Bones 6 Enthusiasm and Commentary

[Divaricatus]

I do like the Green Griffin tavern Extension very much. It‘d be perfect with a couple of drinking and singing dwarves, 2 people sitting over a boardgame and 2-3 people in brawling positions with makeshift weapons (mug, chair leg…) and knucklebare 

[ced1106]

Core Set: I like the "Dungeon Dwellers" theme, since I like to think I could use the miniatures in an RPG or miniatures skirmish game. I skipped Bones V because of the price increase and because the novelty miniatures wouldn't be played. Gonna wait for 200+ miniatures before pledging, though, especially since I'm still painting Bones I.

 

Green Griffon: Good "starter set" for anyone who doesn't have a tavern. If you want more sitting patrons, check out Tiny Furniture's Sitting Patrons KS. TF, however, is in Russia, so wait for the conflict to end first. I've been collecting tavern bits from other sources since around Bones I, including Mantic's Terrain Crate. So while I won't pick up this set, I've also paid much three or several times more for my tavern.

 

Sullenhall: Nice assortment. I've found out that, even though I have the graveyard set crypt from a previous Bones, when it comes to miniature skirmish gaming, a second church or crypt makes a thematic battlefield. 

 

Options: $2 per human-sized miniature is too high for me. 28 days to go to see if an option will fill a hole in my collection, of course.

 

Paint: Good price, as usual. I primarily use colored primers and washes for advanced tabletop, though, and found I need a range of colors, rather than shades of them. That said, I wish Reaper would emphasize triads more, as they're good sets to learn to paint from.

 

While I've backed Bones I-IV and other miniature KS, I've been collecting boardgame miniatures for decades, and started RPG miniatures back in the AD&D Grenadier days. So... um... backlog. If you're new to the hobby, though, Bones VI is a good selection, and the tavern and graveyard expansions will soon enough be on your want list.

Edited April 2, 2022 by ced1106

[DragonWyrm]

3 hours ago, Joshinminn said:

How is the skeletal giant intellectual?! 🤣

He has armour that required quite advanced metal smithing (look at that filligree). Not fur of dead animals or rags put together. This means that the giant is part of a race of intellectual giants that have an advanced society needed to create such pieces of amour. Or he could be the average dumb hill giant dressed up by a king with more money than sense. It interesting that the armour consists of a gorget but no chest plate. The legs aren't too armoured either. So based on the distribution of armour (and assuming that the helmet has been lost) I predict that his primary opponent in life was significantly larger than him or whose primary mode of transportation was floating at about his head hight. If he was fighting human or goblin sized opponents his feet would have greater armour.

The more I look at the GG expansion the more disappointed I get. The patrons are nice, but where are the others races? Why is there about 4 serving girls to only 4 patrons? I wanted to see pixies drowning in alcohol, ogres drowning they sorrows and a depressed elf looking at it all. The bar is simple and generic which works for any tavern, but that's not what interest me. 

[YronimosW]

1 hour ago, Smokestack said:

The Men-at-arms option.  Are all the options (head, weapons, shield, etc) in there for all 6 bodies, or is it 2 copies of the 3 options for the 6 bodies? Meaning you get 6 total heads (and other options) so have to use all 6 heads to be able to complete the 6 men at arms...  If its the latter then you really dont have options as you have to use everything and make the same 3 models twice...

 

Like can I make all 6 minis with the horned helmet? Or can I make 6 minis with different heads, but all with bows?

 

Someone asked more or less the same thing in the Kickstarter comments, it might even have been you - sorry if you already saw the answer there, but:

 

I don't know the answer, but this set is very similar to the build-a-pirate kit that Reaper produced for the pirate-themed Reapercon a few months ago.  And in the case of the build-a-pirate kit, there was one sprue with three different heads and six different arms (three left and three right), to use for three identical bodies.  In other words, just enough bitz to make three different-looking pirates, with no leftover bitsz.

 

I would be surprised if Reaper were to do something very different with the men-at-arms:  I would expect six identical bodies, with two sprues, each holding three heads and four sets of arms, with a shield and a quiver of arrows - enough to make up to six different-looking men-at-arms, with only four leftover arms (the screenshot shows for pairs of arms:  two-handed-sword arm, two-hander off-hand arm,  bow arm, bow off-hand arm, sword arm, axe arm, dagger arm, lantern arm - enough arms to mix-and-match between three figures, with two leftovers.) 

 

So, no - I don't think you'll see enough bitz to give all six figures bows, or all six horned helmets, for example.

 

That said, I don't have any inside knowledge other than having the build-a-pirate set, and Reaper does do the unexpected sometimes, so hopefully someone from Reaper can verify for you whether they'll exceed expectations by giving you six copies of all the arms and heads.

 

I wouldn't set your hopes and dreams on it or anything, though.  Please note that there are 28mm wargaming miniature manufacturers who make hard-plastic wargaming figure kits similar to the men-at-arms, for games such as Oathmark, Frostgrave, Warhammer (the great-granddaddy of them all), and others.  These kits typically include enough parts for 20-30 fantasy soldiers, with many extra heads and arms (generally up to three or more times the number of arms needed to arm all the figures with either bows, spears and shields, or melee weapons, plus extras for command figures, standard bearers, musicians, and the like.)  The spare arms and heads and other accessories bind tightly to Bonesium, and when painted usually look seamless on the figures, and work really well for head-swaps and weapon-swaps for the build-a-pirate kits.  I'm sure they'll work just as good for the men-at-arms, too.  Some of the manufacturers give you some pretty good bargains - generally one or two $US per mini - making it well worthwhile to get, say, a box of the Oathmark human infantry, Frostgrave soldiers, or Wargames Atlantic Dark Ages Irish warriors, for the purpose of stocking a "bitz bin" of spare weapons to use for customizing your Bones figures - it would be easy to not just equip your men-at-arms with uniform helmets, spears, and shields, for example, but also build 20-30 additional warriors on the cheap, and still have plenty of leftover weapon arms, heads, shields, bows-and-arrows, and accessories to, say, replace some early Bones noodle-weapons, and differentiate all those identical Anhurians, goblins, orcs, or skeletons you have sitting around.  (And, if you're really lucky, you might know some friends who are into wargaming who might have a stash of spare bitz they'll be happy to give away to you!  If nothing else, it should be easy to find someone selling spare bitz on the usual auction sites, and at online specialty shops that sell various leftover bitz.....)

 

Anyway, I don't expect you'll get six identical sets of arms and heads for the six men-at-arms, but there are options.  And, I'm not Reaper - Reaper might surprise me by giving us the works on these figures!

[Smokestack]

Yup, that was me... I did get an official answer from reaper... 

 

Reaper Miniatures

April 2, 2022

"I don't really know what the plan is but from the image it looks like you get two of each body and two sprues of interchangeable parts to mix and match with."

 

So while the answer wasn't sure, it does seem to confirm my suspicions that you basically get 2 sets of teh same 3 minis. There is customization of course, but not to the level that I would want in multi part figures. So while it does look good fir what it is, its not what I am looking for.   

[ced1106]

1 hour ago, YronimosW said:

Frostgrave

 

Just a note that the Frostgrave miniature scale is on the small size, not that small heads on big fighter's isn't a thing! 😄

 

1 hour ago, DragonWyrm said:

The patrons are nice, but where are the others races?

 

Yep. I checked the Archon Dungeons and Lasers Village, (and Tiny Furniture Tiny Market Square) miniatures, and there's only one non-human you'd find in a tavern, much less a non-human NPC. Interestingly, Tiny Furniture's Sitting Folks has a good number seated non-humans, so my villager collection now has more seated non-humans than standing! My guess it that, in a village, you have more "professions" than in an adventuring party and less demand from gamers, but I'd like to see more non-human tavern folk. (Reaper has some non-human tradesmen, such as a halfling cook and elven magical blacksmith.)

[Nunae]

6 hours ago, ksbsnowowl said:

See SKU 77582

 

 

It was from Bones 3, I think?

Ah, I remember those, I think I looked at them once and they were out of stock or something. Bones 3 was really good on the sprues.

 

Still not as great as a Butterfly Pegasus though! 

[tommyzolla]

4 hours ago, Smokestack said:

Briarwood Vale expansion looks good, but I really only like section 1, 3 and 5 of it... But i think that will still make it worthwhile to get.

 

The Men-at-arms option.  Are all the options (head, weapons, shield, etc) in there for all 6 bodies, or is it 2 copies of the 3 options for the 6 bodies? Meaning you get 6 total heads (and other options) so have to use all 6 heads to be able to complete the 6 men at arms...  If its the latter then you really dont have options as you have to use everything and make the same 3 models twice...

 

Like can I make all 6 minis with the horned helmet? Or can I make 6 minis with different heads, but all with bows?

 

 

This is a very good question! I'd like to know this too.

[Looter]

20 hours ago, Inarah said:

 

Well, we're not even 24 hours into a 30 day campaign, so I hope it gets more interesting.  The Core Set is going to be a great value for hard core gamers and newbies who didn't get in on the first few.  They are certain to add to it as the month passes.  I'm waiting to see what big models we get, and if they do any more encounter sets. 

I really do want this to do well, if for no other reason than I really like several of the smaller mini's and the dwarves even if I seem to have them already in metal.

  I actually really like the undead expansion, so far I am getting that for sure.  The core set though is Very basic with the lone real eye catching exception just released being the Nightmare.  Of course we have had so many pegasus type figures anyway by now I am not sure how impressive some will find it.

 The last 3 core sets all had their draws, the huge number of minis in 3 early, the dragon Gauth in 4, and the Grendel Giant undead in 5. 

These releases had more early on for the core set and it worries me that there is no eye catching thing in this one early on.

[snitchythedog]

Personally I am going to have to pick and choose on this one as I need more smaller creature encounters than characters or generic troops. The figure renders are there and if past performance is any indicator then the quality will be great especially with the new Bones Black material so these will be good models.

 

For those discounting the Green Griffon it does provide a quick way to fill up a tavern encounter and is generic enough that the bits can me multi-purpose.

 

The price point for me is not so much an issue as most manufactures charge between 2 and 4 dollars or pounds for plastics so the Kickstarter is falling on the low price point for the industry standard.  

 

What I would like to see is more add-ons and I would be willing to spend more per model, if Reaper split up the core set again to get the models that I could use.

 

I am hoping that the Denizens of the Dungeon will be weighed more on the monster side.   

Edited April 2, 2022 by snitchythedog

[Guyra]

13 hours ago, Nunae said:

Soooo, since we now know what's in the Briarwood Expansion, I'd love to see a horse with butterfly wings (it is drawn right there and it is beautiful!). Or a sprue of butterfly wings to fey-ify everything.

 

 

Or you could take the wings of the ant queen and put them on the Nightmare, instead of its wings! (The wings for both are probably separate pieces, too.) 🤣

 

12 hours ago, DragonWyrm said:

So the Green Griffin expansion. Nice terrain pieces, but severely lacking sitting patrons! I would have preferred more sitting people

12 hours ago, AlonTey said:

Some more seated patrons as an add on would be nice?

 

Absolutely agree! More sitting patrons! Especially non human ones! How about some gnomes/halflings/hellborn/dwarves/wildfolk/axoloti? 

And also, you know, not just men? 🙄

 

12 hours ago, AlonTey said:

Beefolk is an itch I didn't know I needed scratched

 

Yeah, those were a surprise "must have!" for me! 😆

 

10 hours ago, Kalibak said:

However, I'm very disappointed in how basic and uninspiring the Green Griffin expansion is, especially considering that the whole Kickstarter is named after it. 

There are so many other interesting things that could have been added to that set to make it more interesting: a whole music band of bards really should have been a must, card players, brawlers, a noble patron, a pickpocket, a bouncer, a passed out drunk, a mysterious stranger, a cat or dog, a rug, a candelabra, a standing shelf with bottles or books, a stable, horses, a rat swarm... the list goes on. 

 

I do agree with a lot of this. I think the tavern expansion is pretty darn great, but it's certainly missing something. (Aside from women and various non humans as patrons, that is.)

We do have Briggley and Greyhawk instead of cats and dogs. "Cap'n Dimitri" seriously looks like a bouncer to me. "Sascha (Ghost)" looks like a pickpocketing urchin, to be sure, and could probably be painted up as such. But I do otherwise agree, there's a lot lacking in this set to be the titular Green Griffin! It doesn't feel like the big name tavern it's meant to be. There's just not enough life to it.

I'd personally want to see it made into a $100 Super Expansion(or two expansions for the same theme?! "Green Griffon Inn Extras"?!!) to really flesh this out!

 

For example:

• Wooden pillars, some of which have cool ornaments(or perhaps a dartboard) hanging from them.
• Cabinets and bookshelves.
• A cook?!
• The unspeakable thing in the basement!
• The shady couple of guys in the corner.
• A stage?
• The extravagant corner section, for the rich people.
• The Guest of Honor chair!
• The wine rack!
• The busy bed. 😏
• The good bed.
• The "good" bed.
• The notice board!
• More flagons, plates, and the like!
• Etc.

 

7 hours ago, ced1106 said:

If you want more sitting patrons, check out Tiny Furniture's Sitting Patrons KS. TF, however, is in Russia, so wait for the conflict to end first.

 

Good to know! I was thinking of getting into those minis, but didn't know they were located in Russia. Definitely waiting a bit then!

 

Though another great source for sitting patrons is the Dunkeldorf line, from Denmark. Metal minis! They've got about a dozen sitting patrons, all very unique and different from each other. Mainly humans though(though there is a nice halfling with hairy feet), but the range is great!

 

 

7 hours ago, DragonWyrm said:

He has armour that required quite advanced metal smithing (look at that filligree). Not fur of dead animals or rags put together. This means that the giant is part of a race of intellectual giants that have an advanced society needed to create such pieces of amour. 

 

I think the point is that they're intelligent, not necessarily intellectuals. 🙂 
(The word "intellectual" is specifically used to describe people like professors, philosophers, etc.)

Edited April 2, 2022 by Guyra

[izzylobo]

So, background - been in on Reaper Bones Kickstarters since the very beginning, been painting (or at least using) miniatures since the days of Heritage and Testors. Currently preparing (long-term) for a variety of science fiction games, so not as much into fantasy minis right now (which tempers my interest in some sets). (the fact that I'm saving up for several fairly major expenses doesn't help matters). Here's my thoughts so far (with the understanding that we're only on Day 3, about 10% into the campaign, and The Missions Change). (Teal Deer summation down at the bottom for those who don't want to read the thoughts, just decisions... 😉 )

 

The Core Set - there are minis in here I want - the gnomes are good, Amesha and Arilyn are gorgeous, Roderic&Glitter is a sculpt I've wanted for a long time, but wasn't willing to pay metal prices for, I love the Elven Cat and Hugo (cats and dogs. living painted together. mass hysteria!), and I will basically never say no to Sophies (even if they're duplicates of minis I already have). But - right now - a lot of them are in the "minis I'd like to have... eventually" category - even with an 18 month delay, forecasting says they're going to go into the pile-of-minis-for-painting, not the pile-of-minis-for-current-gaming. So - at the moment - the Core Set is distinctly a "this is likely a good deal for a lot of people - but not for me" category.

 

The Green Griffin - again, there are minis in here I like, but few that would be immediately useful - the little Gryph Greyhawk could be a genetic sculpture of some sort, Dimitri's style is adaptable with the right color choices to a sci-fi setting. It's a decent enough set - but for my current purposes, it would go in with the rest of the terrain pieces for fantasy stuff in a storage box, and sit there until I run another dungeon crawler.

 

Shadows of Sullenhall - I will say right up front that while I have been completely zombied out for, oh, a couple of decades or so, I am an absolute sucker for skelebros (skelesis'? Too close to Skeksis, I think... OH Need Skesises!). So this set automatically gets points from me for all the skeledudes in it. The terrain is nice (I have the mausoleum from the previous KS... KS3? I think?) and plenty of fencing - enough to make a very nice little Haunted Graveyard from previous bits and this...). The vampires are neat, and tie in well with the Shadows of Ravenhome encounter from KS5 - "two houses, both alike in pallor...". And the giant skeleton is brilliant - it looks a little shorter - but much better done, and much more rugged, than the one from KS1 so many years ago (and with new formulations of the Bones plastic, likely much sturdier...). This is on the "maybe" list, however, because, honestly, other than some kind of contrived nanoconstruct or hologrammic delusion, undead and wraiths and stuff just don't fit well into a non-magical Sci-fi setting.

 

Briarwood Vale - On the other hand... this is where Izzy's love of the Pretty just reaches out and throttles Izzy's practicality. So much pretty! I'm not gonna say that @Rainbow Sculptor should do all the Fae stuff forever - hey, I have a lot of sculptors and concept artists whose work I love! - but I will never complain when she's let loose on a topic. the Sylphs, and faeries, and kelpies all have that slightly-impish Van Patten look to them, the faerie dragons are just so cute you want to reach out and pinch their... cheeks? scales? - even if you know it's going to get you a facefull of hallucinogenic gas (maybe because... 😉 ) just the silhouette of Shimmerscale is awesome, the beefolk are cute as buttons (but still respectable, because, you know, barbed spears and stuff), and that murder hornet is glorious. The rest of the set is very solid - a new Fungal Queen (and a King to go with her), the korred is neato, the entling is great... just a really solid set, for me. This is absolutely solid, and absolutely sold.

 

Denizens of the Dungeon - so, I was absolutely overjoyed when Reaper revived - after a very long hiatus - the Dungeon Dwellers line, with resculpts of some of the best of Heritage's minis (which, for the time, some of them were awfully good - inventive and evocative, the kind of minis you picked up and said "I wanna play this one!" - even if the actual sculpting technology was not always equal to the imagination behind them). So, while we haven't seen anything from this Expansion yet, I'm already pre-disposed to liking it, even if, technically, it's not exactly in my wheelhouse at the moment. Depends a lot on what the particulars are, but I'm probably getting this one.

 

Lost Tombs of Hakir - The one mini we've seen for this so far is really well executed, but this set likely just isn't in the wheelhouse at present - mummies are just zombies with better (or at least more complicated) clothing and added preservatives (kidding! But sorta not?) and if this is reworking a bunch of the Warlord Nefsokar faction into plastics, that's awesome - but not for me (I'm more of a Reptus, Koborlas, or Crusader kind of person). We'll see, but initial impressions are that this will likely be a skip for Izzy.

 

Options and Encounters -

This is often where the meat and potatoes of my purchasing goes (well, and buying up duplicates and extra bits of the Core Set, but at present that doesn't look like an option, so...).

 

Painter's Picks - this is a really brilliant set of paints. It's obvious that Anne, and the Crow-that-is-Clever, and everyone else put a lot of thought into selecting paints that a lot of people might not have (because some of them haven't been around a while), and that will fit well into a lot of people's toolkits. It's a very very good set - my only hesitation (beyond the fact that I have several of them already - and in a couple of cases, I think I have two...) is the same one I always have with ordering paints via KS - if the delivery date slips too far, I could end up receiving bottles of iridescent snot, instead of paints, because of the inclement weather where I live (it gets coooollddd here...). Reaper always takes very very good care of any defective products, but... that initial disappointment is bad feels all the way, and I don't need these paints. Maybe - highly recommended for anyone who is missing any number of them, but still a maybe for me.

 

Blackmane Gnolls - these guys are kinda brilliant. My only hesitation in getting them is the same one for fantasy in general - they're gonna sit for a long time waiting for paint. But the sculpts are really solid, gnolls are something almost everyone who has been painting a while has a handful of - but there's rarely a substantial quantity of them for a grand melee hanging about (unlike goblins or orcs or bugbears). Neat, but likely not in the selections.

 

Men at Arms - so, the idea is very solid, and I love the concept of modular minis - I have ever since Ral Partha messed around with the concept many years ago. But these dudes - while excellent in concept - aren't really something I have anything resembling a use for right now. (a set of Women At Arms I would likely get, simply because I'd have to, you know, for solidarity 😉 ).

 

Pathfinder Chibis - I loves me some chibis, and these are really cool, but I've got enough lil chibi dudes and dudettes and frEnbies - powered armor mice, and bonesylvanian chibis, and what-not - to last a while. I'm certainly going to end up picking some of these up at retail, but I think they're a pass unless Step One happens (in which case, holy crap all bets are off!)

 

Orcs of the Ragged Wound - these are in the space the Gnolls are. I love the design, and the implementation. I like the concept that different Orc tribes do things differently - these are heavily armored bruisers, other orcs are more lightly armored skirmishers, etc. But there's no practical way to adapt these dudes to a science fiction setting without a lot of handwaving, and so they're gonna end up going in with all the other bonesium humanoids I have in bins right now, sadly...

 

Pathfinder Chibi Goblins - okay, these guys are adorable in a horrible sort of way (Hordorable? Is that the term for Catra's various cute minions on She-Ra? Or is that Adora when she was still with the Horde? I Don't Know!) so they might be an exception (like the previously teased chibi pathfinder red dragon, which I'm almost certainly getting) to the "No Chibis This Time Around" rule. Because nothing says... something... like a grinning toothy face leering out from a (gridiron) football-shaped head surmounting a pile of stabby fire and mean... 🤪

 

In Summation - Izzy writes too much. Getting Briarwood. Probably getting Denizens. Might get Sullenwood and Takir. Thinks Green Griffin is fine, but not necessary for Izzy's needs at present. Core set not currently worth it for Izzy based on needs - but a pretty good set of minis so far. Izzy likes most of the options quite a bit (and the rest at least a bit), only really interested right now in chibigobs and maybe paints. Izzy sure that things will change over the month of April. Izzy talks about self in third person somewhat frequently.

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by izzylobo

[amuller33]

well we crossed over $720K...Lets see Green Griffin Part 4 next and the the Mongrel men? Go Reaper go!  I mean this is an enthusiasm thread .... go team go!

[bearsman6]

I actually kinda love reading the long thoughts and explanations here. It shows me that a lot of other people feel like I do on some of these minis and expansions.

 

As of now, I am 100% in for Core. It has a lot of minis that I either don't have, didn't know I needed (ants!), or really don't mind having more of. And at the price already, I'm excited.

 

I'm in for the far expansion too. I knew when I saw the little dragons. I was solidified when the full reveal showed the bees. It doesn't even matter about Shimmerscale, which is just great icing at this point on a delicious cake.

 

As for the rest... I'm a maybe on the gnolls. I'm liking the sculpts, and I don't have enough. So probably will by the end.

 

Everything else currently revealed is a meh FOR ME. At the moment, I'm holding out for the big ticket stuff.

Specifically: I need, crave, and may kill for dragons.

That is all (for now). But I'm still super excited to see what's next!

[Guyra]

14 minutes ago, bearsman6 said:

I'm holding out for the big ticket stuff.

Specifically: I need, crave, and may kill for dragons.

That is all (for now). But I'm still super excited to see what's next!

😂

Well, there are two big boi dragons incoming. We just don't know when. But one of them is the 30th Anniversary Dragon, so you know they're going to unlock that at some point no matter what. I guess there's a slim chance of it being in the Core Set, but personally I think it's most likely to be an Option, at which point it'd probably cost about $20-25.

 

So I think I'm going to just throw another $25 in there. Just to help a little more on getting to those stretch goals. That money's going to be spent on the KS anyway. 😄

Edited April 2, 2022 by Guyra