Yet another pack of medieval figures from Italeri - at least, that is, packaged by Italeri. These figures are actually - and quite appropriately - made in Russia. The box consists of 42 figures, of which only two are mounted unfortunately. The two mounted figures are a leader with a mace and a knight with a spear. The foot figures provide an obvious command group (leader figure, standard bearer and a signaller), two poses of bowmen, four types of axe/mace/flail men, six poses of swordsmen (including the command group) and three poses of spearmen. Most of the figures are wearing chain or scale armour, with a few spearmen and bowmen in a quilted padded armour. Although the mix of figures is quite good the actual sculpting of the figures is not up to the best of recent Italeri releases - but they are by no means bad. The main difficulty is building an historical army with this box - since it lacks cavalry. Conversions are not impossible, putting the tops of some of the foot figures onto the bottoms of Italeri's Crusader knights would help fill the gap. However, I think we've all been a bit spoilt by figure availability and, except for a really keen few, the prospect of mass conversions of figures does not really appeal. This limitation is a bit of a shame since the figures would otherwise be ideal as the basis of a number of DBA eastern European armies. However, they are excellent for a skirmish size battle, and also for bulking out armies made with existing figures. Some of the axemen would make excellent Vikings, for example, and many of the figures could be used as troops for a crusading army - representing forces raised in Germany or Northern Italy. As regards non-historical armies, this is again a useful set for building, say, the Hyborian armies listed for Hordes of The Things. Or, for anyone wanting to raise large armies of Middle Earth, the set is a bonanza. The command stand are a must for the troops of Rohan. The bowmen, to my eye, would make excellent Dunlanders, and many of the other foot would suit the role of half-orcs. It's time to build that army of Saruman you know you always wanted! [We welcome reviews on figures, books and games from any member. Just send in your honest opinion of the items and, naturally, depending on the content we will publish. If you come across anything that you feel maybe of interest to Solo Wargamers Association members then let them know through the pages of Lone Warrior. Kenn]. Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #132 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com