Yeah, like the title says any thoughts on the Zeds.
Personally I think the historical heads are the right way to go, and controversial opinion but if they have make cuts anything they should ditch the modern heads first since they don’t really have anything in plastic to fight from WA and should probably be an STL.
I'm not much of a zombie guy (more of a skeleton/draugr fan) but I think it's a really good-looking kit. There aren't any hard plastic zombies out there right now that I've had a genuine interest in getting. I'm greatly considering adding a box of these to my large pile of 'boxed grey'. Stellar selection of heads - no less than four(!!) types of helm to use for what I call "generico fantasy", plus Brodie, Adrian, and Stahlhelm helmets for Weird War One - no-fuss bodies that aren't covered to the nines in sculpted-on gribbly bit accessories, and 30 in a box. 👍👍
The only gripe I do have with the models is the lack of any real variety in their clothes scraps. Other than some leg apparel that look to be skirts, it's all very similar. I would have liked even one model to have trousers that come down to roughly the ankles. Some armor scraps would be nice too but then we're leaving the realm of multi-use (unless included as add-on bits). I can always raid my collection or get some bits/some other sprue from a seller.
Yeah, I really like these zambos. Simple but well done imo.
@Krisps Actually as kitbasher and someone who has made few offbeat zombies, I am cool with the bodies scrap cloths as is since what you do for adding more varity or uniformity of clothing for your undead hoard is to buy a box (or mix of sprue frams) of the historical troops you want your zeds reprsent then slam the zombie arms and heads on some of those trooper bodies.
I think the kit is great - keep the WWI heads for sure, a box of these zombies should be an instant add-on for anyone interested in the "Last War" boxed set!
I think the hardest heads to make a case for keeping might be the Napoleonic and 18th-century tricorn hats, but even there, I think an easy case could be made for the tricorn heads at the very least being used for a horde of zombie pirates, and I'm pretty sure there's a fairly popular black-powder era horror miniature game out there with room for 18th- and early 19th-century zombies.
In the comments for the WA News update announcing the zombies, I saw another complaint a few minutes ago about the nondescript rags being a little TOO nondescript, supposedly making them a little too bland to work for any specific setting, but the heads and arms look great on historical bodies for anyone willing to kitbash these zombie bitz against their favorite Wargames Atlantic historical sets. Just paint the shirts and trousers of the historical bodies in faded and muddy cloth and rusted or tarnished metal, with zombie rag sleeves and hats to match, and you're golden - and no reason you couldn't mix in a few nondescript rag bodies just to sell the zombie horde illusion!
And for sci-fi gamers willing to put a little beginner-friendly modeling work into it, I bet these zombie bits will mix well with boxes of "The Damned" or "Cannon Fodder" - and just as well with Star Grave kits - for hordes of post-apocalyptic sci-fi zombies and mutants....
So, I think the biggest complaint for most customers is easily fixed with the most basic kit-bashing with any WA kit that suits the era you're gaming in - not perfect for anyone who wants to buy one box of zombies and nothing else, but easy for anyone who doesn't mind spending a little more for donor bodies, or those of us with hard plastic multi-part kits and bitz to spare in our unbuilt, un-painted piles-of-shame. I'm betting that'll be most of us who've been doing this a while: you can't make everyone happy, but there's no reason this set couldn't make many - and probalby most - of us happy.
My only "complaint" would be that the selection of heads doesn't include anything especially exotic, beyond the great selection of historical era hats: the only thing that could make this set better for me would be some mutant and alien heads, alternative monster faces (vampires, goblins, ghouls, "evil dead" deadite demons, and what-not), eerie masks (hoods, flour sacks with eyeholes, jack-o-lanterns), long ragged hair, and so on - but honestly, that sort of thing is probably best left to STL files, if not simply left to my resourcefulness in sourcing or inventing the bits myself, since most customers for a zombie kit are probably just going to want to field a nice, quick, simple horde of generic modern Zombie Apocalypse zombies, or a horde of generic fantasy zombies, and call it a day - the non-"generic"-fantasy-friendly historical heads are just a bonus for the rest of us! So, my "complaint" is small stuff, and it doesn't affect my positive final score for this set.
With that in mind, a box of these zombies, combined with a box of WA Goths or "Partisans I" for fantasy or sci-fi gamers respectively, will probably make about 80% or 90% of the target demographics happy, while "Last War" gamers will surely want to grab a box of these zombies to go with the boxed set for Weird World War zombies/mutants to cover almost all of the rest of the customers for these zombies!
Additionally, I really REALLY appreciate the efforts made to keep this set flexible and versatile enough to be used for so many different settings, and i also REALLY REALLY appreciate the effort put into making some pretty spooky looking zombies: the competition seems to go for somewhat cartoonish zombies, but this set looks pretty mean and malevolent - I love it, these guys should really fit the bill for a proper horror setting.
Seems like a winner of a kit to me! 🙂
I second the call that the modern hats might best be left off and made an STL.. right now that is a lot of heads, and they'll take up most of the sprue. enough so that i can already forsee a lot of people complaining that the box includes too few actual zombies in it.
i also suspect you could get by with only about 3 of each set of era specific helmets/hats. mixed with the generic bare heads, and you can still give the whole mob an appropriate look for the era you want, without every single one having a helmet or hat. that would cut down the sprue space needed. perhaps enough to fit an extra body or two with a couple extra arms per sprue so you can up the number of zombies per box.
i also think that the smooth nasal helmets (far top right) and the banded nasal helmets (3 rows below them, next to the viking helmets) are too similar. and IRL the two types pretty much co-existed for most of the 9th through 13th century.. the banded style was just the cheaper version of the nasal helm, because the non-banded style required a lot more skill to make, and thus was the more expensive.
@Yronimos Whateley Nah, the Nappy heads are easy since Silver Bayonet exists and its not the only blackpowder fantasy game with undead and as you mentioned tricorns can be used for Pirates, frankly if Last Pslam where the main game WW1/2 zeds heads made sense I would say those shakos and tricorns were the bigger "must keep", but several www1/2 althistory settings with zombies exist and Sludge can use them.
Also I am pretty sure it well make more people happy even in the "just one box of zeds" catagory since those guy will can use the bald heads and treat these as older risen corpses.
@Mithril2098 I kinda of agree a lot of them could go with a 2 or 3 of each helmet/hat type per era set up, particularly with the Dark Age/ Early Middle Ages helmets since frankly any and all of them would work for every group in Europe at the time, though I think the Roman heads should stay as a 6 pack (and its a keeper) as should the bald heads and if kept the Cowboy head selection is probably good as is.
The main advantage of having 6 of each is that works as good kitbash fodder for those wanting to convert whole historical sets to the undead empire.
