Conquistador/16th Century Infantry Progress

Comments

James Hall - February 2, 2021

The sculpts look very nice. I would guess more 1540 than the Great Italian Wars. Nevertheless, I will buy for them for that if they have pikes like the Perry set has. If not, probably not.
Rodeleros are a minority troop type.

Axel - February 2, 2021

I am not sure how long these pikes will be, but I will replace anything below 7cm anyway. No problem for me, drilling out plastic and replacing them with bristles is a staple, but if anything HAS to go, spears (pikes too short) would be my suggestion, followed by two hand swords and the (to others popular) Morions. Also having four polearms of any type in action on that sprue would be sufficient, imho. With plastics you can always swap heads or drill them out and replace them.

On composition its hard to combine European and American battlefields. The composition in Europe was roughly 50% pike, 30% sword & buckler, 20% arquebus, while that in the Americas was early 90% sword and buckler, 10% crossbow, when later expeditions replaced crossbow and sword with arquebus.

Imho the sprue makes a good attempt to cover both, which will surely enhance sales.

If anything can be added (after removing some arms, or doing a larger sprue) I would do more different heads, which can totally change the character of a miniature and – if provided in sufficient numbers – of units. Perhaps the slightly distinctive Portugese helmets, or different beards. The tapestries on the conquest of Oran 1508 and that of Tunis 1535 give nice samples, as do the several depictions on Pavia for units leaning to the Landsknecht fashion. For conquerors headgear I suggest the Foundry book if Ian Heath on the 16th century army of Spanish America.

SIon - February 1, 2021

So long as there are enough morions to go around, and enough swords/shields for tbe majority to be assembled as Rodeleros, I’ll be happy. That being said, 16th century pikemen may not be a bad idea for an “army builder” box

Ole Andreas Hoen - February 1, 2021

Pikes can be cut down to make spears or halberds if you provide separate heads for these weapons. That way there can be enough bits on the sprue to arm all models identically?

William Brown - February 1, 2021

Deffo keep the pikes much more utility/appeal for these mini’s

Montezuma - January 31, 2021

Yes brilliant, I like the addition of the adarga and buckler shields. I’ll buy two of these to mix with wargames factory’s landsknechts, though if anything has to go, either both zweihanders or one of each weapon option might be a good place to start.

Neil Burt - January 31, 2021

Keep the pikes, understand about the open hands, I think more will used for European wars especially with the pike options

Naet - January 31, 2021

Maybe it’s too ambitious to have a “all in one set”? you have some people who want this to be more conquistador, and other whos want this to be usable in europe.

Perhaps cut the losses and have a specific Conquistador Set and later on a 16th Century European set?

It reminds me when people comment on Norman Knights going “can this be used for 1st crusade”? which is both a yes and no kind of thing depending on how historically accurate the need is. I think in the end you cant please everyone!

On that note are you guys experimenting with commercial 3D printing? Im curious if to assist with more niche items, you could have a line of 3D printed parts on offer (like bitz and conversion parts). I know it’s not as good as nice crisp plastic, but I have been very impressed with how far 3d printing has come.

Henry - January 30, 2021

They’re not 1519-21 conquistadors, but if responses here are anything to go by the disjuncture with the set name won’t significantly affect sales.

Ethan - January 30, 2021

Thank you so much! Also don’t listen to what’s being said, pikes are a must for this set of they’re going to be usable on european fronts too. I question the two handed swords and they don’t feel as accurate or to the spanish style, if I could suggest anything to save space it would be dropping those