ALL72029

The historic Cimmerians had been a nomadic tribe from the Steppe, so it might have been expected that their fantasy counterparts would be similar, but it would seem not. This set of mounted Cimmerians has the feel of heavy cavalry, with an assortment of helmets sprouting horns, skulls and fancy designs, plus some equally exotic armour on a couple of poses - we particularly liked the knee protectors made to look like skulls. Most are stripped to the waist to show off their rippling muscles, and some also have armour on the lower leg. Just one man has a bow, and the rest carry a wide range of very heavy weapons, some of them two-handed, which are never a great choice for mounted men. One has a blade in each hand - again tricky at the best of times, and particularly with a horse to control under you - and another has a sort of flail, which would be thoroughly dangerous to him and his mount as it whirls about in battle. Big swords, big hammers, big men; you get the idea. These are mean and very dangerous horsemen who can wield some impressive weapons while riding horseback.

Their skills do not end with their weapons, for every man here is riding a horse bareback, with no reins or any other way of controlling the animal. The horses themselves are particularly heavy in appearance, and are mostly on the move, adding to the intimidating look of the rider. The horse poses are pretty good, but the men as usual tend to hold their weapon out to right or left, and never with the blade pointing forwards. The one man who is without a horse instead holds his sword directly over the centre of his head, in exactly the way it is impossible for a human to do. Flat though they are, the poses are not the worst ever seen, and at least some of the weapons are being held at a bit of an angle rather than directly vertical. The detail on these intricate fighters is very nice, and there are lots of nice ideas on decoration and style. There is a fair amount of flash, mostly on the riders, but these make a nice companion set to the two sets of foot soldiers already made.