Deadzone: Soldiers and Puppy Dogs

As I mentioned in my last post, after I ordered the Reb starter I ordered a box of Plague 3rd gen troopers.  Given how much big a savings I had said the starters were, the logical question is why didn't I just grab one of those?  A few reasons.

First off, I already had the box of Plague zombies I'd picked up to dip my toe in the water.  The starter comes with another 10 zombies which would give me 30 of the shamblers. Sure they are cheap but that seems a little excessive.  Then there are the options that you get in the trooper box.  It shows a mortar and a figure that Escalation lists as a Stage 3A "General".  This would give me another command option, plus a weapon team option, plus a good number of specialist weapon options so it just seemed like a solid choice.

That my friends, is an understatement.

The trooper box comes with four sprues of hard plastic (so plastic cement friendly!!!).  On each of these sprues, you get bodies and legs to make five troopers plus one Plague dog.  For weapon options, you get five sets of arms with rifles, one set each with a flamer, HMG, grenade launcher, pistol and machete, weapon team loader arms, a mortar, and eight head options.  And that's on each sprue so yes, you actually get four mortars in this box (can you say GoA x-launcher proxies?).

Looking at the point values in Escalation, the cheapest point value force that I could make with this box (twenty troopers and four murder puppies) comes in at 224 points if I don't make one of them a leader.  Combine that with the zombie box and I've got 344 points base.  Throw in a leader and specialist and I can break 400 points easy and all this for only $60 retail which is a great value, especially considering the quality.

The trooper sculpts all have rounded connection, giving you lots of options for posing the figures.  The detail looks good as well, with more than enough depth to nicely take a wash and drybrush.  And one of the things that really blew me away when I noticed it, they actually keyed the pieces that are supposed to work together.  For example, the dog jaw and head that it goes with are B while the specialist weapons are all C. This is great as there are some that are not so apparent.

Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to assemble any of them yet (yay for Spring cleaning!) but I'm hoping to be able to get some together later this week though we will have to see.  I've also started assembling more of the Runewars minis that I have accumulated so I can get them into faction specific containers which is one of the nice things about the softer plastic these are made from.  I've got no problem standing them all up inside a plastic Sterilite container.  Even if they get jostled around, they have weathered the bumps without chipped paint and that works for me!  Plus I was finally able to pick up the leader model I've had my eye on for my undead.  Can't wait to get some paint on him once he gets here!  Until next time...