Sarmatians

[Ochoin]

There are a few hard to get & fairly horrible sets of these Iranian steppe warriors out there.

They were conquered by the Huns & rode with them.

I was looking at this fantasy set & thought they might make good historical Sarmatians.

https://www.drumandflag.co.uk/products/ ... 6ce0&_ss=r

Opinion?

donald

[Fire at Will]

At first glance they look good for the armoured nobility, would need to check my sourcebooks to be sure. Like "Armies & Enemies of Imperial Rome"

[Ochoin]

At first glance they look good for the armoured nobility, would need to check my sourcebooks to be sure. Like "Armies & Enemies of Imperial Rome"

I have the book in front of me.
The Dark Alliance figures look like not unlike the Sarmatians he illustrates: they are a bit more elaborate than the no-frills line drawings but I think that would be OK.

Fortunately, Mr Barker also says about half the horses were armoured - which also matches the set.

He does say only the richer nobles would have metal scales. The rest would have horn scales (of greenish-blue colour) or even red-lacquered rawhide scales. I need to think about that.

donald

[Chariobaude]

my favorite set for sarmatian cavalry :

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1715

Maybe some helmets are wrong, but it is the simpliest thing to change/remove.

The only problem with this set is the size : these riders are pretty big !

An another set you can consider :http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1473

But you just can't mix both of them. The Hat minis will look like hobbits !

[Ochoin]

my favorite set for sarmatian cavalry :

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1715
!

@ Chariobaude, I have thought long about your suggestion.

I have, however, decided to go with the Dark Alliance Steppe Warriors. I think they're fairly close to Sarmatians, are of a comparable size to my Tumbling Dice figures but most importantly they have a wild & non-uniform appearance that IMO accords better to wild tribesmen of the steppes.

At some stage, I will buy either/or HaT & Newline Parthian Horse archers as I think they would make fair Sarmatians too. They're all Sakae/Scythians after all.

donald

[carlosfaro]

I suggest as well those Alliance fantasy with some adaptatiin.
And do not forget about Zvezda scythians
They are great. Just give them some caparosined horses from other sets...

[Ochoin]

And do not forget about Zvezda scythians
They are great. Just give them some caparosined horses from other sets...

It is a lovely set. I'm not sure about the square shields but it's hard to be sure about anything when you might have, if you're lucky, two Latin sources who briefly mention a barbarian people they've never seen themselves.

What, for example, did a warrior from the Alan people who rode with Attila look like?

donald

[Flambeau]

The Dark Dream Steppes Warrriors are indeed lovely. Could they be used as Sarmatians? Hm, perhaps, My biggest concern would be the shields, which - if used at all by the heavy cavalry - probably would have been rectangular wicker shields instead of the round shields on the riders in these two sets.

Also the ratio of heavy cavalry used by the Sarmatians may have been a lot smaller, take a look at theses two articles:

https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2017/10/1 ... armatians/
https://www.academia.edu/28156928/Sarma ... gical_Data

Therfore I would also consider using Zvezdas or Orions Scythians
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1820
http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1300

As to the horse armor, Trajan's column depicts Sarmatian horses completely covered in scale male, each leg down to the hooves.
https://followinghadrian.com/2018/04/18 ... drian1900/
While this does look odd and many scholars dismiss this as probably based on the imagination of the sculptor, I would not outright disagree with it, as there were plenty of veterans around, the Romans brought armor as spoils of war back home (http://sarmatianinthesca.blogspot.com/2 ... lie-3.html) and the rest of the troops depicted on the column seem to be pretty accurate. Just a notion, I'm no expert in horse armor.

Hope this helps.

[MABO]

Sorry I am late for this discussion and I am also no expert, but what about the Strelets set?

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=1556

Not the highest standart compared to the up to date Strelets sets, but still...

[Ochoin]

Thanks for the recommendation.

For once, apart from huge hooves, the horses are OK.

But the scrawny figures would not match well with my Tumbling Dice. Italeri, Newline & HaT figures in this era. To be picky as well, the figures are earlier than the C4th & C5th period I'm interested in.


I am very impressed with the Dark Alliance stuff.

I've just started priming them so I expect results in a week or two.
I'll add some HaT Parthian Horse archers to be Sarmatian (Alan) horse archers & I think this will work also.

donald

[MABO]

The period is not the same that is the most important point in my oppinion, so I understand why.

[Xantippos]

I remember when I made some Sarmatians for my own collection, as there was nothing remotely similar around 2004!

In my opinion, those would work perfectly. They are armoured cavalry, so not exactly as to represent the whole army, but perfectly fine. The Sarmatians were renowned as excellent cavalrymen, and very heavily armoured, and as such were used as auxiliaries by the romans, even being transported to Britannia to fight for them.

This being said, the Strelets Sarmatians are very nice, in my opinion one of the best Strelets sets. I was thinking too they were a bit ugly, but in hand they were much better than expected.