Middle-earth Cavalry

Last week I received the latest sets from Dark/Light Alliance, consisting of two sets of Mounted Light Eastern Tribes, Southern Kingdom Warriors Heavy Cavalry, and Windy Bay Warriors Heavy Cavalry.

The figures were released a while back, but I was too slow to order them from my usual source, so had to wait for a restock since they sold out very quickly.

The first two sets are meant to represent Easterling cavalry. I've seen some mention that the "tribe" they're supposed to represent are known as the "Wasaki", but I'm not sure if this is a Peter Jackson term or if it came from somewhere else. The only reference I could find to the word was for a company that sells halal Wagyu.

The figures seem to be modeled after the Easterling Kataphrakts from GWs MESBG (though when I hear the word cataphract, I think of heavy cavalry rather than light cavalry).

Set 1 consists of two javalin men, and four archers.

Set 2 consists of a commander with a "glaive" (a GW appellation), a banner carrier, and four swordsmen.

The horses from both sets are identical, and come in six poses.

The next set of cavalry is meant to represent the Knights of Gondor. I don't think the term came from Tolkien, but rather originated from the video game The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth II.

Special Extended Edition: Director's Cut mod
for The Battle for Middle-earth II

The box art depicts knights reminescent of the Peter Jackson films, but the actual figures bear somewhat less of a resemblance in my opinion.

The figure are made with ring hands to accomodate the weapons supplied with the set (two styles of lance, three different types of sword, and an axe).

The horses come in six poses.

The final set is meant to represent the Swan-knights of Dol Amroth. The "Windy Bay" refers to "the windy Bay of Bel" mentioned in the poem The Man in the Moon Came Down Too Soon, which is an allusion to the Bay of Belfalas.

Swan-knights from Middle Earth mod
for Total War Kingdoms

The Knights of Dol Amroth are typically depicted wearing winged helms, but only one pose has such a helmet. Instead, they are distinguished by a winged badge on their right pauldron.

The figure are made with ring hands to accomodate the weapons supplied with the set (two styles of lance, three different types of sword, and a flail).

The horses are identical to the ones from the Southern Kingdoms set, but in a different colored plastic.

All in all, another nice effort by Alliance from their line of Middle-earth figures. I also think the mounts are much better than the undersized horses used in the previous set of Black Riders.

Rangers, Cyclopes, Anubians, and more

Dark Dream Studio has released their latest group of 1/72 fantasy sets. These miniatures extend their range of Middle Earth figures, and also include some generic fantasy figures as well.

The Black Riders don't seem to have made their way to North America yet, so a review will have to wait for another day, but I was able to get the other figures.

The first set are Rangers, and they are classified as Southern Kingdom Warriors (which I assume means they are Gondorians).

The set contains figures in 12 poses that include swordsmen, and male and female archers.

The figures are well sculpted and can be used for any type of medieval European fantasy gaming.

The next set is the Anubis Army, which I am guessing come from the 2001 movie The Mummy Returns.

These jackal headed creatures are often called Anubians in the FRP world, and the set includes 10 different poses armed with a variety of weapons.

The figures are well sculpted, and much taller than humans. They are also very muscular, so they're not quite like the more mummified movie versions of these creatures.

A couple of previous Anubian figures come from the Age of Mythology game and the Arcane Legions game, with the later probably being more compatible with the Dark Alliance figures than the former.

The next set are Cyclopes.

The set has 4 poses of classical cyclopes that are about twice the height of a human.

They fall somewhere in the middle as far as height goes compared to other cyclops miniatures which can be seen here.

The final two sets are a couple of older releases. The first being Light Warriors of the Dead (the companion to this set is reviewed here).

The set contains lightly armored figures in 10 poses.

The figure with the sling is supposed to be carrying a shield, but all of the figures in my set have their left arm short shot. I think the set I bought was a recent production run, so the molds may have some issues now.

Intact figure

The next set is the third installment of Light Alliance Elves. I was not a fan of the first set, but I think that these are a huge improvement.

There are 10 poses including swordsmen in heavy armor, one female with sword and dagger, and male and female archers. All of them stand at least half a head taller than a human.

They look more like the elves from the Lord of the Rings movies, and they aren't as bandy-legged as the figures from Set 1.

Overall, this is a nice group of sets from Dark Dream Studio. I think the Rangers and Army of the Dead are the most useful, while the other figures are of more limited use.

Light Alliance Dwarves

Last month I was informed by a reader that the Light Alliance Dwarves had been released. Despite hating the Light Alliance Elves, I went ahead and purchased a set of the dwarves.

The set comes with four identical sprues of figures in dark tan plastic. My first impression when I saw the figures was that they looked really tall. They wear chain hauberks and helmets, but unlike the box art, only two of the dwarves are armed with axes (small hand axes at that). The figures are all really well done, and there was little flash. One of the figures had a fissure where the arm joins the shoulder, but all of the duplicate figures had the same problem, so it may be some issue with the mold.

The first group of figures are the larger dwarves. These dwarves scale out to over 5' tall. The first figure holding the spear would probably be almost as tall as a human if standing upright. Strangely enough, the figure only has a mustache, rather than the full beard all his compatriots wear. Perhaps he represents the elusive half-dwarf...


The second group of figures are shorter, but still fairly tall for dwarves. They are similar in size to the larger Caesar dwarves, but at least they are under 5' tall.


Actually when placed next to the Caesar dwarves, they don't particularly look big at all.

Light Alliance Elves

Despite my misgivings after seeing some images of the Orion/Light Alliance Elves (ALL72004), I went ahead and ordered a set. The box art shows armored and helmeted elves reminiscent of the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films, but the figures in the box are quite different.

My first impression was that these elves were tall, with really long legs, but all bowed out as if they were the overgrown spawn of Svetlana Pankratova and Publius Quinctilius Varus.

The set comes with four identical sprues of figures. They wear chainmail and leather armor, but unlike the box art they do not wear helmets. They stand about 28-30mm from the bottom of the foot to the top of the head, so scale out to about 7 feet tall. And while I said I liked my elves to be tall, these figures are just a little too much. If they had made them just 2mm shorter they probably would have looked more proportional, but as it is, I doubt I'll spend any money on Set 2 when it comes out.

Below are the five melee poses.



Next are five archer poses.



Lastly, a comparison with Caesar elves.