Wednesday 21 November 2018

Mantic Kings Of War Vanguard: Northern Alliance Warband Booster Set Review

After you have played a few games of Vanguard with your new Northern Alliance you may want to upgrade a get a few more miniatures to add magic or add a commander to your force.

Well your in luck as the Northern Alliance booster set has all this and a huge cavalry model.


Lets take a look.

The first thing thats different in this box compared to the warband set is that these are all in resin but are still packed in the same style box with the pull out try but packed in individual bags in a bubble warp.

The box art again is very nice and eye catching with pictures of the contents on the back and front of the box.


You get 3 cards for the miniatures in this box and the bases.



So lets have a look at the miniatures..


First up is the Command model Thegn...
Now unfortunately his axe was broken off when I opened the packed but I am sure a bit of glue should fix that. 
So fist thing do be careful with these minis as they can be delicate.



Next up is the Northern Alliances spell caster the Ice Queen..



Last but not least the Frostfang Cavalry..


Lets put these together but first there going to need to be cleaned with some soap and water to get rid of the casting agent.

First up Thegn


The fur and armour dentil is really nice  and as you can see I have fixed the axe so hopefully once undercoated and painted it wont be a issue.
I had to make the hole a little bigger under the shoulder to fit the right axe and theres a little gap where the armour plate is places between the legs but nothing to bad at all.
I really do like the pose and look of this.

Next up is the Ice Queen.


The Ice Queen only comes in three pieces so very easy build this and the dress, hands ad face are nice and defined.
There are some vents that do need to be paid attention to especially the one under the dress as the may be seen if not cleaned propel due to the pose.
The arm joint fits well and the ice for the base has a few vents at the base that are easy to remove. 
I have not stuck down the ice on the base as it will be easier to paint the Ice Queen with out it for now.

The Frost Fang Cavalry is next.



This is a beast of a model and was really easy to put together.
The beast (I am calling him Zule as it looks a bit like the demon dogs in ghostbuster) has only 4 parts to clean up and chop off vents. The legs fit very easily along with the jaw to the head. A little shaving was needed just to get the head flush.

The rider comes with a few options for the head as well as an arm to hold the beast or has a shield. The box art has the rider holding an axe but I went for the spear.
The spear needed some hot water treatment to bend it back in shape but other then that it looks great and fits in the arm socket well.
Having the different head options and weapons will be good if these are going to be used in a full blown Kings Of War army.

So My thoughts..

These are great additions to you Northern Alliance army which will add new abilities and tactics to you play.
The set cost the same as the warband set but this is due to the resin cost but the quality of the sculpts and casting of the miniatures are really good.

I really like the Thegn as he looks really and whats more awesome then running into battle with two axes hang on maybe the Frost Fang Cavalry..

The Frost Fang model is really impressive its big full of detail and having options for the rider to have a few different weapon and head options will look great if you have more then one.

The downside was yes I had a broken axe but that is easily fixable and there is a lot of vents to clean up which you expect with resin. This is not hard to sort out at all but you will need to file down parts which I would recommend wearing a mask just in case.
The resin is easy to cut and clean so wont take long.

The warband booster is the next step if you have bought or thinking of buying the Northern Alliance warband set as these are going to add more to your warband game play and tactical options.

If you interested in paying Vanguard you can download the free rules from Mantic here

If you would like to buy these Northern Alliance miniatures or any other warband in the range visit
Mantic's web store here


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