Best value/variety for fantasy sprues?

[Robosmith]

I've been looking at putting together small warbands for skirmish games, the usual elves, dwarves, greenskins and such. One issue I've run into is that I've never really collected any human factions so I don't have much in the way of human options. This lead me to wonder what sprues offer the most value in building multiple unit types within in the same box? Having a heavily armoured torso next to padded shirt kind of thing letting you create a light and heavy human infantry model from the same sprue. It doesn't have to be humans specifically, any creatures are fine as it's about getting the most from a single sprue or two instead of buying full regiment boxes only to sit in the backlog forever.

[Sunjester]

If you are just looking for a few figures with a variety of equipment, why not just buy a selection of metal models?

[Duncan McDane]

why not just buy a selection of metal models?

This. If you are looking for specific models/specialist, Northstar is the place to go to. Good thing is they sell models by 1 or 2 in a blister so you don't end up with a surplus of unused figures ( not that I have a problem with that, mind you  ).

[Ogrob]

Depending on the style of your fantasy humans, I would recommend some historical sprues for your request. Neither the Oathmark nor Frostgrave ranges have mixes of armour on the same sprue, you'd be getting either lightly or heavily armoured models on one sprue. So, if you just want a handful of humans I would go either with one sprue of Victrix vikings, which will give you both mail and unarmoured bodies, helmets and bare heads, or if you want a late medieval look, either a sprue of Perry Agincourt french or Perry war of the roses european mercenaries. You can google all of these and see what they contain.

For dwarves, I'd try to grab one sprue each of the Oathmark dwarf infantry, light infantry and heavy infantry. They mix together well and you could make a bunch of different things.

[Diablo Jon]

Generally I think if you want variety in a box then Perry's War of the Roses and 100 years war boxes offer the best variety of armour and weapons options (even more so if you fancy mucking around with earth magnets on arms). Having said that you don't as you suggested need to be " buying full regiment boxes" single sprues for practically every plastic kit out there are available out on the net somewhere to allow you to mix and match if you only want a few.

[Hobgoblin]

It's worth adding that while the Frostgrave sprues don't give you a good mix of armour, they do give you an excellent mix of weapons on each sprue. For example, each of the different sprues has a bow, crossbow, polearm and two-handed weapon option, along with single-handed weapons, shields and off-hand weapons. For humans, if you get a sprue of knights and a sprue of soldiers/barbarians/cultists/whatever, you'll be able to make a 10-strong warband with a wide range of armour and weapons.

As Ogrob says, the Perry mercenaries sprues are very handy. If you get a command sprue and one of the regular sprues, you can build three plate-armoured types, a half-armoured guy, and eight lightly or unarmoured soldiers with whatever mix of arquebuses, crossbows, pikes and polearms you want. The command sprue also has spare arms with swords, dagger and mace.

The Victrix vikings are great, too, as Ogrob notes, though the range of weapons is restricted to swords, Dane axes, seaxes and axes, I think.

[Hobgoblin]

For orcs, the Oathmark and Wargames Atlantic goblins can be mixed together with good results, and they can also be mixed with the Oathmark dwarf goblins - especially if you use longer arms, as from the Frostgrave gnolls (another good kit - and, in turn, the gnoll bodies work well with Frostgrave barbarian arms ...).

[Ogrob]

The Victrix vikings are great, too, as Ogrob notes, though the range of weapons is restricted to swords, Dane axes, seaxes and axes, I think.

And spears. It occurs to me that one might also look at the Victrix dacian sprue, which includes archers. Otherwise, Victrix dark age archers should come out this quarter, and willl have bows and slings.

[Aerendar Valandil]

When the Frostgrave Soldiers box came out, I shared one with a club member. The FG knights box looks good too (and perhaps the soldiers II for ladies). Perhaps you could find one or two fellow player to share one or two boxes with?

[Storm Wolf]

There is also this place

https://thesprueshop.co.uk/ols/all?sortOption=descend_by_created_at

I haven`t used it myself yet, but I am planning on doing so in the near future.

All the best

Glen

[Bearwoodman]

There is also this place

https://thesprueshop.co.uk/ols/all?sortOption=descend_by_created_at

I haven`t used it myself yet, but I am planning on doing so in the near future.

All the best

Glen

I have used this place and it did what it said it would do. Very handy.

[Robosmith]

If you are just looking for a few figures with a variety of equipment, why not just buy a selection of metal models?

Metals are almost twice the price of plastics. I like metal models but it's rarely the way you want to go with making small groups on the cheap.

[Hobgoblin]

For value, you won't beat the Perry mercenary sprue - 12 figures for just over £6 including postage on eBay, with tons of options. The command sprue's about £3.50 with postage; it has the conversion bits to turn the pikes into halberds.



I've just been kitbashing the command sprue with some Warlord landsknechts - there are loads of great options on it.

[Hobgoblin]

Also, the Perry WotR infantry sprue is another "12 for £6" option: it might give you a better choice of weapons for a skirmish game without the command sprue, in that you get halberds, bills and spears rather than pikes as the default:



As with the mercenary sprue, there are enough parts to build one fully armoured leader type.

[Hobgoblin]

And one more thing: Captain Blood's thread here is an undying source of inspiration.