Kings of War – Mantic Elven Spearmen review

Mantic Games are a new British company making 28mm minis, primarily in plastic, for the fantasy market. First up is their Elven range, the spearmen, scouts and bolt throwers are out and available to buy and this is a review of the Spearmen Regiment boxed set consisting of 20 spearmen with full command.

The first thing that strikes you is the box. It’s white plastic and very much like a video cassette box but inside there’s two foam inserts which not only serve to protect the contents in transit but, more importantly, mean it doubles as portable storage space for the minis. No need to purchase expensive carry cases, easy to put away when you’re not using them and it also means there’s no packaging to throw away. It’s a mightily impressive start but nothing more than a useless gimmick if the minis don’t measure up.

They come on two sprues, ten to a sprue. There are seven different posed spearmen duplicated on each sprue, complete except for their right arm, and in a variety of poses. Another nice touch comes with the arm attachments. Rather than just being flat surfaces for you to glue together they will actually hold the arm in place, allowing you to pose the model to see how it looks with the arm in different positions before you commit to glueing it together. Perhaps more importantly, it allows you to see what positions the arms need to be in for the models to be able to rank up cleanly.

As for the other three models, on one of the sprues they’re the command models and on the other they are armless and headless torsoes. The lack of a shield molded onto the latter three models allows them to be more dramatically posed and it does give some non-spear options for arming them if you want some alternative models. There are enough options on the other sprue so that the command models don’t have to be made up as such so multiple regiment boxes intended for a large unit of spearmen don’t have to have multiple command groups. The champion model though is clearly identifiable from the other models by the presence of a cloak.

Another innovation comes with the bases. The models stand on a circular base which slides onto a corresponding circular hole on the 20mm bases which are provided. They allow the model to be stood up without first attaching it to the base and give much more freedom to position the model on the base than a traditional slotta. It would still seem they will need to be glued to the base like other plastics which can be equally well posed without the circular base. They do, though, allow for a little bit of terrain detail to be molded onto the base.

The sprues also contain a dead elf on each, useful for marking casualties in game systems that do this and for modelling dioramas. The command sprue also comes with a big cat which can be attached to the base of one of the models, you would assume it would be best suited for the champion.

Again, all well and good but only worthwhile if the minis are any good. Well they are good, very very good. There’s a lot of detail on these models, the equal of any other plastic range on the market and they do a superb job of capturing the race’s litheness, grace and deadly arrogance. These elves are better than you and they know it. They could easily be painted up as either good/high elves or evil/dark elves without anything being lost.

Mantic promote their range as being in ‘realistic’ scale instead of ‘heroic’ scale. By which they mean the models are correctly proportioned and don’t carry over-sized, gravity defying weapons. It’s pretty obvious which range they’re being compared against and whilst there are a number of fantasy systems on the market the chances are if you intend to game with these models you’re going to want to use Warhammer Fantasy Battle, at least until Mantic release their own ruleset, and it would be remiss of me not to discuss their suitability for it.

It’s difficult to say which range is better, that really comes down to personal preference though for the record my preference is for Mantic. Mantic is definitely the cheaper option and whilst it’s usually the case that quality is sacrificed for economy that definitely doesn’t apply here, no matter which range you prefer. You’d struggle to mix the ranges within a given unit but if you stuck to individual units comprised of the same range there’s no reason why an army couldn’t be fielded with a mix of both. Which given the propensity for specialised units in the High Elf army list you’d definitely have to do, at least until the Mantic range is expanded.

Rounding out the contents of the box is a full-colour fold-out and a couple of sheets of stickers. The fold-out features a full version of the cover art on one side and on the other there are assembly and painting instructions as well company info and some fluff. The sticker sheets have 12 shield and one banner sticker on each. Ideal for those short of time or (especially in my case) lacking in talent. Each sheet also has one Mantic Points sticker on as well. Collect enough of these and you can trade them in for exclusive rewards such as the Elthenar Bladedancer mini for the elven army.

All in all I’m hugely impressed by Mantic’s first release. The box-as-carry-case is a great innovation and I’m a sucker for all the little extras but ultimately it’s the great quality of the minis that carry the range. The price is pretty good too.

(I’ll add some photos in a future post but in the meantime I’d urge you to check out the website to get a good look at the minis).

 

Road Trip!

First thing in the morning I’m heading off on a weekend roadtrip. I’m heading down to Nottingham first where I plan on visiting the Wargames Foundry, having a game of WFB at Warhammer World and finishing the day off with a meal in Bugman’s Bar. Then it’s off over to Derby to participate in a Field of Glory tournament over the weekend. I’ve been painting like a madman to get my Roman army finished in time, its pretty much done, which is why you haven’t heard much from me in that time.

Once the weekend is over with I should hopefully be back online with a load of new content including a review of Games Day, an updated painting log and battle reports from the weekend.

 

Malifaux

I picked this up recently, as far as I know it’s the first game system by American miniatures company, Wyrd Miniatures. It was released at Gen Con and has been flying off the shelves, it took a few weeks for my order to arrive. Malifaux is best described as a weirdwestgothicsteampunkvictoriana mash-up. In the abandoned city of Malifaux, situated in a parallel dimension of an alternative Earth in which various factions fight for possession of soulstones, a magic-providing mineral mined from the ground around Malifaux.

As well as being an integral part of the fluff, soulstones also feature as a mechanic in the game. When putting a crew together, soulstones are used as points for purchasing models then any unspent ones can be used in game to increase the chances of success in a duel or to deflect/heal damage.

Malifaux is small-scale skirmish game, crews are comprised of Masters and Minions. Each faction has a set of starter boxes consisting of a master with a few relevant minions. The starter box game we played consisted of just 11 models in total though it can scale up to two masters and quite a few minions to a crew.

The major difference between Malifaux and other mini games is that Malifaux uses cards instead of dice. You can use a regular set of playing cards with both jokers but Wyrd also do their own custom-made decks which are much easier to use. The card mechanic is probably the most difficult part of the game for new players to pick up, not because it’s complex, it isn’t, but because everyone who plays mini games already grasps how dice are used for resolution making their use completely intuitive. The card mechanic, however, needs to be learned from scratch. It doesn’t take long to pick it up though and it soon becomes second nature so don’t let it put you off.

To try and win a duel you take the top card of your deck and add it to the relevant stat to come up with a number (the suits also play a part). You also have a hand of cards which you can use to swap with the card you overturned. This makes Malifaux more a game of resource management than risk management. You have to decide when to use your better cards and when to keep them for later.

The game is played to a minimum of 6 turns and, much like in 40K, you can’t be sure exactly when the game will end. You have one or more objectives to complete within that time to earn Victory Points (these are secret but some can be revealed for extra VP’s) and the person with the most when the game ends wins. Simples.

For the game we played we kept it to one objective each to keep things simple. His was to place a piece of terrain in the centre of the table and finish with as many of his crew on it and as few of my crew on it as possible. Mine was to try and pick up a treasure counter and take it back to my deployment zone. The treasure counter was placed, you guessed it, in the centre of the table. With hindsight we probably placed too much terrain on the table and the centre-piece, a ruined building, completely blocked line of sight for each crew, all of which meant both crews converged on the building by the third turn and an almight scrum broke out.

I played the Legion of Sorrows from the Neverborn factions and my opponent had the Cult of December from the Arcanists. The close concentration of models gave Rasputina, the master in the CoD set, many inviting targets for her ranged spells and she duly finished the LoS off by the 6th turn. The Models for the NLoS are lovely but they’re probably not the faction to try and learn the game with as they work in a very subtle way. If you’re looking to learn the game then using a shoot ‘em up Guild faction would probably be best. As the game went on though I began to get a handle on their abilities and I’m very much looking forward to the next time I give them a run out.

 

The Border Princes

Our group of four WFB players began a campaign last week. It was always the plan that once we had armies together and some experience under our belts that we would campaign and one fell into our lap when we picked up the General’s Compendium from Gateshead Games a month or so ago. It’s a book for 6th ed WFB and amongst its many contents are rules for a campaign set in the Border Princes. With some minor conversions to make it compatible to 7th ed we began.

The four armies contesting the Border Princes are Bretonnians, High Elves, Warriors of Chaos and my Daemons of Chaos. The first seven turns consisted of a land grab and some army building. When the HE and Brets came into contact with each other they formed an alliance rather than fight. This pretty much forced myself into an alliance with WoC to stop ourselves being picked off. I had sent an army off to take and hold the main town in the Border Princes, sacrificing the ability to grab more land. This may turn out to be a mistake in the long-term but time will tell.

The Brets and WoC met in one of the areas I had grabbed which led to the first battle of the campaign. I really needed a WoC win, as an ally I wouldn’t lose the area if he won. Due to a scheduling conflict, the two players couldn’t arrange a time for a game so to stop things being held up I stepped in to command the WoC army. I used the army list the WoC player had put together and he was there for the start of the battle as we discussed tactics.

I had two units of Chaos Knights, two units of Marauder Horsemen, four units of Warhounds and a Chaos Spawn. The latter two screened the former two from the 16″ charge of the Bretonnian Knights. A Chaos Sorcerer joined one of the units of Knights and another was mounted on a Disc of Tzeentch. As the battle was taking place next to a territory I had an army in I was able to support my ally with a unit of 10 Horrors. This gave me a total of 5 magic missiles and 9PD to cast them with.

I took the first turn, positioned all the Warhounds so they would redirect any charges from the Brets and flew the Tzeentch down to the left flank of the Brets where a unit of 10 archers was stood on a hill. A Flickering Fire of Tzeentch took 3 of them out with no Knights close to them they were forced to take a Panic test on a Ld of 5. They failed, broke and caused a nearby unit of fast cavalry to a take a Panic test. This was also failed and they fled off the table.

On the Bret first turn they charged one of their two units of Knights at a unit of Warhounds who chose discretion as the better part of valour and fled. The failed charge left them open to a front charge from a unit of CK and a side charge from a unit of Warhounds. A unit of 6 Pegasus Knights tried to charge the unit of CK but failed their Fear test.

On my second turn I moved the chargers in, rolled terribly and only killed one. I took no casualities in return though and with the Brets outnumbered by a Fear causing enemy they needed a double 1 not to break. They got it.This left me very vulnerable to a charge from the PK.

On the Bret second turn they charged and took out the Chaos Spawn and the PK charged the side of the Warhounds. Four of them were killed but this time the CK did their thing and wiped out all the Bretonnian Knights. Once again they were outnumbered a Fear causing enemy and this time the PK broke and were ran down. The other unit of Knights were right next to the battle and failed their Panic test at seeing a friendly unit wiped out. They fled and in turn caused the unit of archers on the other flank to break.

With pretty much everything in his army either dead or fleeing the Bret player conceded a massacre at the end of the second turn.

As you might be able to tell from all the failed Ld tests, the Bret player was pretty unlucky with his dice rolling. The effective use of the Warhounds meant he wasn’t able to set up his Knights for any charges against my CK, which he really needed to do to win. The magic phase also did a fair bit of damage. He had played WoC once before when I still owned the army but my was based on a Battalion and didn’t have all the cavalry so was much more vulnerable his charges. I think the all-mounted army list took him somewhat by surprise. With hindsight he may have been better served taking one of the unit of archers and using them as a skirmishing screen to his own knights, holding their position whilst they shot at the screening units of Warhounds.

 

Urban War

Had Urban War demo-ed to me at the weekend whilst at the local gaming club. UW  a sci-fi skirmish game by Urban Mammoth who also do a larger scale version called Metropolis. I played Syntha against Viridian at 150 points on a 4′ by 4′ table with lots of scenery.

The points gave me four basic guys, apparantly all UW forces have to have at least this, a close combat model and a commander. My opponent played Viridian, he also had his four basic guys as well as a commander and a heavy weapons team. He had to set up first and placed his heavy weapon on one corner of his deployment zone so I placed all of my troops on the other side, effectively taking it out of the game.

One of the more interesing aspects of UW is that each model is given an order face down at the start of the turn. This means that when deciding what you want your guys to do you don’t know what your opponent is doing. In the first turn I gave all my guys orders to move forwards, I put my commander and four basic guys behind cover where they could start firing on the Viridians and began to send my close combat models across the board, ensuring he ended each of his moves out of line of sight.

I took out three of his guys for the loss of one of mine in the ensuing firefight, the cover I put my guys in proving very important as it saved one of them. By this time I’d got my combat guy to the point where he could charge at an enemy model.

Or at least have a 50/50 chance.

One of the things that struck me about UW is that its pretty random. It uses d10’s instead of the usual d6’s, giving a broader spread of target numbers and making it harder to minimise the odds but the it’s the use of the Calibre stat which really injects an element of randomness to the game.

All troops are rated between 0-3 for Calibre with a rookie troop rated at 0 and a vet at 3. My basic guys were all 0 and my commander and close combat fighter were a 1. Calibre is spent to do extra stuff but you had to test on a d10 to see if you could do it. This means that you can never know just what your Calibre 1+ troops will be able to do when you activate them.

I’d put my close combat troop where he could get into combat if he made his Calibre check for a second movement. The thing is I had to move him first before checking to see if I could move him again. This left him out in the open whilst I needed a 6+ to get him into combat. Had I failed he’d have been a sitting duck. Fortunately I made it only for neither of us to be able to land a blow on each other.

It didn’t matter as by the next turn my shooting took out another one of his guys which was sufficient for him to withdraw from the battlefield and give me a comfortable win.

Urban War is a fast-paced and enjoyable game, the orders give a different feel to the strategy and you can never rely on things panning out the way you planned them. It’s also pretty cheap, a starter force can be picked up for around about £20 and it doesn’t take too long to play.

 

Happy 999

Today is the 9th September 2009 or 09/09/09 (whichever side of the Atlantic you are on) and as a special promotion, Wargames Factory are offering their Caesar’s Legions plastics set for just $9.99. All told there are 48 figures in this set which makes it stonkingly good value. Even with international shipping I’ve just paid £13 in total for a set.

 

Wargames Factory – Ancient German Warband

The Germanic tribes were one of ancient Rome’s biggest bogeymen. The Gauls were seen as savage, ferocious and uncivilised. Big and burly barbarians hell-bent on destruction. The Germans were like Gauls+. Caesar talked up their threat in his commentaries, Marius was voted five consecutive consulships just to deal with the threat of two migrating Germanic tribes and at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in 9AD a Germanic coalition destroyed three legions which helped stop the expansion of the Roman Empire at the Rhine.

Wargames Factory have just released their Ancient German Warband set of plastics as part of their ‘Might of Rome series. There are two different types of sprues and the pack contains five of each. Across the two sprues are 6 torsos, 21 arms, 9 heads, a standard, an instrument, 6 shields of two different types and a variety of weapons including swords, spears, bows, daggers, clubs and maces. There are just two of each of bow and quiver so only 10 of the 30 models can be equipped with missile weapons.

It gives an incredible about of variety, probably more than just the numbers would imply. Just attaching the arms differently to a torso changes the whole look of the model. Clever use of painting could easily make it look like you have 30 different models rather than 6 different variations on a theme.

The models lack the fine detail of Games Workshop’s plastics, especially the torsos which are a bit chunky, though it does mean they’re not as fiddly to put together and can be assembled very quickly. More time is spent deciding what to put on the models than putting them together.

And they’re much cheaper. Thirty models for $19.99 is incredible value. One set will give you 10 bases for Field of Glory, two sets will give you three full infantry blocks for Warhammer Ancient Battles, including one full unit of missile troops. You can get the building blocks of an entire ancient German army for next to nothing.

At a push these models could be used as auxilia in a Roman army or combined with a Celtic one, both of which are well supported with their own Wargames Factory minis. The future release of plastic German cavalry though will round them out into an army of their own.

The two sprues

Wargames Factory seem like a company with a social conscience as they offer a recycling programme for leftover sprues and the set has been packed by Triangle, a non-profit organisation helping people with disabilities lead independent lives. They also operate a points programme, this set gives 2 points. As of yet I’m unsure what you can do with the points.

The lighting isn't great so the picture doesn't capture the detail well. These are from just two sprues and I've given them the full variety of options to show what can be done with them.

 

Warmachine, huh!

A Warcaster and his Warjacks

What is it good for?

Hopefully something. I’ve been vaguely aware of Privateer Press’ miniatures games Warmachine and Hordes for some time. Even when I wasn’t wargaming their books would find their way into my local comic book/gaming stores.

Having been casting my net around for other games to play I’d been considering picking it up though a lack of potential opponents was a barrier. The gaming club I visited at the weekend turned out to have a few people with armies, though how much they actually play them I’m unsure, and I arranged to have a game of Hordes demo-ed. Of the two games I preferred the look of the minis in Hordes to Warmachine.

The demo never actually happened but a couple of days later the opportunity to buy a very cheap Khador army for Warmachine fell into my lap and I took it. That some of it was painted was an even bigger attraction. I got the minis a couple of days ago and I’ve begun reading the rules. Stay tuned to see if I actually manage to get some games.

 

Ottoman Turks vs. Late Medieval Germans

After a few false starts I had my third game of Field of Glory last night. Having played a couple of ancient battles before we decided to switch things up a bit and get medieval on each other. I had the choice of what army to play and was told that the Turk army was a bit of a cheesy list which had won a few tournaments so naturally I chose the Germans. I had sound reasoning for it as I wanted to get more experience of playing heavy foot armies against shooty skirmishing armies.

It was the first game I had played at 800 points and the amount of models on the table surprised both of us. I initially began deploying with the intention of having a single battle line but I wound up having to run a smaller second one behind the left flank of the first. There was a lot of scenery on the board which I had hoped would compress the table and protect my flanks but it mainly had the effect of bogging down my march.

I had few skirmishers and placed both of them on my right flank but it wasn’t long before they where overwhelmed and had to turn tail and flee. On the left my second battle line turned out to protect that flank but they too where overwhelmed by a phenomenal amount of shooting. In the centre I managed to engage some of my knights and pike in combat but even here things went wrong as my opponent hit a hot streak with his dice rolling, winning one combat he shouldn’t have and holding me up in another I should have won quite quickly.

It was a moot point anyway as the damage I was taking on my flanks was already deciding the battle in favour of the Turks. Once the flanks had been turned in it was over quite quickly. I managed to get only two of the seventeen (yes, seventeen, the Turk army was enourmous) points I needed for victory before I lost. The Turk army list lived up to its reputation of bringing more mobility, numbers and shooting than most armies can handle.

The battle lines meet

 

Conga lines and stadiums

I occasionally get requests for more visuals on the blog so here’s a couple from my visit to the South Shields gaming club on Sunday.

First up is my unit of Bloodletters conga-ing out across two objective markers to win the game despite never being anywhere near the action.

The second is a custom built Blood Bowl pitch and stadium one of the club members put together. Apparently when it’s fully assembled it has a royal box and the stands are full of fans. It was so impressive I’d be scared to play on it for fear of breaking something.