Zvezda Mongols

Box Art
Box Art
(Actually reproduced without permission!)
Sprues

Last updated Wednesday, 15 November 2000

First off, let me just say that what follows here are just my oppinions, and hey, I could be wrong! In fact, I've already had feed back from Jason Moffatt (who has ever so kindly provided me a review of Zvezda's Greek Infantry) to say that he really likes these Mongols, in spite of my "funny little figures" comment!

Zvezda Mongol Cavalry ManOverall, these are, well, funny little figures. They are slightly smaller than their Italeri counterparts and more "chunky". Quite simple and rough castings that remind me of figures that came out for board games such as "Shogun" and the like. Still, they are almost so ugly as to be cute! (Bit of an exageration, but still...)

On the plus side, they do at least have foot figures (unlike the Italeri ones), including a couple of one bloke charging forward with one of the huge cavalry lances - he'd be a Spear, me thinks.

DBA Army List # 154 - Mongols (1206 AD - 1368 AD)

  • 4x 3Cv


  • 3x 2Lh


  • 4x 2Lh or 4Sp or 4Bw


  • 1x Art or 2Ps


  • (1x Camp Followers)

Zvezda Mongol SwordsmanOk, so even if you went for the all mounted option, you'd still need foot figures (either for the Ps or to crew a scratch built artillery piece). And since these mounted figures won't fit in real well with the Italeri horses, you may have to consider trying to make an army out of just these.

Well, you don't have to of course. You could use Italeri horses, and Zvezda foot, but you'd have a heap of left over figures, which I always try to avoid. You know, inefficient use of resources and all that......OK, so I'm cheap and don't want to have to spend any more money than is absolutley necessary!!

So how many of what can you make out of one of these packs?

Ummm, you get 3 foot archers, 5 horse archers, 7 heavy cav types, 2 spear and 5 swordsmen. So, if you got 2 packs you could make...

  • Zvezda Mongol Cavalryman  4 Cv (you only get three armoured horses per box, so half of your Cv will on un-armoured horses, which could be over doing it anyway...more below),


  • Zvezda Horse Archer  6 LH (you'll have to spread out the horse archers by mixing in two of the heavy guys - for what it's worth, I think these guys look like they could double as Russ or even Late Byzantine horse archers as well),


  • Mongol Archer  and of course your 1 Ps (actually three of them - but not nearly enough archers for 4 reg Bw's).


You could substitue 1 4Sp for the 7 th LH. Don't know if this is actually "official", but hey! Otherwise you'd need a third pack for two more horse archers - and you'd still not have enough archers for the 4 4Bw option (or Sp option either for that matter).

Actually, Stan Walker has just forwarded me this...

(Stan)

Nick...

From Davids comments below [from his excellent Mongol Army Essay], the line 4x 2Lh or 4Sp or 4Bw is read as 4 elements, made up of a mix of the following....

Spear represent Chinese or Korean subject foot and allies. Bow can represent dismounted Mongol bowmen, a tactic they used when they faced Elephants; it can also represent Han-chun archers or crossbowmen which would be fairly numerous in a Yuan army. Infantry was a fairly large component of a Yuan army; taking all 4 elements as foot of some sort would be fairly common.

else would be writen 4x 2Lh or 4x4Sp or 4x4Bw...( can't be sure, as I havn't got my rules handy.)

So some Bw & 1Sp with some Lh is a legal use of the figures...

Stan

And I've just received this from Luke Ueda-Sarson of the DBM mail list fame (he's even credited in the back of the book!)...

(Nick) G'day Luke,

(Luke) > Hmm - since only 10% of Mongols are reported to have rode armoured
> horses, I think at least one of your criticisms is a bit unfair...

(Nick) That few?

(Luke) > Apparently so (there isn't actually that much evidence on such Mongol
> matters). So basically, they should be restricted to your just your
> general's element in a DBA army...
>
> You'll notice too that in the DBM Mongol Conquest list, there are a
> maximum (not counting generals ) of 8 Cv (S) Mongols - ie those with
> armoured horses (and/) OR lances - so not even all the Cv (S) elemnts
> would have armoured horses, and a minimum of none, but up to 40 LH
> Mongol elements (min 6)...
>
> Cheers
>
> Luke

For what it's worth, for a DBM Mongol army, I'd probably go with the Italeri/all mounted option, as these Zvezda foot figures look to well dressed to be considered Hordes. Mind you, I'm not that familiar with the DBM Mongol list, so there could well be another option that I don't know about (Mark Ottley has just suggested that some could be used as dismounted bowmen...).

See David Kjuit's excellent Mongol Army Essay for a much (much) more indepth look at this army.

By the way, I've got hold of some of these to sell - $NZ 7.50 ea. Anyone interested, please let me know.


Back


[Home] [Plastic Figures] [Buy] [Bulletin Board] [Battles] [Gallery] [Guestbook] [History] [NZ Wargaming] [Painting] [Rules]

This page hosted by Get your own Free Homepage

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1