Monday 15 February 2016

What's in the box - Kingly Wrath Edition, part the 2nd



Welcome to the second part of this series of articles on the unboxing/assembling/examination of a Wrath of Kings starter (I might stretch the series with the character boxes if people enjoy this enough).

Here's a link to part 1

In this column, we'll be looking at the pair of Specialists from the starter. A Specialist in this game, basically, if you're familiar with WarmaHordes terminology, is a rough equivalent to a Solo. They're deployed alone, can make an impact on the flow of battle, and will generally have a target painted on them for your opponent. Some are more of a back line buff/debuff type of unit, some are more of a front-line beatstick. It depends on the faction and on the Specialist itself.

In the House Nasier starter, the one I have, the two Specialists are a Rathor and a Longhorn. A pair of minotaur-esque-looking models. Trying to keep specific game lingo to a minimum, the Longhorn is a 40mm-based second-line beatstick (getting deployed 10 to 15 inches into the field) whose sole attack (melee) has greater to-hit chances and can deal a painfully large amount of damage (3 dice for attack by itself) and has a charge attack which allows it to clear a path to its target before charging, while the Rathor is a 50mm-based mid-field (deployed 5 to 10 inches into the field) who has a basic 1-die 8" ranged magic attack (which can bounce onto a secondary target within 3 inches of the first), a 2-dice melee attack with some defense reduction on the target and some knockback, and a 6" aura which denies enemies within it the use of some defensive skills.

So, starting with the Longhorn...

This is a pretty straightforward model - one piece body, two separate arms, two separate horns, and the base.

The horns are rather neat, with one having a hole while the other has a connecting pin, so that there can be no confusion as to where and how each one fits:





The body is large, with a decent level of detailing:




 The sword arm had a pair of mold extrusion bits, but nothing to worry about:



And the shield arm looked pretty clean:





And while sure, some of the mold lines are pretty obvious, the plastic is actually the hardest I've seen so far in my 15 years of messing around with miniatures. It feels tougher than the normal GW plastics everyone uses as a reference point, and is a PLEASURE to work with. Which is good, considering the Rathor, which follows:

A 13 piece model (14 if you count the base), the Rathor is a bit more involved as a build, but still has some nicely defined attachment points which keep you from messing up, and which make dry-fitting a breeze (even better during assembly - makes it so much easier than having to hold two parts for 5 minutes on end).

Here are the legs, right and left. Notice that one has a socket, the other one has an attachment peg, again, preventing any mistakes during assembly:






These connect to a lower body, which has a peg to connect to the upper body:
 

So far so good, right? Let's take a look at the upper body... and UGH! There's a mold spot which created a hole in the left pec/shoulder. Nothing major - a bit of greenstuff will fix it, but it's annoying to have to deal with that in the first place...




You can see the problem in the top center picture, to the right of the dorsal hair crest.








So from this piece, a set of back spikes (not really spikes as they're rounded, but I can't figure out what to call them) go in, as do a pair of arms (again, with one having a peg, the other a socket), and a head.

The back spikes:













The head:


Which also gets a pair of odd, rounded, spike things:

The outstretched left arm:



And the right arm, which is meant to hold a staff of some sort. Note how the hole for said staff is made - again, a bright way of doing things which reduce possible breakage and allow for the model to hold it at various heights. Delightful!




Here's the staff, note that there are a pair of molding issues on one side of its prongs. Again, nothing major, or that a bit of greenstuff won't fix, but it's frustrating to have to deal with that, as such molding problems shouldn't be occurring in the first place:

 And finally, a smaller pair of prongs to go into the staff:


And here are the assembled and primed models:






Come back soon for the next article in this set - we'll be looking at a troop type and their unit leaders: the Pelegarth!