I haven't seen too many topics on The Damned, and no reviews here yet, so I thought I'd open a topic up for these sets, since my crowdfund reward sets just arrived.
Short version: most of the sets are versatile enough for other uses, particularly vehicles with other Death Fields factions (most factions should get along great with the Mauler, artillery, and heavy weapons sets, requiring only head/arm swap conversions.) The infantry will porting into fantasy settings as e.g. uniformed hobgoblins (but you'll need to source your own spears/swords, helmets, and shields!) as the infantry figures wear a nonsdescript breastplate-over tunic-and-trousers-with-jackboots uniform that wouldn't look far out of place anywhere from the Renaissance up to Trench Crusades, a Mad Max apocalypse, or general uniformed sci-fi baddy use. The Heavy Infantry is the most futuristic of the sets, in a more adavanced tactical hardsuit armor, beam weapons, and futuristic rebreathers/helmets. A relatively limited head selection for most sets feels like a missed opportunity, but the infantry sets are a treasure-trove as a source of Kalashnikov-style rifles. The Beastmen are particularly fantasy-friendly (though the cat-men beg for conversion into Kzinti fighters), the brutes make fine uniformed fantasy ogres right out of the box.
ABOUT THE DAMNED
"A quite new addition to the Death Fields circuit, the Damned were abducted just a few decades ago from their broken home. These unfortunate humans were part of a powerful and wide-ranging end-of-days cult in human space that believed only strict separation from the rest of humanity would save them from the coming galactic apocalypse. To that end in the late 2300s they secretly funneled monies to construct a space habitat in a remote system with no habitable worlds. Here they hoped to live unnoticed by the rest of humanity. Unfortunately for them, they did. Within twenty years, minor and then major systems began to fail and few of the new generation had taken their training seriously. Rival factions claiming to know the "true path" silently formed. As their habitat began to fail around them, terrorist acts and then open conflict began to erupt. The factions took over the remaining habitable sections and continued their war as the station fell apart around them. Chemicals, poor air quality, exposure to radiation, and other pollutants caused a high number of birth defects. Over the next twenty years no inhabitant was without mutation or severe chronic illness. Yet the war dragged on. In the midst of this, a highly trained squad of soldiers of one of the two factions - The Damned - was abducted from the station. They've now had decades on the Death Fields circuit where they are a deadly force to be reckoned with. Although easily fixed by the advanced technology available to their owner, many wear their mutations and scars as a mark of pride. They have also leveraged alien technology to create “Brutes”: massive, mutated humans with incredible strength and resilience to pain who act as the line breakers on the battlefield soaking up punishment to provide openings for the rest of the team to control the field."
Illustration: The Damned Army Box
HEAVY INFANTRY:
I saw one reviewer on the crowdfunding site lament that The Damned weren't more "futuristic" in keeping with their space-colony flavor text, but it seems to me that the Heavy Infantry are plenty "futuristic": they have the heavier variety of space-armor for this faction, a selection of beam weapons, and some fairly futuristic, Storm Trooper style helmets and rebreathers, marking this set pretty solidly in sci-fi territory. The scarred faces for some of the head options makes these look like candidates for Klingon-style warrior alien characters. For those of us with a lot of Cannon Fodder rebreather masks sitting unused in our bits boxes, the Damned heavy infantry set will probably look great in them.
- Pros: this is THE Damned set to get for a straightforward "futuristic" sci-fi faction
- Cons: this might be one of the less versatile Damned sets
Illustration: The Damned: Male Infantry
INFANTRY (MALE & FEMALE):
Male: Likely the backbone of the Damned army, these guys look like they'll be pretty versatile, with fantasy and perhaps other "medieval" or Renaissance up to perhaps WWI-era or even "dieselpunk" and post-apocalyptic use, given their nondescript uniforms: tunic, trousers, breastplate, and jackboots - just add your own heads and melee weapons from other kits (this set doesn't provide many of its own, past a sword or two!) The scarred-up Damned faces and spikey, ragged, battle-scarred bad-guy uniforms and helmets mark these guys as good candidates for a hobgoblin or even orc army. The basic weapon option in the box is a Kalashnikov-style assault weapon, with most examples appearing to be bound up i duct tape and otherwise battered and battle-worn - these are great post-apocalyptic bits for kitbashing. Most head options are either hooded in spooky (rubber? leather?) gas masks, or bare and scarred-up; these are suitably evil-looking, but one wishes there were more than one or two of the barbaric spikey helmets.
Female: Very similar to their male infantry counterparts, but the head variety leans more toward wither spikey helmets, or relatively normal-looking bare heads with pony-tails. This set includes a sniper rifle and a couple machine-pistols to accompany a similar selection of assault-rifle and heavy weapons found in the male kit. Otherwise, this set is very similar to the male infantry set: could be pretty easy to kitbash into a fantasy set, by trading in the rifles for spears or crude swords and shiels.
- Pros: the perfect baddies for any post-apocalyptic setting and many sci-fi settings as effective "space-orcs" (see Firefly/Serenity "reavers"); easily ported to fantasy as a hobgoblin or other army with basic head and arm swaps from other kits (some sort of simple "medieval" helmet, spear, and shield, or orcish scimitars, would be perfect); the "AK-47" style rifles alone might be worth the price of admission for kit-bashers; the creepy gas masks have a great "S.T.A.L.K.E.R." vibe to them
- Cons: I kinda wish these sets had included extra half-frames of spears, shields, scimitars, or othr fantasy weapons, and a few more spikey helmets and/or scarred heads
BRUTES:
Ogre-sized mutant giants. The uniforms and such are much the same as for the regular infantry, but the weapon selection focuses on a couple heavy tactical shotgun-like guns, and improvised melee weapons like swords, axes, and clubs, making these guys pretty easy to port to a fantasy setting right out of the box. They're probably a bit limited in use otherwise. The uniforms are those of the Damned with no real head-swap options at this time for figures of this size, but otherwise there's no reason these guys might not be used for other Death Fields factions like the Cannon Fodder, Grognards, etc.,
- Pros: ports to fantasy out-of-the-box; great for post-apocalyptic and other sci-fi mutant "ogre" type creatures
- Cons: the uniform is a bit specific to The Damned, and there's limited utility for mutant space-ogres, though it's still a cool set
COMMAND AND SPECIALISTS:
Each Sprue contains enough bits for four human-sized specialists/commanders and one brute-sized commander/war-chief in a trench coat; two of the human-sized bodies are males in trench coats, one a female in trench coat, and one a male body in a doctor's smock. The arm/head options lean heavily toward officers - caps (with and without gas masks), helmets with spiked crests, pistols, a radio, and a banner - but some of the more interesting options for the doctor's smock body include a cultist's hooded head with book and staff, and some mad doctor bits including a bone saw or syringe and medical bag, and a head with a surgicalmask - nice touches!
- Pros: a great little set which will help sell this faction as space cultists, post-apocalyptic vault-dwellers, wastelands raiders, and other "road orc" apoclyptic types; the cult leader/mad doctor bits are especially nice additions to the rank-and-file infantry figures
- Cons: this set is a little more scif-fi oriented than some of the others, and not as readily fantasy-friendly; the ogre body with the duster coat and ogre arms with revolvers kind of beg for one or two ogre heads in cowboy hats to go with them, but none was included, which feels like a lost opportunity....
Illustration: The Damned Mauler
THE MAULER (vehicle):
I believe the Mauler will be one of Wargames Atlantic's first forays into producing hard plastic vehicles - there might be a tankette kit available that I haven't handled, and a couple Quar vehicles, but The Mauler seems to be the first large vehicle. It looks great; there's nothing other than the uniform of a driver figure really ties it directly to the Damned faction this figure is easily swapped out (you might need to trim another down at the hips or thighs to fit in the hatch, but it shouldn't be hard to do; alternatively, a simple head and arms swap on the Damned body should also work here); so, there's nothing stopping you from using this vehicle for any other Death Fields faction, or for other games; it's probably going to work fine for most Death Fields factions, but the Damned, Cannon Fodder, and Ooh-Rah in particular seem to be perfect fits for it. All the parts needed to build either a flat-bed truck or an APC with armored crew compartment should be included (it looks like an either/or build, but creative modelers could likely use magnets to fit both), with both versions likely to lend themselves to customizations (the flat-bed version should be easy to modify to mount a gun from the artillary or heavy weapons sets), and I believe there might be a couple different turret/pintel weapon options for customization right out of the box.
- Pros: appears to be a very versatile kit, useful for a variety of sci-fi settings, particularly near-future and post-apocalyptic sci-fi; should be great for customization
- Cons: not many; experienced modelers should be able to figure out how all the bits fit together with only a little trial-and-error in dry-fitting, and some help from reference photos from previews, box art, etc., but novice builders in particular will want an instruction sheet to refer to, which is not included.
ARTILLARY:
Another versatile set, each artillary frame lappears to build one artillary piece with a fairly "generic" style and a coupe different barrel and shield options for minor customization, and a couple ammo and tool boxes, and a heap of spent/empty shells for diorama-building/basing. A separate frame will provide The Damned crewmen, which are the only things in the set that tie it directly to this faction; simple arm/head swaps can easily repurpose this set for most other human factions or games, and it's a perfect match for just about all human Death Fields factions (and no doubt even the Sneak Feet and Lizard Men, with a little creative modeling); the Damned, Bulldogs, Grognards, Cannon Fodder, and Ooh-Rah in particular will look great manning these guns. The basic artillary design is probably generic enough for use with 20th century historical and general pulp usage, with a little of the usual handwaving: sharp-eyed military historians will notice that this weapon probably has no real-world counterpart, but otherwise it's probably fine for a "generic cannon".
- Pros: a versatile set for a variety of factions.
- Cons: like the Mauler, experienced modelers will likely figure out asembly pretty quickly without instructions, but inexperienced modelers will probably benefit from instructions, not included.
HEAVY WEAPONS:
A set of heavy support and anti-tank weapon platforms, three different weapons to a frame, with ammo boxes and other basing/diorama bits included. There appear to be a couple optional parts for customization, with enough leftover bits to mount on a scratch-built carriage or use with a vehicle like the Mauler for a "technical". Like the Mauler and artillary these weapons should be a great fit for other Death Fieldsfactions or other sci-fi games, with only the crew frames being tied directly to the Damned, easily remedied with some basic head/arm swap customization. The basic design here is a little more modern/near-future than the artillary set, limiting these weapons a bit toward modern pulp and near-future/post-apocalyptic sci-fi, and so these heavy weapons probably look best with sets like the Damned, Ooh-rah, Cannon Fodder, and pulp "Operators", but there's no particular reason that other Death Fields factions couldn't use them..
- Pros: a versatile set for use with a variety of factions
- Cons: like the Mauler and artillary, experienced modelers will probably figure assembly out pretty quckly, but novice builders will probably wish they had an instruction sheet for reference, which wasn't included
HOUNDS:
Each frame includes bits for four sci-fi/fantasy creatures, and four handlers armed with prods. The handlers are dressed in The Damned uniforms, but the arms with prods are easily swapped onto other bodies, so this set should be easy to repurpose for other factions, though the creatures look monstrous enough to suit evil factions the best. There's nothing in particular about the (wingless) dragon-like monsters themselves that tie this set directly to a sci-fi setting, and indeed even the Damned uniform isn't particularly sci-fi, so ths set shoud be pretty readily adapted to a fantasy setting with little more than some basic head-and-arm swap kitbashing to make the transition. In addition to The Damned, the creatures would look fine for use with goblin and orc armies, or any fantasy evil overlord; it's possible that with a little creative modeling, the creatures could be used as mounts for WA goblin cavalry but I don't have any goblins to test-fit and find out.
- Pros: easily ports to a fantasy setting
- Cons: would probably look a bit out of place alongside anything but an evil army
OUTRIDERS (CAVALRY):
I Didn't get any of the cavalry, but the set looks great from what I've seen of it. Much like the Hounds, there's not much tying this set to a sci-fi setting, other than the gas masks and any carbines or pistols the riders might include, so it's probably an easy enough set to port to a fantasy army, give or take a head-swap and/or arm swap here and there. The basic Damned uniform is a nondescript thing of a trousers, tunic, breastplate, and jackboot variety, and the riders appear to have enough lances to arm all of them, and nothing in particular sells the riders as evil, other than the scarred faces that seem typical of the Damned faction - a simple head-swap would likely fit this faction in just about anywhere; out-of-the-box, they'd surely be fine as hobgoblin or orc cavalry, Some head-and-arm swaps would likely be fine for adapting this set to Death Fields factions such as the Grognards and Bulldogs. With the gas masks for the horses being a fairly generic desgn, it's possible that WWI gamers might get a little use from adapting this cavalry to historical factions, with a little handwaving for precise historical accuracy, with little more than head and arm swaps with bits from an appropriate historical kit.
- I can't fairly comment on the pros and cons for the Outriders, as this is the only Damned set I haven't handled myself, and historical cavalry is an especially weak subject for me, but use for general post-apocalyptic sci-fi, fantasy, pulp, and perhaps some (historically-inaccurate) historical gaming use all seem plausible to me.
BEASTMEN:
The biggest surprise for me was how much better I like this set after seeing it in person, than before: this is a much nicer set than I expected, and I wish I'd picked up a few more frames. The uniforms are of the usual Damned variety: tunics and breastplates, and spooky-looking gas masks, fitted for the veriou beast types; there's nothing in particular tying this set to a sci-fi setting, other than any gun options included (I believe there are a couple machine-pistols), and a small variety of crude melee weapons make this set an easy import into a fantasy setting. There are four bodies per frame - two with hooves, and two with cat-like paws - and options for boar, goat, and cat types with or without gas masks.
- Pros: great fist for fantasy settings right out of the box, and the cat-men in particular look like they'll be great characters for sci-fi and fantasy settings (see the Man-Kzin Wars!)
- Cons: one can't help regretting that only half the fgures have proper paws (or alterntavely only half have proper hooves), but that's the nature of a set like this; among unreached stretchgoas for this project were some previewed (but unused) mutant bits such as tentacles, and one wishes that a half-frame of those could have been included in this set too, but it's fine as-is
In summary:
- Cyberpunk and futuristic sci-fi gamers should give the Heavy Infantry and Heavy Weapons a close look.
- Death Fields gamers for any faction, and sci-fi gamers in general (particularly modern pulp, near-futue and post-apocalyptic sci-fi) should check out the Mauler, heavy weapons, and artillery.
- Fantasy gamers should check out the beastmen, brutes, and the hobgoblinesque male and female infantry.
- Dieselpunkers, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s, and Trench Crusaders will also probably like the male and female infantry, cavalry, and the artillery.
- It's possible some WWI-era historical gamers might get some limited use from the cavalry and artillery, give or take some arm/head swaps. (These may be fine sets for The Last War, too!)
