Over the weekend, Casey and I bought the new Hordes starter set. We have a few friends who are interested in getting into wargaming, and we thought Hordes might be a good way to ease them into the hobby. It's low model count, relatively inexpensive to start, and something we can start quickly.
However, I've never played Hordes before and Casey hasn't played in so long that he no longer has any of the models. So, the logical place for us to begin was to buy their new starter set. The set itself truly is a great way to start playing the game with someone. It costs $100, which is pretty reasonable if you're splitting the cost between you and a friend.
It includes two factions, Circle Orboros, which are mostly werewolves (woohoo!), and Legion of Everblight, which has beasts that look sort of like a cross between a Tyranid and a rhinoceros. There are 20 models total, 9 for Orboros and 11 for Everblight. It comes with a mini rulebook (along similar lines to the GW ones), an introduction pamphlet (a sort of Start Here guide), the game cards for each model, dice, and something they've called a "ruler" but is less helpful for measuring than a wet noodle.
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| My mighty faction! |
Casey and I were able to build our respective factions in an afternoon. He said Everblight went together with no problems whatsoever. I didn't have as easy of a time with the Orboros ones. The pieces that did fit, fit together beautifully. But the pieces that didn't weren't even close. I had to do quite a bit of work to get the models to go together with minimal gaps. Even after all that, I'm still going to spend some time with the liquid green stuff to get them looking seamless.
My halberds and Casey's spears were all bent in funky ways so we had to heat up some water to reposition them. Not a big deal, though, because the models still went together quickly, and they didn't have much in the way of flash. Mold lines also cleaned up quickly. As I said, we built them in an afternoon. We had planned to play a game, but we got distracted by dinner and video games.
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| I really love this Warpwolf. |
I'm looking forward to trying out the game. The Orboros models are gorgeously detailed and I'm looking forward to painting them. All in all, this is really great starter set for a good price. It actually includes everything you need to start playing (unlike certain starter sets we know) and you can go from buying the box to playing the game in a single day.
