Forged In Battle War & Empire - A Closer Look

I recently took a look at the yet to be released War & Empire 15mm 1st Century Roman Auxiliary Cavalry pack that will be released in Autumn. You can see my first thoughts here. To get a better look at the figures and indeed half decent images I needed to prime and ink them. For some reason this took longer than I expected, mostly down to running out of primer!

Whilst you can see a fair bit of detail with the raw material, so much more pops on inking. I was impressed before but now I am super impressed. The detail is really crisp but is not over stated allowing you to paint up the full detail or step back a little if you don't want to spend the time on doing a full on job with them.

All three command figures have lovely detail and the horses are well proportioned and have a great breadth, a world away from the examples from the last post. The horse furniture stands quite proud making them easier to paint, that's a big plus for me as it's one of my least favourite bits to paint.

This shot really shows off the detail, all have neckties which is a really nice touch. I showed the figures to Lee a couple of days ago and he also was really impressed. 

The rear figure has an ornate horn that's going to really stand out once painted. I am looking forward to getting these painted up as they will be a joy to paint. 

The three command stand figures all have cloaks that will add a nice splash of colour and the sculptor has added some nice movement into them.

Not that the troopers are spared nice detail. The armour is nicely detailed with good finishing detail where the armour ends in pointed links, a real nice touch.

I am a real fan of the multiple horse and rider poses which will really make the unit have that more real look about them. Between the spears held in different directions to the shields being at different angles you get the diversity but not so much it will be a chore to paint them up.

Another big plus is the fact that all riders fit the separate horses really well, I really dislike the balancing riders or the search for the correct horse to rider (often in vain) so this really makes me a lot happier. Small detail to some, big point to others (me especially). The width of the base also is a point worth pointing out, whilst I like Essex figures (excepting the perched riders) their thin cavalry bases are the bane of any gamer when it comes to basing. These are about right, not so chunky as to be difficult to hide but wide enough that they can stand with little fear of them toppling over.

So with priming and inking my already high opinion has risen even higher. I will certainly be getting some of their Macedonian figures at The Worlds after all you can never have too many pike can you?