A Review: Tekumel Figures, the Shen

Shen Figures for Tekumel

I am a longtime fan of RPG's,  White Box veteran here.  Tekumel was a also a favorite game even if we never pronounced a name right.  We had fun.  So over the years I have collected and lost a number of figures for roleplaying and wargaming.  The above photo is a group of figures I have used for gaming the Tekumel world.  Some are actual Petal Throne figures and some are not.

I recently got a bunch of the NEW Tekumel figs, the ones from Howard Green up in Canada.  They are pretty--unlike my camera shots.  White metal? pewter.  Little or no flash and fast clean-up, almost none, as a mater of fact.

Group one is civilians and ambassadors, merchants, and what is going to be a fighter.  Two of the figures are bearer types so I will have to make a couple of hand carts.  The ambassador is in a feathered cloak with staff of office.  I see a MU there, maybe a priest type.  The weapons and shield are parts I had lying around.  On Tekumel the weapons are animal hide stiffened to almost steel strength.  Tekumel is a metal-poor planet, lots of jagged edges; we used to call them "Don't pull out the sword, I'll just bleed to death" type of weapon.

Next are a couple of pole arms, an officer, and a standard bearer.  I made the standard from parts out of the stuff I have underfoot.  Lots of feathers and stuff kinda like Aztecs, which when painted will be glorious.

Next pic is the sword-axe and shield men with two unarmored berserkers, at least in my army.  The sword-axe is again a "just let me die" style of weapon.  It is the Shen national weapon.

Weapon and shield Shen with officer and standard bearer.  Please note Shen also have a mace tail body weapon to add into the melee.

This is another unit that will be either polearms or weapon and shield. The standard bearer is factory provided and very cool.

I'm looking forward to getting this group of figures painted.  In Tekumel canon the Shen are almost black green, but my troops are lighter colored, mostly to show detail.  I have lots of stuff in line ahead of this group of figures, but I might jump them forward.

Another small problem is rules for this world. There are no workable Tekumel rules.  You find a set you like and change them to fit your needs.  My current favorite rules are the FUBAR rules, one-page rules where you write up the details of your era, or in this case world, and away you go.  I may have to find the army lists I have somewhere and convert them to FUBAR,  I'll share if I do.  Enjoy life and don't do anything I wouldn't do . . . .