One of the occasional perks of being a pathfinder for Mantic is I can get something a little early for events. After the pre-order went up for the Ogres and Halflings during Origins, I asked Rick to see if I could make sure I got the both in time for me to get them finished for GenCon. He put in a special order for me, and I apparently got the first two boxes assembled.
There is a U shaped connector. This fits over the ends of the barrel, with the round piece in the center pointing up. The spikes on the end fit in the center of the barrel, and have two different connectors so it is hard to put this on backward.
The engine then fit into the back (top in my picture) of the U shaped connector, putting the details facing the back and the wheels on the ground.
Next the two smokestacks go onto the engine at the top - with the smoke pointing toward the back.
Describing it makes it sound more complicated than it really is.
All champions companies are composed of the new Resin champion figure, and hard plastic models. When the halflings came out, they had only a single (ok, 2 and a half to be exact) sprue (set) that made 10 infantry and 5 cavalry. You can see the sprues here. One set made 15 models - not enough for three units. Two sets however made 30 models - too many for 3 units. So they decided to just give the halflings 4 units instead.
So hopefully while these are almost but not quite identical, you can tell the two units apart (and which is which)
For the infantry, I split their uniforms into quadrants that alternated yellow/green in opposite patterns for the two units.
Combined with the ogres, this leaves only one more piece (in the Axel Tricklebrook company) to complete what appears to be the sigil of the 10th, mystery champion box.
The halflings are a little different than the other companies. Some of the pictures are misleading - the front and back of the box, the side shows an additional cavalry unit. On opening the box, yes, there were now 5 unit cards (and the faction orders), not the 'normal' 4 that every other box had.
So lets start with the Champion, as that is the new model.
Writing this weeks later, I should have taken a few assembly pictures. It wasn't hard or complicated, but that doesn't excuse me being a slacker!
So we start off with the barrel. The top of the barrel has a bunch of mud flying off of it, and the front has two square slots in it.
In the front of the model is a plow blade - this fits into the two square slots in the barrel
Taran is holding (on for dear life) to a pair of controls, these fit into the center console of the engine, which his legs sticking out the back as he is getting pulled along for the ride more than controlling this thing.
Finally, the big rectangular peg on the bottom of the barrel fits into the base. There is a corner cut out, so it only fits one way.
So next we get the units. I always get interested in the little details of how things end up the way they are. If you don't care, just skip down to the pictures.
All champions companies are composed of the new Resin champion figure, and hard plastic models. When the halflings came out, they had only a single (ok, 2 and a half to be exact) sprue (set) that made 10 infantry and 5 cavalry. You can see the sprues here. One set made 15 models - not enough for three units. Two sets however made 30 models - too many for 3 units. So they decided to just give the halflings 4 units instead.
The infantry was easy - a troop of braves and a troop of rifles. (The other choice would have been spears). Cavalry came in two options - lancers (with spears), and wild runners (with riffles). My guess is they thought two shooting units was too much, so they both were set as lancers (they could also have changed the infantry rifles to spearspikes instead).
To keep it interesting, they made the two cavalry units slightly different - one with Crushing Strength(1), the other with Elite. Unfortunately they (apparently) only had the one reference picture, so both cards use the same picture - leaving it up to the player to disambiguate the units.
To keep it interesting, they made the two cavalry units slightly different - one with Crushing Strength(1), the other with Elite. Unfortunately they (apparently) only had the one reference picture, so both cards use the same picture - leaving it up to the player to disambiguate the units.
Mantic has been really good lately about representation in their models, so the halflings actually have two female cavalry bodies, and two female infantry bodies (and 4 female heads) on their halfling sprue set.
After the issues I had with Basilan Knights (I kind of want to go back and rebase them to only have 4), I decided to NOT go full model count - so each unit of cavalry would have 4 models. Hmmm - 4 models, 4 total female bodies (and heads). So one unit would be female, the other male. Some of the aralez (dog) heads had metal muzzles - those would go with the male cavalry (as well as the heads with helmets) to help differentiate them. Then picked metal shields for the males vs wooden for the females.
I didn't think this was quite enough to easily tell the apart (especially to people who had never seen them before), so I also tried to paint them slightly different.
The 5th detachment would be the females, since they had Elite (while the 10th was the males, who had Crushing Strength(1)). I picked a yellow / green color scheme, so the 5th was yellow on top, green for the pants, while the 10 was opposite. Also the mounts included some of the colors from the riders. Each shield was then painted the color of the top - so again yellow and green. Still not quite enough, I painted a black V on the 5th over the yellow shields, and a white X on the 10th over their white shields.
Lastly, on the hard card holders I was using, I painted the upper left corner yellow with a black V or green with a white X for the appropriate cards. (This way the cards were not marked at all).
I didn't think this was quite enough to easily tell the apart (especially to people who had never seen them before), so I also tried to paint them slightly different.
The 5th detachment would be the females, since they had Elite (while the 10th was the males, who had Crushing Strength(1)). I picked a yellow / green color scheme, so the 5th was yellow on top, green for the pants, while the 10 was opposite. Also the mounts included some of the colors from the riders. Each shield was then painted the color of the top - so again yellow and green. Still not quite enough, I painted a black V on the 5th over the yellow shields, and a white X on the 10th over their white shields.
Lastly, on the hard card holders I was using, I painted the upper left corner yellow with a black V or green with a white X for the appropriate cards. (This way the cards were not marked at all).
So hopefully while these are almost but not quite identical, you can tell the two units apart (and which is which)
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| 5th Detachment |
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| 10th Detachment |
For the infantry, I split their uniforms into quadrants that alternated yellow/green in opposite patterns for the two units.
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| braves |
=
Of course, the box included the now infamous puzzle piece.
Combined with the ogres, this leaves only one more piece (in the Axel Tricklebrook company) to complete what appears to be the sigil of the 10th, mystery champion box.
The one problem I have though it which way is up?
Because it is all fun and games . . .
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