What's sad, really, is that Games Workshop themselves haven't stepped up in anyway to stay competitive...
It's been a while since my last update to this series, and the explosion of Kickstarter and 3D Printing means that the number of Ratmen miniature alteratives out there increases expnentially every month. As such, I don't think that it's even possible for this update to be comprehensive, but between this, the prior update, and the 13-part original series, anyone seeking out Skaven proxies should find a wealth of choices. What's sad, really, is that Games Workshop themselves haven't stepped up in anyway to stay competitive... Of the many companies stepping up to fill in the gaps, the biggest splash was made by Punga Miniatures. Punga first delved into the furry tailed mini game with a delightful Pirate-themed Bloodbowl Pi'Rats Kickstarter : It was during this campaign, presumably, that Punga became aware of the very high demand for modern sculpts of Ratmen for wargamming purposes and started their Ratmen line, currently available from their shop: They are already working on expanding the line, with previews of several new sculpts on the way: Punga wasn't the only one to take to the high sees with some Verminous Buccaneers, for those looking for more of an Old School aesthetic to their Pi'Rats, Macrocosm Miniatures has you covered with their Old Salt series, successfully kickstarted in 2018 and currently available from their online shop. And if it's the Bloodbowl over the Pi'Rat that you're interested in, you could do worse than Warploque Mini's extremely characterful Squeeky Blinders team or Willy Miniature's equally impressive Ratmen team: And then there is this Ratmen team by Txarli Factory, one of the few I didn't personally back as the aesthetic isn't quite to my tastes, but wonderful sculpts nonethless Last, but not least, on the Bloodbowl front is The Sharp-Tails Team by Wendy Miniatures and ScaleBro Speaking of Ratmen Bloodbowl teams, way back in Part VII of this series I gushed over Greebo Games' Hand of Death ratmen team (which is, sadly, slowly disappearing from their online store piece by piece, grab them while you can). Earlier this year, seemingly out of nowhere, Greebo premiered several new Ratmen sculpts These came on the heels of their Alastoran Demons & Chaos Kickstarter, in which one of the add-ones was the duplicitous Doc Paskoskee: More than a few Miniature Kickstarters have offered one-off Ratmen figures amongst their collections, so much so that I'm sure to have missed quite a few, but here is a random assortment MOMminiaturas' MOMminiaturas novedades kickstarter Wererats and "regular" rats from Fenris Games' Cauldron Warband kickstarter And Maze Games' "Sewer Fever" Supplement for their OrcQuest-Warpath kickstarter But far and away my favourites are Oakbound Games' Gnawlochs, which have shown up in a few of their Kickstarters and now have a decent range available on the online shop. At some point I'll have to do a blog post devoted entirely to the Ninth Age and my experience with it. I've long since abandoned the online community there, but it still chugs along towards (optimistically) some state of completion, long since having missed it's window of opportunity. Several companies have attempted to appeal directly to 9th Age players, however, including their version of the Skaven, The Verminous Swarm, which the developers decided to pattern after the Roman Empire, of all things. First among these is The Rattus Republic by Dragonclaw Miniatures Avatars of War was the first company I know of to specifically align themselves with the 9th Age. I covered them before in the series with their single offering of a Vermin Tyrant, and in the years since they've added exactly...one...new addition to their line Hidden Dreams was possibly the first 3D printed range aimed at the 9th Age, possibly pre-dating the decision to base the army on Rome Another range aimed directly at the Ninth Age is Lubart's Vermin Swarm army funded on Indigogo, but this one interestingly eschewed the Roman aesthetic for more of a German WWI look. That seems like a good lead in to our next section... One that I missed in the first Rat by Any Other Name series, PuttyMonkey offers the imposing and delightfully old school Master Rat Commander: along with a trio of Henchrats: Over the summer there were two Kickstarters featuring futuristic ratmen armies, both featuring a similar aesthetic (so much so that one of them threatened legal action against the other, though by all accounts that was resolved amicably) The first was ThatEvilOne's Cult of Vile Rattus: A Cheese Stealer Cult kickstarter. I would have loved to have gone all in on this one, but unfortunately this was an STL-only campaign aimed at those with a 3D printer. Instead I invested heavily in the Mortian Cyberrats by former Games Workshop staffer Markus Ortenburger Any good swarm of ratmen is going to be accompanied into battle by hordes of their smaller brethren, and a few choice offerings have appeared lately. With Forgeworld unfortunately squatting their Wolf Rats earlier this year, a call for alternatives has arisen and the first suitable proxies I've come across are the Hell Vermin from the Shadows of Brimstone board game. It's only unfortunate that they come 3 to a pack and are all identical sculpts. On the other hand, Strata Miniatures are currently taking pre-orders for their own Rathounds Also currently available from Strata, along with numerous Ratmen conversion bitz, are these adorable Technorats Anvil Industry compliments this with a selection of nefarious Bomb Rats along with a more conventional rat swarm Tabletop Art also steps up with some nice looking giant rats and these exceptional Zombie rats (I only wish their shipping prices weren't so high!) Also noteworthy is Signum Games' The Plague Rats Incidentally, Signum also has a series of Plague Doctors whose models heavily feature rats, great if you are looking for Pestilent allies for your Blighted ratmen And finally, to finish off this update, Mantic Games, whose Veer-Myn line I covered extensivelly previously, have finally offered their first fantasy Ratmen models for Kings of War, the Ratkin Slaves Reinforcement. And they look pretty cool, except that they unfortunately got the nose colour wrong (if I ever accomplish anything with this blog, I hope it's just to spread awareness that rats don't have black noses!) That's it for now Maladies and Gentlerats. I've got some other Blog posts planned, but it's two days until the Fall term starts of my final year at Uni, so who knows what sort of free time I'll be looking at. On the other hand, as Covid has forced all of our classes online, that means that I can paint miniatures during lectures, so there's that...
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
PLOG OF THE HORNED RATIn which The Shadowy Mr. Evans engages his obsession for painting tiny metal figures SKAVEN BLOGROLLChequeo de liderazgo
Full Ashtray Gaming Snickit's Tail Mark Raley Miniatures Goblin Lee's Comrade's Wargames ARCHIVES
February 2024
Categories |