Anyway, as a part of my Dark Legion level pledge, I have chosen Brotherhood troops as I currently have none (except an Inquisitor model) in my collection. I have also chosen some Preatorian Stalkers to enlarge my Dark Legion bunch... As I mainly play Imperial, my sight got soon fixed on a render of the new Blood Beret hero model and as I have loads of 1st and 2nd edition miniatures stored in unsightly boxes I decided to make an additional order and buy the new Imperial hero, supplement my KS Brotherhood order with Inquisitor Hamilkar and get a new Warzone embroidered KR case....
And few days ago I have received a package that I have not expected... from Prodos.....yaaay. And this is what I have found in the package. The package was not the KS order but actually my normal order placed much later, which is OK, because I have contacted Rob Alderman, a Prodos man charged with dispatching orders, and we agreed that my KS order will be shipped once complete. I really did not want to first get my minis, then the rulebook, then cards, etc. in different packages. Anyway, I have received my complete order from Warzonegame.com, containing the three above-mentioned things.
So lets have a promised closer look at what I received...
...looks really great. I love the green colour and I love the embroidery. Actually the embroidery is probably one of the biggest reasons that lead me to buying this one instead of a Feldherr case.
Facts first - the dimensions... are in fact pretty nice, the case is not to big but not too small :)) The case is about 27 cm x 20 cm and about 7.5 cm deep. The soft foam grid inside the box is exactly 25.5 cm x 18.5 cm and consists of two parts. One 25 mm high with 20 slots for figures on 25mm bases and one 30 mm high with four 3x5 cm slots, five 4x5 cm slots, one 2x6 cm slot (probably for dices but a Trencher Sniper fits great too), one 6x7 slot and one large 8x10.5 cm slot (probably intended for cards). Here are some pictures..
- It is a first official Warzone case ever.
- It has really nice colours.
- Old Warzone miniatures fit in pretty well (provided they have 25mm or 30mm bases).
- Lid and base of the case are reinforced.
- Lower layer takes more miniatures than Feldherr case of approx. same size
CONs:
- The foam is not as good as the one used e.g. in Feldherr cases.
- Foam bases of both layers (and also the top covering foam sheet) are quite thin, at least in my opinion (they are 5 mm thick).
- Insufficient depth for WZR figures (explained below*).
* I am not sure whether this is to accomodate all us old Warzone players (and if so, then I am taking my hat off to you Prodos) but if the case was designed with WZR in mind, it is seriously half-baked. As you can see from the pictures above, some of the old 25mm based minis fit only just. Those with hands/weapons sticking out have serious problems fitting in and taking into account that all new minis are much larger and designed with guns/arms/etc. sticking all around, I can't really imagine how they are supposed to fit into the lower layer. Especially fitted with 30mm bases. And by analogy.... it somehow seems impossible to me to fit any hero/lord/warlord (or what they are called) using 40 mm or larger base into the upper layer which is 30 mm deep. From my point of view this is not as much of a problem as I am currently using this to store/transport my 25mm miniature... but for those intending to use this beautiful case to transport/store original new WZR stuff....you have a problem!!!
In the pictures below you can see the size comparison of a MiniFeldherr Case and a WZR KR Case
I was looking forward to have my miniatures from the new range with the following premises in mind:
a) I pledged on 28mm Warzone miniature wargame (what could possibly go wrong :))
b) Renders of all models I have chosen for KS/ordered separately were mostly pretty nice...
c) Prodos guys said it will be possible to use old miniatures (but pointed out that we won't want to after seeing the new ones - why not, I am pretty open-minded in this respect).
d) Only big difference was with respect to miniatures was that their bases were strictly given by the rules (a problem that can be easily fixed :)
e) Everyone who received their stuff was thrilled by a level al detail, etc. (Although this was not really visible on Youtube videos and camere-made pictures).
f) Only very few pictures of profesionally painted WZR miniatures were released.
So lets have a closer look at the miniatures I received....
1) Blood Beret hero - Andrew Drougan/Michal Farraday
The package includes:
- 1x resin model on sprue (needs some assembly and glueing) with two different right arms
- 8 cards
- 1x 40mm base
Truth is that the level of detail is pretty nice. Exactly as you would expect from a 3D rendered and printed models. Of course the mini will never be the same as the renders but in fact some of the details that people were in raptures about are so fine and close to the renders that they will get covered even by a spayed-on base coat. Having a quick look at heads and faces, I am not really sure how I am going to paint eyes as they are so slim and fine that there is no brush in my painting equipment slim enough to take that task on...
The Blood Beret has a choice of two right arms for you to make either ranged (Drougan) or closed (Farraday) combat model. For each one of these there is a card with statistics, equipment and abilities such as the ones made by fans for UWZ but with lots more graphics. There are also 2 Tactical Cards, 2 Strategy cards and 2 Gear cards...I am not sure what are these for and how they work as I still don't have the full rulebook. I will probably not use those anyway even if we switch to the WZR rules as I am not a fan of "playing Magic The Gathering while playing miniature wargame" as one swedish guys once said. But we shall see in time... But back to the model itself.
This guys has quite nicely shaped armour and shoulder pads (these are very similar to the 1st edition Blood Berets which I really appreciate. His combat trousers have lots of lots of folds (even some that probably should not be there. About ten very very small pouches on each shin, six pouches on front side of his armour and some magazines and grenades on his belt. Arm muscles look very naturally. Mould lines are only visible on legs and small pouches. There is also some flashing on the lower parts of the body but absolutely none on the upper parts which is really nice because those are the most visible. There is also a lot of flashing on the optional arms and weapons but that will probably come off easily. The last thing...his pose seems pretty normal which I also appreciated because I was afraid he will get some crazy pose like some other WZR poor guys.
And now for the size. This actually really bugs me and I am quite disappointed. Why? I wanted to use some of those nicely rendered miniatures for my UWZ wargaming and use some of those to proxy 3rd edition squads that do not have own model. The undesirable point for me was that the scale was not heroic but rather true scale. After seeing first Undead Legionaires sizer comparison I regained my peace of mind thinking that it is not a problem as they will be usable for my intended purposes with ease. Just have a look at the picture below (by adpublishing.de):
a) Large scale of the new models will prevent people from using the old ones resulting in larger volume of Prodos miniatures sold - this is quite conspirational but in the end, if the game does not generate enough money, it is no use for license holders....therefore...it would end like all previous editions.
b) Large scale is used to allow most of the details seen in renders to be transfered to the miniatures - also just a theory but could be also perceived as a reason for uspcaling.
All in all, the fact is there is no chance of using the old miniatures in the new game without making them stand on large stones etc., which will look weird. On the other hand, o problem for people who love the new range....however, there is also no chance of using the new range together with the old ones as the new miniatures are much higher. Now imagine you have designed all your gaming boards for 28-30 mm miniatures....now you buy a loads of new miniatures and what you get is guys so big that they can't even take cover behind anything you have designed to serve as cover. After pointing out all this and referring to the premises stipuladed at the beginning, here comes the low blow.....I pledged on 28mm wargame and in the end two to three months before delivery I find out that upscaling was so major that I will not receive 28mm miniatures at all... Man really can't help himself not to feel a bit cheated. Hopefully the rulebook will be astounding and everything will be redressed...at least partially.
Pictures of this model and size comparisons can be found at the end of this article.
While I am not sure about how the card mechanics works during a WZR game, I can't but agree that they look lovely. Layout and art looks perfect. At least when talking about original Paul Bonner and Studio Parente pictures, which are used on some of the cards. There is also some new art used (e.g. for Hamilkar) but that is not as good-looking as the original. However, this is quite understandable taking into account the quality and style of original art. We shall see what other new art will be in the rulebook and on other cards...
One thing that can't be overlooked from my Imperial point of view is how Imperial cards got the corporation's symbol turned in a weird manner. Just have a look on one of the above pictures.
This is the second miniature I have received in my package.
When ordering Hamilkar, you will receive:
- 1x resin model on sprue (needs some assembly and glueing - arms and shoulderpads are separate, plus two long ribbons)
- 6 cards
- 1x 40mm base
Anyway, you received this inquisitor guy with 6 cards - 1x stat card, 1x gear card, 2x tactical card and 2x strategy card. There is really not much more to say as most of it was said in the previous paragraphs. Lets have a look at PROs and CONs summary then. Remember, although trying to be as unbiased as possible, these are only my point of view:
- Very fine details
- Resin is much easier to cut, therefore, easier conversions
- Multi-part model allows positioning of arms to a certain degree
- No need to drill hole as a barrel
- Almost not mould lines
CONs:
- Very fine details
- Bent weapons (it is said that this can be easily amended)
- Some parts are terribly thin
- Almost 40mm scale (in comparison with the announced)
I will try to post more comparisons and reviews as soon as I receive the whole KS order.
P.S. One of the guys just posted a picture of Valkyries he received and that made me really nervous... just have a look and see for yourselves....Hopefully this won't happen too often and I really hope he will be able to fix it.