So in the upcoming posts here, I’ll be posting my completed Abyssal (angry) Dwarf army, which means I’ll be moving onto a new army! This review may or may not be an indication of what that army is going to be.
So for a hot minute, GW dropped the most amount of Warhammer Fantasy I’ve every seen in my entire gaming life, in The End Times series of books and miniatures. Most of it was pretty awesome, and that’s me putting aside the fact that I have a Bretonnian army that has been neglected for an eternity and now seemingly indefinitely.
I have been collecting undead miniatures on and off for various reasons for years, mostly for scenarios and skirmish games like Mordheim, but nothing in the scope of an army. Well, as I’ve been working through painting all of my Abyssal Dwarves for Kings of War, I decided I’d like to have a proper undead army next and that’s where these spirit hosts come in.
This kit will fill the role of Wights or counts-as werewolves, I’m leaning towards Wights, but haven’t played around with it much yet. Either way, these kits are a challenge to put together.
The instructions and sprues are laid out very logically and it was something that I figured, on the surface, would be an easy build. I was totally wrong.
Maybe it’s because I’ve lost my touch and been focused on painting and non-hobby things, but these guys kicked my ass. The instructions clearly show how things fit and where they go, but due to the curvy ethereal nature of things, that totally doesn’t help at all.
Each one I assembled it was on of those “ah-ha” type moments when you get it to fit right. Each stand has 3 “spirits” coming out from the base to form a small group. This effect is pretty nice when you get them all lined up as a group. One of the things I noticed on these sprues was the lack of options for weapons. Now I’m not looking for options like hammers and shields, but I was more thinking it was strange they have daggers in their hands. I’d be fine with a no weapon option and a dagger option, but that wasn’t the case with these kits. There are no extra bits really aside from a random tombstone.
Now, I know every kit can’t come with tons of options to allow for 3-4 configurations of figures, but 1 or 2 options would be pretty swell. I guess we’re spoiled when it comes to GW kits and my expectations are pretty high because of all these years of being spoiled with tons of bits and options in plastic kits.
Overall this kit is nice and will fit nicely into my upcoming Undead army. The miniatures are great looking and will either be easily painted or a real challenge to make them look great, that part remains to be seen. The base up nicely but really lack some of the options and configurations that we come to expect from Games-Workshop. That said, this kit is likely built specifically for The End Times books and army lists and that may be the sole reason why there are no weapon options on this kit. If you’re looking for some modern ghosts or spirits, these guys are a pretty good fit.
(Don’t tell anyone I will be deploying these guys in Kings of War primarily!)