So the other day I bought a Wardrums starter set and 2 boosters. I got:
2 Axe Soldiers
1 Combat Medic
2 Sacred Watchers
1 Sand Giant
2 Shieldwall Soldiers
1 Warforged Bodyguard
1 Warforged Scout (or as I call it, the 'Bionic Halfling)
1 Warpriest of Moradin
2 Hunting Cougars
1 Lion of Talisid
2 Wood Elf Rangers
1 Hobgoblin Archer
1 Blood Ghost Berserker
1 Chimera
1 Derro
2 Howling Orcs
2 Orc Maulers
2 Quaggoth Slaves
1 Tiefling Blademaster
1 Warduke
All-in-all, a decent haul. 3 commanders, 1 epic mini, the best LG haul I've ever gotten from a random assortment, and 4 orcs. Now lets discuss the nuts and bolts. Most of the minis' stats seem straighforward enough, though the Axe Soldier's Squad Activation seems a little strange to me. I really like the Shieldwall Soldier, and I look forward to fielding a lot of them. I wish they were a little more expensive, and hence more useful in an 8-creature warband, but 'oh well.' I thought that the sculpt for the Hunting Cougar is a little strange. I think the body is too short, so it looks 'kittenish.' I'm pretty disappointed with the Lion of Talisid. The artwork from Book of Exalted Deeds is great. The mini is uninspiring. The weapon is malformed, his head is thrust forward in a strange position, and cloak (which should have been incredible) has the same paint treatment as the armor. The Hobgoblin Archer is decent overall, but the arrow he's clutching in his left hand is only the size of a dart. The chimera is great! Great sculpt, nice paintjob, excellent figure. The Howling Orc is a good mini; it has a LotR feel to it, but one of mine does have some molding issues around the head of the weapon. The Orc Mauler looks a little like a werewolf to me, but I like his stance and the sculpt is good.
Finally, I'd like to talk about Warduke. The stats for both versions are intimidating, the artwork on the card is excellent, and the miniature sucks. The paint is not up to the level I expect from a Rare miniature, and the sculpt is... just odd. His sword looks like a toy/letter opener that he's using to clean his right boot. He apparently has no head, only a teeny-tiny helmet stuck over the stump of his neck, and the eyes glaring out of that helmet are so close together that he can't have any meaningful depth perception. For such a hyped figure, I'm quite disappointed.
Please feel free to add your thoughts on these and other minis.
I'm not sure what happened to this; it disappeared after I posted it yesterday, so I'll just give it a *bump*.
So the other day I bought a Wardrums starter set and 2 boosters. I got:
1 Warforged Scout (or as I call it, the 'Bionic Halfling)
I got a case of these minis for my birthday last week, and I have to say that I had mixed feelings about my haul.
First, though, I had almost the same exact thought about the Warforged Scout, except I morphed mine into an elite goblin skirmisher and will have him lead a squad that the characters will encounter prior to the Red Hand of Doom.
The minis I typically get in a case (especially the rares) are usually a mixed bag of stuff I'll definately use, stuff I'm likely to use anyway, and stuff I really want to sell on eBay if I had the time to figure it all out. I typicall get somewhere between 9-11 unique rares with one duplicate, or maybe two if I'm lucky. Two Vrocks was a hot find, and timely, too!
This time a only got like 6 unique minis, with 3 Gulgars (or something like that that I will NEVER use), and 2 of three other rares! Did I just get a terrible batch, or what? I understand that the cases are seeded to be semi randem, and I would have been thrilled to get three war ogres, or trolls, or even dragonnes, but it seems that I'll be poaching more of the minis I want off online sources than I normally do.
Celric
Did I just get a terrible batch, or what? I understand that the cases are seeded to be semi randem, and I would have been thrilled to get three war ogres, or trolls, or even dragonnes, but it seems that I'll be poaching more of the minis I want off online sources than I normally do.
Celric
In a factory sealed case you should have received 12 DIFFERENT rares (no repeats). Cases now are purposely seeded that way.
In my case I got:
3 of each common
at least one of each uncommon (most were 2 each, one was 3)
12 different rares.
A friend of mine had the exact same spread and all the threads I've read on the various boards say the same. Something smells fishy about your case to me.
In a factory sealed case you should have received 12 DIFFERENT rares (no repeats). Cases now are purposely seeded that way.
A friend of mine had the exact same spread and all the threads I've read on the various boards say the same. Something smells fishy about your case to me.
12 different rares, you say? Well, crap. I feel unhappy now. 'Course, I did just order a horde of screaming orcs off eBay - nothing says good times like getting charged by an Orc wearing the stretched and stitched skin of his last victim as a helmet.
So, a question: What is your favorite mini of the set and why?
Personally, I find myself in a tie for favorite mini between the Blood something-or-other, er... the bugbear, and the Hill Giant barbarian. They are both wickedly painted, both have decent, realistic sculpts, and (here's the best part) I'll definately use them. And IMO, that's the best reason of all :)
Well, throughout the different sets (from Harbinger onward) the dwarves have been a mixed bag. They've been getting better, and so long as you don't have dwarves from any of the early sets next to the dwarves from the more recent sets you won't notice the style and scale changes. Anyway, I'd have to say that from Wardrums I really like the Aspect of Moradin. Nice paint, nice details, cool pose. I hope to see aspects of more demihuman deities in the future.
Well, throughout the different sets (from Harbinger onward) the dwarves have been a mixed bag. They've been getting better, and so long as you don't have dwarves from any of the early sets next to the dwarves from the more recent sets you won't notice the style and scale changes. Anyway, I'd have to say that from Wardrums I really like the Aspect of Moradin. Nice paint, nice details, cool pose. I hope to see aspects of more demihuman deities in the future.
I agree with you that the aspect minis are fairly awesome, I just have a problem with their use as a table-top D&D stand-in. I assume that their use in the miniatures game is fairly standard stuff, but to me an aspect of a god is kind of like his avatar and these guys are pretty weak it you look at them in that light. Still, they are amoung the best painted.
I think of the Aspects as something that clerics could call with the Planar Ally spell. I haven't really looked at them to see if they'd be good choices, mind you...
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I've picked up 4 boosters so far and I have to say, I've been very pleased! The look of most were very nice, and there's a lot of good utility to the ones I picked up...
Amongst the 4 I've got
1 Elemental Wall
1 Hill Giant
1 Aspect of Moradin
1 Big Ogre with flail (don't rember the proper name)
1 Dragon Totem Hero
1 Night Hag
1 Quaggoth Slave (which I was very happy about)
1 Fiendish Garillion
1 Derro (but I would love to pick up several more...I like the crazy little bastards)
1 Woodelf Ranger
1 Skeleton Legioneer
As for repeats, I only have a couple
2 Cougars
2 Horde Zombies
2 Hobgoblin Archers
2 Tieflings
2 Axe soldiers
3 Steelshaft Archers (or whatever their called)
The repeats I have are good overall generic enough to be fairly high utility, so I'm not irritated by them in the least. I'll probably pick up one or two more packs. Overall, my satisfaction with Wardrums and Underdark both have been pretty high.
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Note that the original poster got a starter and 2 boosters, not a case of 12 boosters. An unopened case of boosters should have 12 different rares, 1 or 2 of each uncommon, and 3 of each common.
If you don't buy by the case, the distribution is much more random.
I'm curious to find out how many different cases there are, though. (It'd be nice if there were only 2 different cases, each with half the rares, but I don't know that to be true.)
Note that the original poster got a starter and 2 boosters, not a case of 12 boosters. An unopened case of boosters should have 12 different rares, 1 or 2 of each uncommon, and 3 of each common.I was responding to this poster:
I got a case of these minis for my birthday last week, and I have to say that I had mixed feelings about my haul.
So, a question: What is your favorite mini of the set and why?
I thought that the female minis in this set were great. They seem to be of the few (in my haul anyway) that were painted correctly compared to the gallery pics.
For monsters:
I really dig the chimera. I honestly can't recall ever using one before, but I think that's about to change. :)
The aspect of hextor will see use as a demon/devil or maybe a mutant giant - it's just too cool to not use.
I *REALLY* wanted a night hag, but I can't complain too much.
I was responding to this poster:I got a case of these minis for my birthday last week, and I have to say that I had mixed feelings about my haul.
No you weren't, you were responding to me, Celric. :).
It's tough to have a Welsh name that is so close to cleric that folks mis-correct it, or better yet, when 7th graders misspell cleric. Not that I'm egotistical, but I googled my name just to see what I'd get and you'd be surprised at the sheer number of poor spellers out there...
And just to restate, I would have been thrilled with 12 different rares, 1 or 2 of each uncommon and 3 of each common. It just goes to show that even randomized, some people will find the cost/benifit ratio acceptable.
I really dig the chimera. I honestly can't recall ever using one before, but I think that's about to change. :)I *REALLY* wanted a night hag, but I can't complain too much.
The Chimera is fairly cool, but it has limited unability in my campaign so it didn't really get the nod from me, but when I showed my players the coolness of the mini they were much more impressed.
The Night Hag sculpt is pretty cool as well, and usable, but I'd have rather gotten another one of the war orges with the cool flail.
I was responding to this poster:I got a case of these minis for my birthday last week, and I have to say that I had mixed feelings about my haul.No you weren't, you were responding to me, Celric. :).
Mea culpa. I probably shouldn't be posting while talking on the phone at work. :)
I picked up three boosters, and got two of the rare copper dragons, which is typical of my luck - I always end up with double rares within the first two or three boxes.
I'm a bit frustrated with more Warforged, but that's just my gaming group - none of us were taken with Eberron, so the Warforged figures go straight to the "to be traded/thrown out/what a waste" pile. Too many in this set - I've got four Warforged out of three packs.
The aspect of hextor will see use as a demon/devil or maybe a mutant giant - it's just too cool to not use.
It also doubles very well as "Ebon Aspect" (AoW AP). That's the only reason I bought it on eBay... ;-)
Bocklin
Well, throughout the different sets (from Harbinger onward) the dwarves have been a mixed bag. They've been getting better, and so long as you don't have dwarves from any of the early sets next to the dwarves from the more recent sets you won't notice the style and scale changes. Anyway, I'd have to say that from Wardrums I really like the Aspect of Moradin. Nice paint, nice details, cool pose. I hope to see aspects of more demihuman deities in the future.I agree with you that the aspect minis are fairly awesome, I just have a problem with their use as a table-top D&D stand-in. I assume that their use in the miniatures game is fairly standard stuff, but to me an aspect of a god is kind of like his avatar and these guys are pretty weak it you look at them in that light. Still, they are amoung the best painted.
We will use the Aspect of Moradin for when we Enlarge Person the party dwarf. It should work great for that.
A couple things...
-Dupe rares are possible in a case, and with only 23 rares in the set, in fact common. Triple rares shouldn't be possible.
-The humanoid Aspects make great enlarged pc's. I intend to use Moradin as my Cleric of Moradin when I cast Righteous Might. Perfect fit.
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You know, I never really got into minis, but wouldn't mind having a small collection now that I'm gaming again and we use them during the game. Now, as I understand it, these packs of minatures that WotC sells are all random. If that is the case, I'd rather not buy them. And I don't really have the time or desire to sit there and paint minatures (not to mention I'd probably suck at it). Does anyone know another source to buy pre-painted minatures and actually be able to know what you're getting? Thanks.
Director of Game Development
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You know, I never really got into minis, but wouldn't mind having a small collection now that I'm gaming again and we use them during the game. Now, as I understand it, these packs of minatures that WotC sells are all random. If that is the case, I'd rather not buy them. And I don't really have the time or desire to sit there and paint minatures (not to mention I'd probably suck at it). Does anyone know another source to buy pre-painted minatures and actually be able to know what you're getting? Thanks.
I believe Paizo sells singles. I haven't bought any of these but one player bought a sheepload of 'em and they're alright. I prefer to paint ( or have my wife paint ) the miniatures our group uses.
I got a case of these minis for my birthday last week, and I have to say that I had mixed feelings about my haul.
Celric
Just out of curiosity, where'd you find a sealed case? I realize that yours was a gift, Celric (Happy birthday, btw), but do you know the source? Does anyone else on the boards know where a case can be had, and for what retail price?
I bought two cases from GameOutfitters.com. I won't again, but rather go to a local game store to buy them. The advantage of a store is you can trade dupes with others at the store when the cases come in.
As for the mix, I bought two cases and fell 4 rares short of a complete set, best I have ever done. I am a bit disappointed in some of the paint jobs (they don't match what they showed in the previews) but I am hoping there will be some sort of fix for that from WotC.
Just out of curiosity, where'd you find a sealed case? I realize that yours was a gift, Celric (Happy birthday, btw), but do you know the source? Does anyone else on the boards know where a case can be had, and for what retail price?
Hey, thanks for the birthday wishes!
I did pretty much what Festivus did, I looked at the price of a new factory-sealed case on GameOutfitters.com, then I headed out to the local gaming store to bargin roughly the same price from him. This does two things. 1) It gets me the minis right away - no waiting un-patiently for UPS to show - and I don't have to pay for shipping. 2) It keeps my FLGS in business, which is also a really good thing.
- As an aside, and I'm not sure what other parts of the country (or other Countries, for that matter) are like gaming-wise, but I know that the FLGS'es in my area have been in steady decline over the past few years. So much so, in fact, that several have closed their doors forever. I asked the guy at the one I like why this seems to be happening, and his response was AMAZON.COM, and other online gaming sources. So, if'n y'all like yer FLGS, then frequent it and spend money there. :)
...And since someone else brought up that some of the paint jobs in the new set look terrible - what's up with the Ice dwarf? Ye holy Dwarven Gods, does that mini look awful.
Well, the frost dwarf that I got wasn't too bad, for what it is. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the axe is the same color as his skin. Here in Chicagoland, decent gaming stores (and gamers, as well) are few and far between. I usually end up picking up boosters at a bookstore or in the mall.
So I picked up some more boosters and another starter set. Here are a few thoughts:
Out of 2 starter sets and 6 boosters (72 minis total) I have 4 of the 6 epic-legal miniatures, which is nice. Of course, I'd rather trade either the Dragon Totem Hero, Warduke, or Shuluth Archvillain for a War Troll. Of the commons, I've only got one each of the Goblin Blackblade and Horde Zombie (frustrating, considering its special ability), and I don't have ANY of the Arcanix Guard. On the other hand, I have at least two of these Uncommons: Blood Ghost Berserker, Karrnathi Zombie, Inspired Lieutenant, Warpriest of Moradin, and Lion of Talisid, and I have 4! Sacred Watchers (which is actually a pretty nice mini).
I did finally get my hands on an Aspect of Moradin, and I'm very happy with the miniature. The paint was pretty good (though not great), I think the pose and proportions are excellent, and my only complaint is some molding flash along his right arm and torso.
I'm also very happy with the Hill Giant Barbarian, Karrnathi Zombie and Halfling Slinger. The paint on the slinger could be better, but the pose and details are good, and the game stats are great for the points cost, especially on a map like the Teleport Temple. As long as I've mentioned it, what does everyone think of the maps? I drooled when I saw the Field of Ruin map, and the Teleport Temple is also very cool. Nice artwork and interesting tactical possibilities. I'm not too sure about them printing them on both sides, but I understand the cost-saving factor. I kind of wish that they could be linked together to make really BIG maps, though. Y'know, patterned in such a way that the artwork would match up, & so on. Anyone else have any thoughts?
I got a Warforged Barbarian... could use a buncha "cannonfodder" type minis, if anyone wants to trade. I'm running the "red Hand of Doom" adventure, so I'm primarily looking for appropriate minis to that...
I've bought a bunch of them and I am willing to trade. I have 4 of every common and at least 1 of every uncommon. I'm looking for trades, in particular a chimera and I'm willing to trade any of those plus these rares:
Arcane Ballista
Aspect of Moradin
Large Bronze Dragon
Sand Giant
Dragon Totem Hero
Khumat
Snig, Worg Rider
King Obould Many-Arrows
Contact me at ghettowedge@yahoo.com if you are interested in trading.
Hm - that gives me pause to think... Is there a place online where we can actively trade D&D Minis?
Hm - that gives me pause to think... Is there a place online where we can actively trade D&D Minis?
I use miniaturetrading.com, but after a few trades pickings have become slim on the figs I'm looking for. I'm a little surprised that WotC or Paizo wasn't supporting something like it.
Well, I'm just starting up at this, so I'm verra limited as to what I can find locally. I did score a chimera in my WarDrums starter set - but I need it for the Red Hand of Doom adventure I'm running. What else are you looking for?
Well, I'm just starting up at this, so I'm verra limited as to what I can find locally. I did score a chimera in my WarDrums starter set - but I need it for the Red Hand of Doom adventure I'm running. What else are you looking for?
An Aspect of Hextor would be nice for my Age of Worms campaign, unfortunately I would need it by Saturday. There are no other Wardrums minis that I'm actively looking for. From other sets I need a Blue Slaad, Frost Giant, and Fire Giant. I'm willing to consider anything anyone has to offer though. I usually DM, and I'm trying to get at least one of all the monster types.
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I was one the WotC website this morning and they had a survey you could take part in about their miniatures related stuff. I know that a lot of people on these boards seem to have a problem with they way they do miniatures, so I thought I'd let everyone know that now you can give them some direct feedback.
I refuse to buy random miniatures. I pick up my D&D minis up as singles. That way I only get the ones I want...unfortunately, it also means I can't afford some of those I want, but on the good side I don't get stuck with ones I don't want.
I'm a person who would rather not have what I want than get what I don't want. Take gambling for example: I would rather not gamble and not win, than gamble and lose.
So in the singles I bought I picked up the following
Elemental Wall 2
Warforged Bodyguard 1
Warforged Capt 2
Warforged Scout 1(or the robo-runt as we call him)
Hunting Cougar 1
Lion of Talisid 1 (I did pick this one out sight unseen, and what a piece of crap)
Melphling Pyromancer 1
Flameskull 3
Goblin Black Blade 2
Goblin Underboss 1
Hobgoblin Archer 2
Large Drugar 2
Derro 2
Terror Wight 1
Howling Orc 1
Fiendish Girallon 4
Orc Mauler 1
Quaggoth Slave 2
Troglodyte Thug 2
Hill Giant Barbarian 2
Hoard Zombie 2
I picked these all up for under $30.
I would have liked the bronze Dragon...although they are fairly rair in published D&D advemtures, and the Hill Giant Chief, but I have several metal giant figures so that wasn't really a loss.
ASEO out
Hm - that gives me pause to think... Is there a place online where we can actively trade D&D Minis?
www.maxminis.com for everything DDM's related. They have an excellent referral system for trading, and tons of info on the current sets, old sets, new sets, how to play the skirmish game, etc. The traders and posters seem to be top notch as well.