"Xyston Miniatures... the good, the bad and the ugly please." Topic

I'm considering starting 15mm Ancients gaming and this line seems the nicest. Anything I should know regarding casting quality, scale creep, problems or positives?

Thanks.

I have them for the Achaemenid Persians and they are great. nice sculpts, good casting quality etc. I have heard some lines suffered from scale creep but I think that was the Roman line. I'm sure someone will have the answer.

Persians, ok. Do you have several armies in 15mm?

Which rule set are you partial to?

I used to go by listing sequence which was quite accurate as Xyston had a steady scale creep with time. Now the listing is by army so it's not so reliable. Example, most say the thureophoroi are the 1st of the unacceptably large.

Good size about contemporary standards , say about 16 to the eyes.
Gauls, Greeks, Spanish,

Growing but maybe acceptable. I think the Mecedonians are the largest of this group – Thracian, Kappadokian, Indians, Persians, Macedonians, Successor,

Way too big – Romans and some misc

Xyston says scale creep has been eliminated with the new
Carthaginians but I haven't seen any or read comments yet.

I have lots of the above except Successor, Romans and Carthy.

Sculpts are excellent, casting good, no deliver etc issues.

That is a very good assessment, BooneC. I would agree with your categories. I stopped with the Successors, the thureophoroi in particular.

Allen

The Greek figures are real works of art, probably the best 15mm figures I have seen and painted. Superb detail and very clean casts.

Separate Spears are not to everyones taste but if you don't mind the work cleaning and drilling out hands they are well worth it.

Xyston shields are designed to be kinda "clip on" to arms. But casting is not precise so you still need a solid glue, Not perfect but they stay on better than most other separate shields.

I love their drill out hands. I use nylon spears which then never come off, bend, break, peel even when abused. Spears glued on open hands invariable break off even with some care in handling.

The best separate shield and spear design.
But probably still not good enough to change your mind if you prefer cast on.

I'm a fan.

Their helenistics crop up in most of my ancients armies, and tracians and capadocians.

I've a tendaency to mix all but the pike units across manufacturers, so the scale creap is not such a huge issue for me, as it adds to the effect on the base. But I am restricted to the newer ranges, as old time 'true' 15s will look well out. most figures I see are 18's now anyway, I think.

I understand their plan is finish the lines they currently have, before starting any new ones, so if you have an eye on something from them, I would expect the missing bits to be within the 'I'll wait for that' time frame.

Dentatus,

I prefer Warrior. That being said there are only a few people out here that play that, and some of them converted to FoG. I have picked up a bit of FoG stuff off ebay and plan on giving it a try, though I doubt it will be my rules of choice. Maybe to play in the local tourneys from time to time. I am leaning towards Impetus from what I have read and a friend of mine has started using it. I want to try them out first and see. Warrior will always be my favorite set though.

As for armies I have several but only two done, Feudal French and Classical Indian, the others ( Persian, Hoplite, Macedonian, 100yw English, Teutonic, Swiss, Carthaginian, and Phyrric) are in various states of disarray.

Thanks for the responses.

With limited table space and dwindling interest in sci fi, I'm considering 15mm Greek and Persian armies. Looks like I can easily get both from Brookhurst for $200. USD

Where can I read a review of Warrior?

As I understand it, Warmaster Ancients is a fast and simple game. Which seems all I have time for lately.

Warrior is a cleaned-up version of WRG 7th Edition. Here's what the Warrior team has to say about it:

link

Fast Warrior is good for a short game.

Allen

Have some macedonians and greeks for Feild of Glory armies and love them as much as my Essex miniatures.Rob

I've ordered some Xyston packs for some folks at the shop, and am surprised to hear that some are getting such clean castings. One fellow ordered some Persians from me two weeks ago, and the casting quality was rough, to be generous. He had two packs of Indian cavalry and one pack of Persian colonist cavalry that had just one variant across the board. So, eight Indians of the exact same type, and four Persians in a like condition. Ugh.

That said, I have some in my own collection, and I like them, in general. As stated above, the thureophoroi might as well be 20s, and are unusable. I had my suspicions about the Romans just by looking at the photos, so I'm glad I never got those. But I wouldn't trade my Greeks or Persians for anything (though the Persian archer pack stinks – go for the Elymaians instead).

Be very careful of Xyston if you plan to mix up units from other manufactures in the same army. They are more like 20mm.

I recently got the spartan boxed dba army. Scale and quality as good as the greeks I bought 5+ years ago

Phil

Casting quality is now very bad. They don't seem to be replacing the molds as they wear out.

…I am waiting for the FOG Boxed Set for the Persian army of Warmodelling. Last month I got the Mid Republican Roman and they are great! I love their posses…

Hi Blackhorse

did you order from UK or from Spain ?

Phil

I ordered from Spain. I recieved the Army in less that one week. This is the website: warmodelling.com