Victrix Ltd started with a huge range of napoleonic sets, and recently entered the ancient armies. A bit of a niché range among those are the Iberians, the ancient spanish tribes, of which today the armoured warriors will be reviewed.
Iberians is a collective term, for the ancient tribes that lived on the iberian peninsular, todays Spain and Portugal, of which the most were Iberians themselves, Lusitanians (todays Portugal) and Celtiberians (north-western tribes). The tribes were involved in the military conflicts of Rome and Carthage, their conquests and the punic wars. If you want to know more about the Iberians, or simplified ancient spanish armies, i can suggest
Ospreys Men at Arms #180 "Romes Enemies Part4 - Ancient Spanish Armies 218 bc - 19 bc".
The iberian range by Victrix covers armoured and unarmoured Warriors and balearic slingers. The warriors come in sets of 40 and cost 26,95 GBP. From what i know (i wasnt able to obtain any unarmoured warriors for this review), both sets cover the same miniatures, the armoured ones carry - you guessed it - armour. Same poses etc. just additional breast armour / plates.
The sets have 36 regular warriors and 4 command miniatures, so you get 6 large warrior sprues and 2 smaller command sprues.
Casting is properly done. Only minor mold lines, easy to clean from the sprue and decent options.
In this set you basicly have eight different bodies, of which two already have heads on their torso. The miniatures have small round or oval bases on their feet.
As with the weapon options, i decided to build three Caetrati, three Scutarii and two command miniatures. Beginning with the Scutarii, named for their large oval shield (scutum) und usually wielding a falcata (sword). Easy to build, good fit and the helmets can be individualised with crests.
The light infantry were the Caetrati, named for the smaller round shields (caetra) and usually carrying javelins. These would most likely better start with the unarmoured warriors.
The troops of course needed somebody to lead them, so a set of two command miniatures was equiped with falcata and a small standard. Caetra for the standard bearer and a scutum for the noble.
So far, an easy build, with dynamic poses and good fit. Its a bit sad that two of the eight bodies have fixed heads, but you can still give the rest enough diversity, that it wont show to clearly.
About the size, they are proper 28mm heroic scale and fit well with other companies ranges, beside of the more delicate Perry ranges. But thats no problem, as they currently dont carry ancient ranges (most of their ancient sculpts are with Foundry).
ConclusionIt is a nice set, and the only range available in plastic. So basicly they lack "recent competition" - the only other companies offering 28mm ancient spanish are Crusader, 1st Corps and Foundry - all of which only
offer metal casts, that have aged a bit and are not as dynamic.
Victrix seems to be aware of that, as the 40 warriors are priced at 27 GBP, which is compared to other plastic Ranges like Gripping Beast (44 miniatures for 22 GBP), Agema (40 miniatures for 25 GBP), Warlord Games (40 miniatures for 22 GBP) or the Perrys (~40 miniatures for 20 GBP), a bit expensive. And that is not even talking about the direct exclusive balearic slingers, that are 12 GBP for 12 plastic miniatures.
Odd choice for skirmishers of which you would field larger units. The pricing is irritating, as Victrix themself offers in their napoleonic range a lot of boxes with 60 miniatures at 23 GBP.
Never the less, later this year the iberian cavalry is announced, which should be a great add to the range. The iberians make a great army for themself or as mercenaries for roman and carthaginian armies.
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May 09, 2012, 02:48:05 PM
