The Aramaic territories existed in what is now Syria, and during the 9th century BCE, the period covered by this set, they achieved their greatest power. As usual they fought each other and their near neighbours, including the Assyrians to the south, who gradually conquered all their kingdoms and scattered the Arameans throughout their empire, as was their normal policy. One effect of this scattering was to spread their language, and in time Aramaic would become the standard language for public life and record-keeping in many territories, making it their best-known legacy in the following centuries.

The Arameans are not a group that is well-known today outside of their homeland, and consequently there is very little accessible material available on their society and how they looked. One source describes them in this period as being mainly mounted light troops, both infantry and true cavalry, and this gave them an advantage over the Assyrians until the latter began to use cavalry themselves. However this is not the flavour of the figures in this set, many of whom are decidedly heavy with long tunics, body armour and swords. There is no consistency in terms of clothing or style, and a wide range of weaponry is in use, so this set covers all forms of infantry. Helmets in particular are very varied, as are the shields some carry, so these are more of a representation of such warriors than a group that can reasonably be deployed side by side. Since we found no particular information on the look of the troops, we have assumed their appearance was similar to that of their neighbours, in which case we were surprised by so many full-length robes here, but lacking sufficient information we cannot make any definitive comments on accuracy.

The sculpting is crude and not at all attractive, since detail is often hard to make out or simply is missing entirely, with many areas, particularly at the rear, that are a smooth straight surface with no apparent attempt to fashion the arm or whatever is supposed to be there. There are also many cavities, and the rear part of the figures is almost completely flat in most cases, with no more than some engraving at best, smooth featureless plastic at worst. There is no appreciable flash, but enormous areas of excess plastic such as between the legs on most of the poses. The poses are mostly very flat, and feature the common pose of holding one’s weapon directly to the side of the body, so very little here looks at all natural. Only the second figure in our top row has any depth to it at all, and so is the pick of a very bad bunch, though that is not saying much.

Unlike some Hegemony sets, everyone here is moulded with a weapon in hand, but the set also includes the usual collection of plastic strips, presumably intended to be used to fashion a spear. None of the poses here seem suitable for this however, and although the second archer in our bottom row seems to have nothing in his right hand, it makes no sense to give him a spear or pike.

This set left us with far more questions than answers, such as why is the second archer so heavily armoured, and who is the seated figure (presumably a king of some sort)? Overall, we found this a very unsatisfactory set which is badly made and quite ugly, regardless of whether it is historically correct or not. Some sets excite a desire to learn more about the subject, paint them or use them in a model or game. This is not one of those sets.