"Oathmark Elf - Light Infantry Review" Topic

North Star Military Figures was kind enough to send a review copy of their Elf Light Infantry for Oathmark to Must Contain Minis for Review.

Recently I built those miniatures and wrote my review. Come see if these miniatures are ones that you would be interested in adding to your collection!

Article at… link

Article at… link

Thanks for the review.

Thanks Zulupaul. I am happy that you enjoyed it.

Nice and informative review. Personally, I think you need to equip more of them with bolt action rifles.

Ta for the review.

Preference goes to these compared to the latest GW elves figures.

79thPA, are you thinking of doing Space 1889 Martians? Because that would work!!

Didn't even think of that! I just thought they'd be cool.

79thPA, too funny. They are a nice kit. Thanks for the comments Andrew Beasley and Pvernon.

Back in 1e AD&D days (1977-1989), Elves could be identified by the fact that they were much shorter than Humans, and they had pointed, Vulcan ears. The key, though, was the fact that they were typically a foot, or more, shorter, than Humans. Sculptors, and game designers, have morphed Elves into Humans, with Vulcan ears: put a helmet on them, and they look the same as Humans…

While these are nice looking figures, little marks them as Elves, as opposed to Humans: the conical helmet seems to be a favorite detail element to set figures apart as Elves, but this is really pretty weak. The mini's are too small, to use facial details to separate them from mere Humans. "Unique" weaponry is also a weak method of setting Elves apart from Humans, as both races often use the same weapons!

Gygax, I believe, realized the difficulty in setting Elves apart from Humans, so he made them smaller, and slighter, than Humans. That way, he, and his gaming friends, could instantly recognize which troops were the larger, bulkier, Humans, and which were the smaller, slighter, Elven figures on the gaming table. Just my take on it, as I try to view the various fantasy races as Gygax did, as much as I can. Differentiating the various races by size, when possible, really makes it easier to tell them apart, at a quick glance, on the table. Sorry, but paint colors only go so far. That, and I really despise painting Goblins, Orcs, and Hobgoblins, as all being green skinned creatures. Gygax had Goblins varying in colors, based on their tribes -- "yellow, through dull orange, to brick red skin color"; Orcs he described as, "…their coloration -- brown or brownish green with a bluish sheen -- highlights their pinkish snouts and ears," but they did not have green skin! Of Hobgoblins, he said, "Their faces are bright red-orange to red. Large males will have blue-red noses." He stated, outside of the Monster Manual, that Hobgoblins, from a distance, were often mistaken for Human troops marching to relieve besieged Humans, in a fortress; only when they drew closer, so that the defending Humans could see their faces, and their blue-red noses, did they realize their goose was cooked!

As a fantasy war gamer, I really enjoy the spectacle of what Gygax came up with, for sizes, and colors. It makes it easier to tell everyone apart, at a glance. Gygax made very good use of visual cues. Also, to be fair, Gygax used 25 mm (25.4 mm = 1 inch), or true 1/72 scale figures, as his base, for Humans (a six-foot Human, is 72 inches tall). Gygax and his friends had to do something to help differentiate, at a glance, who belonged to which race and group, as their figures were smaller than what most gamers use, today. Vulcan ears, alone, are too limiting, IMO, to differentiate Elves, from Humans. YMMV. Cheers!

Sgt Slag: I don't know… Tolkien's elves were essentially human sized, and that's my point of reference. And my old '70's vintage Ral Partha and Duke Seifried elves are just about exactly "man high" but looked fully elfy in my opinion. Maybe it's just that I started with Chainmail instead of D&D, but I like the larger elves. But I fully agree about the all the green skinned orcs/goblins and so forth -- fine for Warhammer, I guess, but otherwise, not a winner. Best -- hpb

My problem with this set is
The fact you can't get the quiver to sit comfortably.
Half the cloaks blow to left the others to the right.
The latter kind of works, the quiver siting on the right hip but it doesn't look great! The one's with the cloaks blowing to the right also have a bag hanging from the belt on the right hip which need's to be trimmed to allow the quiver to sit comfortably but still don't look great. You can't really put it on his back cos of the cloak.
The best I found is to cut the quiver and glue it so the quiver is under the cloak wich doesn't look great but will do I guess.

All the heads that have long hair the hair is blowing to the left so when the heads turned to the left which is needed for bowmen it doesn't fit unless you trim it.
So in my opinion this set doesn't really work as a bow man set which for elf's is no good.

Something that annoys me about soooo many fantasy figures: side quivers.

I have been an archer for almost 40 years. I have used both side and back quivers.

Historically, back quivers were not very common.
Side Quivers were more common….on troops in an army, on horseback or in a castle.

The famed English longbowmen stuffed arrows in their belts or in the dirt.

Now…here is the thing. If you are a ranger type, or light infantry….running with a side quiver is ridiculously hard and annoying and loud. Back quivers are much easier, save for when you are going through brush and the arrows catch, or they rattle around ( easily fixed with a cork bottom).

And try fighting hand to hand with a side quiver…..

Agreed!
They made the set to make it usable for two types of infantry but by adding the cloak made the archer option non viable which in modern pop culture is the most iconic elf character.
The cloak was a huge mistake.
I'm gonna try getting some dark age archers from griping beast and see if I can do some kinda kit bash.
Also the all the bows are the same; ie no bend so if you mix knoched and loosed pose's the bow will be the same.