RAFM

25mm Hellenistic Greece
and Imperial Romans

by Rod Burr

Rafm has added several new figures to their already extensive Armies of the Hellenistic Period and Armies of the Caesars ranges.

The new Hellenistic releases include a set of 8 Thracians, 5 infantry and three mounted (twoThracians and a Getic horse archer). While one of the figures is listed as an Early Persian Wars javelinman, and another is equipped with a Thureophoros and rhomphaia, all of these figures could be used in a Thracian army over the whole period covered by the WRG Thracian list. Since all the figures have separate heads, weapons and shields, the anachronistic items can be removed and replaced with appropriate ones. Cavalry can be easily used with or without shields as appropriate. While each set of figures only includes one style of heads, these can be swapped between packs to provide a variety of these within each Thracian unit.

The other new Hellenistic releases are additions to existing lines of Successor troops. These include 2 Macedonian Pikemen, a Macedonian Hypaspist, a Maceconian Heavy Cavalryman in scale armor, a Seleucid Phalangite and Medium Cavalryman, an Arab Archer, and a Babylonian Levy Archer.

The new Roman releases are all Barbarian enemies: 5 Germans, 3 Dacians, and two Sarmatians. The Germans are divided between early and late, but again could probably be used together with replacement of appropriate weapons and shields. The 2 Sarmatians and 1 German are mounted, the rest foot. in addition to these new additions for various armies, an especially nice addition is a Barbarian command pack containing 2 foot officers and 1 mounted. Since these figures are equipped to varying degrees with bought or captured Roman armor and dress, they can be used with many Barbarian nationalities. 3 different heads are included, along with 3 shields, 2 different swords and standards. One problem appears to be that all three of the figures are molded to hold weapons while the two foot appear to be set to hold a standard in addition. This leaves the set one weapon short.

The casting quality is good on all of the figures; the detail is crisp and there is only a little flash. The alloy used is pliable enough so that it should be easy to modify figure positions. All of the figures are cast in fairly basic positions and can easily have the arms repositioned for variety. The prices for the figures are $4.00 per package of 3 mounted or command, or six foot. They can be ordered directly from Rafm Company, Inc., 19 Concession St., Cambridge, Ont., Canada NIR2G6.

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