Review Category: Merch

The Warhammer Age of Sigmar Extremis Starter Set turned up recently at the Super Secret Starburst Gaming Thunderdome thanks to our friends at Games Workshop and we simply had to take a look at this new box.  As we said in our review of GW’s new starter paint set, this sort of collection is a essential for any healthy minis game.

To be clear, this is a proper introduction box that has two factions to paint, scenery, rulebooks, measuring tools, dice, and so on. It’s the sort of thing that birthday and Christmas memories are made of.  This is intended primarily for those new to the tabletop gaming hobby. A previous release, Dominion, simply contained new models, cards, and core rules as it was intended for fantasy gamers looking to upgrade to the new edition. The Extremis box is the core entry boxed game and though it’s a great addition for old hands, it’s aimed at the newer gamer.

It wouldn’t be a Games Workshop big box game without miniatures, and we get a total of 32 push-fit models. You’ll have to paint them yourself, but that’s part of the fun. We get ten Stormcast Eternals (essentially magic knights), including an adorable Griff-Hound, a Lord Imperatant, three Praetors, and 5 vindicators. Or to put it another way; a general,  three bodyguards, five shield-bearing elites, and a magical dog.  They are strikingly posed, finely detailed and fun to paint.

The Orruks (basically bigger, nastier orcs), take up the remainder of the models. We get crazy looking shaman figure with a smaller goblin ‘pet’ carrying the shaman’s cauldron of vile brews.  We get ten spear-wielding types and ten dual knife-wielding pieces. Both units look wicked and cruel, and again, are a lot of fun to paint.

Rules wise, we get a core rulebook, a background book called Extremis Edition which also includes tips on how to play, and various rules references.

We won’t go into a nuanced examination of the rules here, but essentially; it’s a Warhammer game. Simple to learn, difficult to master, easy to get stuck into. The Sigmar rules set is designed to delight pretty much anyone willing to learn the game; it’s crunchy enough that it’s deep but not so complex that it will put others off.

We also get an assembly and painting guide.  The whole thing is a great introduction to the game and they’re in softback format because they’re intended to be well-thumbed. The Extremis book is especially well done; the Age of Sigmar setting is crammed with cool ideas and they support this with lots of ‘how to play’ content and lovely art.  Both books also work as a decent refresher for older gamers, especially those more familiar with the older Warhammer fantasy setting.

You get one double-sided gaming board which is an odd choice as most games will need something a bit larger, but you can always eschew the board completely and play on the table. Talking of the gaming table, we get five bits of scenery. Highly detailed, high-quality scenery kits have become something of a standard for Warhammer boxed set.

These consist of some stacked up stonework, two shattered houses (essentially corner pieces that work as cover) a statue and a magical temple thing called nexus syphon with looks very pretty.  They work well as scatter terrain and are a welcome addition to any terrain sets.  They are a lot of fun to paint and extremely solid and fun to put together.

The Warhammer Age of Sigmar Extremis Starter Set is easily the most accessible wargame starter set we’ve seen for Warhammer. It’s fun, it’s reasonably priced, it’s got everything you need to get into the game and it’s also a handy way for existing gamers to bolster their collection. Recommended.

 

 

Wizkid’s The Icons of the Realms range for Dungeons and Dragons works best when it’s based on the more recent D&D material. There’s something about wanting the models from particular adventures and campaigns to wow your players. Of note were the models for the Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frost Maiden storyline.  The main issue with the set was that it was mostly ‘the greatest’ hits of that book; giant skeletons, tomb-tappers and so on, the range missed some of the more interesting villains and encounters.

Snowbound is the follow-up and rectifies the issue; it’s filled with some of the more striking villains and monsters, as well as some of the more mundane stuff. For example, anyone who’s played the campaign with remember the Axe-Beaks, the bird like beasts of burden that look weird and cool. The pre-painted model looks hungry and is covered in adventuring gear, exactly the way it should do.

If you’ve played the campaign,  you may recall the kind of tragic character of Ravisin, the mad druid. She’s here, along with various awakened animals and monsters. The druid looks like they’ve just stepped out of the pages of the book. If your players went another way, they may have met the secretive leader of the goblin city. Wizkids have treaded carefully with the model here as the leader is a mysterious character, but suffice to say not only is it perfect for that story, it can also be used easily elsewhere. Another memorable encounter includes the hag Maud Chiselbone and her cauldron. It’s one of the more sinister beats in a game filled with horror, and the model for it is perfect; it even comes with that bubbling pot of things the adventurers should really avoid.

Monster wise, we get every from awakened trees, giants, polar bears and the almost adorable snow golem. These are all sculpted in the typical Wizkids style and paint jobs are, as always, decent and resilient.  We took a look at the Giant and Mammoth set for this range a little while ago and when you put all the various models together you get a good feel for what the Icewind Dale setting is all about; savage, dangerous, creepy but also with a sense of humour. We also really liked the Goblin Wagon – after all what could go wrong with a wagon pulled by polar bears? It’s a great take on another scene from the game

This is a worthy successor to the existing range and a set of booster boxes definitely worth checking out.

The table-top roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons does not require models to play, but being able to slap models onto the map and declare your actions certainly does make the game more fun. Of course, there’s more to play than that;  heroes in D&D can alter and manipulate the world around them in a great many interesting ways. One of the more efficient routes to victory is to summon a creature to fight by your side.

The D&D Icons of the Realms Summoned Creatures range comes in two boxes; one can be best described as mostly unusual mounts and the other features creatures from esoteric planes. As always, these are solidly painted models made from a resilient plastic suitable for transporting to the gaming table.

Box one features a Giant Goat, a Warhorse, an Aurochs and a Pegasus.  We also get an needle blight, a humanoid plant monster favoured as an assassin of choice by evil druids.  The warhorse is very well equipped as you might expect and looks like it’d fit quite a few paladin/knight style models with a little work. The Auroch’s is painted with light brown fur and is about to stamp on some one with it’s Ox-like fury.  The Goat is perhaps the most fun piece; it’s always fun to summon a goat as your magical mount (and very in keeping with various myths) and this is indeed a heroic goat. Finally we have a Pegasus, which bears a look like it’s far to good and noble to bear a rider. Perhaps it’s right.

Box two gives us Air, Earth and Fire elementals, as well as a Satyr, Coautl and Green Hag. The latter is perhaps the oddest in this set; Hags are typically best avoided and if you need to summon one for aid you’re in some serious trouble. The Satyr is a jolly looking piece; handsome and with his hands wrapped round a flute. Perfect for your Theros campaign.  The coautl is a winged, rainbow serpent and a great choice of monster to summon as it has access to lots of healing magic. It’s very pretty and robust.  The elemental models show off Wizkid’s use of materials. The Air model is translucent and looks like it’s in motion, the Fire elemental uses orange plastic to resemble flame and the Earth model looks like a mudslide with a smile. They’re character filled pieces likely to bring fun to an encounter.

Both boxes are a useful addition to your collection and worth checking out.

Orcs are one of the classic fantasy villains that gamers can’t seem to get enough of. The Dungeons and Dragons Orc has gone through many changes as the game has evolved during the years, but the core idea has remained the same; warlike creatures who tend to be all about using violence as a solution for everything.

In the D&D Icons of the Realms: Orc Warband set we get eight models in total; they’re all fairly beefy medium sized creatures and their stats can be found in various D&D Fifth Edition supplements; mostly the monster manual and Volo’s Guide. Orcs are playable characters as well, so this set is worth a look if you want a orc model for character inspiration.

The sculpts are of the style we’ve come to expect from Wizkids; they’ve been knocking it out of the park recently and mostly the pieces are more dynamic and strongly posed. They’re still made of the same soft-ish plastic and the paint jobs are both robust and clear; this is a set intended to be played with straight out of the box.

The most eye-catching model has to be the Nurtured One of Yurtrus, a hefty looking piece. The orc is covered in plague sores and looks like he’s about to burst pus all over the enemy at any time.  It’s also the only ‘green’ orc in the range, the rest are blue or grey.

Of course, we get a standard looking orc piece. He’s a keen looking chap, swinging his flat looking axe and looking very grumpy. The Orog (which is a smarter orc) wears a cape and strikes a pose, but looks pretty much like an orc, just one with more style.  We get two priestly orcs; a Claw of Luthic and an Eye of Grumush; they are well posed and look like they’re about to get stuck into a fight, so perfect for the gaming table.

The Red Fang of Shargass is meant to be a rogue/assassin style hero, but weirdly this model is posed more like a combat bad-ass. The model as sculpted looks like a great lieutenant for the War Chief, who’s posed like a megalomaniac wielding an axe.

This is a set of distinctive looking orcs that will make it very easy to manage any given encounter is D&D. If you’re the sort of person who wants very specific models, this box will most likely complete your collection of D&D orcs.

Pathfinder is the fantasy table top roleplaying game that took on Dungeons and Dragons and won. Though it share more common elements with D&D, it’s also filled with striking differences in approach and style that make both more outlandish and gritty.  It has it’s own setting, lore and approach and it’s a game that’s developed it’s own spin-off media.

As such, the game has its own ‘hero’ characters that turn up in the rulebooks and related storytelling material.  Pathfinder Advanced Iconic Heroes  features a selection of these types, which can easily be grabbed by players to represent their own characters. (Indeed, this boxed set is so much fun that it went straight into the Starburst Gaming Thunderdome’s box of potential player characters and got used on our gaming table about an hour later.) As always, these are pre-painted models, produced to a robust but eye-catching standard.

First up is Ija, the Human Summoner and her ally, the Eidolon Tuku. The latter looks like  a like a small purple dragon  and Ija is a small human girl, armed and ready to through out incredible magic power.  Another pairing is Feiya, a human witch who has Daji, a white fox as her allie. Daji looks cute, curious and ready for action. Feiya resembles the sort of witch you get on the cover of a pulp fantasy novel and is wearing furs, leather straps and not much else; she’d look fantastic in battle or in a nightclub.  This is the best take on the character we’ve seen in model form though, and it’s certainly a fun piece.

Tengu are raven-themed bird people and Korakai the Oracle looks more like an avian sneak thief than an deliverer of wisdom, but it’s still a great model.

Jirelle, Half-Elf Swashbuckler is exactly the mysterious rogue many players will insist their character looks like and pairs nicely with Seltyiel, the Half-Elf Magus. They are both posed as if they’ve just saved the world and have paused for the camera. Quinn, the human investigator looks like he’s just about to deliver a lecture on penguins (or figure out who the killer is), but it’s nice to see a fantasy detective style model, great for the horror game of your choice.

Over-all, perfect for a gaming group looking for heroes to put on the table.

D&D has shaped the fantasy genre in a lot of ways over the years. After all, the core game is filled with magic and monsters and it’s no surprise that it’s become one of the central sources of inspiration. Take, for example, the humble Kobold. Folklore depicts them as child-shaped, fire-inspired horrors that lurk in mines and the like. The D&D version makes them more lizard-like and draconic and this has become the modern take on these creatures.

D&D Kobold Warband – Icons of the Realms is a collection of eight pre-painted minis for use in D&D or other tabletop games, at the traditional 25mm scale. It’s an instant encounter in a handy blister pack.   All of these beasties are mounted on small bases (they aren’t meant to be big baddies), and they’re sort of cute in the fox-like lizard sort of way. They’re red-skinned and are sculpted in a way that implies they have some sort of dragon-like ancestry. (In various D&D settings, Kobolds claim to be related to the mighty dragon and tend to be minions for such fiends.)

Starting off, there is the basic Kobold model; he’s sculpted dynamically using a sling, which (thanks to the use of a translucent disc) looks like it’s being swung around with great enthusiasm.  The Kobold Underling looks like he can barely use its crossbow and short sword, making the poor thing perfect cannon fodder. (Or this case, fireball fodder).

The pack features two ‘Kobold Commoners’, one carrying a pick-axe, the other is carrying a club. These are quite fun, though if you play them as written in the rules they’re present literally no challenge. But they are meant to be civilians, so there’s that. On the other hand, the Kobold Dragonshield is a hero to his people, a brave defender of their tribe. This would be an ideal choice for a player piece. The same can be said for the Kobold Inventor model, who is overloaded with widgets and contraptions. Perfect for a player character artificer also.

We also get two ‘winged’ kobolds; one is a sorcerer with mock wings and is casting a fireball, the other is ‘proper’ winged koblds and is sculpted with the right amount of arrogant poise.

Overall, this is a set that is perfect for games that want to run lots of Kobold encounters. The models are different enough from each other to make it easier to set up and track on the table. Great fun for players and dungeon masters alike.

The Pathfinder Battle’s range is a collection of pre-painted collectable models intended for use in fantasy gaming, specifically the Pathfinder books, though other fantasy games are out there. The Beastiary Unleashed is the latest release, and primarily comes in ‘blind boxes’, with four randomly chosen models of various sizes. They are total of 47 pieces in the range, with a broadly celestial/infernal theme to the models.

For example, the Astral Deva is literally a winged angel, bearing a hammer in one hand and very long scroll in the other. The scroll as a ‘text effect’ added to the paint job and the angel look appropiately smug. The celestial defender model is golden, bears a massive shield and one of it’s arms is a lance. It looks rather bad-ass. Similarly the celestial legionnaire is winged, golden and bears a flaming blade. On the other side, the succubus model wields only a small and a very striking red dress. Oh and wings. The Quelant model is a faceless horror with three legs and three arms, each ending in wicked claws. It’s a proper horror movie monster and a great thing to put on the table.

We models we saw included a copper dragon and a white dragon. The copper is in the middle of breathing out a fire blast (using orange translucent plastic for effect) and the white dragon is in full strike mode. The Mummy Pharoh and Lich models are both striking and look like they’ve been modelled from artwork in Paizo’s Pathfinder books.

Another piece we found striking was the Pleroma Aeon, a cloaked figure wielding orbs of energy in each hand. In the game it’s a cosmic being wielding the power of oblivion and creation. The model is in a flying pose and has a cloak with ‘made of stars’ effect on it. Useful for all sorts of game, especially if you prefer the weirder sort of encounters.

They are also goblins and orcs in this set, so if you’re looking for some generic baddies, you’re all set. Overall, a great addition to a growing collection.

The Demonic Treerazer is one of the big bad boss monsters of Paizo’s Pathfinder setting. The corrupt fiend lurks in a place called Tanglebriar, a toxic swamp that warps and corrupts those foolish enough to venture too deep into it’s murky depths. Backed by a small army of corrupt forest creatures and demonic allies, Treerazer lurks, waiting to be a memorable encounter in the fantasy RPG, Pathfinder. Especially if your party contains elves; he’s bad news for elves, apparently.

Wizkid’s have produced a model of this villian, and it’s a really striking pre-painted model. Treerazer is a winged dinosaur like monster that wields a huge battle axe that drips with corrupting venom. It’s face is sculpted in full battle mode, it’s foul tongue jutting out and it bears an expression of pure rage.

The model does look a lot like a dragon (even though it’s canonically a demon), and it’s wingspawn is very impressive. It’s tail is curled in a way that reminds you of a really spiky fern. The beastie is covered in scales and the base is finely detailed. Though this is a very specific monster from a particular game-world, it’s draconic enough to work as a green dragon in other games, or even an arch-demon. A fun piece (with a huge wing-span) to shock and awe your gaming table.

So one of the things about miniatures and table top gaming is that the name would imply that the whole hobby doesn’t take up too much room. However, if you figure in scenery and a decent variety of models, they start taking up space pretty quickly. And then we get stuff like Icon of The Realms, Frost Giant and Mammoth; the clue is literally in the name, this thing is huge.

In the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons, Frost Giants are massive, scary creatures with delight in violence. Blue skinned and able to summon howling blizzards, they’re a foe that would give most adventurers pause. The Frost Giant model in the set is beautifully detailed; it’s wielding what could have once been a ship’s mast as a spear and carrying a net-bag of hunting trophies. Complete with a horned helmet and savage apparel, it looks ready to wipe out a party on it’s own. The piece splits into two; the top half can either be put on regular giant legs or seated in the mammoth’s howdah.

The mammoth comes with two howdahs; one that allows the giant to be rider it and another, riderless affair. They pop off easily, but only in one direction. The mammoth itself is beautifully detailed. It looks dour and it’s fur is a dull brown with a touch of frost added to remind us all that this is a creature found in the coldest parts of the Forgotten Realms such as Icewind Dale. It’s tusks are battle worn and the whole thing looks like it’s seen some horrible things. It has a cute tail as well.

Overall, as mammoth models go, this is a great set-piece. If you’re going to make your party face the elements, you might as well include this elephant.