Anyone buying Dreamblade?

[Festivus]

Out of curiosity, does the lure of $20,000.00 make you want to give it a try at GenCon? There is an awful lot of money being thrown at this game.

 

[Eridanis]

The gameplay looks interesting, and some of the sculpts are really attractive. What turns me off completely is the horror theme; I will not spend good money on figures that look like that. Just my opinion, but I have plenty of drains on my wallet already...

 

[Stormrunner]

Debasing Dreamblade

Well, I bought a starter pack ($30, ouch!) just to see what the minis were like.

The minis seem to be made of the same bendy black plastic as DDM, with a square base 1 + 1/8 inch across. This is then inserted into a larger (2 inch) base made from a harder, colored plastic and glued in place with a transparent glue. The insert is further held in place by four L-shaped corner tabs and a central post, which fit into holes in the colored base. (See attached photo.) Apparently WotC wanted to be really, really sure that the insert was Firmly Attached. This is unfortunate, since if you could pop off the colored outer base the insert would be much closer to the DDM base size, making it more useful.

I don't know what the glue is, other than that it dries transparent and hard. Superglue Debonder and cheap nail polish remover from the corner drugstore both whitened the upper surface of the colored plastic but had no apparent effect on the glue.

Cutting with a hobby knife proved ineffective on the hard colored plastic. The softer black plastic could be cut with strong pressure and repeated passes, but even after cutting all around the edges I was unable to pry out the insert - presumably glue covers the entire underside of the square.

Whacking the mini with a hammer was also unproductive, however cathartic it might be. While the colored plastic is fairly rigid, it is just soft enough to deform under the hammer blow rather than shattering as I had hoped. (You can see some of this deformation at the corners of the base in the photo.)

In short, it seems like the only way to remove a Dreamblade mini from its base will involve radical surgery to the feet.

 

[D.Shaffer]

The gameplay looks interesting, and some of the sculpts are really attractive. What turns me off completely is the horror theme; I will not spend good money on figures that look like that. Just my opinion, but I have plenty of drains on my wallet already...

To be fair, it's not really 'Horror' themed so much as its 'Dreamscape' themed. You have your nightmare qualities sure, but you also have smatterings of everything else under the sun. Heroic (Mostly in the Valor faction), fantasy, horror, mythology, and even sci fi.

Wotc has the gallery up, finally, BTW.

 

[JVisgaitis]

I'm buying, but I'm not buying to use the minis for D&D. The scale is way off and the bases are too big. The reason I'm buying is the game is incredible. It plays fast, is extremely tactical, and all of the miniatures abilities mix for some really awesome combos. I played 4 rounds in the tourney at Gencon and had a blast. I really hope the game does well for Wizards, as its tactical play is really addictive. Props to Jonathan Tweet for another excellent game.

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Nope!

I throw enough money at WotC with my D&D textbooks and D&D minis!

Instead of this "Dreamblade" crap, WotC should have set up a Singles line for D&D Minis (beyond the Iconic Dragons). Every DM I know would go out and buy 2 or 3 Beholders, and other classic MM monsters.

So very quoted for truth it ain't funny!

 

[WizarDru]

Thanks for the tip -- I'll check it out.

Flames of War is a good game, but I wouldn't write A&A Minis off, either.

A Flames of War Review is right there and reviews of Axis and Allies Miniatures can be found there.

Note that they're different games with somewhat different goals. A&A has the advantage of being cheaper and faster to play, and is arguably more of a beer and pretzels game. I mean, you should get that from it's lineage, if nothing else. It has more in common with Memoir '44 than with Advanced Squad Leader, for example.

FoW is a much more of a simulationist game, designed to more accurately reflect combat but to do so in a relatively quick fashion. Whether purchasing, assembling and painting your minis is a benefit or a detriment is different for each player. I'm an adequate painter with little spare time. I still haven't painted my minis from a con six years ago, let alone the warzone minis I just picked up at an auction a month ago. On the other hand, for many, the painting is half the fun. The rules system for FoW has received near-universal praise, as near as I can tell.

I think they're both great games, and you'd do well with either one.

 

[rgard]

Their scale is a bit wonky. I have little interest in playing the game, if a figure comes up that looks cool I might buy a single on ebay.

Yes, it looks to be about 35-38mm in scale. Of course for re-based monsters for your favorite FRPG that doesn't matter as much.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[rgard]

If the bases were useful for D&D, I'd probably pick up a few packs. As it is, the base size happens to be perfectly inadequate for D&D's 1" grid. There are actually some figures that'd make great Quori.

You can always re-base some of the minis. GW makes 25mm (1") and 40mm bases that are cheap enough.

For me it's aways fun to have the party run into a creature that nobody recognizes.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[Bagpuss]

Having read Stormrunner's post I'm not sure re-basing is that much of an option.