Victrix announced 4 new sets!

[Mikai]

I have just read that Victrix announced four new sets: Dark Age Irish & Dogs, Dark Age Picts & Scots, Ancient Thureophoroi and Medieval Islamic Horse Archers.
https://www.facebook.com/victrixlimited/posts/pfbid06bSzE9janCYi4v7i1haa4HhJ67paqLb8R7htPCnCQApm5rGG4MQvs4FEv1Z7HWvZl?rdid=vKTcQNhPVvvkIWFf

Steve Hales here, giving you an update on all that is going behind the scenes at Victrix.
I?m very pleased to give a sneak peak of 4 new sets we have been working on? Dark Age Irish & Dogs, Dark Age Picts & Scots, Ancient Thureophoroi and Medieval Islamic Horse Archers.
We have recently taken on a large number of new sculptors, dramatically increasing our design capacity. So expect to see the rate of releases ramp up very soon.
To make a quick point on the 28mm German Infantry, apologies for the delay on these. We needed to make a slight alteration on one of the sprues which pushed the tooling schedule back 4-6 weeks. This is now sorted and these should be on order within 2-3 weeks. We absolutely can not wait for you guys to see these, everyone who has seen the plastics has said they are a ?game changer?. The Foot knights will follow a few weeks behind them.

Dark Age Irish & Dogs:
This is going to be a stunning set with an 8 figure main frame armed with javelins, slings, swords, axes and spears plus a large variety of heads and shield options. And a separate frame with 4 war dogs, 2 handlers and 2 Warlord/standard bearer figures.

Dark age Picts and Scots:
This set will represent Picts and Scots to fight from the Age of Invasions, Age of Arthur and into the Viking age. It will be a 36 figure set and full of cloak and hood options to give them a distinct Pict/Scots feel.  To finish off all the British Kingdoms we have started on Scots/Irish/Welsh nobles, cavalry AND skirmishers! Yes we did say Welsh!

Thureophoroi:
These troops alongside the phalanx were a dominant troop type in Later Greek and Macedonian Successor armies. Operating in a Peltast style but also used in close formation in the battle line armed with javelins, long thrusting spear and a Thureos shield similar to the Celtic shield.

Islamic Horse Archers:
Horse archers were the backbone and majority troop type of all Islamic armies during the Crusades. We have a great mix of heads for this set depicting Seljuk and Turkoman warriors. Turkomans fought in extensive numbers as auxiliaries in Seljuk and other Islamic forces.
Stay tuned for more updates.

And here the images they shared:

[Dice Roller]

Yeah, very nice and all that, but...aren't these already available from one manufacturer or another?
They've not added anything new to the pool.
Although, having said that, Victrix are noticeably taller and bulkier than others so if you have gone down the Victrix route these may be what you've been waiting for.
Nonetheless, it'd be good to see something actually new and not available elsewhere (and no need to be obscure either, there's loads of 'regular' ranges and holes that need filling).

[frank xerox]

Pretty sure Im going to be buying some of them!
Interesting to read how Victrixs advertising is directly referencing Saga too.

[Basementboy]

Fantastic! Theureophoroi are a real gap in the plastics market, very excited for this release!

[Maxromek]

Victirx really is just popping these out like candy. I like their minis but they are starting to all look the same. I reckon they use the same digital dollies and then dress them up in mostly period appropriate garb. Works better for some sets than others 😁

[Ogrob]

Yeah, very nice and all that, but...aren't these already available from one manufacturer or another?
They've not added anything new to the pool.
Although, having said that, Victrix are noticeably taller and bulkier than others so if you have gone down the Victrix route these may be what you've been waiting for.
Nonetheless, it'd be good to see something actually new and not available elsewhere (and no need to be obscure either, there's loads of 'regular' ranges and holes that need filling).

I mean, even the best quality plastic kit available for these specific types, WGA's irish set, is no where near the quality of sculpting or the amount of bits and options that Victrix offers. I for one am very happy to see this level of quality available in more factions. Victrix release schedule is very much starting to look like a shopping list...

Though I do agree, I hope they will also expand into periods and cultures that completely lack plastic options.

[Iain R]

they are starting to all look the same. I reckon they use the same digital dollies and then dress them up in mostly period appropriate garb.

Goes for pretty much all modern CAD rendered figures, which is why I avoid them like the plague. They all look like weird, uncanny valley clones, with scowling, Y-shaped faces and those odd bulbous eyes. No thanks. CAD works great for vehicles, war machines, buildings, etc but it really doesn't capture the organic very well.

Give me a hand-sculpted piece from Bickley, Hicks, the Perrys, Barton, et al any day.

[Dags]

Those dogs are truly horrible

[Ninefingers]

WGA's irish set, is no where near the quality of sculpting or the amount of bits and options that Victrix offers.

But WGA's set doesn't have the "body 3 can only be used with arms A3, A4, A5, A7, A23, head H3-6 and H27 (with eyepatch E25)" instructions

[Maxromek]

Goes for pretty much all modern CAD rendered figures, which is why I avoid them like the plague. They all look like weird, uncanny valley clones, with scowling, Y-shaped faces and those odd bulbous eyes. No thanks. CAD works great for vehicles, war machines, buildings, etc but it really doesn't capture the organic very well.

Give me a hand-sculpted piece from Bickley, Hicks, the Perrys, Barton, et al any day.

Wait, they use CAD not something artistic like Blender or Z-brush 😱?

[Iain R]

Wait, they use CAD not something artistic like Blender or Z-brush 😱?

CAD as in Computer Aided Design, as opposed to traditionally  hand scuplted.

[Codsticker]

Those dogs are truly horrible

Yeah, no kidding. 

I quite like the Victrix kits, but... I wish they had the flexibility of the Perry kits (admittedly, a little more difficult when the subject matter wears long tunics or robes) and they were just a smidge smaller (especially the heads). I do like the variety of heads they provide though.

[Mikai]

Those dogs are truly horrible

I will need to see more images from the dogs before evaluating them. Could be that it wasn't their chocolate side, at least I hope so 

It looks like they try to round up the Late Roman Empire era for the British Islands to kind of "finish" that era before hopefully staring a new one. Would be happy to see the Dark Age Era expanding more into the regions of the Iberian Peninsula or more "central" Europe. Some Eastern Roman Empire would also be nice.

Interesting to read how Victrixs advertising is directly referencing Saga too.

I noticed that too although their figures will surely find their ways into many other rulesets too 

[Legiox217]

Give me a hand-sculpted piece from Bickley, Hicks, the Perrys, Barton, et al any day.

Dang, seeing those names rattled off makes me wish there some place I could find a complete history of the top sculptors and the work they have done. It was QUITE difficult tracking down the oldschool quality sculpts starting from nothing - search algos bury forums and any useful results. Funny enough, buying a couple of Victrix boxes actually triggered my oldhead lead fascination and collecting spree. The Victrix look great painted up, however, what you said.

[WorkShy]

Really happy to see they are producing Irish and Picts (and also Welsh/Irish/Pict Cavalry, though no pics of those yet). I've replaced nearly all my Footsore, Warlord and GB Late Roman and Early Saxon metal units with Victrix. It's an improvement in sculpting but where it really shines is I don't get the terrible Footsore and GB casting. I can live without the random gobs of lead, holes and mishapes. Plus my favourite bit of the hobby is kitbashing and plastic wins hands down for that.

I'm still using WGA and Footsore for Irish and Picts and, while decent, they are not really up to Victrix standards. These Victrix products will round out the Age of Arthur forces, so definately will be buying multiple sets of each. Though I'm not totally convinced by the dogs ...