"Warlord or Wargames Factory?" Topic

Yes, they are two different periods (Marian and Early Imperial), but which of the Legionaries, when choosing between these two lines, is:

1) easier to construct and
2) better detailed?

Of course, 1) might have a different answer than 2).

Dear Frank,

I have built both.
I prefer the Wargames Factory figures.
link
The Warlord poses are not so nice and the figures are rather small.

Regards
Mick

I prefer the Warlord figures but I feel that they do not fit on a 20mm base very well and have put all of mine on 25mm bases. The Warlord figures are more expensive but much higher quality and with the pound taking a pounding have become more affordable.

Warlord figures are much more detailed and crisper. I found them also easy to put together. Now I haven't put any of the Wargames Factory figures together yet so I can't comment on the relative easiness of putting them together.

The Warlord figures are easier to put together because the left arm is already on the body.

I had real trouble ranking up the Warlord plastics. I think I would have liked them better if we got the options for all the poses in FREX "at ready" with the pila and/or gladii, rather than the mix…

Damon.

Ginger or Mary Ann?

Chuck or Clint?

Warlord figures are much more detailed and easier to paint. The Wargames Factory figures faces are very difficult to paint as there is almost no detail there.

The Warlord plastics don't rank up quite so well and I've never liked the Celt pose where the model is picking up a penny.

Also with the Warlord figures, at this point you can put out a full army with a steady stream of new plastics to fill out your army. Take for instance the new Roman Aux. figures. With Wargames factory, you will soon be able to add that needed Zombie unit but the rest of the stuff scheduled for release with the Romans (and Celts) has been moved to the Limbo known as Liberty and Union League.

Are you kidding…. Mary Ann was hotter and Clint Eastwood is much tougher…… seriously.

I'd have to agree with LeadLair76 there. He is a man of uncommon wisdom.

I'll have to go with LeadLair76 on this one, as well!

My answer is:
1. Clint Eastwood
2. Mary Ann
3. Wargames Factory

Justifications:
1. "That's right… I've killed women and children. Killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time, or another. And I'm here to kill you Little Bill." – Unforgiven
2. picture
3. picture

Thomas is incorrect on the Romans and Celts for Wargames Factory going to L & U. WF will be producing them shortly.

I like both ranges for different reasons. I find WF easer to construct and rank up but the detail is a bit soft compared to Warlord's (this is corrected on their later figures but you asked about their LRR's). Warlord's are slightly better detailed but smallish for 25/28mm and the proportions are all wrong (if you extrapolate where the legs meet it comes to about 6-inches below the sternum). They do have wonderful faces.

I suspect I would have phrased the question; Republican Roman or Imperial Roman? Since both companies are actually offering different products.

My choice was and is Republican Roman.

D~

Better detail in the Warlord plastic figs.

Kevin.

Depends on what you want to do.

The periods are different

The Warlord sculpts are undoubtedly nicer.

Wargames factory seem to have less focus than the Warlord people, so I am not sure how fast they will fill up their range, but you could add similarly sized, nicer sculpts from other companies to fill the gaps, but in metal.

Sometimes I don't think we realize how lucky we are – a topic about which 28mm plastic Roman army you prefer is a pretty impressive comment on the current state of wargaming.

Warlord

link

I would like Wargames Factory to stop designing figures and start releasing them instead. In non-glossy plastic.

I would like Warlord Games to fix their Celts so they are not jumping about and flapping their arms so much.

Thomas is incorrect on the Romans and Celts for Wargames Factory going to L & U. WF will be producing them shortly.

One can pre-order the Celt box, but that has been true for months. If one looks on the FL&U page they will find this:

Field of Glory Box Set – Celt Chariots – Number Needed to Enter Production: 104 – Percentage Complete: 79%
Field of Glory Box Set – Celt/Roman Cavalry – Number Needed to Enter Production: 71 – Percentage Complete: 86%

link

I had a 15mm caesarian roman army, and would love to do a 28mm one (as I am doing with my ancient british) but, I would still plump for the Warlord Games EIR romans.

You may be ok with the Wargames Factory, but if it is a straight fight between them regarding quality, then then Wargames Factory goes down in the 1st, oxygen administered and everything.

Warlord, hands down! The WF models are blobby and lack detail. I can't get past that to even TRY to paint any.

I made this very same choice not so long ago and I decided on Warlord in the end.

The reason I chose Warlord is because of the completeness of their line. I feel much more confident that I will get everything I need from Warlord. Just look at how much Roman stuff they have released since their initial box set went on sale. Only today Warlord announced the imminent release of their plastic Auxiliaries which makes me think that I have made the right decision.

WF on the other hand seems to lack focus, just look at how they are hopping from one period to another without actually completing anything. With WF I think I would need to use their plastics for the bulk and then flesh the army out with figures from other manufacturers. Their Liberty and Union idea simply sealed this for me and although I like the LU idea, it did lead to me choosing Warlord over them for my Romans.

I can't really answer your original questions properly, as I have never held a WF Roman and have no idea what they look like in the flesh, what I can say is that the Warlord Romans look great and are easy to put together and I enjoy painting them.

The nice thing that Wargames Factory has done is create a style and size of figure that is compatible with many of the popular metal ranges.

For example, I put together a WAB army with 3 boxes of Wargames Factory Romans as the core (144 figures for $90). I added Numidian cavalry from Crusader along with some of their Spanish slingers. I finished it off with some command from Companion and that was that.

I was able to pick and choose the figures I wanted after looking at options from seven different manufacturers – I wasn't locked into any one line – and the WF matched up perfectly with my metals. Painted and based you'd think they came from the same source.

… and for the same price you could have got your Romans from Renegade …

Of course Warlord are compatible with some ranges too.

Trouble is, having seen the Wargames Factory stuff, I'dd head straight to the metal, much nicer sculpts and I am not a good enough painter to correct the faults of the Wargames Factory

Warlord Romans are better sculpts, and easier to paint. But they are too small.

Wargames Factory Romans are ugly, blobby things with no detail.

Warlord Games Celts suffer from the same problem a lot of GW plasrtics have – i find them OVER-animated. They look like they are in a race toward a naked and ready Louise Brooks.

The pre-production pictures Wargames Factory are doing look better for some ranges. But the pre-production picture of their Roman was rather nice, and was not borne out on the end product. So I am witholding judgment till I have seen those.

Condotierre will be along shortly to agree with every criticism of Warlord Games and claim every criticism of Wargames Factory is a vicious evil lie motivated by personal animus.

Pat

He's already been and he only asked for the thread to be killed…

I wonder <out loud and in an unsolicited fashion/> just how many of the WF R blobs folks have actually purchased one or viewed it in the flesh and painted one.

For the record I'm not affiliated with either company. As I stated earlier my decision was based upon Republican vs Imperial, I choose Republican as I am a fan of the RCW, Caesar vs Pompey. Given the recent reduction in Renegades prices I'll probably mix some of these castings in as well, if the price crosses the Atlantic. If I were a fan of the Imperial Romans (they are too perfect of a force for me--I really don't like to game with elites or the bestest :b forces) I would have purchased the Warlord figures and been happy.

Frankly when painted and placed in mass the WF figures really aren't horrible. They are certainly not as horrible as you would garner from most discussions regarding them. I'm close to posting the first group that I have painted, I'm not a great painter but I do alright. They aren't horrible castings or troops.

I really am curious if this has become another MicroSoft Sux discussion by folks that really aren't following along all that closely. Each person having made their pronouncements based upon whatever and they are now unanimous in their opinion and unwavering (as a hobby some of us do tend to exhibit this frankly boorish behavior all too frequently). BTW- I did paint a Warlord Roman, he was given to me a Historicon and I greatly appreciate the folks at Warlord doing that. I'm just not a fan of the Early to Middle Imperials; now if Warlord would make Late Imperials I'd buy them, and be happy to have them on the shelf next to my Republican WF's.

My unwanted and unasked for two bits.

Good day gents and enjoy the impending weekend,
Donald~

@Donald

I have not painted one yet but I do have a box. Think of them what you will but they are not as nice as the Warlord Miniatures. But then of course they are cheaper.

The real knock, for me at least, against Wargames Factory is the complete lack of any complementary figures. All you have are Romans, British, and now Zombies. And it doesn't look like they are going to come out with the Celtic cavalry anytime soon. Another good reason to stay away from the line in my opinion (mostly because it isn't a line).

The only way I would consider getting more Wargames Factory Miniatures would be to fill out the back ranks of units. This would place them pretty much where no one would notice what they look like.

The bottom line is that they have a role to fill in the hobby. They give you a very inexpensive way to get a large amount of figures. And if that is your cup of tea then they are a good fit. If you are looking for quality though you are better off either getting Warlord (if you do not mind doing imperial) Miniatures or getting some of the Renegade units that are pretty darn cheap for metal miniatures.

The real knock, for me at least, against Wargames Factory is the complete lack of any complementary figures.

This ladies and gentleman is a well thought out and very valid criticism. I completely agree with you LeadLair76. I personally don't play games where Victorian era English soldiers, without officers, square off against Zombies supported by Republican Romans with the chance of reinforcement by 6mm Kung Fu robots.

I bought the first four boxes of WF Romans because I like the period and I wanted to show support for a range that I really wanted. I also have well over 100 Musketeer Miniatures GNW Swede Infantry for this very same reason. Manufacturers that don't sell figures go bankrupt, manufacturers that don't reasonably complete ranges also go bankrupt.

We live in an awesome time for this hobby. I think back to C Grant heavily modifying Britons to make masters for two ACW armies and then home casting them to be able to fight Wargames. We can get almost any soldier you want in almost and scale from almost any period currently. We the consumers have an obligation, assuming we want even more soldiers, to support the manufacturers that are providing the product we want. The manufacturers have an obligation, assuming they actually want us to continue buying their soldiers, to reasonably complete the ranges that we are buying.

I do give the nod to Warlord in this; they have Celts. WF really needs to get some opponents out, they probably should use a system on the wish lists with opponents for existing selling ranges getting some sort of weighted vote to help propel these figures into production. I know Tony and company are working on the Celts, Zulus are at 70 some percent and modern humans to fight the Zed plague are way up there also. Product in hand, WF, Warlord or Musketeer Miniatures sells and intentions don't.

Donald~

If you criteria are:

"1) easier to construct and
2) better detailed?"

You are into wholly subjective territory and if I were you I'd see about getting hold of some of both and seeing which work better for you and your style of painting.

FWIW I've only got the WF ones as I wanted the late republican style and not the imperila and I think they're fine, although ideally the detail would be a bit more emphasised. They're great for the rank and file legionarii IMO. The Warlord ones are nice with the detail being better but do look to my eye a touch small compared to what you might call the current 28mm standard.

As an aside I'd agree with the comments on WF lack of focus – these guys need to get a grip and produce ranges. Asking wargamers what they want just gets you 100's of different answers and delays you actually getting figures to market and generating revenue rather than using up your capital. Ultimately gamers like ranges for an army so if they would get on with doing just that I'm convinced they'd sell just fine.

The problem with Renegades punic wars range is that many of the figures have over-sized heads for some reason.