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