Arena Rex kickstarter unboxing and review

A long while back, over a year ago, I pledged on the Arena Rex kickstarter. I mainly did so because the models looked to be the most amazing and detailed models I had ever seen. Yes, shiny syndrome kicked in. Well I finally got my box of goodies in and would like to go through them with you. I must say my pictures do not do justice and I would highly recommend going to the Arena Rex website and checking them out there.

These models are amazing! I don't even think I could paint them because I am afraid I would not do them justice! Now this isnt all about models, Arena Rex is a game too. The game is pretty simple at first, with a bit of complexity and strategy with how you lay out your arena (pits, traps, etc) and how damage is taken. But for now, lets just look at the goodies.

Here is everything that came in the mail. The minis themselves, their stat cards, the faction cards, each mini's "art" card, dice and the rulebook. 

The rulebook is an interesting shape and size (small) but it great on the inside! I actually like the size quite a bit. 

Here is a look on the inside that shows their style of artwork (can also see how the damage tree works). 

The dice that came with my pledge. 

The individual model "art" cards. I am, however, missing one (you will see I am missing several items. I have contacted Arena Rex and they are sending them).

The back of the "art" cards also have a bit about the character. 

Each individual model also has a smaller stat card. To the right you will also see the individual faction cards that has the faction's special rules. 

Front of a stat card showing the damage tree. 

Back of the stat card with special rules. 

Here is the back of a faction card.

These are resin fatigue tokens. 

Resin bases for the miniatures. 

Now onto the amazing miniatures. I took fronts and backs of most of them. Just click the pictures to see them large and in far more detail. 

This model (Aquila) is missing his stat card. 

Also missing stat card on this model. 

Now look at this side of the model's fact compared to the other side. I believe something went wrong in the mold. It is too smooth and missing much detail. 

I absolutely love the look of this one. 

I am missing the entire head of this model, and it appears I have an extra shield???


I was weary of them being in resin, however, the clean up is a breeze!!!! I dont even have to really use a knife or any tool, the flash just comes right off to the touch. This is the best resin I have delt with.

If you look into the game you will see this is a fantasy/mythological type gladiator warfare with beasts and characters of lore. I am really looking forward to getting to know more about this game and how it plays.

The start of something MEDIEVAL!!!!

As I stated in my previous post, expect to see more of Lion Rampant!

Force building in this game is easy. A pretty big game is 24 points. 6 point can get you 6 heavy cavalry in one unit, or 6 heavy infantry in one unit. 4 points can get you 12 light infantry in a unit, etc. There are a variety of unit types you can choose from and then make your army your own. However, you cannot have more than 4 units of one type, or 12 points worth, whichever is lower. This means you cant have more than two units of mounted men at arms (your knights) as they will both cost a total of 12 points.

That said, I have the Perry miniatures mounted men at arms plastic box set. You can make 12 mounted men at arms with this set. Perfect! 12 points right there! A good fun started force out of one box.

I must say I am EXTREMELY impressed with these models! They are beautifully detailed and very realistic looking. I love them! below you will see some crappy pictures I took with my phone of the sprues. I apologize for how bad they are. I had not intended to post anything at the time and had just sent them to a friend. I have now put them all together and must say they look damn good! A good pic of them all assembled to come soon.

Hopefully I will get my first small game of this in this weekend after a Bolt Action tournament I am running. I will post about that later.

 

There are a tons of choices. As you will see later, I decided to only make my squad leaders have the armored horses, the rest do not. You also have a good variety of weapons, including lances, spears, swords, hammers, maces and axes.

I thought the models of the horse were just fantastic! Sometimes you get models where the horses just look God awful! Also, here is a random picture of the back of the box showing how the figures can be put together.

The box also came with a nice information pamphlet about how cavalry were used during that period. This pamphlet also included cut out flags of a different variety if you wished to use them.

There is a tad bit of negative though. The bases that come with the minis. There aren't enough to make 12 individual models! This doesnt make sense as the box makes 12 cavalry men.

So, as you can see, you only have enough individual bases for 8 minis. However, yet again, the box comes with 12! Can you tell this irritates me? ugh! So, if you buy this, buy separate bases as well. Now I have to figure out where to get some good ones.

AEww2 minis

I have recently heard about the skirmish based gamed called AE WW2, by Darkson Designs.The basis of the game is pretty cool, what if WW2 had not ended. What if the Nazis continued their crazy experiments and search for relics, and succeeded. I loved the idea of the game. I ordered the rulebook and the starter sets for the Americans and the Germans. The rulebook is fantastic, full color, great story, and rules that look like alot of fun. The models look awesome, except for the US Mech, what looks like crap.

I got the starter set boxes in and was surprised at, how do I say this, at how crappy they are. The metal is extremely dirty and really needs work done to it. I have scraped and scraped excess metal off of them constantly. They are also a pain in the but to put together. The guns also look goofy. They are big and bulky.

  

 These are the boxes the models came in, it surprised me how small the boxes were.

You get the rules on a double sided sheet.

 Here are some of the German models, you can see the amount of clean up it takes to get em going.

 Here are some of the German weapons.

 Here are some of the US weapons








Some more of the German troops

Here is the American forces, including the big, bulky, plain mech.










All in all, pretty disappointed in the models, especially the mech. I would have to find something else to take the place of that crap model. The rulebook states that Pulp City models work very well as heroes and what not with the game. I think this model, Iron Train, would work real good to replace the mech.

 It has a more "realistic" feel to the technology they would have had in the period, if they had the technology at all for such a device. Hell of alot better than the model that comes with the starter set.

Once I finally get the models put together (taking forever) Ill post the pics of them up.