Undead Encounters, Part 4: Dem Bones

Most people find it difficult to raise a family. Necromancers say otherwise, since family members tend to be buried close to one another.

Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3

I finished assembling the skeleton troop. As I mentioned previously, Mantic adds all kinds of extra goodies to their kits. Not only are there ten skeletons that can be equipped with a variety of weapons, but there is also an Undead Giant Rat (Dog?) and a skeleton bursting from a marked grave. The rat/dog is an optional upgrade to the unit that boosts its Lifeleech skill in Kings of War. It could be a good familiar for any necromancer character in an RPG, too.

The bitz for the remaining eight skellies

Assembly was easy enough. Some torsos have bosses that fit into sockets on some of the legs. The other torsos/legs have no such connector, instead having just a flat mating surface. As such, the parts are obviously keyed to fit in certain ways, and the fit is good when the indicators on the model are considered. The lack of assembly instructions was not a problem at all.

There were plenty of swords and spears to fill the empty-handed arms on several models. This should generally be used to differentiate between a spearmen troop and a regular warrior troop if they are used in a war game. "What You See Is What You Get" is the rule of thumb, so don't give spears to anyone except perhaps a single standard bearer model in a warriors troop if you have a pennant to add. Give at least half the guys spears if they're spearmen. Since some of the torsos have pre-molded swords or maces already, 100% spearmen is unnecessary.

Depending on the chosen weapons and whatever aftermarket bitz you may have on hand, these can serve as medieval fantasy or Egyptian. One of the arms in the kit has a sickle, although a proper khopesh would be better for more pseudo-historical portrayals.

The two bonus models are just awesome. Plus, there's a bone pile base plug, so one could almost stretch the "50%+1" tournament multibase rules and get two troops/one regiment out of this kit!

Final thoughts: The detail is more than acceptable for a blob of troops, especially at this price. The parts are a bit delicate, but they don't seem dangerously fragile as long as they're not handled carelessly. The feet seem a bit oversized, if I really need to pick at some aspect of the sculpt, but there's really nothing to complain about unless you really, really need to build dozens of perfectly immaculate models. Even as they are now, there's little mold line cleanup, and the seams between the torsos and legs are well-concealed.

Up next in this series: bases and priming. Time: TBD.

Toe bone connected to the foot bone
Foot bone connected to the heel bone
Heel bone connected to the ankle bone
Ankle bone connected to the shin bone
Shin bone connected to the knee bone
Knee bone connected to the thigh bone
Thigh bone connected to the hip bone
Hip bone connected to the back bone
Back bone connected to the shoulder bone
Shoulder bone connected to the neck bone
Neck bone connected to the head bone
Now hear the word of the Lich!

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