This set identifies itself as for the fifth and sixth centuries, and by the start of that period the Romans had already long been familiar with the Goths. Many Goths had served in Roman armies, but there had also been many clashes, most famously the Battle of Adrianople in 378, where a Gothic army destroyed a Roman one. The early years of the fifth century saw Goths under Alaric invade northern Italy and, in 410, sack the city of Rome itself. By this time there were two main groups of Goths – the western or Visigoths, and the eastern, or Ostrogoths. Alaric lead the Visigoths to Rome, but they ended up settled in what is now southern France and Spain, while the Ostrogoths would also move west from their Balkan base, and would establish a kingdom in Italy that endured until its reconquest by the Eastern Empire in the mid sixth century. Goths would also find themselves facing other opponents during these two centuries such as Franks, Burgundians and Vandals, and would ultimately disappear from history, but their name remains as one of the most recognisable of the ‘barbarian’ enemies facing the Romans.

As usual with Linear-A, we find quite a diverse range of figures in this box, so helpfully the box makes some introductions. Our top row are all labelled as Ostrogoths, and the first man in our second row is the same, but also described as a ‘noble’. Beside him is a ‘bandit’ (there is nothing about him that stops him being an ordinary Ostrogoth warrior too), then a mercenary archer, and an Avar mercenary. The bottom row contains the only mounted figure in the set, a ‘Herulian princely warrior of Theodoric’s Comitatus’.

The ordinary Ostrogoths in this set all look to be perfectly authentic, and display typical Gothic features such as the Spangenhelm, long tunic with long sleeves, and trousers. Armour such as helmets had previously been only for the wealthy elites, but by the fifth century it was more common, thanks in part to increased trade with Roman lands, and to captures from those same Romans. The mercenary archer wears a cap, but the rest have either a helmet or are bare-headed, which in some cases reveals rather wild and unkempt hair. The tunics and trousers have no engraved decoration, but would in reality often have had patterns on them. The ‘noble’ warrior has a lamellar or scale corselet, a plume on his helmet, and wears an animal skin as a cape, so is readily identifiable as someone of importance.

The Avar mercenary wears a full-length robe that opens at the front, and has a belt with several items hanging from it such as a sword, arrow case and horn. His head is shaved except for a central section that is worn long, in the style of Huns and other steppe groups such as this. He holds a spear that is 39 mm (281 cm) in length, and in his other hand he has a recurve bow.

The princely warrior has a Spangenhelm with a plume, and is otherwise dressed in typical Gothic style, though no doubt of finer quality and more richly decorated. He wears a cloak, as does one of the foot figures, and is armed with both a sword and a bow. He sits astride a horse which we thought was done very well, with an interesting harness that has a couple of skulls hanging from it, advertising the grisly end of some previous opponents. This was a Hunnic custom copied by many other peoples, including the Herulii, and he also exhibits other Steppe features such as the braiding of the horse’s mane, and the high front to the saddle, which is here part of the figure rather than the horse. When man and horse are put together, they make a magnificent piece, beautifully done.

The rest of the figures are also beautifully done, as we have come to expect from Linear-A. The clothing is generally simple, but well done, and where detail is called for, such as the faces and hair, and the costume of the elite figures, it is perfect – even the texture of the animal pelt is good. We were particularly pleased to see that the manufacturer has dropped the attempt to model bowstrings, since they had to be much too thick to avoid breakage – the bows here look great as a result. The weapons are all long and thin, and are excellent here, none appearing too thick or out of proportion. The swords are of the spatha type, which is good, and the spears all look good too. The noble warrior carries an axe, and whilst this is not visible in our picture, the axe head is a good size – not much too big as is often seen in sets. The shields are mostly oval, with one round one, all with a central hand grip, largely mirroring those of the Romans, which is correct for this time period. They have no designs on the front (we approve!), but the backs suggest they are made of planks of wood, and they have a range of bosses, all of which are fine. As these figures are 3D printed, there is no loss of detail anywhere, even in hard to see places like the inner face of some shields. Indeed, some of the shields show signs of cuts and damage from previous encounters – a really nice little touch.

The major joy of 3D printing is the freedom it gives when it comes to designing poses, and all of these figures benefit greatly from this. Weapons are held at natural angles, and shields are also in logical positions, without any need for assembly. The proportions are perfect, and of course there is no flash or other material to remove before they go into action. Six of the poses are in ‘action’ positions, with several running, which nicely reflects the reported preference for Gothic armies to simply charge an opponent (although tactics could be more sophisticated when required). The two just standing are also highly attractive poses, and the officer, on his horse, would not normally engage in actual combat anyway, so is also fine.

The standout features of this set are the finer detail (particularly the faces and hair) and the dynamic, utterly realistic poses, but of course the accuracy cannot be faulted either. With only a handful of poses, not all of whom are actually Goths, it is impossible to depict the complete look of such an army, but we thought these were about as good as you could ask for. As for negative observations, we have one tiny one, and one much bigger. The tiny one is there are no reins for the mounted officer, though as his hand is very low, this is difficult to notice anyway, and fairly easy to resolve. The big problem is these men are rather too tall, at an average of 1.87 metres (that’s over six feet in old measurements). An analysis of male Visigoth burials in Spain produced an average height of 1.65 metres, and while Roman writers described the Goths and other Germans as particularly tall, this was by the Roman standards of the day, and is likely exaggerated here. That aside, this is a terrific set of figures, and while 3D printing of this quality comes at a high price compared to traditional injection moulding, as little works of art these are hard to match.