The Victrix Rus' Warband set gives you 36 figures and the Fireforge Alexander makes 37 total. Most Pillage games will have 12 to 24 individually based figures, so this group gives you enough figures to make many variations.
The Victrix plastic infantry sprues have 6 body types (two with chainmail), many head options, and lots of spears, blades, and other weapons. There are also spare bits for daggers, sheathed swords, utility bags, and special options such as torches, banners, and horns.
The Victrix plastic archer sprue has 6 body types and enought to make all bowmen or slingers.
This is the one archer plastic sprue in the Victrix warband set, and I have opted to have all bowmen and no slingers. Notice all the arm and weapon options are different.
All my Rus' figures are painted with the same basic technique. First I paint tunics, pants, and flesh tones with Vallejo XPress Colors. These colors are semi-transparent like inks, and they gather in the creases to provide a nice contrasty surface of light and dark colors.
Next, I paint highlights and tiny bits with Vallejo Model Color. Right now I have a mix of their first and second formulations. I prefer the newer, second formulation as the pigment is finer and richer, and the medium is thinner.
The final steps are to glue the figures on either washers for the infantry or pill shaped plywood for the cavalry.
Here I've done the base flora with an all-in-one mix from The Consortium called "Forest Floor" basing mix. It is a nice mix of plant parts, fibers, and sand. It is a time saver versus mixing your own.
When all is dry I clear-coat the figures with Krylon Matte Finish (1311).
In the Victrix Pillage rules, there are three classes of armor: unarmored, partially armored, and full armored. These classes determine your movement speed, your hit ability, and your defense.
Unarmored warriors have either cloth, leather, or padded garments. Helmets, arm-guards, and leggings are not counted.
Partially armored are as above, but also with a shield in hand. Also partially armored might be metal armor with no shield in hand.
Finally, fully armored are those figures with metal armor and a shield in hand.
In this game the miniature figures must model these classes. In other words no guessing, what you see is what you get.
These warriors have cloth or padded armor and a shield in hand making them partially armored.
One exception is the banner carrier. I have mixed up this chainmail fully-armored warrior into this group by mistake. Later you will see the chainmail group mixed up with the cloth partially-armored banner carrier.
The Victrix Rus' Warband set is really fun to model. The diversity of options on the sprue is excellent.
Note the diversity of shields. I love these heads with the fur-trimmed caps, Finally, the arm with severed head is gruesome and well done.
I believe the Victrix Pillage rules require the shield to be in hand to be effective. In other words models with shields on back do not grant better armor classification.
In my games, I think I would make an exception for figures with interesting stories. For example heads, torches, or other creative poses would allow the shield on the back as an armor improvement. The head carrier would probably drop the head and hoist the shield as soon as the taunting ended and the fighting began.
These partially armored warriors have one-handed axes and shields.
One figure is carrying a torch which is less effective in fighting, but more effective in starting a fire in the game.
Three of these warriors have wooden shields with iron bosses. The other three warriors have round shields with designs from Little Big Men Studios. Once functioning as an independent business, LBMS shield and banner designs are now available on the Victrix site. This makes it easy to pair the Victrix models with the LBMS art designs. They certainly look much better than anything I can paint.
This shows fully armored warriors armed with spears and shields.
The one exception is the partially-armored banner carrier who, as I mentioned earlier, was mixed up from the earlier partially-armored spears.
These warriors have very long spears and very dynamic poses. If you use larger bases to group up these spears for other rule sets, be aware they are tougher to tight pack than other designs.
These warriors have chainmail, shields, and either one or two handed axes. They also have the most highly developed Rus' look with the eye masks, full face chain mail, and big warrior hair.
These figures are likely modeled on Vanagrian Guards. They were Viking and Rus' warriors who served for other kingdoms such as in Constantinople.
The Victrix Pillage game has special ruled for two-handed axes. In general they attack after other weapons, unless charging. I suppose this simulates being able to wind up and time the blow of the axe. Additionally, defenders suffer a -1 defense modifier against these big axes.
These figures will be your line-breakers and shieldwall-smashers.
A fun note. The two-handed axe wielder who is fourth from the left has his hands reversed. It is hard to see in the photos, but this warrior has a right hand on his left arm and a left hand on his right arm. Consequently he is swinging his axe left-handed. It escaped my eye when building, but the arms seemed to fit this body perfectly in this position.
As mentioned earlier, this is the one model from Fireforge Games. I wanted to give the Rus' an option to have a mounted cavalry leader.
Here he shown with his entourage, two banner bearers and two choice fully armored guards.
This cavalry model is a soft resin plastic. It was much harder to cut, shape, and glue than the styrene plastic models. It also had a huge rock for a base which I sawed in half in order to glue to the wooden pill shaped base.
Nevertheless, I am happy how he came out with his gunmetal gray mail and bright bronze scales on his skirt and the horse's barding.
The Vallejo XPress paint works well on his cape. One coat and you have rich and nicely shaded clothing.
I hope you enjoyed seeing the details of these figures and the photographs.
These figures were enjoyabe to build. The features are quite distinct and easy to paint. The variations are such that you can use these figures in skirmish games such as Victrix' recent Pillage battle game.
Note that I have also modeled a Rus Army for DBA (III/48) in 15mm. You might enjoy similar figures on a smaller scale for a different rule set. Also see what my painting and photography looked like in 2004, over 21 years ago.
As the Rus' fought with the Teutonic Knights and Livonian Order, and they skirmished and allied with the Mongol Golden Horde, I suspect you will be seeing all these figures in game photos in the future.
Thanks for reading about my latest miniature figures.