Hoplite shield transfers warlord upgrade#
The upgrade sprue includes an unarmoured body wearing exomisand another sporting a "bell" cuirass (like the "muscle" but more flared around the belly to enable freedom of movement), in addition to eight heads in pilos helmet (Spartan standard-issue beginning toward the end of the Peloponnesian War, and continuing throughout the Hellenistic era) and one in what appears to be the soft felt pilos cap (a nice touch), as well as eight scabbarded xiphos swords of the extra-short Spartan variety (again a nice touch of historicity). My picture of the upgrade sprue didn't come out well, so I'm using the one from the Warlord Games Store Shield aprons and some kind of extra abdominal armour provide even more bits to play with.
The doruspear is depicted well, at an appropriate length and in both over-arm and under-arm grips, to suit individual preference. The left arm being molded attached to the shield is a downside for kitbashing, however, as it makes shield swaps essentially impossible unless a new left arm of the same scale can be found. Sheathed swords are either xiphos or kopis/ makhaira, judging by their shape, the aspis shields are quite large (some have suggested too large, though I like their excessive size, personally) and fully detailed on the inside with antilabe (the rope handle around the rim) and porpax (the leather or bronze strap in the center) both depicted in excellent detail. One might quibble that most hoplites are thought to have eschewed all armour after a certain point (around the time of Iphikrates, if I recall correctly), but this is an acceptable compromise. It has eight figures, of which two are wearing bronze "muscle" cuirass, two unarmoured, and the rest in linothorax, which is an excellent proportion for representing a unit, for the most part (it should be noted that one of the bronze cuirasses is of a decidedly Archaic type). So, to review the Spartan set I'll start with the base sprue.
This was the kit that I ought to have bought for my purposes, but live and learn!įour of these come in the box, along with four command sprues The Classical set, however, contains an upgrade sprue with helmets much more suitable to the mid-to-late 4th century ( pilos, Phrygian, and some more interesting and exotic types) and, possibly, even the early-to-mid 3rd century BC. The Spartan set has the same base sprue with the addition of a Spartan "upgrade" sprue, containing two hoplite bodies and nine heads wearing pilos helmets and with the characteristic Spartan beards-sans-mustache. So, in the Ancient set is provided the base sprue (with "Ancient" helmets) and a command sprue, with more Ancient-style crests and conversion pieces, as well as a commander and flutist.
However, although the store page states that the set can depict hoplites into the early 4th century BC, strictly speaking the Illyrian helmet was mostly obsolete outside of Illyria by the early 5th century, and the tall crest also went out of style by at least the 4th century if not earlier (certainly I have seen no evidence that it was worn in the time of Alexander). The heads provided here are Illyrian and Corinthian helmets, and both the typical horsehair crest and the " tall" crest. The confusion arises from the fact that Immortal Miniatures designed one main sprue containing helmets and crests suitable for their "Ancient" set, intended to depict hoplites of the pre-Peloponnesian War eras (Perhaps "Archaic" would be more accurate than "Ancient"?). The situation isn't helped by the fact that the Warlord Games website did not have very good pictures of the sprues in the Immortal Hoplites sets at the time that I purchased them, though they have better ones now. However, I did not fully understand the way in which the Immortal Hoplites sets are laid out, and I've seen a lot of confusion online about this.
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