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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wangka" data-source="post: 2010895" data-attributes="member: 9372">Wizards of the Coast's entry into the collectable miniatures market are partially derived from their defunct Chainmail line and benefit from the sizeable Dungeons and Dragons crowd.  They are prepainted randomized plastic figures in 25 mm scale. The first release, Harbinger, has eighty figures (common, uncommon, or rare) selling in Entry Packs of 16 or Booster Packs of 8. Entry packs contain the skirmish rule book, a paper map, terrain tiles, and dice, but have proportionally fewer rares.As an avid Mage Knight and D&D player, I eagerly looked forward to this product both for the miniatures game and its RPG utility. My review is based on the contents of a entry pack and a case of 16 boosters. Although distribution problems have been reported, I had few repeats of rares and a fairly good selection of uncommons and commons.  Out of 128 figures, I had 15 different rares, missed the gnoll as an uncommon, but also missed the ghoul as a common. Overall my experiance found a reasonably random selection. It's also a bonus that the same figures don't come in separate rarities like the weak, standard, and tough versions of the same sculpt that are found in Mage Knight, Mech Warrior, and Hero Clix.Figure quality is better than the initial releases of Mage Knight, but pales in comparison to the latest sets. However, the Harbinger set is truer to the 25 mm scale (except for the bulky Human Commoner), unlike the 25-35 mm scale variance of MK. The plastic used is reasonably malleable with heat, but has a somewhat toyish look perhaps exacerbated by the overall poor paint jobs. Some sculpts are familiar to Chainmail players; I recall seeing, among others, the Half Orc Fighter, Drow Fighter, Drow Archer, Ogre, Goblin Sneak, and Tiefling Captain. This isn't really a bad thing, as most of these offered very good detail. Some pieces were dissapointing. The larger ones such as the Troll, Minotaur, Fire and Earth Elementals, were particualrly galling as missed opportunites for potentially attractive pieces. (Check out the older MK Fire Minion, Rock Minion, Troll Knight, and even the Jackal Warrior). The paint jobs are generally poor by gaming standards, but better than expected given the cost of the miniatures. Most miniatures have less than four colors and details are often glossed over. The vast majority still look decent on the table, but a select few pieces look quite presentable. They take paint well, and even a brief touchup and repaint by a mediocre painter can really make a remarkable difference in appearance.[My favorite looking pieces include the Azer Raider, Lizardfolk, Tiefling Captain, Umber Hulk, Thri-Kreen, Human Blackguard, Owlbear, and Displacer Beast. My uglier pieces include the Centaur, Troll, Jozan, Human Comoner, Earth and Fire Elemental]The sizing of the figures, barring some outliers, is good and makes for a consistent gaming appearance. Small figures such as halfling, goblins and kobolds are appropriately tiny. A minor annoyance with MK was that figures can vary dramatically in size. Later sets of MK also showing a gradual increase in size which benefits from better detailing and ease of painting, but suffers with appearance consistency. It looks as if sizing in Harbinger and the next set Dragoneye will be more rigorously observed.The skirmish game is familiar to D20, somewhat less to Chainmail, with just enough differences to be a little annoying. The skirmish rules are fairly well written and easy to learn. You won't really need the Miniatures Handbook to play unless you want to try the mass combat rules. Check over the errata and FAQ that's been posted. It's fairly easy to play out of the box. The grid style of play means less measuring is needed for movement and range. However, stats are printed on separate cards. The need to track similar figures, activations, hit points, special effects, and spells/abilities used can quickly grow cumbersome in large games. Dial based figures have the advantage here, but D&D Minis can boast a greater potential flexibility with a wider variety of special abilities and spells. Barring some annoyances on how line of sight is measured, the skirmish game plays quickly and can be quite fun.In summary:Distribution: Overall good. Reports of poor distribution are unsurprising.Sculpts: Overall good, but individual variance is high.Painting: Overall poor. However, in terms of reasonable expectations, the paint quality was quite reasonable.Value: Quite good. This is a great way to bolster a DM's army of figures. Check out the vibrant singles market if the randomization upsets you. A bunch of 10 orcs might run you $5.Gameplay: Average. It's a simplified system but suffers somewhat from the necessary bookkeeping.Overall: Good. A very cool game with great potential. For limited time games or limited skill painters, the prepainted and inexpensive miniatures are a godsend.  I plan to continue collecting and using them in games.I admit that I am very perplexed with the claims that the appearance of Harbinger minis compares more favorably than Mage Knight, but I suspect bias from the admitted ugly early releases of Mage Knight. Later sets such as Uprising, Dragon's Gate, and Minions are superior in sculpt and painting, while the newly released 2.0 is simply amazing. (for the skeptical, I'd check out Wiz Kids website. Their figure gallery is also a bit more true to reality than the WotC figure seen in ads.) I suspect the D&D Minis will see the same gradual improvement as the product line matures so I don't see this as a huge problem. Other complaints and concerns that seem to exist?Ugliness - A little effort in painting and flocking can dramatically improve the figures' appearance. And, again, for the price they're quite good.Randomization - With singles right now going for $.50, it will not be hard getting most figures for any potential hordes you need. The prices will undoubtedly drop in the future. Check out some MK pieces for 10 to 35 cents like the Pyramid and Dragon's Gate Mage Spawn pieces and the Unlimited versions of the Centaur Lieutenant, Nightblade, Woodland Scount, Liege Knight, and Temple Blademaster. I've rebased a ton of my MK figures.</blockquote>

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