So, I placed the order and didn't really know what to expect but for the price I was happy to take a punt... and when they turned up I was not disappointed! Now, I've tried my best to work out what each of the things are, but if I’m wrong I will amend this page!
The Battlepack included a set of Irregular's very own Ancient Rule Box - a single double-sided sheet of rules and some coloured cards. I've had a quick read through and think the rules have some interesting ideas - definitely giving me some food for thought.
Anyway, I'm sure most people who might be reading this are here to see what miniatures I got so let's get on with that. First up, let's look at the Arab Empire force.
General and a strip of Heavy Cavalry to form the leader of the force:
On the foot soldier front, there were two strips each of spearmen and spear command (well, they have standards?):
And 6 strips of archers - the middle ones and the ones on the right might be more Skirmishing types(?):
On the cavalry side there were a couple of strips of Turkish Horse Archers:
And finishing off the Arab Empire side a selection of mounted command, medium cavalry and heavy cavalry:
Onto the Crusaders side - again a General and a Cavalry strip to form the leader:
For the Infantry a mix of spearmen and crossbowmen:
Next on to the mounted strips - first a strip of Turkish Horse Archers, to represent Turcopoles I presume:
As for knights (obviously the thing everyone thinks of when it comes to the Crusades, right?) there were four 'command' type strips and four normal strips:
I need to give some serious thought as to how to point all this up using the Ancients Rule Box. The rules allow for a couple of different ways to depict units - these forces seem set up for 'System 2' whereby units are mostly 2 strips in size necessitating a bit of pen and paper book-keeping. I think this might be the best option, but even then I know I still want to add some more stuff - but that'll need to wait until points are sorted so I can keep both sides equal.
As for the quality of the minis - I know it's difficult to make out on unpainted metal, but they have what looks to my untrained eye to be a nice amount of detail without being too intimidating. Lances and spears had some bends and although mostly easy to put right, I have clumsily broken one lance already.
I'm trying to decide on basing for these - whilst the Rule Box sets out frontages measurements in-game are in mm rather than base width (etc) so I think I can be flexible as long as I pick a consistent approach across the collection.
Finally - the service from Irregular Miniatures was quick and smooth and I can definitely recommend them based on this purchase.
Nice mate!
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