@Caratacus - I think Wargames Atlantic was the company who started the halfling bandwagon: I'm pretty sure WGA's halfling set was released long before Mantic's. The previews I've seen of WGA's halfling cavalry were on ponies, which I really REALLY prefer to dogs. Overdone or not, the goblin warg-riders at least had some history with Tolkien's novel The Hobbit - the hobbit dog-rider thing in contrast just seems to be miniature manufacturers copying each other.
The Wargames Atlantic Warg poll where you can give your preferences on the subject: "Giant Wolves/Wargs?" (For my tastes, I'd prefer the demonic "black dogs" of English folklore, possessed by goblin spirits rather than literally ridden by goblins, but my tastes are a bit eccentric!)
Halfling Cavalry teaser pictures, courtesy of @John Eveson in the "Upcoming sets you really want..." thread, and the photos apparently originally appeared in 'Miniature Wargames' Jan 2021 (issue 453), where they were teased last year but don't seem to have been referred to since:
![](http://image.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/gallery/album_16694/med_gallery_75911_16694_518008.jpg)
![](http://image.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/gallery/album_16694/med_gallery_75911_16694_81856.jpg)
I'm going to guess that these Halfling cavalry are either one of the "Secret" sets yet to be revealed, or (more than likely) they've been put on hold for Wargames Atlantic to work out how their modular horses will work, or maybe both.
This week's sneak-peek from behind the curtain:
![](https://cdn.shopify.com/shopify-email/variants/ti6jn7se0c48wbt3yxds38970qo3/56bb704cb6cb0a0ab4246ad1fffa8b9979b8dab45168f56be4d5ddf3527f2684.jpg)
That certainly looks like some modern bitz to me, almost certainly to go with the rifles previewed earlier - interestingly, the boonie hats wouldn't look out of place with that A.L.I.C.E. pack render even further back for e.g. Vietnam, but the helmeted heads look quite a bit more modern (and I can't tell if they are Military, or SWAT, or what.) The caps might look right at home on SWAT, too, or on civilians. Between these heads, the pack, and the modern weapons, it seems like an eccentric collection of modern bits ranging from the late 20th Century to today, and maybe the near-future, without, as near as I can tell, pointing to any specific army. If those three renders were for the same set, it's an interesting one to me, and surely one that will lend itself well to a lot of modern and sci-fi projects!
@Brian Van De Walker - Don't get me wrong - you're right about it not being Warring States: my memory was playing tricks on me when I compared some preview renders of the Warring States to the rendered puttees/leg-wraps. And you're probably right about them being from the early 20th century - I'm going to go on a limb and say they're for Japanese officers for the upcoming Japanese set, though they could just as easily be for pretty much any other 20th century set: I haven't seen anything that looks like a satisfying match for that render. It's that combination of the bow under the knee, the cuff at the ankle, the heavy shoe laces, and the wide wraps: I haven't seen all four in the same place yet, and maybe that's due to some liberties having to be taken for "heroic scale" sculpting.
THAT said, I looked around a bit yesterday after I started wondering if maybe they're for a Death Fields set, which got me wondering if maybe they're for the (as yet unpreviewed, I think) Landsknecht Ogres, and it seems that sort of leg-wrap and shoe/boot combination is older than I thought - I've been seeing all sorts of "medieval" and Renaissance Fair costumes and illustrations that look pretty darned close to that render, too. Nothing that I'd call an exact match, either, but some of the examples I saw looked surprisingly modern (which might well be a result of the Renaissance Fair costume anachronism-stew!)
You're probably right about an early 20th century set, and as near as I can tell my Japanese officer guess is as likely as anything from that era that WGA hasn't already released, but I'm going to have to admit I called that one too early and it's still too early to call it "definitely" anything - it's still open season for guesses ranging from medieval Europe to just about anywhere in the world in the mid-20th century, with room for something more exotic (such as Death Fields!) I don't THINK it's the Landsknecht Ogres, either, but even that would be a closer guess than Warring States, I'm afraid.
Now, Blood Oaths Chinese sounds like a really interesting set, and one I wouldn't have thought of! I have a feeling nothing like that is even on Wargames Atlantic's radar at the moment, but I for one would be begging WGA to "take my money, please", just for the fantasy gaming possibilities alone (it's a nice relief from the "generic medieval European" fantasy cliche, and a subject that surely hasn't been covered in 28mm plastic before!)