At the time Clash of Empires was conceived, I had envisioned a magazine-style newsletter that would unite the interests of experienced miniture war gamers who would have a general working knowledge of the period covered. Several new subscribers, however, have communicated to me an almost complete lack of knowledge about the period, especially regarding figures and where to get them. This is their story...

Overview of Manufacturers:

Battle Honors USA, 346 River Street, Coopersville, Ml, 49404. Phone# 616-837-7045

Manufacturers of Rank and File Figures. My personal observation is that they seem to be nice chaps who are more interested in the quantity of their line than in the quality. The line has some very well done figs with good detail, less so with more recent additions. Medium-small figures: R.H. Cassidy calls them "spindley." Hard to beat their "mega-bag" pricing: $20.00 for 100 figures! Be careful about ordering 1866-71 German Confederates: I have noticed some historical inaccuracies. Free catalogue.

Falcon Miniatures USA, PO Box 444, Medford, MA 02155 Phone# 617-391-9944

Trifle biggish figures for my taste - R.H.C. Iikes'em 'cause they're easy to paint. Nice proportions that work well with Frontier 15mms.

Freicorps 15. Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK (still!).

Best (only!) source for Papalists, Neapolitans and Garibaldini from the Italian Risorgimento. Smaller figs work well with Mini-figs. Metal quality is sometimes poor; brittle legs on cavalry tend to snap off during de-flashing. American Distributor is Outland Games, who have a free catalogue (see next entry.)

Mini-Figs USA. Outland Games, 1061 Bertram Ave, Dayton OH 45406. Phone# 937-276-2336.

Outland Games is acting as their distributor as well. Nice figures with good detail, slightly larger than Freikorps allows them to mix with Frontier and Rank and File lines. Nice artillery. Ral Partha reportedly doing the casting.

Modelers Mart. 1555 Sunshine Drive, Clearwater, FL 34625. Phone# 813 461-3922

Manufacturers of Frontier 15mm and 25mm. New management (about a year) still having teething pains. Took me three weeks to get an order because they insist on using the Postal Service (connection?). Solid figures with good detail: my recent order (May) had figures loaded with flash. Catalogue $5.00, refundable with first order. Hideously ugly 1870 French guns - look like ECW bombards.

This list is by no means complete, and is not intended to be any sort of a review. We hope to tend to that in the fullness of time. What follows is a chart giving an overview of what figure lines are available from whom. Handy Reference Chart of Available Figure Lines:

15mm	Battle Honors	Falcon	Freikorps	Frontier	MiniFigs
Austrians 1859-66	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Balkan Wars	Yes	No	??	No	Some
Crimean	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Franco-Prussian	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Italian Wars	some (Piedmont)	No	Yes	No	No
Mexican-American	No	No	No	Yes	??
Russo-Turkish	Yes	No	??	No	No

In 25mm both Falcon and Frontier carry figures for the Balkan Wars/Great War. Falcon carries a smashing Rolls Royce armoured car (which is a bit out of this publication's purview, but what the hey!) In 25mm Frontier also carries Franco-Prussian and 1859-66 Austrian as well as Mexican-Americans.

When ordering from featured dealers, PLEASE mention that you saw them in Clash of Empires (this promotes advertisments which offset the price of printing, resulting in savings which we pass along to you).

-Finis-