More elephantiasis from GW...

[Simlasa]

I'm not a huge fan of modern GW... but those Tomb King models really appeal to me. Not sure what I'd use them for... probably a skirmish game or RPG... I'll definitely be getting the Lamia looking fellas.

[Viper]

When I first saw the new TK models I didn't really like the look of the sphinx, the pose is far too static, and the snake riders are terrible.

I did however like the look of the Skeleton Infantry and the Lamia style snake men, I was going to get some to use in egyptian pulp adventure stuff...

Then I went to the GW site and saw the prices.

£25.50 for 10 28mm skeletons.
£33.50 for 3 of the really skinny snake men.

No deal, even at a 10-20% discount from an online store that's way too much.

[Argonor]

That's really the sad thing about it; they don't revise the rules to make a better game, anymore, they do it to make you buy more, even expensiver, models. I wouldn't be complaining half as much about them, if there had been a red thread through all the revisions leading to a smoother, more fun game, but it's the same slow affair - most often turning into a rules-lawyering affair before the end of turn 1, where rank-and-file are only there to be butchered by overpowered characters/heroes/monsters/whatever - as it was 30 years ago.

As one of the posters on the Khemri forum put it: Skeletons only 4 pts, now - that just turned my 3000 pts army into 2500 points.....

That, and the fact that they seem very keen on turning everyone else's ideas into their own IP (how many really original ideas have they brought to gaming - even in RT you see IG looking very much like Star Wars Rebel Troopers??), really puts me off. Not to mention their recent twisting of the LotR setting (Dwarven wizards... duh...).

They DO make nice minis, but the price/quality ratio is, IMO, not really at par with many other, smaller companies.

[former user]

the talent and effort on display

I have to strongly disagree here
I can't see any of both
it's mostly an incoherent patchwork on anything in public awareness about "Egypt"

there are a lot more egypt-syle miniatures around where the creators put creativity into, sorry to say that
the new stuff is simply only big as to appeal to the target group that buys action figures

as already stated by others, the game acceleratingly declines to 2 people bashing their godzilla puppets into each other's (like two 5 years old boys), with the actual miniatures left to be cannonfodder,

which does certainly not mean that creative people can't do anything with the bits stuff

[former user]

- My assessment of the "talent" was not founded on any comparison of 'historical' accuracy
that was not what I meant, yes it is fantasy
- but on the fact that there is a lot of crisp detail,
I agree on that one
-  proportions are good,. Shows good modelling skills
but not on those

- My estimation of "effort" is that there are a lot of figures being released simultaneously. That is designing, producing moulds, marketing packaging etc. That is a lot of work.
I agree. better spent on more creative modelling

- I am agreeing with you.
not exactly sure, but never mind, different oppinions are just fine  

to make my point perhaps better understood
for me it is like watching CG loaded action blockbuster of the recent years, and when I get out of cinema and the "wow" slowly settles, the question arises - hmm, if only they had spent the same effort on the script and dialogues...

or maybe explained with the feeling a special bavarian hobby of creating  "wolpertinger"
conveys

[former user]

before we hijack this thread privately
yes, fundamentally we agree 

about the future of GW

yes, they are making nice miniatures and putting a lot of effort into it, no question

maybe in 5 years, when people post new GW miniatures they bought into the "new toys I recently bought" sticky, this will be the outcome
still fine with me as long as there are a lot of bits to be used for conversions 

[Doomsdave]

I didn't like the spider or the rat blob, but these are tempting me to the dark side.  I really liked tomb kings before but would love to have that big Sphinx.  I could use it for more than warhamster.   I'm seeing a tomb/temple guardian construct coming to life when triggered by explorers.  Big stompy statue-thingy

[Viper]

While I've alread state the prices have ruled me out on the skeletons and snakemen I guess I'll add a bit more of my thoughts on the "Sphinx."

My main problem with them is the pose, while no doubt as plastic kits there will be a little bit of variation when it comes to the legs and maybe the angle of the head/human torso there is probably no variation at all with the main body. These are ment to be living statues, but I for one fail to see any "life" in these sculpts, of course it has often been the case (with a few rare exceptions like the fantastic rearing metal griffon model) that GW think "front left paw raised" is the hight of fluid life like posing.

Size wise, about 100mm long not including the tail I guess, height wise about 100mm for the animal one and 150ish for the more normal one. Pretty impressive by 28-32mm model standards but it opens up a whole different world of potential alternatives with action figures, desk ornaments, etc... Now these may also have very static poses so I wouldn't say they are better in that respect but then price and personal taste comes into it.

On price and taking things like size and detail into account. £31 for these guys is pretty expensive, this moves them into the realm of similarly sized large monsters from the likes of Maelstrom Games "BaneLegions" and Ultraforge to name just two. While it is a matter of personal taste and not true of every model it tends to be the case that other monsters of a similar size have far more interesting poses.

To be fair the GW Sphinx doesn't seem too bad just taking it on its own and not looking at it compared to all the other potential alternatives and price issues but for me it just isn't good enough to pull itself up to a level where there other issues don't matter.

[archangel1]

I think part of the static pose 'problem' is a result of GW's reliance on a specific size base for each level of 'bigness', something that is inherent in the fact that these are (supposedly) gaming pieces.  If the sculptors were allowed to create figures that didn't have to fit in a certain area, we might actually see a bit more variety.

I kind of like the first beastie with the tomb mask but I'm not so thrilled with the Necropolis Knights.

My biggest quibble with the Tomb Kings might appear to be rather 'mundane' taken in context with some of the admittedly rather outlandish figures that have been produced over the past couple of years.  It's this - why are the skeleton archers left-handed? I cannot recall a single instance of an ancient army being taught to fight with their left hands.  Since right-handedness is a dominant trait, that was the chosen weapon hand while the shield, if carried, was held in the left.  If you happened to be a lefty and ended up in the army, you probably soon had that beaten out of you, probably literally in some cases.  There is no room for variance in a shield wall or similar formation.

[Pil]

Size wise, about 100mm long not including the tail I guess, height wise about 100mm for the animal one and 150ish for the more normal one.

The base is 100 mm long so I think the whole model including the tail would be around 20-25 cm long. I think part of the staticness is because it's a four legged plastic kit and they don't know how to pose it, and also because they tried to cram it into a base that's too small. GW have already made larger bases for the Skaven (60x100 mm) and spider (100x150 mm) and I think a larger base would have looked better. In game a smaller base is an advantage (less models to hit you back) so I think that's why they went for the cavalry base.

[Viper]

I can see the possible truth behind the fixed base size being a restriction but there have been exceptions from within GWs own range.







Looking at pose only these 3 are fantasic examples of what can be done even by GW when they put the effort in and try to be a little creative.

[susiehaynes]

that is so cool. i kinda like it.

[Bako]

The high elf dragon rider is a fantastic kit. Bought it and don't even play WHF, let alone those yellow-hair pretty-boys. Dear lord it was ace!

[Mephysto]

The high elf dragon rider is a fantastic kit. Bought it and don't even play WHF, let alone those yellow-hair pretty-boys. Dear lord it was ace!

Same here - and all those bits and pieces, the birds, the little dragon cub. So cute.
Almost all of the "bigger" (not by those new size standards, of course ) kits I bought were only for the extra bits and as conversion fodder.

I am really tempted to get the Arachnarok, too, by the way, just for the sake of building it into a giant enemy crab, so I can recreate battles that took actually took place in the Old World ... and have a heap of awesome goblin models and little giant spiders to boot.

[Viper]

I really have been tempted over the years to pick up the dragon myself even though I preffer bulkier dragons rather than skinny wurm type ones.

Would be a fair bit of a project though considering I'd want it unridden so I'd need to remove the armour and pieces of harness then sculpt or make press moulds of the scales to cover the damage I do.