The Steppe Warriors set is a historical miniatures box produced by Fireforge Games to provide a solid infantry or missile troop core for Mongol Hordes in their 28mm medieval wargame Deus Vult. While I’ve never played that game, and am not qualified to comment on how well they fulfil that particular specification, the number of options in the box lead me to guess that it probably offers quite a bit of utility.
However, that’s not what I got them for! The reason I picked some up is that I’ve been collecting a thematic Kislev army for Warhammer Fantasy Battles based on the old 4th Edition Empire Army Book and, due to the dearth of affordable original miniatures on the market these days, was forced to look elsewhere for models. I grabbed two boxes, for a total of 48 figures, which would allow me to field a single unit of 24 spearmen, as well as a pair of 12-strong Archer units. These I envisioned as the provincial troops of my army, drawn from the outlying settlements and perhaps even the wandering tribes of Kislev’s frozen wastelands. I feel like the aesthetic of these miniatures has just the right semi-primitive quality to fit with the original Kislev Horse Archer models produced back in the 1990s.
Contents
The box contains a total of 6 miniature sprues, plus a couple more containing the bases. The miniatures sprues are divided between 5 standard trooper sprues and one which replaces some of the shields with command upgrades. Each mini sprue can build four troopers, each with a different leg pose.
Command sprue x 1
As for the options, there’s only a single banner pole per box, so if you want multiple command groups you’ll need to source another pole from somewhere else, convert your own, or make do with using one of the shorter spears (these are around the same height as a man). The loadouts available are a selection of hand weapons (primarily curved swords, with a handful of axes and maces thrown in), the aforementioned spears, and short bows; there are also 2 different styles of shield, a buckler-esque variant with 6 different front plates, and a mono-design, flat wicker-slab shield (I absolutely love this design, but be aware that there are only 20 per box). There are 8 different heads per frame, as well as additional helmets if you want them.
Standard trooper sprue x 5
Building & Modelling
A selection of bowmen
The cleanup on these guys is about what you’d expect from a professional miniatures company: not bad, but be prepared to put a little time in to make sure you get the mould lines done properly. Some of the assembly can be a little fiddly, especially if you want the bald heads with the separate topknots, but overall it’s pretty straightforward and shouldn’t present any difficulties to a builder with any kind of experience (although there is a basing caveat, see below).
Some of the spearmen ranked up
The actual figures come with moulded-on bases, so if you’re not too fussy about bases they should stand on their own just fine. However, due to the dynamic poses of the minis (some overarm stabbing/throwing spears, some holding them at rest, others pointing them towards the ground, and shield arms occasionally at outthrust angles) if you’re planning on sticking them to square bases, a little care will be needed to ensure they rank up properly.
Note: I chose to base my guys on some standard 20mm MDF blocks for the sake of future uniformity in my Kislev project, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the ones that come in the box.
Base sprue x 2
Summary
An excellent kit with a huge number of modelling options, this set is suitable for both historical gaming and the proxy role to which I’m putting it. The option count is impressive, as is the cost-to-model ratio.