Fireforge Games Infantry Sets

[Lord Dan]

As a relatively new historical convert I've been keeping my eye on the rumor mills for upcoming dark age sets. Recently, I saw the following tidbit over on TMP:

Note that this may not be credible but from FRP games they list 4 pre order sets from FF. 1 cavalry set and 3 infantry sets. The date on the cavalry is clearly wrong (april 2012???) but this does intrigue me to say the least

It's presumed that the cavalry set mentioned was probably either the Templar or Mounted Sergeant set released in May, however the infantry sets were clarified in another post:

Hi, I've just received an email from Fireforge Games with some additionnal information about their plastic infantry! Three different infantry boxes are estimated to be released around Christmas 2012. There willl be a plastic box of infantry for every released cavalry box so there will be a Teutonic Knight, Templar Knight and Sergeants set of infantry! Each of these boxes will allow you to build up to twelve crossbowmen, knights and up to 24 foot sergeants.

Additionally here are some 3-ups from Salute, courtesy of wargamesterrain.com:



As if that weren't enough their future releases apparently will include some HYW cavalry as well as an "enemy" of the crusader sets they've put out so far. It's almost too much awesome to handle. Almost.

[PsychosisPC]

Having some of their cav already, Yea I look forward to seeing more of their infantry.

[zirrian]

What I know so far:
There will be three boxes of infantry, two heavy (chainmail), one light armoured (leather/cloth). The heavy boxes will contain 24 men, up to 12 can be crossbowmen, up to 12 can be foot knight, and up to 24 can be foot sergeant (spear+shield). My guess is that one heavy box will be Templar, and the other is Teutonic. The light box will contain a venerable 48 miniatures, and from them, you can arm 24 as crossbowmen, and 48 as sergeant (spear+shield). Source from their FB page, someone asked what we can know about the infantry sets, and Fabio answered this

Also I wish that 2014's releases will be enemies of the crusaders. I want to build a saracen force to play against with my brother.

[Griefbringer]

As if that weren't enough their future releases apparently will include some HYW cavalry

Those "enemies of the Crusaders" have apparently been confirmed as the next releases after the Crusader infantry.

However, I have not seen any sort of hard evidence to indicate that any sort of HYW set is being worked upon. Sure, there has been some commissioned artwork for possible 14th and 15th century box covers shown on their Facebook gallery for a long time, but for the time being I would not take that as anything more than an indication of things they might like to do one day - having an actual set of models designed and tooled is much more work than a simple piece of cover art.

[redben]

FF confirmed at Salute that they would release 3 Crusader infantry sets this year and a Crusader enemy in 2013.

[ZeroTwentythree]

Since the initial release was Teutonic knights, does the "crusader" reference mean northern crusades?

[Lord Dan]

If you mean "crusader enemies", then it's unlikely. If you're going to use the common term "crusade" when dealing with both Teutonics and Templars, I think it's safe to assume the term is more generally used with the ladder.

[Griefbringer]

Whether the "crusader enemies" would be from the north (Prussians, Livonians, Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Russians etc.) or south (Arabs, Turks) has not been confirmed AFAIK.

From a commercial point of view, I would think that the inhabitants of the Middle East are more likely to find themselves presented on the plastic sprues.

[redben]

In his interview with BoW at Salute, Fabio said they would be "some" enemy of the crusaders but which one was top secret. He was at pains earlier to point out that the crusades included the northern ones so the enemy could come from there. I'm included to agree that from a commercial point of view a Muslim army makes more sense.

[zirrian]

In his interview with BoW at Salute, Fabio said they would be "some" enemy of the crusaders but which one was top secret. He was at pains earlier to point out that the crusades included the northern ones so the enemy could come from there. I'm included to agree that from a commercial point of view a Muslim army makes more sense.

But after that, a Russian/Polish/any other northern crusade would be acceptable, I guess. If the guys have a little brain (and seeing how well they've done so far), they'll make miniatures for all aspects of the crusades. Also, I think russian miniatures, especially in plastic would find their way quickly to the shelves of wargamers who grew up with Alexander Nevsky. And due to my lack of knowledge about the era and equipment, maybe the rus bodies/weapons could be used for countries surroinding them (Poland for example), but tbh, I'm not sure. Currently I'm building a crusader army from Fireforge, that can be used as bretonnians in WHFB, but if they ever make muslims, or baltic crusade armies, I'd buy at least a box to see how they do.

Also if we can believe the artworks posted on their Facebook page, we can assume that in the future later eras will be covered - Hundred Years War, and Italian Wars aswell. Or maybe not. But I'm pretty excited about the infantry.

[Lars Porsenna]

IIRC by the 13th C (same era as the Fireforge figures), the Polish military aristocracy was mostly "germanized" and used German style equipment, even if it was a bit "old fashioned"

Damon.

[redben]

WIP - https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=1&theater

[Lord Dan]

Those are looking pretty good. I've got some concerns regarding weapon scale and starched surcoats, however I'm hoping those will be worked out by the time of production.

[Engel]

Looks promising.

[Tonny]

Fireforge has posted a bunch of sprue pics of their foot sergeants on their facebook page. It looks really great!

[PsychosisPC]

Those are some seriously nice looking infantry, can't wait. I just picked up boxes of the Templars and Sarges, so infantry will be nice. They also had pics of their crusaders on foot, not really as enthused about the hooded heads.

[Zink]

Ooh, I like those. Damn my tight budget. I just bought into the Reaper Bones kickstarter so no new minis for a long time ahead. I have a partly painted russian army and these would make great opponents for them. So much plastic goodnes out there right now. I'm torn between the Perries' WOTR, Conquest games normans and these.

[PsychosisPC]

I bought one of the Perry WotR kits and really did not like it, I know I'm probably one of the few naysayers about that infantry kit, the FF is much more to my liking. The Conquest Games kits are nice, but the quality of the models is no where near any of the Fireforge stuff that I have so far, Teutonic Cav, Templar Cav, and the Mounted Sergeants. I have the CG infantry box and its nice, just not spectacular. The CG Cav is a pretty cool kit, the sharpness of the sculpts on the riders are lacking a bit in places in comparison tothe FF Cav.

[Lars Porsenna]

I too saw these on FF facebook page the other day, and they do look nice. I like how they supply some of the distinctive teardrop German style shields as well...

Damon.

[Griefbringer]

I have not been really wild about the Fireforge cavalry so far, but those foot sergeants look very promising. Not seeing any command options on the shown sprues, though, but maybe there will be a separate command sprue to be shown later on?

Also many WHFB Bretonnian players looking for alternative infantry figures will probably be very happy when they see these. More flexibility than with the GW plastic men-at-arms set, also.