Mantic's Ogres unboxing/review

I just got my Kickstarter shipment from Mantic's games and i'm getting ready to build some Ogres, before doing that I shot some pictures in order to give an idea about the content of the Ogre kits.

Let's start with some general info:

• The Ogres (and other brand new minis from Mantic) are casted in hard injected platic that looks a lot like Privateer press plastic.
• No sprue here, just some pieces already cut and sold in a plastic bag (I've no idea about what the retailer package will look like), my guess is that the factory the cast them does also the packing. There were a couple of missing parts (I got two Ogre shooter units and in both of them there was one less crossbow and one more shotgun...Mantic already confirmed that they will send me the missing parts) but I think's that normal since they started mass producing this stuff recently so they need a little tweaking in the quality process
• The cast is not bad, there are few mold lines and they are easy to clean. I found some miscast that I was able to fix with boiling water but nothing that demanded a replacement.

Here are some pictures:

Scale vs Gw Ogre Base details

Ogre Hero	This is a subset of the components of the close combat Ogres, the only new thing is the left arm. (In the picture you can see the miscasted leg.)
Ogre troops	This kit allows to build three Ogres with shield and one handed weapon or three Ogres with two handed weapon. There are three different bodies, 5 different heads, three arms with shields (identical), 2 arms with one handed blade (identical), 1 arm with one handed axe, 2 arms with two handed blades (identical) and 1 arm with two handed axe
Ogre Shooter	This kit allows to build three Ogres with crossbow or three Ogres with bluderbuss. The bodies and the heads are the same of the close combat unit above, then there are three arms with crossbow (identical, in the picture there are just two crossbow since one was missing from the bag) and three arms with bluderbuss (identical).
Updates: a couple of extra pictures	An assembled Mantic Ogre compared to a GW one
	The 40mmx40mm bases sprue provided with the kit, they are not as tall as the GW ones

Dust Tactics revised core set video review

Just got my copy of the revised core set for Dust Tactics, watch my video review below

p.s. I just found out that the limited edition heroes given as prize for partecipating official events will be soon available for sale.

Dreadfleet video review

Just got today my copy of Dreadfleet, watch my review in the video below

Space Marine videogame, a review from a 40K player perspective

What is Space Marine videogame? It’s a third person shooter by the same guys that developed the Dawn of War Realtime strategy games series. It seems that the developers have a deep knowledge of the warhammer 40K word since there are tons of little details that fits perfectly in the 40K universe.

The game is a about a small space marines strike force, the captain Titus the main character and two fellow space marines of the Ultramarines chapter. They have been sent to the forgeworld Graia that is currently under siege by a massive Orks horde. During the game you will have to investigate about why the Orks invaded the planet and how to fix the situation.

The game is very respectful of the 40K lore, even if you play as a space marine there are a lot of details about other 40K races, you will interact with the imperial guard and its vehicles (they all look just like the miniatures) and you will have to deal with a lots of orks with all the various units taken directly for the tabletop game. Some details came even from the Forgeworld models! (like the imperial guards with respirators or some vehicles)

Even most of the buildings in the game looks just like existing GW terrain Kit, you will see around some familiar details like doors, vents and switches taken directly from the models available from the tabletop game.

The weaponry is very familiar to all 40K player, you will have to use chainswords, plasma guns and the familiar bolter. During the game you can carry just four different ranged weapons (one of witch can be changed during the mission) and one melee weapons that upgrades during the game. Most of the weapons behave just like you would expect but there are some minor changes here and there to balance the game (for example the melta gun works pretty much like a close range shotgun). There are also a couple of new weapons that doesn’t exist in the tabletop game like a long distance bolter (some sort of sniper rifle) and a grenade launcher with sticky bombs that can be detonated remotely.

From the technical perspective the game looks great and the space marines looks very heavy just like they are supposed to be. I think that the proportions of the marines have been changed a little bit since they are just huge compared to that average imperial guard soldier. All effects like fire, explosion and light seems just right. It is funny but the game looks much more better than the CGI movie they did some time ago! The game is also quite bloody, during close combat the main character gets soaked in ork blood constantly.

The game even adds some interesting elements to the 40K lore, the imperial guardsmen refers to the space marines calling them “my lord” and the game is full of collectible voice registrations (servo skulls hidden around the game maps) that add some details to the world letting the player understand how the life in the imperium is and the kind of sacrifice an imperium citizen needs to suffer every day.

Voices of the characters are great, the main character itself Titus has the voice of Mark Strong (at his first performance as a video game voicing actor) and pretty much every human has a mild English accent that suits the game. The game disk is multi language (at least in Europe) so if you don’t like the not English translation you can still switch back to English.

There are some minor problems here and there like I always feel that the environment are a little empty and also the gameplay might feels a little old-school (there is no duck and cover mechanics like Gears of war, the only kind of cover you can have is putting something between you and the enemy). There are also some strange design choices , for example the only woman in the imperial guard is the one that is commanding the IG after the chain of command has been wiped out by the orks… it would have more realistic to put more IG ladies around.

If you want to spend some extra money there is also a ultra-nerdy collector edition whit a magnetic purity seal (mine is on the kitchen fridge already!), a soundtrack and a box shaped like a codex. There were actually some hiccups with the shipment of the collection edition, outside UK and USA customers where not able to preorder one since they were available in stores in very limited quantities, I found out that it was available even in my country just when I saw it at my local gamestop.

Some retailer in UK and USA had some special downloadable items (like skins and weapons) but doesn’t items aren’t available anywhere else at the moment and it's not clear if they will be available for sale.

Of course the game is available for major gaming platforms like PC, Xbox360 and Ps3. I based my review on the Xbox 360 version.

There is also a multiplayer component that puts space marines against chaos space marines but I haven’t had the time to check it deeply, so my review It’s just about the single player experience.

Wrapping up: the game is funny and well done, you should buy it if you like third person shooters or if you are a WH40 fan. But If you don’t really like the 40K lore you might consider investing your money on something else since this time of the year is full of great videogames coming out!

Storm of Magic Grimoire and plastic Wizards info

Just got some stuff from my local store:

• The grimoire is just a plastic case that you can use to carry your cards around (so it doesn't have any sheets or sleeves) I tought it was more like a photo album but I was wrong. It came prefilled with the Storm of Magic spells but you can take them out and put in your cards.
  
• The new wizards are awesome, made entirely in the same plastic used for troops sprues (no finecast!) ad they come with a scenic base

Avatars of War Dwarf Berserkers video review

Check below the video review of awesome Avatars of War Dwarf Berserkers!
You can find them with some discount at Wayland Games or you can check the official Avatars of War website.

edit: just added the images of the spures below after the video

Dwarf King's Hold video review

Last week my copy of Dwarf King's Hold arrived ad my doorstep, I just shot this video to take a look at the various components and give you an idea of what there is in the box.

Mantic's Abyssal Dwarfs review

Let's start Mantic's Abyssal Dwarvs review saying that they aren't a completely new miniatures, they are instead a plastic/metal hybrid. That means that on each box you will find some plastic dwarfs sprues plus some metal bits to customize them, that means also that once you have done putting together your Abyssal Dwarfs you will have lots of extra bits left.

Blacksouls (link to official Mantic's store, link to Wayland games store)
They are the basic melee unit, the kit I have makes possible to build 20 abyssal dwarf troopers. The kits has 2 x Dwarfs Ironclad command group sprues (if you are not familiar is this one) and 2 x Dwarfs Ironclad troop sprues plus the following metal bits:




















The bits highlighted in red are mask/helm toppers, you have to glue them on top of a plastic dwarf, the other heads are complete so you glue them instead of a normal dwarf head.
Bits in green are some shield details that you can glue on the plastic shields.
The two head in violet are for the mastiff (the two Dwarfs Ironclad troop sprues has one mastiff each).
The remaining pieces are a banner pole (on the left), three close combat weapons (on the bottom) and one upper body (on the right).
The upper body is supposed to be glued with a lower part body from the plastic sprue, this particular one with the hammer matches the lower part body without the cape.
Note: the picture on the box shows 2 head that are NOT in the box, I'm talking about the one shaped as a dragon and the one shaped as an eye.

This is an example of the command group, I used the upper body part for the unit's champion.




















Immortal Guard (link to official antic's store , link to Wayland games store)
They are some kind of elite unit, the kit I have makes possible to build a 10 abyssal dwarf unit. The kits has 2 x Dwarfs Ironclad command group sprues and 2 x Dwarf shieldbreakers sprue plus te following metal bist:




















There are two kind of upper body part, the ones with the axe (in blue) should be used with the lower body part with the cape, the other ones with the hammer (in green, same as the one in the blacksouls box) should be used with the lower body part without the cape (try for yourseld, it doesn't fit the other one!) Since you have 8 upper body parts you will have to build the two remaining troopers (musician and standard bearer) using the plain plastic dwarf.
The bits highlighted in red are mask/helm toppers, you have to glue them on top of a plastic dwarf.
The other 10 heads are complete, if you look closely some of them are the same as the ones in the blacksouls box while four are different.
Bits in yellow en are some shield details that you can glue on the plastic shields. (like the ones in blacksouls box)
Note: the picture on the box shows 1 head that is NOT in the box, the one with the helm shaped like a bat (It is present instead in the blacksouls box)

This is an example of some troopers you can build.




















I think this are Mantic's best miniatures so far, some might complain that the plastic/metal hybrid is a weird solution but miniature looks pretty good. One of my biggest complain about the Mantic's "good" dwarfs is the lack of options (there are just 2 types of head in the box plus the ones for the champion) and I believe that Abyssal dwarves kits are going in the right direction adding more options. The metal bits aren't top quality since they sometimes miss some piece and they show a lot of fusion lines so you will have to clean them up but with some work you can fix them.

Dust Tactics video review

I just posted a video review of Dust Tactics on youtube:





If you don't have time to waste this is my opinion on a nutshell:

• Robot tanks and miniature have a great design (especially the axis)
  
• The plastic used for the miniatures is too soft and might be a problen for some collector
  
• The game looks a lot like AT-43 (assembled miniatures, quality of material)
  
• Game is fun!

for more info about the game check the official website