Now that Wargames Atlantic has begun to release cavalry into its plastic box lineup, might there be interest among the legion for an expansion into the Decline and Fall era?
I can think of lots of positives, given the historical importance of cavalry during this era for Romans, Goths, Huns, Sassanid Persians, etc. armies and the wide variety of types (mounted bows, light/heavy cavalry, catephracts).
Any negatives? Gripping Beast has some nice plastics for this era that mesh well with WA's in terms of size and ease of mixing parts (this is how I've built my armies for this era). I don't see the large number of recent Victrix releases as a problem, since these figures are not really compatible with WA.
@Don Williams Not going to lie I had near zero interest when they already announced plans on a Dark Age light Cavalry that basicly going to cover everything light cavalry from Late rome to the end of the Vikings in Europe.
If this where just about the Huns or the Sassanid cavalry type it would be intresting but since we are talking Decline Fall that means it will focus first on Europe which can be covered with 2 cavalry sets, not really that intresting.
Plus despite your arguements to the contrary, Victrix has honestly far out paced WA on the Late Rome to Dark Ages front as far as the "European theater" goes for the era and has pretty much a complete range of it which means from a new buyer prespective there isn't much of a good reason to even consider WA.
Honestly, unless they laser focus on the Huns, Persia and non-Roman Africian factions for thier Late Roman range (like thats all they do till it justifies going back to Rome and Europeans), I would say WA should focus more on the Bronze Age and Warring States sets in First Empires and game tie-ins like Baron's Wars.
largely agree. western europe was pretty monotonous in terms of equipment and uniforms, for both the romans and their main 'barbarian' enemies at the time. and they're fairly well covered by existing kits from WGA, victrix, and gripping beast. the time period has some really interesting stuff but you have to go outside western europe, and into the eastern roman empire, north africa, and the middle east to find it.
and i think WGA would actually do well to branch off into those areas, because those areas are basically not supported much at all beyond old metals and a few 3D print options. getting some plastics for them would attract a lot of attention, and drive a fair bit of sales.
@Mithril2098 Yeah, I am sure someone will try to counter argue you on it but honestly its true Europe was pretty much same-same looking. The most fun looking thing to me as a fantasy army builder from the Decline and Fall range are in order the Palmyrene sets (they just look awesome for some reason), the Sassanian Persians, the Han followed by The Huns and far more distantly the Eastern romans as far as full on army topics go.
Man I'd kill for some palmyrenes in plastic. Had plans for a kings of war army based around them, but was never able to find anything affordable that matched well. It evolved into a more classic EIR roman style, but i lost steam pretty quick after, and switched to Ogres.
@Mithril2098 Yeah I get what your saying, the palmyrenes just have this fantasy vibe to them and I am not sure why WA isn't doing them next in the Decline and fall range.
@Brian Van De Walker The main thing that I think makes the palmyrenes look so fantasy-y is probably a mix of two things. First of all, they're from a kinda esoteric period, so you don't look at them and instantly think of a real-world counterpart. Secondly, and this is NOT an insult, they look kinda... I don't know, pathetic? Like, the really baggy clothes combined with the oversized hoods makes me feel kinda worried about them. They weren't designed to battle the full might of the roman empire, they were designed to get turned into a fine red mist by a methhead orc wielding a tree branch. Conan would stab the everloving shit out of these guys, and that's a good thing. Anyways, if the infantry came out in plastic, I'd totally pick some up, along with the much more intimidating cavalry.
@Brian Van De Walker you make some good points. I'd love to see Sassanian Persians and Huns be the major focus of these releases. Although I do have Republican Romans, Gauls, and Successor Greek armies built from Victorix kits, I'm honestly not a big fan of their ancients/dark ages minis. I dislike the poses, highly detailed faces/clothing folds that are difficult to paint, and the fragile nature of swords, javelins, standards, etc. which break off so easily.
I love victrix dearly, but their quality can be...weird. Especially given how gorgeous their barons war minis are (sorry wga), their older stuff can kinda suck ass. Even now, it's crazy how they can have some of the most gorgeously detailed chainmail and cloth I've ever seen , and giant obnoxious mold lines everywhere.
@Don Williams @timbus the thirteenth even with those counter points, unless WA goes away from the beaten European path with something like the palmyrenes I would say there isn't much of interest to cover at this point for this era becuase its already being covered in plastic by other folks along with plans to be covered by yet more folks in some way. (like I am still mildly annoyed at people for voting for the DAWAB in the vox popoli since to me it looks like the only reason they did that was to make sure the Warring States Chinese did not get priority as DAWAB was kinda of destined to be an "upgraded" repeat of Gripping Beast's Dark Age warriors AND WA's own Goth set, like you could get the same effect with banners by buying the Goth set practically 😆).
@Brian Van De Walker oh believe me, I've gone on enough rambling rants on these forums about how I would like my fantasy humans to stay fully fantasy. overall I think the dark ages are wildly oversaturated, and victrix tends to be much more reliable when it comes to this era anyways.
@timbus the thirteenth Its not even that, if it was just Victrix that might be a better arguement that it is still intresting, its that there is also Gripping Beast covering the late roman to Dark Ages era, and it all looks the same. (Like I get the feeling if I sold armored late Romans and unarmored Goths I could realistically just reuse the bodies for every other European faction up to the Norman conquest with some head and weapon changes😆).
At this point the main arguement to bother with Europe's late Roman to Norman era is the "meat and potatos" arguement and honestly without good sauce and gravy there isn't a good reason for restruant to sell meat and potatos themselves when they can focus on "pizza and tacos" (why bother with late Roman to Norman era Europe when you can do fantasy, it sells better. There needs to be some focus on sauce and gravy factions to justify doing Late Rome, etc. and outside of maybe heavily fantasied up Franks you are not going to find them in Europe).
@Mithril2098 Honestly, a range focused mostly on Eastern Rome and its conflicting neighbors lile the Sasanids would be really cool since that part of history is underrepresented.
