Relic Knights: One Step Closer

Over the last few days, Sodapop miniatures has come another small, closer step to releasing their models. They have released starter box breakdowns and videos of the models as well.

Star Nebula Corsairs
Cerci Speed Circuit
Noh Empire
Doctrine
Shattered Sword
Black Diamond

Each of the updates has a bit of the faction story line, the battlebox, and then the contents.

I purchased the Star Nebula Corsairs because they were the least Pin-uppy of the group, and I liked the idea of playing a group of pirates. It wasn’t a large pledge, but I was pleased to be getting the game. We played a couple games with the original beta rules, and they were an overall solid game. I haven’t had a chance to go over the new preview rules, but I will need to soon, and I’ll let you know how the game plays and feels!

I was very excited to see the models when the Kickstarter ended some 2 million years ago, and when they finally showed up, I was stunned. They were not models I would like to play. They were flat, two dimensional models, and it was especially obvious next to the giant Noh Dragon.

So, while I was still excited, it muted itself fairly quickly. I’ve made worse choices in kickstarters. Then, on January 31st, they posted the update above, and it got me really pumped again. Lets go through it!

The first thing they showed off was the Card Deck. It comes with some 15 reference cards and all the Esper cards you can ever need. I hope they are of good quality, and it cool of them to include them in the starter box. Might make it more expensive to start a second faction, but it’ll be great the first time.

They also preview the Mini-rulebook, a growing trend in the miniatures game world. Where once you were forced to buy the story and all the fluff behind a game, now you have access to small rules manuals that leave all of the story and world behind and deliver the rules in a portable, understandable way. I enjoy the concept, personally. I don’t always like the fluff of a game, and sometimes it actually is completely boring.

Then they pull out all the game-related you get in the box: Piles of tokens, objective markers and a pair of objective cards, along with the cards for all the models in the box to go along with the models themselves. I find the pre-colored bases insanely strange, but I’ll take it. I’ll just prime over the damned thing anyway. Finally, they also give you a dashboard, the place where all your maintenance happens. I really expect these will end up a lot like MT:G Playmats, with huge varieties spawning, and a booming secondary market. No one likes customization and color matching like minis gamers.

Then came the moment of truth: The model Video. I watched it hoping that the models would not disappoint me. Each model brought more and more hope. The two Corsairs to start our were really cool, the broadsides cannon was freaking awesome, the Third corsair was much more dynamic than I remembered. And then, Harker. He, still, is such a disappointment. He’s just so… flat. I understand certain static poses: Seige and Irusk and others have has some really great static poses. But this model is just not what I want to have in my army.

So, I am back to being stoked. Its been forever since the kickstarter ended, and a thousand failed promises on a due date, but one day, I will have space pirate miniatures, and that makes me pretty happy.
I leave you now with previews of the Relic Knight of the Star Nebula Corsairs: Calico Kate!