Conquest Games plastic Norman knights- unboxing, review and sprue inspection

This review is for the Conquest Games plastic Norman knights set

This was the first time I've seen inside this box- I've not handled conquest figs before but after hearing good things I gave them ago, and I'm glad I did!

Although I dont play Normans and dont really like the Norman feel of things, I got these to represent Saxon cavalry or knights brought over form the continent as mercenaries.

You get 12 cavalry for your money, pretty good value and really nice figs. Thats one commandsprue and 3 standard sprues. You actually get 15 bodies and 12 horses to allow for a bit of variation amongst the unit.

Heres the sprues:

command sprue

This is the 'command' sprue. Comes with a banner arm, horn arm, a stick- not sure why youd go to war with a club when youre a knight but yes a stick, and some sword and spear arms. You also get a choice of round or kite shields which is a nice touch.

You can see in the bottom left there is a downed knight too- perfect for dioramas or a gaming objective. Im thinking of running a scenario around him with both sides battling to reach him and take him captive/ home.

The horses are multipart and well detailed and you can mix them up to get a few extra poses.

The three torsos are a mix of what looks like chain, boiled leather and quilted leather to give some variation between figures. No heads on this sprue but theyre found on the standard sprue.

flipped command sprue

As you can see some shields come with arms and some don't so you may have to do some minor converting.

This is the standard sprue. You get your 3 horses again, 4 torsos this time, same amount of shields and arms and now also the heads. The heads do look quite Norman-ish but they will do as Saxons too. Mixture of three torsos again.

The arms on most, if not all, join just below the elbow. This gives great joins which stick well and look durable but doesn't allow as much free positioning as I'd have liked. You can still get good poses out of them if you fiddle, I would've just preferred a bit extra freedom. 

The heads are glued on to a plateau neck, with the head also including the full throat. This means mixing these with other ranges will be tricky- you can probably lobotomise other heads but it'll be a fiddly job. If you manage to feel free to let me know!

Over all the scale works well with other ranges, once ive built a few ill add them to the scaling post from yesterday. Their weapons and bodies match up well with other ranges- shame they've been designed so the components don't mix as theres some cool bits on the gripping beast sprue id love to add to these guys.

In the box you also get a set of renedra cavalry bases! Bonus!

All in all, a good set of plastic cavalry. Not too expensive and scale up well with other 28mm dark ages miniatres. Shame they have incompatible components as kitbashing these would be awesome, but their price and the fact theyre all plastic make up for it in my opinion!

Detailing & sculpting: 9/10- barely any mould lines, good detailing, but lack of poses and joined arms.

Scaling: 9/10- range well with most other 28mm ranges

Amount of bits: 4/10- not enough extra bits for my liking- very little to speak of but does allow for varied weapons

Ease of construction: 8/10- not too fiddly- arm joints are unusual and are a bit fiddly at times

Value for money: 8/10- cavalry are always pricey and i felt these weren't too badly priced, although for the money I would expect more spare parts, alternative helmets and maybe a few axes. Having 15 men and 12 horses seemed strange too, rather lose the 3 spare bodies in exchange for a conversion section. But then again these are the only dark ages cavalry in plastic of this quality on the market, and compared to metal figs are pocket money.

Over all: 38/50 - not bad but could be better!- buy alongside some gripping beast plastic figures and your lack of bits will be remedied!

Thanks for looking!