The sound of thunder

One of the major new model lines funded in the first Kings of War kickstarter 9 yeas ago was the Ogres.  They went from a couple of units in the Kingdoms of Men list to a full army in their own right.  However in their rush to get into battle, the joke was that they skipped leg day.  Those models were great except the legs were a bit small.

Well since then, they have been back to the gym - and the new models since then (Hunters, Berserker Braves, and the new Vanguard ogres) definitely look like tough, huge, mercenaries that can easily stand on their own two feet.  And now the base ogre models are finally out in hard plastic (instead of the previous 'premium' plastic (or restic)).

I decided to kill two (or more) birds with one stone, and picked up an Ogre Chariot Regiment, to both check out the new Ogre sprue, as well as the new chariots.

So the box contains a sprue of Ogres, and three hard plastic chariots (these have been cut off the sprues and are in bags - I can't help but wonder how they were placed so that they couldn't be distributed as sprues).

On the lower right side of the front (top picture) of the sprue, you can see it is labeled as 2 of 2.  I don't have sprue 1 of 2 yet - but I think it has female bodies (not sure if all three are female or just one or two) and female heads.  I don't know if the other pieces are identical either.

These are made by a new manufacturer, coming from Poland instead of China.  While there are inevitable mold lines, they are light and I did not see any in bad places (like down the middle of a face).  One thing to pay attention to is that all the pieces on the sprue are number and grouped by letter (i.e. this second sprue has ogres D, E and F, so I assume the first sprue has A, B and C).  The numbers all have an arrow pointing to the part.

The bodies and heads are all interchangeable, as are the single arms.  However the arms that are in pairs need to be matched up - for the 2-handed weapons and blunderbusses, as well as the arms that fit specific shields.

I made up a chart to help identify the parts by number.  For this sprue (and again, I assume the other one), all three of the ogre parts fit this scheme.

#	Part
1	Body
2/3	2 Handed Weapons
4/5	Blunderbuss
6	Hand Weapon
7/8	Arm/Shield
9	Head

Now while the new sprues are fantastic, there are a lot of the existing ogres out there.  Mantic did a good job of making the new ogres compatible with the original ones.  This isn't perfect, and it may require a little bit of gap filling, but it is close.

The new bodies, in addition to having proportional legs, are larger overall

However, the width of the body is actually slightly smaller, though it is consistent for the three bodies on the second sprue (13.5 mm wide, while the older ogre bodies ae 14.7, 14.8, and 15.4 mm wide) (you know if you are going to buy a fancy digital caliper, you need to find every chance you can to use it :-) ).

I thought it would be useful to show how the old ogre arms fit onto the new bodies.  Specifically the arms that are connected (2 handed weapons and ranged weapons).

old blunderbuss

old large crossbow

old 2-handed weapon

If you want to put the new arms on the old bodies, you will have to trim off the pin on the body.  (Let me be honest - the old pins are nice to help hold the arms in place as you glue them together - since the new bodies are just flat joints, there is more chance of mis-aligning them.

Since the arms are compatible, I thought it would be good to show the new ones compared to the old.

First, there are 3 blunderbuss arms instead of just 1, though the stock for the weapon is smaller.  There are not any crossbow arms currently - that is going to be a separate upgrade.

For two handed weapons - there are again three arms, compared to two for the old version.

For hand weapons, there again are three arms, vs two old ones.

The new shields are two pieces, separating the arm from the shield.  Again, three variants vs the single shield for the old ogres.

Lastly there are two unattached left arms on the new sprue (one intended for a two handed weapon, the other for a blunderbuss), compared to the old ogres that only had one - and that was the arm to use to make Grokagamok.

So the new ogres have a lot more options, but can still use the old ones.  A win-win there.

So since these are crews for the chariots (which I'm upgrading from the old chariots I used to have in my demo army), I made all three with traditional sword & board.

So now the chariots, that come in bags.

In the bags are not only all the bits to make chariots, but also Goblin Mincers.

I tried to break these into logical groupings. The easiest was the bits for the two mawbeasts that pull the chariot.

The heads seems to only fit on specific bodies.  This because the forelegs on one model are both raised, so they get in the way of the collar.

Then there are the actual chariot bits.  The base, wheels and sideboards are used for both the chariot and the mincer (though the sideboards are reversed on the mincer as compared to a chariot).   You will want to pay attention to the base - there are small holes on the four corners for the sideboards, and holes on one side for the crossbar.  For the chariot, the flat spikes need to face toward the back (or the mawbeasts won't fit), while for the mincer they face the front.  The shaft and yoke then are glued onto the top of the base, with a support holding them on for stability (I took this picture first, mistaking the the support for part of the mincer (the H shaped piece on the left side).  Finally the crossbar fits into the holes on the front of the base.

Comparing the old chariots to the new ones - mawbeasts instead of boars, and a simpler chariot.

Then you simply glue the Ogres into the chariots (either warriors, or boomers)

The other pieces are used to make the mincer

Playing around with the pieces, it wasn't hard to make the mincer engine as a single piece.  I then used blu-tak to make the picture - but you would normally glue it in.  You then can add the spikes into the center of the wheels.

I have an old mincer to compare this to as well  the new mincer not quite as complex as the older one.

The only thing missing is the crew - but this will be separate - for the Ogres it is in this kit, for the goblins it is a new goblin sprue, and for the orcs it is orc sprues.

So I'm very happy with these new chariots, and look forward to getting them painted up.

Because it is all fun and games . . .