37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nearly perfect for what it is designed to do., October 8, 2003
This review is from: D&D Miniatures Starter Pack: A D&D Miniatures Game Product (D&D Miniatures Product) (Misc. Supplies)
I enjoy painting miniatures, so I feel I need to explain how I could love a prepainted miniature game as much as I do. I love playing D&D, especially DMing the game, but it takes too long to put together a painted diverse group of miniatures for a game. The average time it takes me to paint a miniature is around 4 hours, and if I have an adventure with 50 monsters, that's 200 hours of prep-time -- I don't have that sort of time, especially to waste on rank-and-file troops. These prepainted miniatures are perfect for me to flesh out my adventure and let me concentrate on painting the miniatures that I want to paint. These prepainted figures should not be looked upon as works of art, as most well painted figures can be. These D&D Miniatures are tokens, and for what they're supposed to do, they're nearly perfect.
It's true that there are other prepainted figures out there, such as the Wizkids line, but the problem with these is that the click base interferes with a good D&D game. (I could rebase them, but that again takes time and ruins them for any MageKnight game.)
How are the miniatures? For approximately $1.25 a figure, they're what you would expect. Flexible plastic, limited colors schemes, and cheap. Which has a benefit: my personally painted figures I guard like gold while I carry the prepainted D&D Miniatures around loose in a cardboard box. No worry about them bending out of shape, and if they do bend out of shape I can reshape them by warming them in boiling water, holding them in a new shape, and cooling them in cold water. (Young children should have their parents help with this.)
Contents of the box: The starter set comes with 8 non-random terrain cards, a rule book, a 20 sided die, a players map, and 16 figures. (I believe the distribution is 1 rare, 5 uncommon, and 10 common, but it might be one less uncommon and one more common. Ultimately, you're better off getting two expansion packs than one starter if you're looking for rares.) Each figure has a statistics card, which allows for more tactics than the simple MageKnight click-base games. The flip side of the card has rules for using the figure in D&D.
Out of the box, the game plays pretty well. They have a simple ruleset where you just pick miniatures, but after you get a larger selection of them you can design your own alignment based faction and fight.
It's not perfect. For one, the flip side of the battle map has templates for some spell attacks, so you should photocopy them before you play (or get two starters...) I think the set is lacking in commanders which makes it difficult to put together a 100 point faction without a large amount of figures (I'd guess 1 starter and 6 expansions but since the figures are random it's hard to say.) I wish that they had included more possibilies for terrain cards had had included 8 randomly selected cards, to give a secondary collectable nature to the game. I also think that there should always be one large figure per pack, but instead only around half of the rares are large, and no commons or uncommons are rare. Finally, I wish that they had more care deciding figure distributions -- there are Unique figures, which means that you can only have one in your group. Since they're uncommon, you'll be more likely to get them, and having more than one unique figure is useless for the miniature game.
Most of my complaints are just nitpicking the game. The rules are well-written. The game is pretty fast paced, especially if you're already familiar with D&D. As a miniature painter/D&D player, I recommend both the miniatures and the miniature game they come with.
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good miniature rules, poor paint jobs, December 1, 2003
This review is from: D&D Miniatures Starter Pack: A D&D Miniatures Game Product (D&D Miniatures Product) (Misc. Supplies)
There are several criteria by which I came to a 4 star judgement. Others may emphasize different aspects of the Harbinger miniatures - so it's important to know how I'm grading them.
1)Miniatures gaming system: the basic handbook that comes with the entry pack provides you with an important understanding of the skirmishes rules. The rules have been designed to facilitate much quicker battle resolution than with the more complicated combat system provided by the D&D RPG (unless you include too many combatants). The rules are for the most part understandable, with only a few complications. The miniatures are useful as a stand-alone product, and they come with their own statistic cards. (you can also play mass battles with the miniatures, rules are provided for that as well - but I have little personal interest in it)
AND These statistic cards can transform this stand-alone game into an accessory to your normal D&D RPG campaign to supplement battles - using the miniature battle system OR by using the reverse side of the stat card to use the miniature in the normal D&D combat rules.
2)Aesthetic: The miniature are POORLY painted, and are often bent (they are plastic, not metal). This upsets me given that I took great care to paint the old metal ones.
3)Randomization: For the old miniature players - its frustrating to not be able to custom assemble your army piece by piece. The current D&D miniatures come in randomized packs (much like Magic cards) - you don't know what you will get and you'll often be forced to trade to assemble armies to your satisfaction. This feature increases their collectibility, however and may be seen as a bonus rather than as a drawback (as I saw it).
In all, I believe that the miniatures are fairly affordable when compared to their metal predecessors. Their stand-alone playability makes them increasingly worthwhile for those that have no interest in standard RPGs. Lastly, I find their combat rules to be well written and brilliantly devised, while still based on creatures appearing in the various monster manuals.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
How did I live without them ?, February 12, 2004
This review is from: D&D Miniatures Starter Pack: A D&D Miniatures Game Product (D&D Miniatures Product) (Misc. Supplies)
Seriously, I've seen a lot of reviews insulting these new miniatures. Like the elf archer with an unpainted bow... maybe some of them are painted, just to make it different? Or the bow could always be made of darkwood, use your imagination, it IS a fantasy game. I love the fact the figures are hardcore plastic and prepainted, I really don't have the time or patience to paint the old metal ones. Not to mention the price ... the Entry pack alone, which has 16 random mini's, costs less at full price than one of the old set with only five characters. Why complain ? Be happy and rejoice in the laziness of it... and my orc army! Mwahahahahaa!
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