I started playing medieval gaming with Lion Rampant just this year. At the time I looked around at everything on offer and decided to collect a Wars of the Roses force, based on Perry Miniatures plastics. Partly this was because of the low cost, but mainly because I was unable to find what I really wanted - decent 14th or 15th century sculpts. How things have changed in just a few short months!
Claymore Castings produce some excellent stuff, their crossbow unit jumped to the top of my buying list - sadly I have been able to get just one pack to date as the company seem to have had some casting problems over the summer, hopefully now rectified. These are metal figures sold at a very reasonable £6.50 for a pack of four. I prefer plastic or resin models, but I will make exceptions for quality castings such as these. In the pipeline they have some very characterful spearmen previews, another must have for my collection.
Top of the plastics manufacturers to my mind are Perry Miniatures. Their English (Agincourt) army was very tempting, a complete Lion Rampant retinue in a box costing around £20, with some very nice sculpts, but I passed on it because I thought it would be too similar in gaming style to my Wars of the Roses force. But just a couple of days ago they released images on their facebook page of the French Agincourt army and this looks far more promising. More crossbows and spearmen to add to the collection. There's plenty of material here to make up foot troops galore, with the prospect of mounted troops further along the line? It's great to see some historical miniatures that can match the high quality of my fantasy collection. 2016 is shaping up to be a good year already.
