Doctor Who has a history of criminally under using some of its more interesting monsters and villains. For a show that covers all of space and time, it spends an awful amount of time in London (or more accurately, Cardiff pretending to be London).
The Draconians first appeared in 1973’s story A Frontier in Space, alongside the Third Doctor, Jo Grant, and The Master. They are an honour-based society with lots of formalities, long, flowing robes and a galactic royal family. They are grand in concept and though they only appeared once in the show, they’ve been a staple of the comics and other media pretty much since they first appeared. Their striking, humanoid/dragon-like look screams classic Doctor Who, so it’s not a surprise that Warlord Games wanted to sculpt these into models for their Doctor Who miniatures games.
These are unpainted fixed pose sculpts, of the style we’ve come to expect from Warlord. Draconians have funny shaped heads, big robes and skinny robes. The poses look fun to adjust if you’re so inclined. We get three poses – running away with a gun in hand, standing still and pointing a weapon and a final ‘leader’ model who’s standing about looking all regal and smug. They look great; the facial expressions are spot on and the models are finally detailed. Fun to paint for those so inclined. The ‘noble’ model does limit the utility of building a big squad of them, but it is very cool.
Rules cards for Warlord’s Doctor Who Exterminate game are available online for those of us who want to play with these models rather than just put them on a shelf. They are pretty decent infantry, swift-moving, tough enough and with decent ranged weapons. A squad should be able to take on a Dalek or two, though an all Draconian squad might not be the most flexible of units. A mix of ‘neutral’ alien races like the Ice Warriors or a team up with the Doctor makes for a more fun skirmish, especially as the Draconians are quite good at moving into the permission to whack baddies with their nifty energy weapons. They don’t really have any special rules but are a nice addition to an ever growing range.
DOCTOR WHO EXTERMINATE: DRACONIANS EXPANSION / PUBLISHER: WARLORD GAMES / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
