Wargames Factory "Amazons & Atlanteans" as Tekumel proxies...

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Hi Guys,

Please pardon the intrusion, but yesterday I put large Pre-orders in for the following suggestions as they appear to have uses in Tekumel gaming. I am reliably informed that in addition to a commitment of 1000 sprues, they want 100 individuals to commit to buying [at least] a sprue each. The initial commitment would be for $1 per sprue when they start the design phase. Surely there must be a hundred interested individuals out there with the price of a cup of coffee in their pocket...

Here are the listings:

Fantasy Amazon Infantry

http://www.wargamesfactory.com/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=43520

SIZE/SCALE: 28mm

SET DESCRIPTION: Female infantry with a Mayan or Aztec influence. Models should be able to be configured with spears, sword and shield, and possibly with dual swords. Need some kind of option for Standard Bearer, Musician and Champion.

and

Ancient Atlanteans

http://www.wargamesfactory.com/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=43012

SIZE/SCALE: 28 mm

SET DESCRIPTION: Fantasy human soldiers with a heavy Ancient / Bronze Age high civilization feel. I propose a visual style that combines ancient Greek and Inca influences. Figures would have shields, spears, helmets and either breastplates or scalemail cuirasses over simple tunics. Possibly also greaves and vambraces. At least 5 multipart figures per sprue, with optional pieces for assembling a command group.


In the forums, somebody suggested the latter sprue include a female warrior, which I think would be a good idea.

I have also put in a suggestion for "Atlantean Slaves and Porters", male and female, who would have an Aztec/Mayan/Incan flavour. It would include left and right arms for Palanquin bearers.

I'm not sure if this suggestion has been posted yet.

Regards,

Howard – The Tekumel Project

http://thetekumelproject.blogspot.com/

[Red Orc]

I was one of those interested in pushing the Atlanteans forward (redorc01 on the Wargames Factory boards), and as far as I can recall, suggested the female warriors, which you seem to like, but also the crystal/energy weapons, which you don't - I really hope something comes of it, but as it's configured at the moment, there is a problem (this goes for a lot of Wargames Factory sprues).

The main issue is including male and female torsos on the same sprue. Say two male and two female torsos, and some arm swaps - you can't then mix the male and female due to size differences, and all of a sudden you in effect have a sprue with two 'halves' that aren't compatible. The male arms only fit the male torsos, and you therefore only have the choices of male torso A with arms X, or A with Y, torso B with arms X, or B with Y. The same range of choices for the female figures, obviously.

If you're buying 10 sprues, you have 20 male warriors essentially of 4 types, and 20 female warriors of 4 types. The lack of flexibility I think is hindering this one, and I'd guess many others. One option is a 'male' sprue and a 'female' sprue - but the female sprue would sink without a trace I'm afraid. From a non-scientific survey, males are outselling females something like 7:1 on Wargames Factory.

Also, there doesn't seem to be space on the sprue for command options (leader, musician, standard... I don't know what other games use, but they're the most common I'd think). Without command options you either have to convert your own, buy someone else's minis, or put in a proposal and an order for an Atlantean command frame... but you probably don't need 10 sprues of them.

Just a brief rundown on the mathmatical headache of trying to design sprues by committee I suppose. I'm sure there is a way forward (I really hope there is, I'd love to see these in production, in fact I even did some concept sketches a couple of months ago) but I gave up pursuing it because the maths of why it wouldn't work made my head hurt.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

If you look at all WF releases each has consisted of two parts - one with torsos and arms, the other with accessories.

I would suggest that these two parts constitute "one sprue". The body & arm sprue could contain 3 male, 1 female body and a similar split for arms. The other half would contain weapons and accessories.

As long as energy weapons are not the only weapon option I would be happy - and I don't think plastic spears are needed either as they are too thin for gameplay, IMO.

Howard

[Red Orc]

That would solve the conundrum about command figures certainly (when these debates were going on originaly they were still talking about a single sprue), and would give 9 options for male figures (9 types for 30 figs, essentially); but you'd then get 10 identical females.

If the sprues were 1 - 2 male and 2 female bodies with 3 sets of arms each; and 2 - upgrades for musicians, standard bearers and leaders, and alternate weapons, including hand weapons, shields and energy weapons; I'd be very happy. 'My' Atlanteans use energy crystal technology/magic, but I agree that other weapons should definitely be an option, I think even my Atlanteans would only have about 1/3 or less energy weapons - I've never counted what a typical Atlantean war-patrol is, as I'm trying to move from an RPG setting into a tabletop battle setting... it's all new territory for me!

[Aesthete]

I think I'll sign up for that... that sounds very interesting.

Thanks for drawing my attention to the whole "submit and preorder" thing.  There are a handful of interesting suggestions on there, that I'd be interested in.  Though, clearly, you've been putting in the most work of any of the proposals based on the amount of support you have compared to the others

[Blackwolf]

It's a shame that these figures haven't gone slightly more historical and gone with the Sarmatian 'Amazons'. I would buy loads.

[Sir Barnaby Hammond-Rye]

Then put in a suggestion for Sarmations. This set is dismounted figures anyway.