Another week, another juicy Games workshop boxed set. This week Last week WEEKS AGO we saw the release of Tooth and Claw – a Space Wolves vs Genestealer Cults boxed set, which just happened to arrive during the home packing chaos, building up to the big house move. I didn’t even have time to open it – it went straight from the postman’s hand and into a box labeled divorce exhibits A-Z Geek stuff.
Now that the hell fun of the move is behind us and we are a bit more settled in, I judge myself to have made sufficient progress unpacking boxes of stuff we need to live (oh toilet paper, where art though?!) and decided I could probably let myself have a few minutes of geek time to peel back the cellophane layer and have a quick gander inside at the juicy contents therein.
The release of this caught myself (as well as most of the internets) a bit by surprise. The truly amazing thing is that GW were able to keep this release under wraps, given the leak-tastic nature of the Nottingham Foundries. However, manage it they did and when it went up for preorder I just knew I would not be able to resist it, despite coming hot on the back of some pretty hefty boxed set spending recently (namely Kill Team and Adeptus Titanicus).
Unlike those boxed sets, my approach to this one is going to be purely mercenary. While I am looking forward to seeing what the fluff for Vigilus is, my priority here is to get my hands on the Redemptor Dread and the Aggressors – two missing parts of my fledgling Primaris marine force – for bargain basement prices. Without further ado, lets dip in!
So once more we start with the now common art card – another one to add to the collection, now no longer confined to the inside door of the hobby cupboard, they are soon to be framed and hung with pride on the walls of the new man cave (actual man cave location TBC by the wife). I really like these, and I imagine they cost relatively little to mass produce but they give the boxed sets a little bit of class, and never fail to get me making ‘pew! pew!’ noises. But enough delay, lets get straight to the sprues!
As you can see, a giant pile of plastic crack PLASTIC CRACK is ensconced within the boxed set. I will be hard pressed to sell any of this on, I can tell already. No, I don’t need a Genestealer cult army. I dont. I really, really dont…. although I still have the Kill Team cult stuff…..and a copy of Deathwatch Overkill…..No! STOP IT!
First up is the big fella, the Redemptor Dread – I’m really glad to see it is the full kit and not just the quick build version. In all honesty, I would still have been happy if it was the quick build one as that would have still been great value, but now I get all the plasma goodness for my Dark Angel / Night Sentinel Primaris!
The second ‘keeper’ as it were from the boxed set, and again these Aggressors are the full kit rather than the quick build. I dont even know what the best fit out is for these chaps ( I suspect not the flamer fists) but I look forward to trying both out so it is nice to have the options for magnetising.
The core of any Primaris army (or so I’m told), the Intercessor models are great with plenty of options for the five chaps, but I will have to do an actual list or two and work out exactly how many intercessors I need before deciding whether to sell these guys on or not. I can already feel my mercenary resolve ebbing away….
As a Dark Angels player, I am obviously overcome with revulsion at the idea of handling such corrupted artifacts of mutant spawned heretics as Space Wolf miniatures. And so I will definitely have to sell them. They are actually very nice sculpts, an if I hadn’t recently liquidate my small Space Wolf Force I would probably be tempted to keep them as well.
Onto the cultists, and the two HQs ( I think) are pretty nice, especially the abominant. Seriously, he is awesome – a real brute. Throne I’m tempted to keep these guys….
You also get 5 Aberrants and 5 Metamorphs, again full kits so lots of things like power picks, mining lasers and what not – ideal if you are looking for some troops to supplement your kill team or deathwatch overkill for- no no no NO NO!
And lastly the purestrain genestealers. These are probably the part I will have least trouble reselling, but that’s only because I have about 60 in my genestealer heavy Tyranids force already. That said, I could do with those rippers on the sprue…..
And last but not least, we have the rules and fluff. The booklet looks good, has a good piece of fluff going over the basic of both factions as well as more detail regarding the fate of Vigilus – in that regard this is obviously building towards a more climatic event involving the Orks and possibly some sort of ‘Fate of Konor’ type campaign, so I look forward to seeing how that pans out in the coming months. There are also 4 missions in the book, which look fun and are yet another great reason to hang onto both fact- no no NO! Stop it!
So another boxed set, and another example of why GW are so good at this particular kind of release. Packed full of minis with plenty of extras squeezed in around the edges, the only downside is that they found no space for some dice. Because everyone loves dice.
The quality is as good as we have come to expect – even the repackaged genestealer sprues are still great – but the real star here is the value. Lots has been said about this elsewhere, but it is worth repeating here that this boxed set is astonishing value. I mean, truly, its awesome -you are looking at 209 GBP* worth of plastic crack to shoot into your eyeballs GW goods for the knock down price of 90 GBP (or 80 GBP, and even as low as 72 GBP if , like me, you buy from third party suppliers who offer discounts). Even if you only collect one of these factions, it is worth seeing if you can find someone to split this with, or at least try and sell the stuff you dont want – because odds are, you will probably end up breaking even at the very least.
Unless, like me, your mercenary instincts are comparable to that of a heavily domesticated hamster, and you cave in to the lure of the grey tide and decide to keep all the sprues and start that Genestealer Cult army you have never always wanted. Because your addiction is borderline pathetic.
Either way, Enjoy!
*price breakdown
Space Wolf Battle Leader: 15 GBP
Upgrade Sprue: 8 GBP (approx. guess)
Redemptor: 40 GBP
Agressors: 30 GBP
Intercessors: 18 GBP (approx. guess)
Iconward: 15 GBP
Abominant: 15 GBP
Hybrid Metamorphs: 25 GBP
Aberrants: 25 GBP
Genestealers: 18 GBP
Languor Management 