GOT IN HIMMEL! VICTRIX GERMAN WARRIORS

Tish! I take it most unkindly that thou, Victrix Miniatures, who hast had my purse as if the strings were thine, should'st go and tempt me with this lot.

(Slightly paraphrased opening to William Shakespeare's Othello)

Why oh why, Victrix Miniatures, have you gone and done this too me now? Just when I'm revelling in the delights of building and painting Celtic warriors, in all their checky and stripy glory, you tempt me with this!

No less than 60 Germanic warriors all sprued up in their hairy nastiness and presented to the world in a plastic bag. Do those Victrix people actually, for one moment, believe that I'm going to be tempted by a bag of 60 of my absolute favourite of all time wargames figures? Well, yes of course I am, but I have managed to limit myself to just one bag and a load of LBMS shield transfers.

I bought my bag of hairies without the faintest idea what I was going to use them for, but during the long Lockdown Summer, those epic people at Too Fat Lardies introduced the World to Infamy! Infamy! and the painting flood gates opened.

My initial plan had been to use my Germans for a Batavian Revolt army, which would allow me to add some Victrix Roman Auxiliaries to my ever growing mountain of plastic and enjoy lots of head swapping and figure conversion. At the moment, I have enough Germans for an army of Germania Magna and I've left the project there for the time being, while I concentrate on more figures for Dux Britanniarum.

The Germans are the usual superb quality that we have grown to expect from Victrix and knock the Warlord re-hashed Celts into a cocked hat. They have the usual casting lines which are easily removed with a craft knife and, as usual, there are loads of modelling choices you can make to give your warband that haphazard barbarian look. Some of the torsos are a little neat and tidy in my opinion, looking like they may have bought their trousers from the chino section of Cotton Traders, but the massive choice of hairy heads makes it obvious exactly what they are supposed to be; the deranged frenzies of the Teutoburger Wald, the nightmare of Publius Quinctilius Varus and his Roman legions.

Perhaps my only slight gripe with these figures, is their lack of fur! I don't know why, but in my head, Germanic warriors should be covered in loads of fur. After all, they live in the Teutoburg Forest and grow up hunting wolves and bears and other furry beasts. How do you prove your bravery and skill? By hunting furry things and then you show off by wearing the hide of whatever nasty beast you have killed. Having said this, I really enjoyed using my supply of Green Stuff to fashion some additional fur trim to cloaks, just to beef up the general furriness.

I sort of wish I had the time and inclination to build a Germanic army, or any other army for that matter, for a set of big battle rules because a couple of hundred of these figures based in huge warbands would look amazing on the table top. For my Infamy! Infamy! Army I have added some figures from other manufacturers, particularly Wargames Foundry and old Black Tree Design and they blend in together very well, but without the bag of sixty Victrix figures I think even a large-scale skirmish force would be well beyond my price range. They are, without doubt, both great value and superb quality figures and just what we descendants of Arminius and Julius Civilis have been waiting for.