SERENDIPITY (or my first tranchette)

Right then chaps, before I begin, does anyone know why we've gone all 'brown'? It's bloomin' 'orrible!

Now with that off my chest I shall proceed.

In the last post I looked at the evolution of Mycenaean spearmen and started to think about ‘the look’ that is most appropriate for my Bronze Age project. If the Trojan War has any basis in fact it was probably set near the end of the Mycenaean period; so the classic image of Minoan / early Mycenaean spearmen armed with long spears and body shields can be discounted. Other than that, for the moment, I don’t want to be too prescriptive as I am necessarily restricted by the available figure ranges. So it’s back to the figure catalogues to see if anything matches ‘the look’.

I thought I’d start with Warlord, as they proffer unarmoured Achaeans, in both early and late versions. As luck would have it, they had free shipping on offer and naturally I was compelled to purchase a sample pack of the late Achaeans (oh the power of marketing!).

At the time I was a bit tired and couldn’t be bothered to register an account so opted to pay through PayPal instead. Much to my surprise, it automatically generated a Warlord account anyway and also seems to have signed me up to the Warlord newsletter to boot. Despite the notification that some orders may need to be specially cast and could take up to 15 working days (which is fine) the figures were actually dispatched the next day. On dispatch I received a confirmation email; followed an hour later by the Warlord newsletter, which announced the release of both armoured Achaeans and armoured Sea Peoples! As the free postage offer was about to expire I couldn’t resist ordering a couple of packs of these as well.

So let’s have a look at my first tranche – good word tranche, should use it more often. Actually my humble purchase is a mere nothing compared to Uriah’s mighty tranche; now that’s a tranche. Perhaps this ought to be a tranchette?

So my first tranchette looks like this:

1 pack Later Achaean Spearmen

1 pack Later Achaean Armoured Spearmen

1 pack Sea People Armoured Warriors II

Although this was only meant to be a sample, it does equate to 24 figures; 4 units at Dux Brit scale or 2 units for Chariot Rampant.

The figures came nicely packed in blisters ensconced in a suitably padded cardboard box for shipping. As for the figures themselves, they are excellent; cleanly cast with the realistic proportions that I personally prefer.

Size wise they are also a good fit with Foundry figures (apologies for the photo quality; I really need some better lighting). The photo shows an Achaean next to an old Foundry Roman that I happened to have; I’ve sized the latter up against Uriah’s Libyans and they match perfectly. Also included are a couple of other items from my painting table for reference: a Gripping Beast early Saxon and a Perry Miniatures plastic Napoleonic infantryman.

From this we can see that the Cutting Edge Miniatures are pretty much 28mm from foot to eye. They also seem to be a good fit with some of the early Foundry ranges and surprisingly don’t look too bad alongside my QT Models chariot.

My only criticism is with the poses for the unarmoured spearmen; they are holding their shields at a really awkward angle so that the shield does not actually cover the body. I had hoped to be able to bend the arms but sadly the shields are moulded to the body; however, this can be obviated, at least for some of the poses, by a suitable orientation of the figure. A shame as otherwise these are really nice figures, although the problem only applies to the unarmoured Achaeans and the other packs are fine.

So how do these fit in with that elusive ‘look’?

The unarmoured spearmen have a mixture of boar tusk and horned helmets and are attired in either kilt or tunic; all very plausible looking at the available evidence. The only thing really missing is any form of greaves; a feature which is almost standard on the palace frescoes. The armoured equivalents look to be a fair interpretation of the figures from the Mycenaean ‘Warrior Vase’ and whilst experts might quibble over individual details, to me the overall impression is spot on.

The Sea People not only appear to be a faithful rendition of the Egyptian carvings but complement the Achaeans in horned helmets quite nicely.

All in all I’m really pleased with these so will be sticking with Warlord / Cutting Edge as much as possible. The original Cutting Edge website had archers, slingers and command figures listed as ‘coming soon’, so I guess I may have to wait awhile for these options. Also there is no mention of chariots but there are versions available for the Sea Peoples.

Now that I have the beginnings of my Achaean force I need to give some thought to the tricky subject of the Trojans…………….