Saturday, September 03, 2011

Warlord Games 1812 Napoleonic Russian Infantry!

It's taken a while but finally WG's Russian's are upon us!

Our latest plastic boxed set is almost here! Cast a weather eye over the steadfast soldiers of the Russian Emperor and place your pre-order – you’ll be first in line when they are released!

These finely detailed plastic models come in a box 32 strong. Included are 4 metal command models (see below). Note that the drummer and officer have different arms and head options allowing you to make each battalion look different – flag finials are also included.


The infantry formed the backbone of all armies in the Napoleonic Wars, but no army relied more on its humble private foot soldier than that of Imperial Russia.


The models are simplicity to build (glue together body, head and backpack and you’re done!) yet the subtle variety of poses and the ability to swivel the heads gives the regiment a uniform look whilst also allowing a lot of variation within it.


Brave, stubborn and resilient they had to cope with poor conditions, worse supplies and a cadre of mostly incompetent officers. Whenever western observers spent time with the Russian army they were constantly amazed by the sheer tenacity and good humour of the average infantryman in the face of adversity.

This boxed set is designed to allow you to field one regiment of Russian infantry; the variants in the box allow you to both musketeer and grenadiers along with a command section to lead them into battle. We have also provided a selection of flags from a number of regiments so you can get them into the action right away.


As you can see from the images above there are optional heads allowing you to make the regiment entirely of grenadiers or totally as musketeers. Of course you can also field a mixed battalion too if you so desire.

This great plastic boxed set is just the beginning though – we have the 1809 Russian Infantry in taller shako (and grenadiers the the huge plumes…) which can also be built as grenadiers or musketeers. And on top of that we also have the Pavlovsk Grenadiers in their famous mitre caps too. We’ll be showing more of these two boxed sets off in next weeks newsletter…

Head here to place your pre-order for the 1812 Russians today!

In a nutshell - These look good!

They appear to have fixed the 'boxing glove' issue that was noticeable with the Prussian Landwehr, the hands are just about fine, just.

Improving on the Landwehr, this time we have 3 piece figures, head, body and backpack, though we are still looking at essentially a 'wargaming' figure, maybe not exactly the sculpting skill of the Perry's or the variation of Victrix but they are what they aim to be. The fact that the head is separate will allow some variation and make the unit look much less robotic (whilst still being able to get them on the table quickly), very important I think and they have it about right, though there is always room for alternative approaches, like Victrix for example.

That said, the command figures are an absolute treat and multipart too, as the screen shots above clearly show, I absolutely love the drummer with his shako under his arm, the box is almost worth it for that one figure alone, one of the best figures of the year if you ask me, I just have got to have that one.

The news that we can expect Pavolosk Grenadiers soon as well is great news. Though with 2012 looming I would say to all, we do need cavalry and artillery as well please!!!

.... and IMHO neither Foundry nor Front Rank are really an option with 28mm plastic's.

It is just amazing that all of a sudden we have the prospect of plastic Russians from Perry, Victrix and Warlord Games. Quite how this works out for the respective companies remains to be seen, though for now it seems they are dove tailing quite nicely with Victrix delivering the Austrians, Perry the Prussians and WG the Russians. Obviously it is not going to stay that way but I for one hope they all make a go of this.

We are I think unquestionably heading into the best 3 years for Napoleonic wargaming since 1970 when the 'Waterloo' movie sparked such a massive interest in the UK and elsewhere and given all our advancing years we probably won't be around to see the next 'frenzy' so we must make the most of it!!!!

As for me personally I am fairly committed to using MMPS as my source for painted figures but I will definitely be in for these if they appear on their list s at some point (after the Prussians and Austrians :).

No comments: