Today I'm going to have a look at my latest purchase, the Abyssal Starter Army for Kings of War by Mantic Games.
It all comes together in a medium sized box with printed pictures front and back, nothing wrong with it, but nothing exciting either. It's also not the type of box that's much use for storing constructed and painted minis. The back does have four Mantic points on however which are of course welcome.
I'm going to start with the Mollochs, these are large infantry and come in metal, unlike everything else in the set which comes in hard plastic. They come with three spare heads and a couple of spare arms which is good for variety if you wanted to buy a second set and create a bigger unit. I will be combining these with my Dungeon Saga Mollochs to create a horde.
The core of the set is the 50 plastic Flamebearers/Lower Abyssals. There are five figures per sprue which can be assembled as Flamebearers or Lower Abyssals, each sprue also contains command options, which are not necessary in Kings of War but nice to see as they give the regiment a bit of character. Each sprue also has 2 little Imps. There's nothing really to fault here, except possibly the difficultly in making the minis rank up ranking due to tails and weapons. I've made 40/10 lower Abyssals/Flamebearers not 30/20 like it shows on the box, but it really is upto each buyer.
Moving on to the Succubi, which are also in plastic also five per sprue and also have command options and a couple of Imps. The set contains 20 of these fearsome fighters. There are 5 lots of paired weapons per sprue and an open hand, there are less spare parts than you get with the Lower Abyssals, but the interchangeable torsos/legs help the variety of the minis you can make.
And finally you get these Imps scattered around the sprues of the main regiments. You are only provided with two 40mm bases, but there are plenty of Imps to make a third base. To be fair it's only advertised as two bases, but a unit is 3 bases. Mantic should have added an extra base and called it a real unit.
The whole set (movement trays not included, but made my life easier for photography!)
Overall I rate this as an excellent set. You get 6 units here for a retail price of £50, which I feel is a bargin, I actually got mine from Wayland Games at £40 ( 20% off) which makes it an even better deal. This starter actually gives you a 750pts army, and it feels like an army, you could happily play a good game with this set alone. The quality is pretty good too, Mantic's plastics have improved no end. Superb value for money, Recommended.
