Review Category: Merch

PUBLISHER: WIZKIDS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

As any experienced games master knows, sometimes you need to show rather than tell. When the players mess-up really badly it’s often easy to plonk that huge blue dragon down on the table rather than describe it to them. Wizkid’s Warlock range allows you to do this with some degree of style. With the right combination of sets you can create entire dungeon and castle scenes, all the better to spring on your players.

Which brings us to the Warlock Tiles Accessory  – Torture Chamber set, which is perhaps one of the weirdest choices for a set we’ve seen in a while. In pre-painted, extremely well sculpted 25mm details we get a collection of furniture to truly chill even the boldest of heroes to the bone.  Though that said, most D&D groups have at least one party member who’s destined to end up on a rack at some point during their adventuring career.

We get the disturbingly conical Iron Maiden, two torture cross, a trough to drown unlucky halflings in, a bronze bull to strap heroes to, two racks, cages, bundles of chains, a torturer (and their similarly sinister looking assistant) and so on.  The hanging cages hang nicely, the pendulum swings, it’s all very charming in a sinister sort of way. We’ve come to expect attention to detail from Wizkids, but this is just chilling.

Though this set seems quite niche, it’s actually pretty useful for many dungeon scenes as it’s handy to have something grisly in the background. Those planning on running a Ravenloft or darker Forgotten Realms campaign may well find themselves  looking into this set; you’re unlikely to use all the elements here in one scene (unless your players have really screwed up), but it’s still handy to have these sort of pieces in your collection if you want to add an extra shudder to the adventure.

PUBLISHER: WIZKIDS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

It’s a cliché that all fantasy adventures begin in the pub. It is a handy way to start an adventure however; put one mysterious stranger in the corner of a tavern and watch your D&D party queue up to get a quest. Of course, if you’re the sort of gamer who likes having props for their bar brawls and similar tavern related escapades, you’ll want some miniature pieces to add to all that.

Warlock Tiles Accessory  –  Tavern is the usual sort of fantasy miniature scale scenery we’ve come to expect from Wizkids; a mix of generically useful and also quite niche pieces that will let any games master concoct the right sort of scenario for their party.  So in this set we get different shapes of tavern bar (all the better for sliding opponents across during a brawl) as well as barkeep, as well stuff like a bear skin rug, a rooster, a fireplace (that cames with it’s own model of a fire to go in it) and so on.  They are also a couple of beds; this is a tavern after all.

We also get some very small bits, such as tiny glasses and pieces of bread loaf to add to the whole tavern effect.  This entire set is extremely useful when combined with the Town and Village set , which essentially gives you an entire first floor of building to put your tavern inside.

As always, the sculpts and paint jobs on the pieces are very nice and the whole thing is visually appealing. Theatre of the mind is all well and good, but sometimes you want to actually see where the action is happening and as all action starts in the Tavern, this is an excellent place to start.

PUBLISHER: WIZKIDS | RELEASE DATE: PRE-ORDER NOW

The Wizkid’s Warlock Tiles Range is an great tool for running table-top games.  The range of interlocking tiles and walls lets you create all sorts of dungeons, taverns and so on for you dwarves, elves and tieflings to raise a little hell in. However, you do need scenery to go inside the buildings as well. The Kitchen set is, oddly enough, designed to let you build a kitchen for your adventurers to ruin.

These a nifty little 28mm pieces  and the set includes a food chest, a roast turkey and roast pig, a kitchen workspace, stove, shelves, tankards, a chest, pitchers and a basin and washtube. The latter come with clear plastic inserts so you can make it look like they’re being used. The stoves also have fuel – ones a pile of unlit logs the other have a clear orange plastic on them so they look like they’re on fire.

One of the pieces is an outhouse and privy. It feels likes an odd addition to a kitchen, but it’s perfect for a tavern set-up and honestly, who doesn’t want to run a tabletop game where you hide a big bad monster in the toilet?

The is a neat, well though out and intricate set, suitable for fantasy games. We also get a model of lady serving drinks; bystander pieces are always handy for sets like this and it’s nice to have a model that isn’t wielding a sword.  Overall, a useful addition to any collection.

PUBLISHER: WIZKID GAMES | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Heroclix is the most accessible miniatures skirmish game on the market today. The theme is fun (who doesn’t like super-heroes), the models are well-made and pre-painted and the rules are a good balance between tactically interesting  and easy to understand.  Though you can get into the game by picking up a booster box, new players should look at a starter set and  the Wonder Woman 80^th Anniversary Miniatures Game is the best starter set we’ve ever seen.

Not just for Heroclix, but as an introduction to table top miniature gaming in general.  The box comes with ten models,  cards that show you how to play the game, some nifty dice with the Wonder Woman logo on the, a six-piece battle map and a core rulebook. And the usual counters and so on you need to play the game.

You move your heroes and/or villains round the map, using the squares on the map to manage movement.  Each player use various powers to achieve goals and beat up the other figures. Powers and damage are governed by the ‘clix’ base; each point of damage is a click on the base and with every click the rules for the model changes slightly.  This is all easy to track thanks to the game’s design.

The models are, of course, an all women team. We get Wonder Woman in a modern post holding her lasso but we also get Mary Marvel, Medusa,  Silver Swan, Star Sapphire and so on.  These are a good mix of visually interesting, tactically useful and narratively interesting. Want to pitch Cheetah versus Miss Martian or Donna Troy versus Wonder Girl? It’s all playable and fun; they really thought about the mix of models here.

The battle map slots together to form one mega-battlefield and packs away neatly into the box; the is a great way to make the game quick to set up. It also means that this box also feels like a skirmish game disguised as a board game, which makes the game more accessible.

The rule-book is clear and brightly illustrated. It’s an easy game to pick-up and this set of rules makes it easy to quickly and clearly understand what’s going on, which means the game does not get in the way of the fun.

They are scenarios to play beyond a simple  beat each other up style game and as its own complete thing this really works as a playable board-game that can fit on the shelf.  You can use all the components in the box to play others types of Heroclix, so if you want to throw in The X-Men or Galactus, you totally can.

Overall, an amazing box for new players and old hands alike.

PUBLISHER: WIZKIDS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Paizo’s Starfinder franchise is a fabulous blend of space opera and high fantasy. It’s the game where android super-soldiers rub shoulders with elves to fight space dragons and swarms of insect-like alien invaders, blending tropes from the Lord of the Rings to Starship Troopers. Though primarily a table-top RPG, it continues to inspire a chunk of spin-off media because it’s such a fun idea.

Being an RPG means that Wizkids can bring the world of Starfinder into a 3D form thanks to its range of collectable models and booster boxes. The Starfinder Battles Planets Of Peril Booster. We can sum up how much fun this range is very simply; on the models is a bear in power armour carrying a sci-fi hammer.

Being a sci-fi franchise, some of the models in this range are spaceships –  obviously these are at a different scale to the other models. They come with flying bases  and are intended for Starship battles and the like. With starship combat games being so popular, gamers have been spoilt for choice when it comes to detailed spaceship models recently – these aren’t as exciting as they could be; the scale is such that a lot of detail is lost.  Still, they are pretty useful pieces for certain games and RPG campaigns.

The models come pre-painted and are presented in the standard blind boxes, with  three models per box. It’s a very eclectic mix of models; everything from alien swarm horrors  to the Nihil, essentially a zombie in a space-suit.  Other creatures are less obvious; the Shobhad is  a many armed alien-samurai thing, for example. We also get a Dragonkin carrying a heavy laser rifle; it’s that sort of a set.

On the one hand, this is a great and diverse collection of models; many spindly looking aliens and monsters and a welcome mix of fantasy and sci-fi tropes. On the other hand, it’s tricky to know what games you could use these in apart from Starfinder. Still, if you need  troupe of pre-painted alien mercenaries for your favourite sci-fi wargame, this is a quick and easy way of building your forces.

PUBLISHER: WIZKIDS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Starfinder is the sci-fi version of Pathfinder, one of the most popular RPGs in the world. Starfinder isn’t just a science-fiction game though; it takes the fantasy setting of Pathfinder and adds in robots, laser blasters and star-ships without taking away any of the magical and fantastic element. The result is something akin to extreme version of Star Wars, all space opera, all the time.

Of course, these games often require planning and the like to really get  maximum amount of fun out of them and that’s where we get the likes of Wizkids producing models and scenery for games. These are well painted sci-fi pieces at a scale suitable for most sci-fi RPGs and tabletop skirmish games. Despite Starfinder itself being a remarkable setting, this Decking Bay set is pretty straight forward.

We get four large containers that are cyndrical and look a bit sci-fi. These are generic enough to be fuel pods or valuable goods boxes and so on; they’re nice enough to look different but also vague in design so you can use them for all sorts of thing n your game. We get two square crates, which seem to a be a standard thing in Wizkids boxes like this and two rectangle shaped crates that again, are generic enough in design that you can use them almost anywhere.

There’s also a bench. It looks a bit out of place here, but it is a handy bit of scenery for pretty much any sci-fi game (and also useful for Heroclix, if you want to throw benches at Doctor Doom).

We also get a cargo hauler and trailer to attach to it. The hauler is a sci-fi style jeep thing and it takes up just enough space on the board to be tactically inconvenient. It’s nice enough but it’s not meant to look amazing, just provide cover and complications for your game. The same applies to the trailer, which is totally going to be turned sideways and used as cover in more heroic games.

Overall, the Starfinder Battles Planets of Peril Docking Bay is a useful addition to any sci-fi miniature gamers collection of terrain and it’s all very well detailed, but it’s nothing terribly special.

Tabletop fantasy games are literally powered by the imagination; no one actually needs rules, dice, models or scenery to engage in a game of make-believe.  But it does make the experience much easier if you have those things. There’s something about having a model that represents your character that makes it easier to get into the role when you play.

Wizkid’s know this very well, which why they have the Icons of the Realms Premium Figures range. These are painted versions of models previously found in the Nolzur’s unpainted range. Wizkid’s do high quality pre-painted pieces and each one of these are available in individual blisters.  Let’s take a look at each of them in turn.

The elf fighter wields a flaming sword and a nonplussed facial expression. Their cloak is dynamically posed and they are ready for action.  The halfling fighter is heavily armoured (plate mail is cheaper for Halflings) and carries an magical axe that’s about as big as they are. The dwarf fighter rocks a magnificent beard that pretty much takes up their entire face. Big axe, big shield, big beard. Exactly what you want for your dwarf fighter.

The male human wizard has a goatee. He’s also casting Mordenkainen’s Sword, because you can see the glowing arcane focus and the magical sword made out of mystic energy. The model uses the blue translucent plastic to give a neat spell effect.  He’s carrying lots of spell components, a spell book in a pouch and other paraphenalia. It looks like a wizard character you would actually play. Similarly the female wizard  is casting burning hands.   The heat from the spell is making their clothing move and it’s dynamic and powerful. The Gnome Wizard has a beautifully detailed cloak and wields a spell book. Oh and they’re casting fireball; which is an excellent use of translucent plastic. All of these pieces are well sculpted, superbly painted and something you’d want to see on the table.

Next we get the human rogue, a lady in a big dress wielding a magical scimitar and a very pointy dagger; doubles as a cultist or assassin if you need it.  The human ranger similarly could double as pilot or steampunk heroine, thanks to a very large crossbow and some goggles.  The elf druid wields a big staff and is casting a spell. It’s mostly robe and an angry expression on their face. We also like the goliath barbarian; they’re in full rage and dressed in full weather gear – perfect for your Icewind Dale games.

This is a great addition to any adventurer’s armoury; do take a look.

PUBLISHER: WIZKIDS | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

As you may have gathered, we are rather fond of fantasy miniatures over here at the Secret Starburst Gaming Thunderdome. Those lovely people over at Wizkid Games produce models specifically for Dungeons and Dragons, including Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures, a range of models that are assembled and primed but not painted, allowing gamers to add their own unique style to the pieces.

Wave 13 comes with some rather interesting models, all of which can be purchased in separate packs. Let’s take for example, the Froghemoth. In D&D terms, this is a huge monster that attacks with its tongue, tentacles and bite.  It’s a scary beast and the model for it is rather fun; it’s sculpted in such a way that it’s skin looks rough and unpleasant, it’s huge mouth is lined with nasty looking teeth and its tentacles are nightmarish. Just what we wanted.

Also in the range is a Goristro, a huge gorilla-like demon thing, that looks like King Kong and Satan had a baby and it grew up to be absolutely huge. This fiendish minotaur is a potential party wipe out, and the sculpt is very satisfying, with huge clawed hands, an expressive (and angry) face and many, many spikes.  Like the Froghemoth, it’s primed for painting and you will need to take care when painting where the limbs meet the torso due to the way it’s sculpted.

In more traditional ‘monsters’, Wave 13 brings us Efreeti & Djinni. Both sculpts tread the line between ‘looking human’ and ‘clearly awe-inspiring supernatural beings’. Like the rest of the range, they’re solidly put together and well-detailed. They have enough detail to be fun to paint without being too busy; nothing that can’t be painted by shading or drybrushing. Those with stronger painting skills will find there’s plenty to do as well.

Winged beastie wise, the range features a nice broad set. We found the juvenile Bronze Dragons rather adorable, especially as you can pose them pawing over their first treasure chest. Their wings ‘look’ awkard (as you’d expect from little wyrmlings) but are sturdy and easy to paint. One of the packs features a Deva and a  Erinyes. Both winged humanoids are striking. The ‘energy whip’ on the latter looks like a challenge to paint as it’s made of translucent plastic, but one that’s well worth the effort.

One of our favourites from this range is the Alhoon & Intellect Devourers. The latter are spooky looking brains on legs, the former is basically a squid-faced wizard. Mind Flayers are a great D&D monster and the Alhoon is basically a wizard version. The sculpt has wild facial tentacles with the piece in a ‘spell casting’ pose. Better yet, tentacles are shooting out of the model’s base, adding to the effect.

The range has a lot of normal, person sized adventurers and lot of them are casting spells. Wizkids have included the ‘translucent plastic’ effect into a lot of these sculpts, so the adventurer looks like they’re actively casting magic missile, shocking grasp or any number of D&D spells. These are cool and it most cases easy to paint.

Overall, a great range of models to add to your games.