I received my 50% discount 'squashed packet' Carnivale box today from eBay. All contents were perfectly fine. Sweet! There was a lot of stuff packed in the box and I'm happy with my purchase although I am unlikely to play the rules themselves.
There is a complete table of colourful (albeit flimsy) cardboard terrain, as well as all rulers, dice, status counters etc.
So far, very impressed. Unfortunately...
The ~16 minis (2 warbands) were good sculpts, but made from cheap, nasty resin.
(In the background is a fidget popper which makes a great paint mixing palette - you just wait til it dries and 'pop' the leftover paint into the bin.)
Some horrific mould connections resulted in unsightly chunks = lots of trimming/filing...
There were many breakages even when carefully clipping/cutting off residue. In addition the models do not slot into the 'slotta' base and are obviously intended to be placed on top of aftermarket cobblestone bases. Another $12 or so - no thanks!
The Deep Ones Rashaar come with slaves - to be either meatshields or a nutritious snack!
I actually found some extra small metal Deep Ones in my pulp mini box (Copplestone? Black Hat?) which I added to my warband. I'm not sure if they fit a 'stat profile' but I don't intend to use the rules.
The rules seem quite decent but I'm not a fan of marking off hitpoints in human skirmish games, so it's an automatic non-starter for me. I will, however, have a leaf through the rules, chug the dice and test the mechanics and discuss them sometime.
Overall, I'm happy with the box. The rules have wonderful fluff that is worth discussing, there is lots of toys, terrain and accessories. It's just the minis - although they look good, they are not great quality. I had planned on getting more minis but I probably won't based on my experience with the starter box.
I also painted the Mumak crew, bringing my
LotR paint total to
444 for the year. As I have now 'cleared the deck' I am now free to order more LotR (according to my self imposed rules).
If I start a new project (like Carnevale) I not only must paint the new minis within a month, but also paint an equivalent amount of random models from my pile of shame, so I always progress in my painted vs unpainted pile - I never go 'backwards'. It also encourages me to finish existing projects rather than start new ones (always my weakness).
The EM4 terminators and Westwind wolves are not connected (but may make a cool game!) they are just generic useful units for other games...
Some random models I grabbed to get some quick runs on the board. Unfortunately my 8 year old asked for help to finish his models, so I did both Star Wars rebels...
....and about 50 1:300 tiny Tumbling Dice WW2 planes which I found as part of my Excel inventory.
Italian and Soviets tangle around the Axis ocean airbase on a manmade atoll.
The wee lad often explains his rules to me "If they have a friend killed they hate the enemy and get an extra dice roll to kill them in revenge" and "Darth Vader, even if he loses, has to roll another 6 to die cos he's so powerful""If the planes are dogfighting together the other planes get an extra move to help them join in." He loves hanging out in the shed and has actually two 4x3' gaming tables in his room. Risk men, plastic ants and dinosaurs, and Matchbox tanks currently duel each other on the other board.
I was going to test out the Carnevale rules but it's late so another post, perhaps.
