Siege Machines 2 - Oxford Review

[crossmr]

Name: Siege Machines #2

Theme: Castle/The Great King Gwang-ge-to

Pieces: I'd guess 200-300

Price: 12000 won ($9.97 USD)

Minifigs: 5

Construction time: 45-60 minutes

I picked this up as it was very cheap, even cheaper in stores than online. Not sure why this set is going so cheap, but it is a good price option for figures, weapons and parts

Box

Nice big box. Has the plastic tie around it that all the bigger boxes have. Sturdy, opens well, shows an alternate build on the back.

Instructions

Has 2 parts. The battering ram and catapult. As well as a small "how to put together the figs and attach a pole to a horse saddle" instruction.

Pieces

Lots of stuff here. Some wheels, weapons, paper armor on the leader, unique battering ram and catapult. A couple launchers from the Hwacha, some big flag poles, extra flags, etc

Minifigs

5 total, 3 good guys 2 bad guys. A horse. 2 weapon sprues. though half the weapons are for the leader. Standard Oxford quality. Nice printed torsos.

Construction

Smooth. one issue of note was that on the last step for the catapult, they had the platform facing the wrong way in the instructions, but the right way on the pictures on the back and front. It's trivial to flip it around.

Finished model

It is a nice battering ram and catapult. Here is the problem though.

This particular line from Oxford is small, it only has 6 sets. The hwacha is very unique and there are 3 different sized castles. The problem is these two siege engine sets. The castles basically duplicate them.

You need a castle to siege and they all come with siege engines. Now if you want to simulate a giant army attacking, I guess this is handy. Admittedly the models are different than what is in the castle, but how many giant battering rams do 5 guys need to attack a castle? The nice thing about this set is that it does include many extra flags. It is easy to change the affiliation of any particular set. Except for those Goguryeo stickers on the side of the battering ram, but the piece can pop off. I think the idea here is that while all of the sets are keyed as the good guys being in the castle or the owners of the various sets you could easily designate one for the bad guys by changing the flags, divide up the siege engines and go nuts. that set, playability on their own is a little limited, because they have no direct castle to siege, they are meant to be integrated into a castle set.

Another bonus of this set because it is cheap and plentiful is custom builds. The castle line is very limited, and I think it might be possible to make some other castle buildings using pieces from this set. Say a blacksmith shop, markets, wagons, and other things, all the while increasing your soldier count. There is a distinct lack of non-soldier figures in this line. One thing this series suffers from is "unique leader overload". Every set except the hwacha has a King. Do you really need that many kings? I think these manufacturers should skip the King in all except the largest set, and sell him individually. His face is plain though, so you could take the paper armor off and have him be a black clothed peasant.

Leftovers

Conclusion

Minifig - 9/10 great a mount of figures, lots of weapons, bits all look and feel great.

Parts - 9/10 lots of pieces for such a cheap price, a few unique pieces

Playability - 6/10 at least until I really explore what can be done for custom builds in a set, on its own, it's hard to do much besides fight over a battering ram

Design - 9/10 both of these units look nice. Feel solid.

Price - 10/10 fantastic price for the amount of things you get here. If you want castle stuff, get 5.

Total - 43/50 Great set, just make sure you have a castle available to send them to fight.

[prateek]

Nice. Now I want some Oxford sets just for the weapons and accesories.

[crossmr]

For castle stuff, this is the set to do it with. 5 figures, 2 weapon sprues, couple shields, helmets, it is a pretty decent deal.

If you want some unique weapons, armor and an epic sword you might check out this set:

only about $5 more than this set. but look at that sword and shield!

[Peppermint_M]

I love the swords, they are rather epic. This is the reason I buy clone sets, accessories. Will index this after this post

[crossmr]

I love the swords, they are rather epic. This is the reason I buy clone sets, accessories. Will index this after this post

Yes, I just wish I could petition Oxford to reduce the size of their weapons on all themes by about 25%. It is not as bad for fantasy stuff, but the military guns are just too oversized.

The way some of them are made though I think I could take a hobby knife, cut out a section and use some model glue to put it back together (and maybe give it a touch of gun metal to cover up any seam)