Four Plastics and a Fiend

The new Star Wars movie is not the only announcement today (and I have heard that it does not suck, so am breathing a big sigh of relief until I see it tomorrow).  (Also, even though it came out 11 years ago, it wasn't until a few months back that I ever saw "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (it can be challenging to keep trying to come up with puns for titles you know).

If you haven't realized it by now, I'm a big Kings of War fan.  I went all in for the first Kings of War kickstarter, getting just about every new model they released for it (including the Twilight Kin cavalry which unfortunately has never been commercially released).  When the 2nd kickstarter came around, I didn't go quite as bad, since I didn't need some of the new units for existing armies (my demo armies are basically complete).

Except for the new armies - Forces of Nature and Forces of the Abyss.  I made a demo nature army using old Confrontation miniatures - but much prefer demoing with Mantic models when possible. For the Abyss - I had nothing.  The operative word is had.  Mantic announced today that the Kings of War 2nd Edition kickstarter wave 2 is now shipping.  Everyone should have their wave 2 shipments (they estimated this to be 1000 people) by January 25th, 2016.

Even better, we got some pictures.

First up is the Abyssal Fiend.  They had the 3D render out before - but now we can see the final, painted version.

Abyssal Fiend

Just like they have done for the Greater Obsidian Golem / Greater Earth Elemental and the Dragon (for the Elves, Basileans, and converted for the Abyssal Dwarfs) this is a huge kit on a 75mm base.  How big?  The tip of the wings are supposed to be as high as the dragons - 175 mm - which is 7".  If that doesn't help, here is a comparison shot of a Moloch, the Abyssal Fiend, and a Lower Abyssal.

Size comparison

The Lower Abyssals are tiny in comparison, so here is the sprue for them to show them in all their glory.  Note there are two imps on each sprue - these are like orclings (or for those more familiar with the workshop of the games, snotlings) in that they are swarms on large infantry (40mm) bases.  Not only that, but it appears that there are two arms to make flamebearers.  So some planning will be required when assembling these - though 6 sprues would be enough to make a troop of flamebearers (10) and a regiment of lower abyssals (20).  In addition they appear to have 8 different heads, 7 weapon options (including one two handed weapon).

Two other things I like seeing these is that the shields are separate from the arms, giving you more flexibility when modeling them, and the arm to body join is a flat join, so you have the flexibility to put the arms at any angle you desire.  Plus there are command bits on the sprue, to give you that option to make your units look even more impressive.  While I don't have these in my hands yet, they look fantastic so far.

Lower abyssal sprue

EDIT:  I was told there are enough components to make either 5 lower abyssals or 5 flamebearers, so I went back and examined the picture a bit more closely.  It took me a bit, but then I realized that I was looking at the arms backwards - what I thought were hands are the shoulders with spiky armor. Once I realized that, I then easily found the 5 hands holding/shooting firebolts, and I have marked them below.  My apologies for misleading anyone with my own ignorance.  (You know, if I were to get these early for review purposes then I wouldn't be making this kind of mistake.  Just saying :-) ).

Lower Abyssal / Flamebearer sprue with flamebearer arms marked

To complete the abyssals is the succubus sprue.  They are two more imps on the sprue (one a female), so there are four to make your units from.  For the five models it looks like there are six weapon options (each model has two weapons, and would most likely work as pairs.  These look to be more like ball/socket joints instead of the flat ones for the lower abyssals, but should still give some good freedom to model the arms at any angle desired.  There may be as many as 11 heads to, for quite a bit of variety.  Plus command bits to make the units look even better.

Succubus sprue

If you weren't able to get in on the kickstarter, then these are scheduled to be released commercially in February (as described here).

So on to nature.

This isn't quite both sprues for the salamanders, having taken some bits from one and showing the other.  Salamanders have the options of hand weapon and shield (sword and board) or two handed weapons, both of which are here.  It looks like there are even six of each option, giving you some choices (as well as command bits).  Once again a flat arm join, and seven heads for variety.  It also looks like instead of molding flames onto the weapons, they have included small flame bits so you can add them yourself or leave them off.

Salamanders are for both the nature armies, and the Salamander army in Uncharted Empires.

Salamander sprue w/ bodies

Lastly are the Naiad sprue.  Naiads have two options, Ensnarers (with spears and nets) and   Heartpiercers (with harpoon guns).  The bits are there for both options, as well as command.  This appears to be one densly packed sprue.  It appears to have 7 heads.  Not as many options for the Heartpiercers as they just have five of the harpoon guns and quivers, but it looks like there are at least five arms with nets and four with spears - which might concern me if this were not a dual sprue (or if, for some reason, you ONLY wanted the Ensnarers).  Flat arm joins (and why would any company ever think it was better to have models that can only be assembled in a single pose (I still have flashbacks to making 40 GW ghouls and having to cut, reposition and green stuff every single arm on every model because I wanted them over their heads instead of in front of them.)

It looks like there may even be an extra body of a human caught in a net (and a frog!) - a nice little gimme on the sprue.  And of course these can also be use for Trident Realms of Neritica!

Naiad sprue

Overall, I am very excited to be getting a large package at more door in the next month (mega abyssal and starter nature armies FTW).  If you did not do the kickstarter for these, well it looks like you will have to wait until this summer before these are available for retail.  Mantic is actually going to be shipping other games for a bit (including the Deadzone:Incursion kickstarter) after February, but they are coming

Because it is all fun and games . . .