# Island of blood 1st Impressions



## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

I managed to get my hands on my 1st copy of the island of blood today(1st Sept), and for my 700th post I thought about doing a quick first impressions post. So a non biased review

WOAAA

That pretty much sums it all up.

The models are even nicer when their yours rather than pictures, The details are generally very crisp, and as of yet have not seen a single deep mould line, such as compared to the marine pads in AoBR

The sword masters are very slightly taller and broader than the metal models, but not to the degree that it will be noticable from a distance. The seaguard are again slightly taller than the spearelves but that may simply be due to their more haughty upright pose. The reavers are fantastic, simply brilliant.

For the skaven, the clanrats are varied, and look like a rabble as suiting them as a race, hand weapons are varied and they look like individuals. The warlord is the nicest skaven warlord ever, far nicer than the metal equivilant, from a converson view its very easy to snip off his cleever and add a shield. The mortar team is brilliant, good detail and well sculpted. The warpfire is redesign from the old metal model but looks far more portable and far more in scale and design with the current range. The warlock engineer suffers from being just like a clanrat with a gun and backpack, its nice just that the current metal ones are still nicer. The rat ogres, solid models with less easy conversion work than I would have liked, but conversions should still be doable, with a little bit of patience and a lump of green stuff and a couple of spare arms.

The bad, the griffon, I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't like the griffon. The head is way too small and the wings are no where near detailed enough for the standard feathers which I've come to expect, the prince himself is brillant though with a fantastic head sculpt. The other bad is the mage, I've never liked the swirly magicy effects that are becoming more common, as I think they look awful, Its not a bad model, but the much older metal and newer plastics are nicer.

The rulebook is FULL colour and complete, some sections are in a weird and illogical order, but as its just a smaller version of the real book so thats not really detracting from the little one. One weird point is the victory point errata is provided on a little card, why they simply could not correct that in the book, I know not. Even the annoying read this first looks nice, thats all that in there though, some pretty photos. You also get your red sticks for supporting plants in the garden and fairly standard bland templates. You get a nice bag of 10 normal dice and 2 artillery dice and all the bases you need.

Over all this is the nicest starter kit ever and blows AoBR and BfSP out of the water the models are dynamic and plentiful, rather than flat and simple.

Dare I say, Well done GW, just make a nicer griffon next time!


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## slugsung88 (Aug 14, 2010)

They are without a doubt the best GW starter set ever made!

I love the Skaven size but the High Elves is simply too small of an army. Added in another 10 or 12 Seaguard and Swordmaster, and it could potentially change my mind over to fantasy.


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## Wolf_Lord_Skoll (Jun 9, 2008)

slugsung88 said:


> They are without a doubt the best GW starter set ever made!
> 
> I love the Skaven size but the High Elves is simply too small of an army. Added in another 10 or 12 Seaguard and Swordmaster, and it could potentially change my mind over to fantasy.


Um, the High Elves already have a huge advantage over the skaven in the form of a giffon. Other than that, they are balanced as is.


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

the main question is though can you play them straight from the box or do i need to spend another £30 getting the army books?


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Wolf_Lord_Skoll said:


> Um, the High Elves already have a huge advantage over the skaven in the form of a giffon. Other than that, they are balanced as is.


Despite the fact that you cannot use it as a Prince on Griffon until you purchase a further 400pts worth of models.

The Skaven costs about 500 points - even if you use the Noble/Prince as on a Great Eagle, that's still 3-500pts more.


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## Tim/Steve (Jan 25, 2009)

Do they not include a 'battle' that you can play with the models? If so is it not a balanced game?

I know that the 40k set is unfair, with far more points of SM then orks... but the set up in the booklet means the armies start very close, giving a big advantage to the orks, so its actually quite even... if this comparable to IoB?


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Apparently the unboxing thread or whatever we had earlier said that the IoB booklet was fit only to wipe your arse with. I'll see if I dig the quote out.

Edit - here go-dizzles - 



> http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=69059
> Had to save this for last because it is, in a phrase, absolute rubbish. In fact, let me do a favor to everyone out there who has ever assembled minis and played a single game of Warhammer in their lives: throw this away and don't ever read it. Better yet, if you can con some sucker out there into buying this for even a buck on eBay, then do it.
> 
> Here's what GW had the opportunity to do with this book but didn't: put in a set of short scenarios, introducing new players to the game's mechanics in gradual, logical ascention. You know: battle one is infantry v. infantry; battle two introduces magic; battle three is the Royale with cheese where all the models get involved. Nothing even mildly resembling that here. You get a page on "How to assemble miniatures." You get two pages of "This is how we deployed our models in the studio so that we could make a pretty picture in the center of this book" faux battle report. Then. . . wait for it. . . you get about eight pages of ADVERTISEMENT. "Here's all the OTHER stuff you should buy to have really cool battles!" Definitely leaves a bad taste in my mouth because you can easily have really fun battles using only the models in the box!!


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## Hywel (Nov 10, 2008)

Whilst I like the quality of the figures, I don't think I'd buy the Isle of Blood boxed set as a gift to introduce someone to the hobby. They really should have done something better in that introductory booklet to get people started with their first few games- the advertising is fine, but should be relegated to a "now you've had your stupendous first four battles, where do you go from here?" section instead of dominating the book as it does now.

It seems to me to be much more aimed at WH40K players trying out fantasy than at beginners. Which might be quite sensible, given GW's player base. After all, that's how I've ended up buying the boxed set myself... and I guess lots of others will, too.

Cheers, Hywel.


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## neilbatte (Jan 2, 2008)

I was really thinking if getting a set to introduce my kids to the hobby but if it means buying 2 army books that I don't need then I'll probably just buy the small rulebook 2nd hand.
I've already got 4 armies so don't really want to start another 2 and as far as templates and dice go I'm sorted, shame really as it seems like a nice set of mini's to paint up.


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

The only stats are the ones in the rule book appendix, so if you want details of how each unit works, especially true of the skaven weapons teams you need the books. also means no point breakdowns or tutorials and scenerios like there was in skull pass, its a marketng tool to get those purchased. But really if trying to get to learn to play just the booklets in starter kits were never any good, and really they have always needed the ABs to get the most out of them.

The set is more than likely aimed at trying to get converts, but if your a pre existing high elf or skaven player the sets fantastic. If your like me and just missed the metal lothern seaguard, the new ones are fantastic, same with the redesigned weapons teams and reaver knights.

As a slight update I've ordered a tonne of spears so that all my CRs have them, I'll let you all know how easy it is to change, one of the ogres also needs its fur added with a bit of GS as its too flat where the sprue ran parallel


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## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

neilbatte said:


> I was really thinking if getting a set to introduce my kids to the hobby but if it means buying 2 army books that I don't need then I'll probably just buy the small rulebook 2nd hand.
> I've already got 4 armies so don't really want to start another 2 and as far as templates and dice go I'm sorted, shame really as it seems like a nice set of mini's to paint up.


I got it for the Griffon, then sold the rest of the box for a £5 loss. It was the only reason I ever got the box for the unique quality models - skull pass, there weren't any.

Problem is, I have a rather eclectic play style - so it always works out more profitable for me in the end to buy the boxes I need off scratch, rather than the deals.


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## Iceman8352 (Sep 21, 2008)

I got the box to bulk out some of my model numbers, as well as for the rule book. I really like the Sword Masters compared to the old ones. I'll definitely have to replace the metals when the new platic box set comes out. I also like the fact that both the Sword Master and Sea Guard Champions would make great Nobles if you had any extras.


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## Captain Galus (Jan 2, 2008)

Model-wise, this is the best box set GW has ever put out IMHO. It just lacks everywhere else; as others have said, it doesn't include anything telling you how the Skaven weapons teams work and without the High Elf book the Elves are at a huge disadvantage. The only thing that lets them take on more numerous forces are their potential rerolls to hit and ASF. If you play the models based solely off the stats in the mini rule book, the Skaven are going to come out on top every time.

Pros: Excellent models; the Character models in particular are awesome.

Cons: No in-depth rules or scenarios; it would be very confusing and/or frustrating for new players to trying getting into the hobby based on this set alone.


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## Barnster (Feb 11, 2010)

Actually no where in the box as far as i can tell does it say HEs even have ASF, the HEs are at a serious disadvantage no matter what, really the horrid griffon or lucky vanguard move are their only hope.

Hopefully GW will realise their mistake rule wise and add them on their website or in future boxes, it would only take 2 pages or a downloadable pdf


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