Best Kept Secrets: Ral Partha Europe, part 2

Irregular Archer #1

Irregular Archer #2

Continuing my look at the Divided Kingdoms range, formerly Crucible, offered by Ral Partha Europe. IMO these figures make great proxies for Tekumel gaming. I manufacture Tekumel miniatures, but with Tsolyanu alone having around 90 legions that task of making all the required (desired?) miniatures myself is plainly impossible. Hence: proxies to the rescue! :-)

In the first part of this Ral Partha Europe piece I skipped over the archers. This is because I haven't spent that much time trying to sort out which legions or nation's forces they might proxy. The closest I've come is for these "Irregular Archers" who are wearing a sort of Brigantine armour. My current thinking is that this could be painted in red and black checks, possibly, to represent the Red Horde of Kilalammu.

Regular Archer #1

Regular Archer #2

These could be part of the same legion, or two different ones, as there are differences in the armour and really it depends upon how uniform you think each particular nation would be. Professor Barker once told me that the Yan koryani were less uniform than the Tsolyani, and suggested that within a gurek each trooper could be wearing differently styled armour. Some might be newer styles, but others might be wearing family heirlooms, that sort of thing. When I commissioned the Yan Koryani figures the way I handled that was by getting three helmet variants made. There were already 2 male and one female pose for each troop type so adding the helmet variations gave nine variants. And there are at least nine troop types, including heavy scale armour and medium armour (in chlen hide cuirass) as well as weapons: overhand cutting, underhand thrust, 2-handed pike or halberd, etc. This means that there are around 80+ Yan Koryani figures. Normally I just add the variation via the helmet variants but latley I have been thinking of mixing scale armour and cuirass in the same units. All of these figures are those wearing the khil, that distinctive Yan Korynai helmet style. Not all Yan Koryani use it, however, and one could argue in favour of mixing other helmet styles in the same gureks. 

But I digress. These Regular Archers could be Yan Koryani, or perhaps Mu'ugalvaynai or Salarvyani. I am leaning toward the latter two nations. But which one...?

Mercenary Berserker Swordsman

Mercenary Berserker Axeman

These have a really wild, ragged look to them. I like all the sculpted faces on the various bits of armour. This is a feature throughout the range that is an added "plus" for me. These figures are obviously less "disciplined legion" and more "wild tribesman". My thinking is Haida Pakalla, maybe, or maybe Ghatoni. The braided hair of the swordsman does say "N'luss" in a way, but think the figure is not large enough to be a proper N'luss. But the hairstyle could be a regional thing and Ghaton is just adjacent to N'lussa. I might end up using them as Ghatoni tribal levy, hillfolk following the army in search of loot. And I might still add the odd figure, differently painted, into my Haida Pakallan pirate crews. My idea for them is for a very mixed lot of savages.

There are a couple of other Divided Kingdom figures I want ot comment on, but maybe I will do an edit this evening. Tomorrow, I'll comment about the Chaos Imperium range...