2013-03-26

Review of Warriors of Dale...

... from Games Workshop. This will be a short one.



Sprue: Since this box was bought just a few weeks after the release, the sprue is in excellent condition. Not as good as some other boxes, but still, not especially much cleaning of mouldline to be done. 4/5 - not a five because there were some notable mouldlines at parts of their cloaks.
Bits & Spareparts: LotR-standard, meaning no or almost no extra bits. 2/5.
Design: This is mainly a question of taste. I really like it - especially considering Dale's placement in Middle-Earth. In many ways how Russian forces in south have inspired, and been inspired by southern countries - FoB will likely correct me here but here goes: The indo-heritage in Persia, which in turn spread and were co-bred with arabian and Russian designs in armour and weapons, made the Russians like a perfect mixture of Western and Eastern culture. I guess there were some Chinese influences in the farthest of the Fatherland...
     Which brings me to the only small problem I have with GW's design of some of the not-so-well descripted Middle-Earthen Eastern cultures: They tend to take a little too much from existing Earth-cultures... though these particular models do not suffer particularly much from it, the point is still valid. And I still like these guys a lot. For a general gamer I'll give these 3/5, but for me they are a stunning 5/5 in design.

Models: They have some boring poses, some okay and some allright; which means: None stood out especially much. In many ways, they are similar to the Rangers of Middle-Earth... 3/5.

Price: Ridiculous. Ten warriors for 250 SEK, app. 30 EUR... 1/5.

Point of interest: Pointy hats that look funny (in a good way) and shields that look ugly (in a bad way). The shields are too small - perhaps in an effort to make them look more sailor-like, where a buckler was the biggest you got back in the days. Before shields were left altogether - which actually happened before the cannons ruled the seas... But that's another story.
   The last point of interest was this card:


Good, points values are stated in this sheet. Bad, because it would've been nicer to have it in the rulebook, but thats GeeDubb for you.

That's all for today, see you!

EDIT: Forgot to tally the score: 11 of 25. That might sound low, and rightly so, because of the price.
R-tard-EDIT 2: Score was 14 of 25.

6 kommentarer:

  1. Hey Llama,

    No stats for WotR I take it? GW and it's prices...killing the goose that layed the golden egg if you ask me.

    Look forward to seeing them painted!

    Best,

    Wade

    SvaraRadera
  2. I propose the following stat:

    Warriors of Dale - common formation, 25-30 pts per company*
    ----------------
    [Copy the formation/company composition rules from the WoMT-entry in the WotR-rulebook].

    Move: Like all men.
    Fight: 4/4+
    Strength: 4
    Defence: 4(6) or 4(5) to give them personality and punish them for their weak-looking buckler-shields.

    Attacks: 8
    Resilience: 1
    Courage: 3
    Special: Perhaps something in regards to shooting or something to tie into the sea-faring of these guys.

    If there weren't to be released "Dale Super Archers", I guess one could add some sort of special to use in conjunction with a special hero, like a "Take Aim!"...

    Jamie over at Rough War of the Ring have published some sweet inspirational rules for, amongst others, High Elves. I shall have to take a look - because it would be nice to distinguish Dalings from ALL the other guys: Arnor (only general difference are in their courage), WoMT:s, all the different types of rangers, Rohirrim etc etc...

    Normal upgrades, captain, hornblower - the whole works.


    *) As I am finishing my own reworked version of WotR, the points are undecided, but with the current and only version of WotR, they'd been pointed 25 pts per company, no doubt about it...

    SvaraRadera
  3. Hi Llama, thanks for posting those up. I've been waiting to see some sprues so I could know what to sub in for my Rhovanion project - I like the look of them but of course will be using something else. Most probably lots of those new Dark Ages guys by GB.

    Re: stats: I rated them F3/4 Str 3 Courage 3 def 4(6), which is in line with WOMT without the renaissance style armour. That was done based on the more usual style historical miniatures I was using though. Giving them less of a shield bonus is an interesting idea - based on these figs.Perhaps higher base def 5(6) 25pts and same cost if armed with bow over shield but make some silly hand wavey rule that the buckler gives +1 fight bonus - so melee version is F4? Hmm. Thinking about Wotr is dangerous when I have another Impetvs army to work on!

    SvaraRadera
  4. " ... silly hand wavey rule" :) F4 would be F5 [with the buckler +1F] but with loss of 1 pip of defence... OR just give them def 4 (which, as you say, suits their armour better) and have them have (5) with the shields.

    Doing the latter would inevitably turn them into some sort of slightly less survivable Morannon Orcs... Hm... Anyway, these kinds of "problems" are so luxuriously unnecessary - one of the few problems that actually are a joy to ponder about.

    Come over to the dark side once again, where the models cost 3 EUR each and you need a tonne of them :) Forget Impetvs!

    SvaraRadera
  5. I could do that but I got 4 boxes of WGF Samurai/Ashigaru for $90 NZD
    And that is a whole Impetvs army on its own. It really is a great game too. Almost as good as WOTR.....

    The models have about a million pieces though.

    Well put about the `joy of unecessary problems`.

    SvaraRadera
  6. And those Samurai weren't ugly either... Oooh, if only one could crowbar them into WotR! Just typing it makes me blush, though...

    SvaraRadera