Out of my League

The League of Infamy kickstarter Master of Shadows pledge was the simple all-in.  People who got this receive a second box in their shipment that is even bigger than the first!

This contains 2 expansions (that I expect to go to retail), plus more villains and other goodies.  Opening the box reveals the villain and champion cards for the halfling (No Half Measures) and trident realm (Siren's Wraith) expansions, as well as the new villain cards.

Then there are the rulebooks for these two expansions

Followed by four tile sheets - two for each expansion

Beneath these are a tray with cards and two compartments, filled with bags ( unfortunately ) of new miniatures.

Beneath the card tray is a tray with the larger miniatures.

The tile sheets are like those in the base set - all double sided - with a sheet with tokens and a half size tile, and a second large full tile.  For Siren's Wraith the tiles are aquatic based

While those for No Half Measures look to be more of a village setting

The cards are separated for each expansion and the kickstarter exclusives.

There are 18 bags of miniatures in the box.

First there are 2 additional bags of the elf defenders from the main game.  Unfortunately, just like that game, these need a bit of the old hot water treatment due to bent pieces.  The bases for all the minis in the box seemed to be more warped than normal.  It is unfortunate these couldn't have been shipped in trays (I guess I really got spoiled with Hellboy and The Walking Dead: All Out War releases).  

My biggest concern with the warping is for those who want to play out of the box - which most board-gamers are expecting.  Bent spears are just a little annoying, but the warped bases can mean that the mins won't stand well.  So very easy to fix, but it would always be better if there was no fix needed.

There are three bags of new villains for the game.  These are all very characterful sculpts and I can easily see these showing up in many Kings of War armies as heroes.

Coming in a separate bag is the Mantic icon Blaine - once again a fitting role (much like he is in Star Saga).

One of my favorite of the new sculpts is the Ogre Bard, Shreddin' Bhetee.  It is known that Mantic president Ronnie Renton hates bards - because really, does it make sense for an adventuring party to have someone along who basically just sings?  An Ogre with an electric guitar plays this trope up pretty well (and he can even shoot fire, like the blind guitar player in Mad Max: Fury Road).

The base game comes with the Ratkin Brute, Sharpclaw Gutpeeler.  But if you want to play a more ratty ratkin, you now have Chitter Twitchtail - a Ratkin Assassin.

Odur Wilfriksson is a reluctant villain - being a Dwarf Werewolf.  He transforms between his dwarven and werewolf form during the game.  The wolf is more powerful, but is more limited in what he can do in a game that often involves sneaking around.

Gharka the Rowdy is an Orc Berserker, who actually has a pet - the Mawpup.  She will be interesting to play as she has to split her activations between herself and her pet - so two models but no more activations than any other villain.

The Mother Infernal is a Human Abbess that has gone so far in her pursuit of evil doers that she has become what she initially sought to destroy.

The Bo'sun is an Oge pirate with the iconic eye patch and wooden leg.  

Barthamus Crowe is a human necromancer.

"Tin Can" Krink is an armored Goblin Warrior and can even tuck himself into his armor to make a deadly bowling ball.

Not all villains are explicitly evil, some are neutral, such as Alaia the Stalker, a Naiad Hunter from the Trident Realm.  If someone wanted to role play a bit, she would be fun to play in the Siren's Wrath scenario against her own people.

The last new Villain is Darkskull the Cursed, a Wight Haunter.  However this model is large enough (because of the wings) that it came in the tray, not a bag.

For the No Half Measures expansion there are five bags of miniatures

This is a bag of champions, and 4 bags of defenders.  There are three champions, starting with the Sauceror, a Halfling Wizard (yes, I love these puns).

Then there is the Feastmaster, a Halfling Chef.

and finally Greedyguts - who is the largest haflling around.

Because halflings are small, there are four of each of the five hafling defenders instead of three.

Storeguard - one of three warrior types

Game Hunter

Steward (wearing a saucepan as a helmet), in case he needs to make a quick meal.  He gets a bonus for any other halfling warriors able to attack the same target.

Under-Cook - a sous chef that helps the other halflings.

The last model is the Steward on Guard-hound - a mounted warrior and beastmaster.  

The Siren's Wrath expansion has four bags of miniatures, 1 of champions and 3 of the defenders.

The first champion is the Sirin-Kin - a Neritican

The second is a Depth Horror Eternal - the first depth horror sculpt.

There are five defender sculpts

The smallest is the Giga Hatchling.  There are supposed to be two per bag, but the factory apparently mispacked them.  Mantic is already aware of this, and will be adding these to the boxes that haven't shipped yet, and shipping them separately to those that have.

Gigas are existing Trident Real sculpts, so I thought it would be interesting to see how the hatchlings look against the full size versions.

Next is the Riverguard

and they seem to match the existing metal sculpts pretty well

The Nokken are new sculpts

As are the pond wardens

The last model is a placoderm.

Or course we want to compare it with Eckter, the Placoderm character that came out in the Eye of the Abyss campaign.

In addition to the full expansions, there are also three bags of new 'wandering monsters' that can be added to other games.  Six new sculpts, with most of the first models for the Herd.

Tribal Warriors are some of the core models for the herd

Longhorns are elite Herd models

Harpies are flying nasties, that may not have the Herd keyword, but are part of that army list.

Unicorns are part of the Forces of Nature list (instead of the Herd)

Brocks are mounts for crazy dwarf berserkers - but now there is one without a rider

Guardian Brutes are the final model that is in the Herd list, but doesn't have the Herd keyword.

Finally are the three big monsters in the tray.  In addition to this box, they were also available to purchase separately in the campaign (as was the Elf Lord on Drakon) - and I expect to see these available soon for use in Kings of War armies.

The first is the Cavern Dweller.  This is a wandering monster that has a Champion card.  It is also a part of the Northern Alliance and Varangur army list, so I would expect them to soon be available to purchase separately.

Then there is the Trident Real Knucker - a fast, agile monster sea snake.

Finally is the Halfling Iron Beast.  With the third edition of Kings of War, this was dropped from the League of Rhordia list (though there has been a lot of talk and speculation about a future halfling army - and with all these halfling models and this big centerpiece, I truly expect to see a new list for them (and subsequent army release) soon.

The last part of the kickstarter is the book consolidating a bunch of new scenarios and rules, the Primovantor Pilgrim.

This has scenarios for the new monsters, as well as cards for existing Kings of War / Vanguard models, to use as both defenders and as villains.

I especially like them adding rules for the Dungeon Saga villains.  There may not be any more released planned for this game, but it is a pre-cursor to League of Infamy after all.

So that about wraps it up - enough new models and scenarios for months of gaming fun and backstabbing of your - well I don't know if any villains are truly friends!

Once all the models have had a nice HOT water bath they should all be ready for play.

Because it is all fun and games . . .