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Sunday, August 6, 2017

Early Imperial Roman Legionaries - Victrix Product Review

I'm definitely into EIR and I like plastic models.  I was very much into the EIR's that Warlord Games released a few years ago despite their short comings, pun intended.  Back then I thought they had good detail despite a couple of poses having some serious problems.  The big issue with them was the scale.  The scale would have been fine if their Auxilliaries were giants in comparison in size.  Anyways enough about that.  This review is about, in my opinion, some awesome plastic multipose models.  It's sort of a two for one review of Victrix's Attacking and Advancing kits.  Both of which are 25 models strong.  Both kits come with a Centurion, Aquilifer, Optio, Cornicern, Signifier, and 20 Legionaries.  Ah, but that is not all, the Advancing kit includes helmet crests for making Praetorians.

So onto the sprues, what do you get.  Each kit includes a Command Sprue for the Centurion, Aquilifer, Optio, Cornicern, and Signifier.  They also include both bear and lion skins for the command model.

Each kit also comes with 5 sprues of Legionaries.  Below is the Advancing sprue.
 

Below is the Attacking sprue which also comes with a head option having the cross bars on the helmets.
 
As you can tell the Attacking are little bit more dynamic.  The Advancing are obviously in a marching style of pose.

So once assembled you get a good variety of models.   I went for a kit bashing concept with the two kits to assemble to units to fill out my Roman army.

The two on the left are from the Attacking Sprue.  They have the pant legs.
I really love the looks of these, and the scale fits with what Victrix is doing in their other ancient lines.  With this size, it should make them much easier to paint all of the fine detail than say the Warlord Games models which we will compare in this review.
Below you can see the guy on the far right is from the Advancing sprue, a bit more stale, but no pant legs in comparison with the Attacking.
 The detail on all of these models are extremely crisp, great undercuts, great and easy to pose models.
The models themselves are very easy to clean up, there was very little in the way of mold lines to remove.  One word of caution though, is to be careful with the pilums and and standards as they are a bit slight and fragile.

Below you can see how they compare in scale to various other models, Romans, and otherwise.  On the left and right are the Warlord Games standard bearers.

 A side shot comparison of the standard bearers.
Below are the Victrix: Attacking, Warlord Veteran, and Warlord EIR Metal.  
 Below the Warlord Centurion and the Victrix.
Below the Warlord Musician and the Victrix.
 Below:  Victrix Baeleric Slinger, Warlord Veteran, Victrix Attacking, Warlord EIR Metal, and Warlord Republican Roman.  This really illustrates the absurd inconsistency of scale in the Warlord range.
A bit more of a close up.
 A comparison of the Victrix and the Warlord Republican Roman
Comparison of the Centurions.
 Below a Saxon Miniatures' Arthurian, Victrix, and Gripping Beast Metal Viking.
Victrix vs Warlord
 Victrix vs Warlord Legionaire fixed posed.  The right is my conversion to fix my least liked Warlord plastic EIR pose, to make the model stand more at attention.
 And finally the Victrix shield vs the Warlord Shields. 
I did not have any Foundry EIRs on hand during this, but having had them in the past alongside of my Warlord Games EIRs, I'm sure the Victrix are bigger than them as well.

11 comments:

  1. Nice review of some excellent figures. The Warlord figs look like children compared to them. I like plastics too, and I think Victrix makes some of the best around.I may get a box of their Hoplites someday.

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    1. Thanks Dean. Yea, I really like the Hoplites, I have about a hundred of them to paint some day. The Romans will likely get first attention for paint work. The Warlord EIRs are at about 25mm. One thing about the scale of the Victrix is that they should be easier to paint.

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  2. Thanks for a great review. I love Victrix models, Greeks. And Romans looking very good now, better than Warlord.

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    1. I have a ton of Warlord EIRs, but the Victrix ones are so much better.

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  3. Thanks for the review - I'd seen some of these in the flesh whilst visiting a game store during a trip. I concur with your opinion - the detail is very crisp, the poses natural, and the price is excellent. I'm glad I held off from buying Warlord's Romans, however I have been tempted by Forged in Battles 15mm Romans very recently.

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    1. The one other very nice thing is that Victrix is planning to do Auxiliaries and Cavalry along with some really nice looking Gauls that they have shown the 3d sculpts of. Warlord does have some nice additions to their line up like the artillery pieces, wagons, vignettes, characters, and the old Perry Foundry EIRs are pretty close to the same size.

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  4. I was planning on mixing the Warlord and Victrix Republican Romans. and as far as I can tell they look like they'll be a decent fit... those Imperial guys are waaaay out tho, if I do an EIR army I'm definitely going all Victrix

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  5. Damn but I wish I had read this prior to getting warlord games imperial romans. I will be getting the Victrix gauls and they are going to tower over the romans but perhaps that's not so different from the reality. The romans did describe the celts as being very large warriors. The romans will only come up to the celts shoulders at best. The warlord games romans lacked a bit in detail with occasional flat areas or undefined bits whilst the detail on the victrix miniatures look crisp throughout. I think the victrix are better quality miniatures over all.

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    1. In my opinion the Victrix miniatures are much higher in quality than the Warlord. In reality the Victrix gauls likely will be closer in size as to what it was in a historical since when coupled with the Warlord Romans.

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  6. Does the attacking pack of Victorix Romans have the optional oval 'praetorian guard' shield? I don't see it on the sprue, as it is with the advancing pack. Thanks

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