Am I losing it, or would the "rambukk" rider box allow like four additional dudes on foot in addition to the official six mounted minis? That would almost shift its price to acceptable, which had been eluding that system for a while. Now if only the sprue images weren't hinting at a pirate theme totally at odds with the box art...
@Blutze Yeah. When they first teased the command sprue they said they were putting legs on it, and I asked about that meaning extra figures in all the boxes that included a command sprue. They said there would not be enough torsos for the extra legs... Which I think may be true in the infantry boxes but not in the cavalry boxes. So yes it looks like you can create 4 extra infantry guys in the cavalry boxes. The pirate theme... I think they were going for an "Empire" theme for the command. Here is the picture they teased for teh command back before the kickstarter.
I have never been a big dwarf fan, but... I was very interested in this kickstarter. Here is a thread I had created for it over on dakka. Fireforge Dwarf Kickstarter
While I did not really feel Dwarves, I liked that they had Guns... and I liked the Ram Riders. So I thought I could add them as mercs in an Empire themed army. Then the more they teased, the more I started to like them, and figured I would make a whole Dwarf army instead.
Well, Wargames Atlantic announced the Conquistadors... so I decided I could just add the conquistador muskets to the army instead (which later turned in to a whole conquistador army). On top of that the prices were on the high side and the muskets and rams were not unlocked during teh kickstarter. They did say that they would still allow people to purchase them, but only if you backed the kickstarter over a certain level. I backed at $1... In the pledge manager they changed their mionds and allowed people of any level to order the Rams and Muskets, but by then I was kind of out of love with them.
I may still get a box of the Rams at some point. But Yeah their pricing and box sizes are a turn off. 12 infantry or 6 cavalry per box... for what they charge is... not great. But the quality of their minis is great. The Northmen are still one of my favorite kits.
Ah, that makes sense. Not sure why that image isn't on the shop site, but I guess the server is already crumbling under some load every two minutes anyway. Looks like there are a few things you can do to get them closer to classic fantasy dwarves, though it probably won't be close enough for my tastes. Also, good to know thats an armored hand and not some energy nonsense on those champion weapons.
@Blutze You should be able to make classic dwarves with them. Here are some of the pics they showed. And It looks liek there are enough helmets on the Sprue to not force you to use the hat feather ones.
I do like the pistol options... These would make a good outrider merc squad. Or for some @JTam Shwartzreiters.
I like the look. Empire Clansdwarfs for the win. Like the healthy number of pistols. Not in love with the rectangle shields but that's the easiest of fixes.
Is that 4 female torso to 3 male?
@JTam It looks like you are right on the number of female torsos... @Blutze i had actually forgotten how much i had liked these... I guess I will end up getting some after all.
Looks like they are selling the musket troops.
You were talking about the prices like they were outrageous. Twelve models for 20 Euro? That's less than half what GW charges ;)
I looked over the different boxes. The basic Infantry is all swords and spears.... Enough axes to outfit them all would have been nice.
@JTam 12 for $20 is not horrible if you compare to GW... but oathmark is 30 for $30. A box of 12 is useful if you are doing like a Frostgrave warband... but if you are making a unit of 30... then you need 3 boxes... again if you compare to GW, you are still ahead of the game... but otherwise... 😍
The Dwarf infantry looks liek it has 2 melee boxes. The Warriors with sword and spear and the Hammerers with hammers and axes. It looks like you would get enough axes in the Hammerers box. If you get 3 of the weapon sprues in the box... but, yeah, you only get 2 of the sprue.
If you get 3 boxes of hammers and 1 box of cavalry. You would get
* 12x one handed axe from the infantry boxes
* 12x 2 handed axe from the infantry boxes
* 4x one handed axe from the cavalry boxes
* 4x one handed resting axes from the command sprues (4 sprues)
So if you dont mind mixing one handed and 2 handed axes in a unit you could do it with that mix for 80 Euro... and have a unit of 30 Axes, a 6 man cav unit with pistols and have 10 guys left that you could make a command squad with... Thats actually not bad for a little dwarves merc unit. Actually since you have 4 command Sprues, you have 16 extra legs... but I think only enough extra torsos from the rider sprues for 8 extra guys... so you would actually have 14 guys left for that command squad.
@William Redford
I do love the Riders but not the mounts .. too close to the last Hobbit movie to my mind. And most of Giant Boars available are too Orcish, so not a chance to depict that awesome legendary illustration from John Blanche:
The Infantry could be used as WFB 3rd ed Imperial Dwarves... but not a fan actually.
Ok... going down the rabbit hole.
If you buy 2 boxes of Arqubusiers... and 1 cavalry box.
You could make
* 24x with Arquebus
* 3 with double pistols (from the command sprues)
* Champion with pistol
* Standard
* Musician
and then 3 ram riders with pistols and 3 ram riders with spears.
Here is a thread I had created for it over on dakka. Fireforge Dwarf Kickstarter
Ok, those size comparisons kill them for me. Way not stunty enough. And their gear is... well not excessively holy roman empire, but also not what I really want - Warhammer style norse-y stuff, or LotR style unique-to-dwarves stuff. We could of course spin this conversation into how boring a purely dwarven army is to play or play against in Warhammer, and how dwarves should mainly be warmachine crew in an empire army that has other stuff going on :P
You were talking about the prices like they were outrageous. Twelve models for 20 Euro? That's less than half what GW charges ;)
Target for pricing is 1€ per model for basic infantry, 2€ per model for basic cavalry, up to 50% more for bigger (think 25mm base instead of 20mm) or elite (that is, highly detailed, weirdly shaped, or loads of alternate bits) troops. Anything above that is expensive. Fireforge prices are close, but not quite there, is what I was trying to say. And... please don't let GW dictate what prices are "normal".
I looked over the different boxes. The basic Infantry is all swords and spears.... Enough axes to outfit them all would have been nice.
As William Redford mentions, you could get multiple boxes and mix. But that requires building a larger wargaming army, and some people are just looking for a handful of D&D NPCs, so agreed on that note.
@Steven StGeorges That pic is nice. I dont mind the rams, but they arent for everyone.
@Blutze I like the proportions on them. But probably because I never really liked the GW dwarves. These look like they could be a real force, where teh GW dwarves never looked like they could actually move... but if you are a dwarf person, i can see that being a deal breaker.
@William Redford
Those Ramriders could be quite a good alternative for GW the Hobbit Iron Dwarf army.. especially when compared to Scibor models.
@William Redford
You're absolutely right.
I ASSumed "Hammerers would have to be a seperate more heavily armored kit. But on closer inspection the "Hammerers" and "Warriors" share the command and main sprue. Just the weapons and arms sprue is different.
My b*tch about wanting axes for the warriors is retracted. Just buy the Hammerer box.
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Now that I think about it a while, I like the approach Fireforge took here. Infantry with spears is one box. Infantry with hammers and axes is another. Muskets are one box. Crossbowmen is another. Usually you get these big combo kits where you pay more and never use half the arms. Example, all the muskets AND crossbow kits out there. Here you are only paying for what you need.
I'm pleased these have finally been released. I'm not fond of the Imperial look of some of the heads, but I'm sure some of the heads have helmets that are closer to the Iron Hills Dwarves from the Hobbit, and thus could be used to proxy models for an Iron Hills army in the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game so that you don't have to sell a kidney to buy the Forge World ones.
Found some more size comparisons online. Size looks right to me.
http://wargameterrain.blogspot.com/2022/04/fireforge-games-new-fantasy-stone.html?m=1
So These have started showing up on ebay. Just ordered the above sprues. Enough to make 6 arquebusiers. I had backed the kicksterter but only went in for a $1 and never upgraded.
I am looking forward to seeing how these look next to my human and halfling hand gunners. Thet didnt have any Ram Riders on the US Ebay, but I want to try a sprue of them eventually too.
Got my dwarfs in the mail today. Only 6 to a sprue, and only ordered one sprue. Did a quick assembly of one. Shown here next to a halfling hand gunner and a human halberdier.
Overall? I like them. Assembly was easy. No fidgety bits despite the gun arms being 3 parts. Size wise they look good next to haflings and humans. May buy more to make a full unit.
IF we dabble in fantasy again. its the goats for Eileen and me, as she says they have 100% the cute factor,so "BUT OUT", we just may get some!!!!!!!.
