Review: Baueda vs. Essex Carolingian Era Knights

It took a year, but it is done. I have finished painting my Carolingian knights, and here we are presenting them.
These figures were taken from two compatible suppliers, Baueda and Essex.

Let's start with the latter:

Essex DGS1 - Dark Age: Heavy Cavalry in mail with lance and round shield

These are lovely figures: extremely realistic and detailed, both riders and horses. They could represent most European heavy cavalry between 750 and 950, milites protected by chain mail and open helms, armed with spears and round shields.

Essex DGS2 - Dark Age: Heavy Cavalry in mail with assorted weapons & round shield

These are leaders: two of them look like generic west European knights from the Carolingian and post-Carolingian era, while the other two wear helms with visors making them resemble Norman horsemen. The poses are beautiful, four different ones, and the horses are again great.

Baueda CRL1 - Carolingian Mounted Command

Speaking of leaders, here are the Baueda captains. The miniatures from this producer look more stylized than the Essex ones, with more strinking but less realistic details. There are four poses among the riders and all of them are very well done; and 3-4 poses among the horses. Oh, the horses: sorry Baueda, your horses are not the same as Essex; they are very crude, and I'm being generous. Those that you see in the pictures are actually Essex since I felt bad using Baueda ones with the riders, who are actually beautiful, but you'll see below what I'm talking about.
The Command Group from Baueda well represents the élite of an armed force: counts, gastaldi or sculdasci in charge of a retinue.

Baueda CRL3 - Carolingian Caballari

Caballari, on the other hand, are generic knights armed with a lance and a round shield, and protected by mail armour. These riders (three poses) are less well sculpted than the Command Group, but still nice; but then you see the horses: two poses, and not at all well done.

Baueda CRL4 - Swabian, Bavarian or Thuringian Caballari

The same could be said for the CRL4, with very well detailed, if stylized, riders and mediocre mounts. These are horsemen armed with swords and shields.

Now, let's draw some conclusions: which are best? I like them both, I would say. Essex minis are more proportionate and realistic, but Baueda minis are more varied, easier to recognize in the crowd of other figures, and funnier to paint; the Command group is delightful; but their horses suck. So it really depends on personal taste, I would say.

Both lines are 100% compatible: just compare DGS2 and CRL1.

These are incidentally some of those that I really like (again, CRL1 horse is actually stolen from Essex set).

But here are some extra pictures, just to show off the painting, because this time I'm quite proud of them and I'm not sure next time they'll be as good!

Essex Normans, the horse on the right is actually Baueda

A better view of the command group CRL1, only the white horse is Baueda, the others are all Essex

Review: Baueda Carolingian Frankish and Lombards

Although I am a big Middle-earth fan, my primary interest these days is the historical period often called Post-Carolingian (roughly from the end of the imperial Carolingian dynasty in 887 to the beginning of the imperial Ottonian one in 962). This is a particularly dark period for Europe, but also a crucial one because it's the time Saracens and Magyars get repelled from the South and East; the time when Normans start to mix with other Europeans and absorb their civilisation; it's the time the old nations of Romans, Franks, Lombards, Saxon etc. start to lose their identity, and the new nations of Italians (Italici), French (Francisci) and Germans (Teutisci), based on language, arise. 


These below are the first 15mm miniatures I got, with a sample order to Baueda. It was my first attempt to build a Post-Carolingian armed band. I was, and I am, very happy with them.

Baueda is a company based in Vedano Olona (Varese), at the feet of the Italian Alps. It does a lot of products, specializing in tabletop accessories such as camps, fortifications, buildings, etc. They also produce a wide range of miniatures. In the 15mm scale they have a pretty interesting offer.

Now, prices are all right and although delivery is not cheap (EUR 12.5 flat rate, but hey what can we do with Italian mail service?), it works pretty well. I got my order in just a couple of days - granted, the shipping place is about 50km to the delivery place, but still. Service was fast, efficient and extremely friendly.

Here's a picture of what I got:

Now, although the order was just a sampling, the idea behind it was to recreate a force of Italic Kingdom under the reign of king Berengar I (888-924 AD), and the miniatures have been painted accordingly.

The quality of figures is extremely good: the scale is 15mm foot-to-eye, so that they may vary in size, if they crouch or wear a tall helm. The sculptor is Marco Campagna, who achieved a pleasant balance between realism and stylization, meaning that the figures look realistic enough but they are still very nice to paint in detail.

Now, let's have a look in detail at some of the products:

CRL0

The "Charlemagne command" was chosen to represent king Berengar and his herald. The pack also contains the two characters dismounted, which is quite useful if you plan Skirmish Games where a horseman can be dismounted and still continue to fight. The figures are very, very nice as you can see, and the detail is deep and historically accurate.

CRL4

The "Swabian, Bavarian or Thuringian caballarii" can represent basicly any post-Carolingian heavy cavalry armed with sword and shield. I painted with the same colour pattern to represent them as high level retainers who received their weapons from a common Lord. As you can see, 3 different figures in one pack, and again amazing detail.

CRL5

The "Frankish heavy horse archers" represent heavy cavalry armed with bows. 2 poses in a pack of 4 pictures, still good and good detail. Again, I used the same colour pattern as if they are the personal guard of a Lord.

CRL6

But what about the little guys on foot? Here are the "Carolingian Archers", or any archers drawn from the rural, working population in western Europe at that time. 8 figures and 4 poses is quite good, and I also like the detail. The archers were painted all differently to represent the fact that they are a militia with no regular equipment. Colours are quite garish as I wanted my archers to be prosperous massari (peasants) proudly defending their lands (well, their liege's lands!) from the enemy, and not the muddy, poor kind waiting for the first chance to run away from the fight.

LNG5

"Lombard Mounted Followers" are perfect to represent middle-class milites (warriors), who own enough land to equip themselves for war with sword, shield, spear and, most importantly, a horse, but not rich enough to own an armour (which was quite expensive at the time). They were painted in different patterns to represent the origin of their equipment. Here we have 3 poses on 4 figures, and the detail! I especially love the guy on the right and his beard and hair.

LNG6

"Lombard Foot Command": again great detail, and many poses (3 different ones on 8 figures per pack). Here I used them to represent middle and high level milites who will lead the battle groups. In Carolingian and post-Carolingian Italy, the higher milites were often of Frankish, Burgundian, Bavarian or Alemannian origin, while the middle and small milites were typically local Lombards (with a few Ostrogothic elements). Peasants were mostly "Romanic", that is descended from the pre-barbarian population: a mix of Celtic, Etruscan and central Italic blood.

LNG8

The "Lombard Urban Militia" is perfect to be used in post-Carolingian times. This heterogeneous group represents a force of Freemen, most probably craftsmen (smiths, taylors, carpenters) or bureaucrats (small judges or scabini, inspectors, secretaries and messengers). They bring a shield, a sword and a spear, but they aren't rich enough to ride a proper horse. Here we have 4 poses on 8 figures, and nice detail.

LNG10

Provided Freemen were only bound to serve in the army in times of defensive war, in those occasions they weren't only drawn from the city-dwellers. A lot of them actually dwelled in the countryside, remnants of the old Lombard farae who now lived by tilling the land or herding pigs in the woods. They were poor, but they were still free. Most importantly, they were pretty bad-ass, and they went to war armed only with axes and crude swords, and round, coloured shields with the colours of their lineage. The "Lombard warband" was perfect to represent them: here quality is not as high as with other products, and I guess these were sculpted earlier than most. Still, there are 4 poses on 8 figures, and their crudity matches well the characters they represent.

So, in the end two thumbs up for Baueda! I'm gonna get more miniatures from them and expand this army.

Did some of you try this range too? Leave a comment, and let me know.