Wargames Atlantic doing Warring States in Plastic.

[Keeper Nilbog]

As part of their "Vox Populi" system, WGA were offering up a set of 28mm Warring States Infantry, with the option of Chariots and Cavalry further down the line. These were running a close 2nd in the vote, and when the tally was taken, though they remained second, WGA have decided to produce them.
And then Hudson (WGA big cheese) stated that as they were doing the Infantry (possibly in both armoured and unarmoured styles), they may as well do the remaining sets at the same time.

Though not currently up for pre-order, and the sculptor is still refining the models (which are, as far as I can tell, spot on), the system states that when they do, once a total of 6000GBP has been placed, they will enter production.

The infantry models shown (work in progress) are multi part, and have spear, dagger ax, crossbow and sword, along with shields and standard on each frame (currently 6 models a frame).

[robh]

That is interesting, it is a wonderful era for gaming. Only downside is the armies were huge, as I am finding with the 15mm option I took there is no such thing as a "small force".

[Rochejaquelein]

I'm not too knowledgeable about this time period, but weren't lamellar helmets used during the later Warring States period? I'm excited for the set but the solid bronze helmets look a bit anachronistic maybe.

[Keeper Nilbog]

Lamellar helms were used (the cavalry in the "Red Cliffs" film show an excellent version of this). Foot troops might just have a head wrap over a helm, and in the Warring States/3 Kingdoms era cast helms didn't seem that common. If I remember, they were more common with "Hero" types and elite troops.

[carlos marighela]

Variety is always good but they'll have to be pretty good to compete with the John Jenkins' sculpts. IIRC John was living in China at the time he sculpted these and did some pretty extensive research.

https://www.eurekamin.com.au/index.php?cPath=890_892_893

Still, you could use the WA plastics to flesh out a larger army and the Eureka range already has cavalry and chariots, so no need to wait if you don't want to.

[Keeper Nilbog]

The person doing the STL files is a Chinese national (I think), and has used current (well as of around 2022) information in designing the miniatures. Still, there are plastic and multi pose, so might not be to everyone's taste, or cover all options.

[carlos marighela]

That's good to know. Quite a bit of WA's output seems not to have been terribly well researched.

[Keeper Nilbog]

There's are 2 videos by the sculptor - Michael Sng - that was posted on 2021 (when the set was first broached), which talks about the design decisions and choices for the Infantry and Chariot models. Both are quite detailed, the infantry one being 20 minutes long.

((My computer Fu is extremely poor, so I can't work out how to leave a link to the video. Either search under "Michael Sng Machinations", or "Wargames Atlantic Warring States" will get you there))

[robh]

You Tube links for the videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzY3chfTuAQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMfbOo33Ric

Excellent analysis and commentary on Warring State era armies and equipment.  (Hopefully Neldoreth will be around to comment on these compared to his beautiful OOP Renegade collection)

Credit where due, the renders shown for these are far, far better than the abysmal "Expanse" bobbleheads that WA previewed recently.

[carlos marighela]

They do look good!

[rct75001]

Other than the old Warhgammer Art of War book - does anyone have suggestions for books or websites that would help with colour schemes for Warring States armies?

Thanks
Richard

[carlos marighela]

Perhaps...

https://www.ospreypublishing.com/uk/ancient-chinese-armies-1500200-bc-9780850459425/

https://www.ospreypublishing.com/uk/imperial-chinese-armies-1-9781855325142/

[Keeper Nilbog]

Actual Colour schemes are somewhat up in the air. We know that Han (but not Hann) seemed to use Red and White - mainly colour and lining, though either colour could be the main.

Several sites I've been on looking into colours for "Wei" for the 3 Kingdoms suggest "Yellow" as a colour, as it's then next colour in the cycle after red (Han), whom they followed.
(I was tempted to go with the colour base from the old "Magic:CCG" 3 Kingdoms set (White, Blue and Black), or the schemes from "Dynasty Warriors" - though in that case history be damned)

I do know that "White" was unlikely to be the colour for Wei, as the Romance mentions Cao Cao dressing this army in that colour on one occasion, after he had supposedly been killed (White is the Chinese colour of Death). If this was their standard dress, I doubt the Romance would make such a thing of it.

[rct75001]

Thanks for the suggestions
Richard

[robh]

........or the schemes from "Dynasty Warriors" - though in that case history be damned

 
That would be very cool, there are stl's of a lot of the characters around the 3d print sites