So while I've been trying to think of decent twilight jokes (between the books/movies and a song from my favorite ELO album), I figured what everyone wants to really see are the brand new models - so why am I wasting your time.
The booklet actually includes instructions for assembling these - though it is fairly straightforward. The only difficult thing I found was the pilot - positioning the rudder arm correctly was a bit of a challenge - the first one I ended up gluing the pilot to the deck. For the others I was able to put the pilot on the deck without gluing it and get the positioning right.
Also, these are crewed by corsairs, so I figure out why not switch out the pilot that comes on the sprue with one of the other corsairs. The one thing I found was you cannot use body B because the legs are positioned opposite (i.e. the right leg is forward, instead of backward like A, C and the skiff corsair). The D body probably also be used as her legs are straight.
The last sprue is the Voidtouched
So time to get painting some Twilight Kin!
The twilight kin were part of the 1st edition of Kings of War, then were removed in the 2nd, returned in the 3rd, and now, finally, they have been released with 4 (yes 4!) new hard plastic sprues. In addition, their backstory has been redone (or Mantic-fied if you will). The new Clash of Kings book has over 20 pages of story (written by C L Werner, author of Rise of the Celestians). Completely redone as an all new army. Gone are the abyssal ties, and they have becomes masters of the void, binding nightstalkers to their will.
I had a twilight kin demo army (the old elfs with metal conversion heads, shields, capes, spears, crossbows), and updated it in 2nd edition, and now have thrown it out put is aside for the brand new version. I figured the best way to rebuild it was via the new Mega-army - which had all four new plastic sprues.
I did find some minor editing issues with both the box and the insert. First, the box says 16 corsairs, when in fact there are 20 (5 sprues of 4).
They include a great little booklet for collecting them, which has some model instructions, tactics, a little background and a gallery of the new models. There is a minor issue with the tactics section, as it mentions that 'the army rue Void-Charged', which apparently has been dropped (according to Kyle Przlentski's excellent Twilight Kin review videos ( here, here, here, here, here, and here ) ). Instead, as Elves, they just get Elite. Still, it is a great introduction to these new models.
The Clash of Kings book won't be out until four weeks after these models have begun shipping, so Mantic included the army list for them in the box as well.
So first let's look at the only non-plastic model in the box, the resin Summoner Crone on Twilight Mare.
Easy to assemble - at least if you don't try to figure out how to fit her arm as the tail. Also, I found it easier to attach her skirt before the tail.
One of the few old models that still works with the new models is the old metal 1st edition Twilight Sorcerous - who I think would make a great Summoner Crone on foot.
The new hard plastic sprues I'm most excited about are the Void Skiffs - Flying boats that shoot using broadsides.
Unfortunately there is no variety on the sprue - the only thing you can easily change out are the pilots. The ship itself pretty much only goes together one way. Do watch when attaching the sail.
Then we have the Impalers.
The skirts for each of the bodies ARE NOT interchangeable - there is an edge on the body that lines up with the edge of the appropriate skirt. In addition the way the shield arms attach seem to only fit the single body - a little bit of green stuff would allow you to interchange the shields if you want.
There are 6 heads and 6 weapons however - so just those options give you 108 different combinations, more than enough for a few hordes.
These are monstrous infantry - and they are appropriately huge - you can see how they compare to the corsairs.
Speaking of corsairs
The sprue makes two types of corsairs - the Voidwalkers take nets to get ensnare, as well as upgrade the Me to 3+. Fleetwardens are the spear women of the army - with phalanx and an option to upgrade their nerve. (This is one of the few unit 'types' that the old twilight kin had were spearmen). You also use these as part of the Wranglers unit (with reapers in the front).
The booklet also has instructions for these - but they are also simple to assemble - three of the bodies just have the back skirt, head and arms (the fourth, the D body, has a separate leg as well).
The Voidwalkers have two hand weapons
I really want to give props to Mantic and their sculptors for actually making female models that are in actual fighting poses, not up on one leg and standing on their tip toes to make their legs look better. In fact, it surprised me a bit that their boots were completely flat - but finally we won't have an issue with them breaking off at the ankles.
Their legs (except for the D body) do have a very wide stance - with one of them barely able to fit on a 20mm base. But the box doesn't come with 20mm bases - it comes with unit multi-bases!
The Fleetwardems have spears.
There are 8 heads on the sprue. The D body is a bit unique in that one leg is separate - as such you can't really change the skirt on it - but you can with the others (they don't fit perfectly, but a tiny bit of green stuff can fill the slight gaps - if you care for mid rank models anyway).
Having the net on the sprue is nice, but it does take up a LOT of room there for something I only see being used once per unit. Part of me thinks it could have been a resin piece in the vault (but then who knows how many people would be upset about that).
For my demo army, I'm taking a regiment of Voidwalkers, though I will mix some of the spears in the back.
This also makes two units. The Mutants are fast and effectively act like a cavalry unit in most lists (but do not have the phalanx weakness that cavalry has)
The Weavers are a spellcasting unit - having either fireball or paying to upgrade to lightning bolt (this is limited to 3 units).
For this sprue, the only extra bits are the alternate arms for each sculpt. Most of the arms are interchangeable, though some of the left arms seemed to be a bit more challenging to figure out how they attached. Some of these have a back skirt - and like the Impalers these are NOT interchangeable. Also, one of them has the head and left arm all one piece.
I'm taking a troop of the Mutants. These actually remind me quite a bit of plague models for Deadzone/Firefight (and the combat/shooting is reminiscent of the Lower Abyssals / FlameBearers for Forces of the Abyss).
So this is my 750 point Ambush demo Twilight Kin army - ready for painting. I still have 2 Impaler, 2 Voidtouched and 1 Corsair sprue left from the mega army as well.
Because it is all fun and games . . .
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