Ghost Archipelago Nickstarter?

[giles the zog]

I agree with Keg.

I like the understated nature of the figures for Frostgrave and now Ghost Archipelago. Mark Copplestone and the other sculptors are from the same stable and I like their style.

I have no time for the OTT stuff GW and imitators produce. It takes much longer to paint and is not enjoyable.

The metal miniatures from Northstar have been crisp castings and the sculpting is nice and easy to paint, so I don't get the "soft" issue at all. The plastics if any are the "softer" of the options in terms of sculpting. Both are still good and I have most of them. If I had more room, money and most importantly TIME to paint them, I'd get more.

That said, I am not impressed with the stretch goals so far, which is a shame, as the basic game and offerings seem very very good as usual.

[spect_spidey]

Though I agree that the new miniatures are understated, I want to say that I actually -like- that?  Hear me out: this is an opinion influenced by the over-saturation of big and elaborate aesthetics in miniature design.  I went all in on this nickstarter (level 4), because to my surprise I have really very much enjoyed the previous Frostgrave miniatures even when they were "uninspired".  I have not found them to be soft on detail, just ... simpler.  Less gaudy.  And simple can be good, since it is rough finding fantasy miniatures that aren't all swinging over-sized weapons, shouting wildly, and scale-creeping into insanity.

Spect-spidey, Karadek, you have a valid point.  It's just not one that applies to me, and I want to supply a counter-point to keep things from seeming too negative.

Please don't mistake what I am saying believe me I love simpler designs. I really like the crew plastics. I would have liked to see a bare chested or vest only torso in the mix, but I can understand why there isn't one. The animals and dinosaurs look pretty decent, but I can find suitable prepainted minis of these creatures on the cheap. Some of these just feel real soft and almost a cop out.

For example the Heritor IX, the pose seems awkward and is so softly sculpted that I have a hard time telling if they are wearing pants with their boots or even if this is a male or female.
Heritor X with her hands on her hips. Her upper and lower arms appear to be bare, but seem to be the same width.
The one Wave Warden has plenty of exposed skin, but there is no definition to the limbs. They remind me of a Batman the Animated Series character.
The Pearl Diver has the same issues as the Wave Warden I mentioned.

While I know that you cannot expect minis to fully capture the artwork they are expected to represent, I always felt like the earlier Frostgrave stuff resembled the artwork and captured the feel of the art very well. A lot of these, I compare it to the artwork and I have a hard time seeing how the sculptor came up with what they did from the art. I don't know who did the first three or so series of sculpts for the metal Frostgrave minis, but those I felt looked really good and made me consider hard to get them since I am not a fan of metal or resin. I prefer my minis to be plastic and preferably multi-part. That is why I always love the Frostgrave plastic kits. I always look forward to what the plastics look like for the next Frostgrave expansion and I always purchase a box. I am even eagerly awaiting the dwarf and elf plastics from Northstar. I don't really play anything that I could use them for other than Frostgrave. But they have so much character in the sculpts. They just ooze excitement and call to be painted much like the Frostgrave plastic kits.

The Ghost Archipelago metals do not saying anything to me. They seem subpar, bland, and lack personality for the most part.
There are a few exceptions. Heritor IV and the two Storm Wardens look pretty good. They feel dynamic and powerful in the sculpts and stances. They are ready for action. I think they did an excellent job of making the female crew look like they match the plastic crew kit. And when I look at the Crackshot, I see an overconfident snooty know it when it comes to using a crossbow. He has a personality and some soul in the sculpt.LOL

[nic-e]

I have to say that the paintjobs really aren't doing the sculpts any favours. I don't want to diminish the painter, Just they seem a big muddy and make it very hard to read the figures.




 

[Kegluneq]

...good stuff...

And those are reasonable statements, and if you're not feeling the sculpts then yeah, providing feedback is good.  I don't feel an obligation to be positive, I just am positive on these minis and felt it was also worth mentioning that.

All the heritors look good to me.  Not "amazing" but I've got plenty of flashier miniatures.  They're filling a niche I need.  These minis will be used for D&D as often as I'll be able to talk my crew into Frostgrave or Ghost Archipelago, and so this is going to be a great bunch of non-traditional druids, rogues, and explorer types.

[Kommando_J]

I think some of the minis are excellent and while not very suited to ga..would indeed make excellent characters for other games....I agree with spect in that ome of the poses are very badly sculpted, a couple of the heritors are too androgynous(the one spect mentioned and the one with spear shield and bow).

Also, some of the specialists are excellent and some are quite crude in comparison..was it just Mark Copplestone sculpting these?

[mr ed]

I really wanted to go all in on this but the sculpts look too much of a mixed bag, especially the heritors and extras, some of which look really rough. The plastic Drichaeans and Tribals sound  interesting down the line. Snake men less so.

I'll  still do level 3 with a few of the extras but it'll be 80 or 90 quid instead of 200 which is a shame. More for otherworld or westfalia.

The next stretch goal is only 5k so perhaps things are slow against projections

[Major_Gilbear]

I'm tempted by the book, the novel, the accessories set, and possibly a box of plastic models. The plastic models being low priority as I already have some LotR corsairs that I never got around to doing anything with.

However, that's Level 3 which seems a pretty expensive deal at £62. Yes, you also get two metal figs and some treasure tokens, but still... 

The next level down is £38 for the same without the figs.

Maybe (probably!) I've been spoilt by launch bundle offers for other games, but I kinda feel like Levels 2 and 3 should be around £10-15 cheaper. I'll keep watching, but I suspect that I'll be picking this up later at retail where I can likely get a better discount.   

I have to say that the paintjobs really aren't doing the sculpts any favours. I don't want to diminish the painter, Just they seem a big muddy and make it very hard to read the figures.

I absolutely feel the same. No offense to the painter, but better paintjobs would make the models easier to "see" clearly. As it is, I'm not feeling hugely inspired by them.

I think some of the minis are excellent and while not very suited to GA..would indeed make excellent characters for other games....I agree with spect in that some of the poses are very badly sculpted, a couple of the heritors are too androgynous(the one spect mentioned and the one with spear shield and bow).

Also, some of the specialists are excellent and some are quite crude in comparison..was it just Mark Copplestone sculpting these?

Also agreed. Also not to diminish the sculptor's efforts, but quite a few of the minis don't seem as interesting and as well-finished as the FG models to me.

However, it might simply be down to painting/presentation, and I may feel differently about them after people get hold of them and start posting up their own versions.

_________________________________________________________

Re-reading my post, I didn't mean to sound so negative! However, after the glorious effort that went into FG, I suppose I expected GA to launch with even more polish right out of the gate, and that may have been unrealistic on my part. Even so, I think I'll wait and see for now.

[Kommando_J]

I don't think it is unreasonable, do far all the frostgrave nickstarters ave been good with a noticeable maintaining of quality.

My theory is thus, I have noticed the releases that stick to the ''original pattern'' do best, that is, plastic boxed set, themed wizards and themed specialists, I think the wardens although not the bt in execution have a fine concept.

I think the heritors should have had more of a ''theme'' to them, the wizards had a wizard/apprentice with magic school to inform design...heritors should have gone similarly, do sets of male and female heritors each based on an 'archetype' for instance, assassin or heavily armoured bruiser etc.

[LeadAsbestos]

I'm in. The rules will be fun, the stretch goals minis are cool and make me look forward to Future releases, and the new Savage is a must-buy. I'm not crazy abt the regular minis, but I'm a Nickstarter fan and I want to see GA do well.

[marcusluis]

Can I use my savage core amazon's?

[LeadAsbestos]

Can I use my savage core amazon's?

Of course! My gaming pal is doing exactly that! I used their Simians as my FG band.

[spect_spidey]

Here are a few videos I found on Youtube of someone painting two of the GA minis.

Here is a tutorial for a Vine Warden:

Here is a tutorial for a Heritor:

I think these two videos help raise the status of these two models. For me, it takes them from meh to okay. I can appreciate them better, but they still seem lacking. I can't put my finger on it. The only words that keep coming to mind is lifeless or lacking personality. The sculpts definitely look better in these videos, but they feel like they could be from any miniature line. They miss that spark that I feel a lot of the original Frostgrave models had. And it is a shame because I really like the changes to the rules that I read about. I honestly think that I will probably play GA more than regular Frostgrave although I will miss having captains.

[steeldragon]

After sone soul searching I discovered that I've only went "all in" with the gnolls, and now the snakemen are the ones holding my interest. Maybe we have been given too much, too fast on what to expect from GA future...

[ced1106]

The whole thing with amazon selling the books way cheaper springs to mind.

Well, in the long run, you want to do more than sell product through a month-long crowdfunding project, and Amazon should have more exposure (and lower shipping prices) than a webstore or OLGS. Given that part of the sell of Frostgrave is that you can use your own miniatures, I'd say that it's audience would be more interested in a discount for the rulebook, rather than buying miniatures they may not want or need.

[spect_spidey]

Well, in the long run, you want to do more than sell product through a month-long crowdfunding project, and Amazon should have more exposure (and lower shipping prices) than a webstore or OLGS. Given that part of the sell of Frostgrave is that you can use your own miniatures, I'd say that it's audience would be more interested in a discount for the rulebook, rather than buying miniatures they may not want or need.

Or in my case, you might want some of the miniatures (mainly the plastics), but your FLGS's distributors don't carry the miniatures and so eBay, overseas, or Brigade Games is the only way to get the miniatures. It really sucks. It is hard to get exposure for a game when there is a just a few books on the shelves. You show it to people and start talking to them about it and they are like "I really like some of the miniatures in the book. Where are they?" And I have to reply "Uh, well the store can't get them so you either have to buy online or use some of the miniatures that the store does carry." It doesn't go over too well I hate to say. It has definitely made it hard to get any type of Frostgrave community going here. It would be nice if Osprey had some kind of promotion program for people demoing their games. But I get it gaming books is just a small part of their business.