Friday 23 June 2017

Warlord Games British Heavy Cavalry Review

Hi Folks

Given Warlord Games have just released their boxes of plastic British Heavy Cavalry and I am building both British & French Napoleonic armies I thought I’d better bag me a couple of boxes – one of each.

Is say one of each because there is a box labelled British Household Brigade and a box labelled British Union Brigade – but whats inside the box counts…




And to be blunt they are virtually the same – the horses are the same, the riders bodies are exactly the same, the arms are the same etc – the only difference is the head gear.

In the Union box you get heads with Bicornes, Dragoon helmets and the Bearskins (scots greys), in the Lifeguard box you get the Lifeguard Grecian helmets (with and without plumes). In the union box you also get four heads title ‘watering hats’ – I doubt whether anybody would use these and I am struggling to understand why Warlord Games released two boxes and not just one. You could have easily put all the head gear onto the same sprue.

From a commercial perspective this makes nonsense – twice as much art work, twice as much packaging, twice as many sprues to manage etc. Profits I believe would be much greater with one box – tiled British Heavy Cavalry. Folks who want to buy these will do so regardless of the name on the box.

The two sprues - one from each box - aside from the heads they are the same

A little bit more detail- union brigade on the left


These are the only heads you get with the household box

These are the heads in the Union box



Whilst I am being critical let’s talk about the horses – each sprue contains two horses in two parts – these look like they should be interchangeable creating more than two poses – however they are not. Only one half will fit to another specific half. This wouldn’t be too bad but the poses that are created look a little odd (edit they are growing on me) – in particular one of the fronts of the horse looks stretched.

Only two horse options available - the bodies are not interchangeable




Assembly of these figures is straightforward (hint assemble the riders sword belt onto his body before adding head) but the posture of the riders leaning right or leaning left grates a little – I think it would be better with at least one upright pose. This leaning posture also means all the heads seem to be looking down once fixed on the bodies as opposed to ahead…I quickly realised this is because they are charging cavalry and should be amongst the infantry cutting and slashing.

This all sounds rather negative and perhaps you are questioning whether or not to buy…in which case read on.

If you are looking at assembling a British Napoleonic army on a budget price these boys are perfect for your heavy cavalry - £20 for 12 horses & thirteen riders (there is a metal command figure in each of the boxes) is a great price. They do look good en masse and I am looking forward to painting them…


Until next time

4 comments:

  1. Nice review.
    I have decided against these, despite the price. As I am focusing on the Peninsular War for my Napoleonics these just do not fit. Yes they have included bicorns and watering caps but the torso uniforms are for post 1812/13 only so off to the metal manufacturers for me.
    A shame, I was so hoping they could do for the British heavies in plastic what the Perrys did for the lights and cover the whole Napoleonic period.

    Tony.

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  2. A good review, and it's impressive to think how far the hobby has come over the past couple of decades.

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  3. nice review , they do look good , if u carry on like this the shed will need another extension ... :-). I think had I been 12 again I would have wet myself and done extra paper rounds .... But we don't have to buy figures any more as the shed is keeping warlord games in business !!! :-)are you watching this blog warlord ???

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  4. Thank you for the review. I had high hopes for these two sets, but should have expected that they'd be more or less identical. I was quite disappointed when I noticed the same problem with WG's French Cavalry...
    Oh well, already ordered a box of each, but I'll just order more Perry Cavalry to max out my British Cav. Perry's British Light Dragoons offer a great value when combined with 3 or 4 Horse sprues from WG's sprue sale!

    I'm looking forward to see your first Napoleonic Battle Report!

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