After years of being bombarded with beautiful color photos of exquisitely painted 25mm (really 28mm) Foundry figures in the pages of Wargames Illustrated, I finally broke down a few months back and ordered some. I'll warn you now, don't try this at home unless you are prepared to get hooked on these fine figures. I've become pretty much a Foundry Junkie these days, and am collecting figures from no less than seven of their ranges! The price on these figures runs a little higher than wargames standard hereabouts ($1.30 per foot or cavalry figure, plus $2 per horse, and chariots running around $10), but they are well worth it. The figures are currently available individually, but Foundry is in the midst of repackaging all of their lines (and in the process raising their prices) so if you have an interest in these figures, you might want to pick them up soon.
This issue I'll be looking at the Northern European Bronze age line, since these are the first figures I ordered and the ones that got me hooked. The line has been out for some time, but since the topic is fairly obscure, I felt some folks may not have run across them. I'm an Archeologist by training with an interest in the Bronze Age in general, so this line was particularly appealing to me. With the rising popularity of the Warhammer Ancient Battles rules, these figures may actually gain a few more fans since they work well with the rules and you don't need a huge army.
When I decided to purchase this line, I went out and read up on the period (it's great when you can justify war game reading as work related!) The Foundry folks have definitely done their homework on this range. Most of the clothing and weapons are based oil archeological finds from Mound burials in Denmark and are very accurate. Time after time I ran across photos of the actual artifacts that were the models for the equipment on these figures, and they are so well sculpted that I could pick out the specific helmet on one of the preist figures in an archeological text based on detailed decorations oil the figure itself. Pretty impressive when the whole figure is only 1" tall!
The first thing, I noticed once I sat down to start painting these figures was that the Foundry sculptors probably do a lot of painting themselves. The figures are very clean, with simple lines but enough detail to keep them interesting and help in shading and highlighting, and are a joy to paint. The figures are well propoitioned, if a little "stocky" or rounded when put next to similiar Old Glory figures The animation is good, and facial detail has lots of character.
Another feature I really like about many of the Foundry lines (and this one is no exception) is that there are a number of "non-combatant" figures available. In this line there are a man in cloak, woman in long dress, girl holding pot, Sun priest and priestess, and a wandering bronzesmith with his tools on his back! These figures add a great diorama element to the wargames table, and are perfect for skirmish level gaming or even (god-forbid!) use with role-playing games.
Very few of the figures wear any armor beyond a helmet, which is appropriate for this period. Only the leaders, counterparts of' the Mycenaean heroes immortalized in the Iliad, would have worn costly metal body armor. Also like their Greek Counterparts, leaders of the Nordic people rode into battle atop chariots, and this line includes two varieties, one with a wicker body and on made of stiffened hide. While cavalry as such was probably fairly rare, the line does include two mounted figures. The line includes six poses of Spearman, probably the most common weapon at (his time due to it's simplicity. There are two figures wielding two handed axes, and one running with a hafted ax or hatchet (palstave ax), probably a tool put to more violent use. Very few of the figures wield swords, since the sword, like the bronze breastplate, was expensive to produce and the weapon of leaders.
The skirmishing element was important in the small scale conflicts these people were usually engaged in, and the line covers this with two archer figures, two javelin throwers, and a youth using a sling.
The moral aspect of Bronze Age warfare is represented by the presence of priest and priestess figures (probably sun worshippers in the case of the Nordic Bronze Age), as well as two horn blowers and a standard bearer carrying a solar-disk on a pole. As mentioned above, there are it number of non-combatant figures in the line. The figure of a young girl holding a pot is based on the famous mound burial find known as tile "Egtved Girl", right down to her corded skirt, midriff-baring toll, and bronze disk belt ornament. A typical Nordic Bronze age man and woman are included, and the wandering bronzesmith figure is full of crotchety character.
All in all, this line covers a very little known (or gamed) period in European history. The figures are ideal for Iliad-like heroic skirmishing or for larger tabletop battles. If you're looking for opponents, you could split your troops into two forces and re-fight some of the internal wars that must have taken place among these martial people. If you're not adverse to stretching the bounds of the known archeological record, it's not hard to justify a skirmish between these Northerners and a group of Mycenaean Greeks, no doubt traveling into the unknown realm of Thule in search of tin (an essential component of Bronze) or Amber.
A number of foundry lines (those that have been converted from single figures to blister packs) can now be ordered through your local retail stores. but these figures can only be ordered directly in the US from The Foundry LTD, (440) 871 4587. Listings of Foundry figures (including this line) can be found on the World Wide Web at: www.icenter.net/~gisby/
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© Copyright 1998 by HMGS South
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