I'm a little behind the curve here, but I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in anyway. I've not seen much in the way of rules yet, so this post is mostly concerned with the models themselves. It does seem the Empire is getting some long-awaited models (The War Altar) and some new hotness as well.
The Imperial Griffon. Is it just me or does it's head look comically tiny? To me, it's almost a great model, but seems a bit too big, yet with a very out of proportion head. You can hardly see the rider. It looks like there's plenty of options, including other really small heads, and even a double-headed version with even smaller heads.
The War Altar looks good, I like the little lectern idea, but the other options, the celestial thingamy and the luminark of Hysh, aaahhh...hmm. The luminark, from one picture, looks a little bit ridiculous. Still, I'll wait till I see it in the flesh to make final judgement.
The demigryph now, I love these. Crazy creatures, but they fit in really well into the Empire army I think, and a monstrous cavalry option? I'll bet Empire players will love that, depending on stats and points, of course. A great new addition.
The finecast selection looks good, the witch hunter in particular, and the cover of the book is a marked improvement on the vampire counts one. No new infantry though, I thought we might see pikemen, but overall, I'm looking forward to seeing the new list and playing against it, small headed griffon and all.
The War Altar's sculpted wheels are relevant to my interests as a long-time Empire player. Everything else (microcephalic griffon, comical wizardwagons, vulturelion cavalry), not so much.
ReplyDelete* The orrery and lenses might make good centrepieces for dioramas, but I wouldn't like to transport them to a game.
* I get that they're going for a flashy, heraldic aesthetic with the heronlion, but that doesn't detract from the fact that the titchy head and oversculpted feathers just look daft. Suddenly the old Deathclaw model looks like a masterpiece of fantastic realism. Here's hoping Ronnie Renton (boss of Mantic and verified archtroll) decides to come out with a decent-sized aftermarket 'fantasy eagle' head.
* And the barded dharzi hunting dogs is just a reified heraldry animal joke/Moorcock steal too far. A fit of Greenstuff to turn them into actual destriers should fix that though...
Oddly enough, the demigryphs are my pick of the bunch. I like the beaked helm on one of the knights too, and I will admit, when I heard the rumour I didn't think much of the idea.
ReplyDeleteGreat link there too, comedy gold.
LOL I just shared that link yesterday as well...timely...
ReplyDeleteI like the Griffin, small heads inverse to body size does have a precedence in natures so i can get over that. The highlighting is quite stark (as usual) by the eavy metal team and I think a bit more transitions would have helped...though for the life of me why the feathers couldn't look like the Dark Eldar Scourges is anyone's guess...