Huns add a few items showing Late Roman/Germanic influence (helmets in particular, perhaps some full beards), and you should be fine. However, would still prefer the dedicated metal ranges over these, erm, interesting sculpts. ;)
PS: You even don't need that many Huns in a Hunnic army. For the most part Goths and other Germanic/Romanic people will do. :D
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Offhand, I wonder if the main differences might be the presence of stirrups (and resultant foot angles) and, perhaps, the shield bosses?
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There's some evidence the Huns practices cranial deformation, so that should give you a modelling challenge!
Other than that replace the obvious oriental kit with more occidental equipment - spragenhelm, flat shields with bosses, long spatha type swords as after all they'd been bumping into the German and steppe tribes for a while before crashing into the empire itself. Stirrups need to go.
Nothing a sharp scalpel and a rummage in the spares box won't fix.
Nice figures - but aren't the horses a bit big?
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The Gripping Beast Mongols are very large - probably 30 or 32mm scale if they were standing - but at least it makes the horses look pony-sized. If it was deliberate by GB that was pretty sharp thinking because they could then still use generic horse models.
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Alex I think they would be fine for Huns,you would just have to remove the stirrups and stirrup leathers. It is a misconception that the Huns rode ponies,they were horses about 14 to 15 hands,vegetius Publius Renatus describes a Hunnish horse as; it had a large convex head,staring eyes,a narrow nose,a broad jaw,a strong and stiff neck. It's mane hung down to it's knees; it was long bodied and roach backed; it had a thick tail,strong cannons and small base. It had splayed hooves.The whole body was angular with a gaunt belly and big bones. It had an equable temperament was calm and endured wounds,learned easily,stood up to work and endured cold and hunger.*
*From The Medieval Warhorse by Ann Hyland
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I'd like to see them compared to the Gripping Beast Steppe Warriors too. Great minis both, but I'm not a fan of plastic, mostly because of the fiddly assembly process.
Exactly my point. But having some options for conversion work or just a few additional figures is always nice.
Thanks guys, for your advices, I think I will get a box. I don't think I will build a whole unit out of them but like said above, it would be great to be able to replace some of the GB or WF figures with them.
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I bought the Steppe foot warriors box last week. They are... okay. I'm afraid I remain ambivalent about most of the Fireforge kits so far. They have some nice aspects, but overall the style is a bit too cartoonish / GW-like for my personal taste. And they don't give enough options on the frames (well, nowhere near as many as you get with the Perry sets ayway) to justify the high price (almost 1.00 GBP per figure - so much for plastic being cheap).
To answer your question Alex, to my (not very expert) eye they look a lot more like Mongols and not much like Huns. Much more at the well-dressed Chinese-looking end of clothing and accoutrements. And a lot less like raggedly, savage, fur clad barbarians - which is how I always think of the Huns.
Obviously, I haven't seen the FF cavalry in person yet though.
From the pictures, the horses look good.
The Steppe foot warriors will be providing me with some good bits and pieces for my conversions of Dothraki and Braavosi sellswords. But if I was going for a historical-looking Hun army, I'm sure these wouldn't be my start point...
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Thanks, Richard, this is very helpful! Pity they don't have many options on the frames :(
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To be fair, these do have the added flexibility of having separate torsos and legs, which most plastic sets don't have.
On the other hand, there are only four different torsos and four different pairs of legs on each frame - and they are all pretty similar.
There are also only four different generic heads on each frame, albeit with a nice choice of hats. Great faces - but only four heads. (There is one different head included on the single frame in the box which has the standards and trumpets - other than that, that frame is identical to the other 5 frames in the box as well).
There are also four different 'cowled' heads on each frame, which again, all look very similar and I'd suggest are of pretty limited use or interest unless you're doing a definitively oriental-looking force.
The shields are all rather nice. I'll be using those.
All in all, I know comparisons are odious and sometimes unfair, but... I can't help coming back to what you get in the Perry Wars of the Roses infantry / mercenary boxes... 14 different (and clearly differentiated) bodies, and over 20 different head options. Plus a lot more choice of weaponry plus many more extra bits and pieces. They are way better sculpts. And they are cheaper.
Now I know I sound like a stooge for the Perrys, but I'm afraid, even now we are several years into the '28mm historical plastics revolution', what the Perrys manage to cram into their plastic sets just leaves most of the other offerings looking pretty dubious value...
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Well, I for one really like the Gripping Beast Huns ( and the Foundry ones too for that matter) but I'm not sure I'll be adding these to my existing armies.
Nice enough figures but they don't look very 'Hunnish' to me. Or at least what I consider 'Hunnish', wich might be totally wrong.
The original Xiongnu might have looked like this ( sans stirrups probably) but as soon as contact was made with the Alans and Goths I like to think their appearance also became more Western.
However, they might have an enormous potential and perhaps not just Dark Ages/Medieval. I'm almost sure many of them will eventually turn up in a Back Of Beyond setting for example.
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Well, I for one really like the Gripping Beast Huns ( and the Foundry ones too for that matter) but I'm not sure I'll be adding these to my existing armies.
Nice enough figures but they don't look very 'Hunnish' to me. Or at least what I consider 'Hunnish', wich might be totally wrong.
The original Xiongnu might have looked like this ( sans stirrups probably) but as soon as contact was made with the Alans and Goths I like to think their appearance also became more Western.
However, they might have an enormous potential and perhaps not just Dark Ages/Medieval. I'm almost sure many of them will eventually turn up in a Back Of Beyond setting for example.
And that's before they even get near the Drenan frontier. Nadir we!
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Just one more minor gripe about the FF Steppe infantry (since the box is staring me in the face as I type... )
What is the most prominently featured figure on the box artwork?
Why a fully armoured figure in lamellar armour and wearing a smart spangelhelm type helmet with nasal guard...
None of which, unfortunately, is included in the box... ::)
Can't be right, can it?