So my first Frostgrave minis have rocked up!
I will write a little unboxing review and move on to my converted and painted wizard and apprentice.
Firstly I just want to say I ordered these through North Star, they arrived very quickly and there was no issues whatsoever. I would deffo use them again.
So i went for the cultists instead of the soldiers, i think they roll well with the necromancer plus the other guys in the blog are mainly using soldiers.
The packaging was ok, not shrink wrapped or taped, maybe due to me ordering direct from the manufacturer as it were.
upon opening the box, you are treated with four identical sprues of 5 cultists and some bases VERY much like the bases used by warlord for Bolt Action so very thin with good surface area.
Here is a closer look at a single sprue.
The casts are high quality, with very few obvious mold lines. There are bits on the sprue to make skeletal warriors and zombies. whilst initially this seemed like a good thing, I personally don't think there is much variation. Two skelly heads and one weapon fit, two zombie heads and one pair of arms. It's a nice feature, but it is far from a full conversion kit for the whole box. Luckily I only need one zombie. Also NS has released an 'undead encounter' box which has ten skeletons and ten zombies IIRC.
The Cultists have some very nice pieces, their kit is a bit more rudimentary and worn than the soldiers, also a bit more of an 'eastern' feel to it. Many of the blades are curved such as Kriss daggers and such like.
My favorite parts have to be these:
These bodies have a lot of motion in them, which will make for some great action poses. One of them even has an ornate chest piece and Armour, which stands out among the rabble of cultists. Very suited to use for knights and templars I would say.
I have now built some Cultists, pics to follow when painted. During building, you get to really see how the set works and for simplicity i have put together my pros and cons.
Cons first (as I like to end on a high note):
Options. For all the plastic here, there does not seem to be all too many options for weapons. There is only ONE two handed weapon, a huge maul, so if you want to field some infantrymen and templars from this box, it will be very samey. Also there is only ONE shield; a tiny buckler with the left hand attached to the back, requiring a chop at the wrist for it to be applied to a model (note the skeleton has a shield, but the bony army is pre attached.. There is only really 3-4 one handed weapons, so again expect some repetition if you are taking lots of thugs/ men at arms. Most weapons are right handed, which is ok. There are an assortment of knives which are also right handed (pre attached hands and again require a wrist chop to fit. I would have like to have seen some off hand daggers for treasure hunters and thieves.
I think NS could have done with leaving the undead bits to a separate box, and using that space to pad out the cultist weapon options. But that is my own opinion. Other than this, and it is workaround-able, I have no other complaints and this is still a great themed set.
Pros:
These guys were a pleasure to put together, despite my whining above about the undead bits, I decided to make an Skeleton Knight and a sprinting zombie. NS have been very clever in their sculpts and the arms are all fairly similar to the point where you don't really have to concentrate on pairing them up and such like. The parts all fit together really well, there is not much fiddling unless you want to put a dagger on a model then there is the fore mentioned wrist chop, but no biggy. These models also scale really well with any GW stuff you may have laying around, allowing a lot of conversion fodder, not to mention directly interchangeable with NS's soldier boxed set.
Summary:
Super cool box of plastic models. Easy to put together and some dynamic poses to boot. Not too great on the weapon options, but anyone with a bits box and a knife can get around that. My advice is if you are looking at getting into FG, see if anyone else wants to get the soldier box, whilst you get the cultists and swap some bits. The cultist sculpts make great thieves and treasure hunters for any non cultist looking forces,
Pics to follow of the finished product once I have painted them.
many thanks for reading,
Jay.
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