What up sports fans, it’s Phil bringing you the low down on the Skittersneak Stealers.
Okay, enough of that.
But it is time for the review of the Veer-myn team for Dreadball that I reviewed just a few short days ago. I’ve been rather taken with Dreadball and it seemed like a rather sensible progression of the first review to follow it up by looking at one of the other teams available. So I opted for the Skaven in Space aka the Veer-myn Skittersneak Stealers.
Now I have to get something out-of-the-way because it’s just daft, and typos has been a hot topic lately. On the back of the box it states it contains 8 Marauders. Well it doesn’t. It contains Veer-myn. And there was 10 of them. Now I’ve asked Mantic if the box is meant to contain 8 Veer-myn or 10, but they didn’t respond. So for now we’ll just say that the box will contain between 8 and 10 Veer-myn. Not Marauders.
But as we’re on the subject of the box, it’s actually brilliant for the simple fact that it resembles a VHS box and it’s presented like the Skittersneak Stealers‘ best bits of the season, which is just superb. It’s a simple touch but a very nice one and the box is deep enough that you can keep your fully built team in it which is immensely handy for storage and transport. For the younger readers VHS are the things that existed before Blu-rays and DVDs that used reels of tape. And you know, you young whipper snappers with your MP3s and your drugs.
But on to the models themselves. Which are a bit of a disappointment. Not because of the detail which is fine. In fact the Guards are actually pretty cool. It’s the poses of the strikers which make up 80% of the team which are peculiar but worst of all, the striker that leans forwards, with a hand flat to the floor, doesn’t go together properly. At all. I had to bend the ankle of every one of them to fit the arms in place. Once they’re built they’re fine, and they hold together well. The reason being that all the key cut pegs and holes are actually much tidier than the human and marauder teams you get in the box set. The casting quality is also very good with hard any mould lines.
But as has been discussed many times before, the models are gaming standard. But they do the job and do the job well enough. And with a descent paint job – from what I’ve seen – they look the part. They’re let down by the larger gas masks on one of the strikers which make them look very front heavy. But you know what, Dreadball isn’t about the models it’s about the game so, frankly, fuck it.
In game terms, the Skittersneak Stealers are a slippery bunch of bastards. The fastest and most agile team going, but with all the skill of a retarded monkey. So on the one hand they’ll be running some quick plays and are more than capable of making a strike in a single Rush. However, because of the aforementioned similarity between them and dimwitted apes they’ll struggle to make a Strike at range which means playing the long game and going for 1 points scores over 3.
Trying to play it any other way and you’ll find yourself being out played despite actually being the quicker team. And because the Veer-myn don’t have Jacks to bolster defence, if the opposition get the break on you or you fumble the ball – which will be often with a Skill of 5+ – you’ll struggle to regain the initiative. That said, if some crumping and/or face manging is required the Veer-myn Guards are big, mean and make things go splat. Opponents will have to go Guard to Guard to stand any chance of resisting an aggressive Rush or to punch a hole for their own.
The Veer-myn are hugely fun. Their mix of speed, and agility but lack of skill makes them unpredictable to use and to play against. Their Guards are big, mean and make faces go squish. But basically they make for a fantastically fun game and I’m already itching to get back on the field.
The Veer-myn Skittersneak Stealers are available from Firestorm Games priced £13.49
