The new wave of Dystopian Legions models from Spartan Games adds some serious firepower to the might of the Prussian Empire. Teutonic Knight are upgraded and the infantry get the help of a Mobile Heavy Machine Gun.
Teutonic Knights ArmsmenVeteran Section
The packaging of the Teutonic Knights is impressive. The full colour render on the front of the Unter Marshall draws you in and points you to the info about what is included.
On the back there are renders of all 3 models taken right from the models themselves. These show every little detail and next to them is even a little bit of background about the Knights.
Inside the box you get 3 resin and metal Teutonic Knights, 3 40mm bases, 2 blank Activation Cards, 1 Game Card and a DL Collectors card.
The Teutonic Knights are a Veteran Section for the Prussian Empire forces. They bring the best of almost EVERYTHING! Although they are slow they are covered in very think armour that contains a 'power' fist to crack open any Ironclads. The basic trooper and the Marshal are also armed with a powerful machine gun each that has no problem with enemy infantry. The Specialists sports a huge Tesla Lance that, while a shorter range than the other guns, cuts through tanks like butter.
The Marshal is also an officer that helps with your command points pool and lets the Section use and special actions without having to be near a force leader.
The Knights each come in several parts as you can see above and below. The main body is highly detailed resin and the extras are all in metal.
The body does have a mould line running around the edge but as it is resin, the back of a hobby knife can remove this very quickly.
The metal add ons do have some vents and tabs from the moulds but all are easy to clip off. The mould lines on these parts are quite small and could even be totally ignored if you wanted to.
The basic Knight is the same as the Knights in the PE Starter box but the Marshal and Specialist have several different pieces.
The Teutonic Knight Specialist is armed with the massive M4 Schocklanze instead of a machine gun. The fist arm and the funnel are the same as the basic Knight but the head has an Iron Cross / Templar look to it. The shoulder pads are also more decorative.
These different parts are still good quality castings with great detail. Not many vents or mould lines to clean up.
Once again, the extra parts are a great quality.
To the weapons factory..................
The Knights are quite simple to put together. I would suggest cleaning off the resin in warm soapy water first as it is a little slippery in places. I didn't! I then found out that the arms kept falling off as soon as I thought they had stuck. The weight of the arms compared to the area they attach to means they could probably do with pinning just to be on the same side.
When they are made thought they look VERY imposing and impressive!
Price - These are on pre-order from Spartan Games and local / online game stores like Troll Trader
and Wayland Games (to the right)
From TT these come in at £21.60. You may thing that sounds a little expensive but look at the size of those things! And they are mainly resin!
I have recently seen 3 models in a box that are similar and plastic for £50! £7 a piece is a price I would more than happily pay.
Overall - The Teutonic Knights are stunning pieces. The model quality is good, the detail is fantastic and they just look so stupidly cool! Try them once in a game and I'm sure you would never leave them behind again.
I hope they do the add on parts as a separate blister so I can upgrade the starter Section to the same size.
9 out of 10 Badger Points!!!!
Time for even more firepower. The Infntry get support in the form of a
Heavy Machine Gun Team
The box for the Prussian Empire (PE) Heavy Machine Gun (HMG) Team is the usual Spartan standard. ON the front you have a full colour render of the HMG and details about what it is and on the back you have renders of everything included taken directly from the models. This lets you see every tiny bit of detail on them.
The box says the HMG Team is a Section AND a Section Upgrade. This is because they can be taken in 2 different ways.
You can choose to upgrade 2 Grenadier Infantry to a HMG team in any Section. If you do this, you can not take the other Specialists.
Or you can take a Battalion Support Section of 1-3 HMG teams. With a very good range, great dice vs Infantry and even good dice vs small Ironclads, I prefer the second option. They can then cover your own Infantry Sections and thin out the enemies ranks on the approach.
The full rules for the HMGs can be found in the Downloads area of the Spartan Games site
Inside the box you get 2 metal crew, 1 metal HMG, bases for both and an blank Activation Card.
Below I will take a closer look at the crew and gun separately.
The HG Crew and dressed in the same way as the PE Grenadier Infantry. This is a nice touch seeing they can be included in the Sections if you want to.
The Loader on the left looks ready to go with extra ammo. The Gunner on the right in knelt aiming the HMG ready to fire. He has separate hands that also attach to the gun.
Both of these models are very highly detailed. Everything from the folds in the coats to the chin straps of the pointy helmets is crisp and clean. They do have a couple of small vents from where they were moulded but these are easy to remove and are in areas with less detail so nothing gets damaged.
There are a couple of small mould lines around the edges but they are barely noticeable.
The HMG comes in 6 main parts with an additional ammo box to help fill out the base.
The detail is less than that on the crew as this is a machine of war but it does include nice iron crosses on the front and rivets all over. The parts are very clean and all the edges are good.
There are a couple of little vents on the model but they come off easily and the small amount of mould lines are on the flat edges of the pieces.
The middle section of the gun body did have a small bit of metal that had to be cut out of the groove that the barrel sits in for it to fit. Nothing major though, clipped out in seconds.
The Loader sits on the base very nicely and being a single piece model he was simple to build.
The HMG was a little more complicated obviously. I would suggest making the tripod first and sticking that to the base. Then stick the shield to the body and the barrel on last. Before gluing the gun onto the legs, you can line it up with the gunners hands that fit in the back. The ammo feed needs a little bending to fit so be gentle and slow to make sure you don't break it.
All the parts did go together very well though and nothing even needed holding in place. A simple build if done in the right order.
Price - You can get the HMG from the Spartan Store or from online or local retailers like Troll Trader or Wayland Games (on the right of this page)
From TT the team comes in at £8.10. For a standard and large model I think this is an amazing price! Cant beat it!
Overall - I really like the PE HMG. Took a bit to put it together but it looks brilliant and I know I will be picking up 2 more for a full Section. The style fits perfectly with the rest of the PE releases and wouldnt look out of place in many WW style games.
I highly recommend it and it will be getting a nice-
8 out of 10 Badger Points!
Tomorrow we will be heading to the Far East for the skilled Empire of the Blazing Sun.
Hendybadger awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!
