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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Warlord Games: Germans and Americans - Assembled

Progress again with the Assault on Normandy boxed set.


I've assembled all the models.  As an initial review I would say that whilst the models are well tooled the German models are weaker than the Americans:


The issues are twofold, firstly the models' faces are a bit caricatured for my tastes, just a bit cartoony. Secondly the models are a challenge to pose any other way than in the proscribed arrangements of the assembly guide.  Now obviously that isn't a problem for Napoleonics figures - where having an entire unit at the march looks right - but for a 'modern' formation this looks unnatural.

The Germans were difficult to vary the pose of as there were few alternative arm positions in the set; nonetheless I did my best with the MG teams and the officer and medic.  The Americans were slightly better (being a later tooling) with a few more useful alternative arm arrangements, and I was more pleased with how they came out, including a nice little sniper team and another officer and medic combo.

Overall they're perfectly reasonable models, but not spectacular, and the value is not as good as other 28mm plastic sets.  25 figures for £22.50 does not compare well to other plastic figure ranges and I doubt I'd buy them myself (remember I was 'donated' these).

 Personally I have an inkling that the higher price on these is purely based on demand - need 300 figures for a game?  We'll let you buy them  at 40 for £20, need 60 figures for a game?  well I think you can pay twice the price per model then.  Games Workshop have long applied this business model, and it is a shame that it seems it applies here too.  Still they are cheaper than most metal miniatures for the period (but not always by as much as you'd expect), but for me the ease of using metal miniatures - when weight is never an issue, and the fact I already have 60 or more Germans and as many Americans....

Yeah, not convinced yet.  Let's see how they paint up though.

5 comments:

  1. I find all of the Warlord WW2 stuff too cartoony I have to say.

    Now whether I can resist the Perry stuff...

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  2. I look forward to the end result as I have a few to do too!

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  3. Agree on the posing of the Germans. More variation can be achieved though, if one is prepared for a fair bit of green-stuff work around the arms/shoulders!

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  4. As someone tempted to start Bolt Action would you recommend the Assault on Normandy boxed set??

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  5. If you have nothing so far then the boxed set represents great value, it's about £80 of kit for £60 rrp. You can get two small well matched forces out of the set, plus some scenery and of course the rules and dice...

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