"Warlord Games" Open Day - Part Two: "Doctor Who" Miniatures Game Preview

"I'm the Doctor and this is Ace. You must be with the military."

Continuing my account of my recent visit to the "Warlord Games" Head Office site at the Lenton Business Centre, Nottingham, where the company provided its customers with a "whole day packed with previews, gaming, demos, tours and game designer... talks", I was also able to find out about some future developments" for the "Exterminate: Miniatures Game". Indeed, I was not only able to simply browse at some of the stand-out, soon-to-be-released "Doctor Who" display models in a glass cabinet but had an opportunity to watch studio painter Kirsten Williams carefully progress a handful of figures taken from Ben Aaronovitch's October 1988 televised four-parter "Remembrance of the Daleks". 

Foremost of these models was undeniably a sculpt of Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor carrying the unwieldy-looking gizmo he assembled so as to save his companion at the start of Episode Three; "It works. It works!" The detail on this miniature is simply breathtaking, with Williams' mind-blowing paint-job picking out every line in the Time Lord's heavily-patterned trousers, scarf, tie and cardigan.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Group Captain is expecting us."

In addition, its interesting to see "Warlord Games" finally produce an incarnation of the Time Traveller actually armed with a weapon, as opposed to just waving about his sonic screwdriver or standing in an iconic posture, such as Peter Capaldi's "Hell Bent" guitar-carrying stance. I appreciate that there have previously been some criticism of the Doctor's role within what has been described as a "fast-paced tabletop" battle-game, so I'm personally really pleased to see such a dynamically-posed Gallifreyan leading the charge for a change.

Equally as enigmatic are the sculpts of Ace, Sergeant Mike Smith and The Girl. There was arguably little chance that the Time Lord's travelling companion was ever going to appear in any position other than wielding her famous super-charged baseball bat. However, it was encouraging to see the traitorous Smith menacingly cradling his machine-gun so tightly, as well as the Dalek's innocent young pawn standing mid-zap rather than simply just standing with her hands in her pockets (or skipping)...

"Now I've not taken to seeing things. At least I don't think I have."

Just as exciting though was the significant sight of a substantial number of Second Doctor themed miniatures, most notably one based upon Patrick Troughton's incarnation and a large Yeti from the 1968 serial "The Web Of Fear". Firmly holding his Five Hundred Year Diary, the detail found upon the 'Cosmic Hobo' is excellent, whilst the fur upon the Great Intelligence's shaggy robot looks made for dry-brushing. One can only hope that the Abominable Snowmen will be available separately from Professor Travers (seen at the show but not photographed), possibly in some form of battle-pack like the Sontarans, and that perhaps one will be sold carrying their web-guns. 

Somewhat surprisingly, whilst there were some splendid models of companions Ben Jackson, Polly Wright, Zoe Heriot and Jamie McCrimmon on display, there wasn't a trace of Victoria Waterfield. Nonetheless, the inclusion of the Royal Navy Seaman and Professor Brett's Secretary means that there will shortly be some companions suitable canon-wise to team-up with the "Gale Force Nine" resin figure of the William Hartnell's First Doctor.

"Warlord Games" Open Day - Part One: "Judge Dredd Miniatures Game" Preview

"For Dredd there is only one thing in his life - the law."

This past Saturday 20th July 2019 saw what is fast becoming a regular pilgrimage up to the "Warlord Games" Head Office site at the Lenton Business Centre, Nottingham, for the company's annual Open Day event. Advertised as a rare opportunity to "come and play-test our new games Black Seas, Judge Dredd and a few top secret projects presented by our Studio Team", the highlight for me was undoubtedly the chance to both have a look at the new range of miniatures coming to the streets of Mega-City One, and their fast-developing battlefield based upon the futuristic metropolis itself.

Particularly impressive are the Judges themselves, which have been sculpted in a variety of poses, carrying an assortment of weapons, such as the Lawgiver, Daystick and what potentially looks like either an Arbitrator pump-action shotgun or a Widowmaker 2000. In addition, there will clearly be the opportunity for some of the Judges to ride some fantastic-looking Lawmasters, one of which was on display flaunting a mouth-wateringly impressive paint-job by Kirsten Williams.

"Only dead men walk of doors, lawbreaker - smart ones use the window!"

Of course, my eyes were also very quickly drawn to some of Joseph Dredd's most iconic adversaries, especially when the models were placed alongside figures of Cassandra Anderson and Old Stony Face himself. The sculpt of Judge Death was absolutely jaw-dropping, but I was a little disconcerted by the undead law enforcer from the alternate dimension of Deadworld being so intrinsically fashioned around Dredd's body.

Death's spectral form flows all around his nemesis' legs and has his right hand hovering over the Judge's Lawgiver, so it was almost as if the pair were a small vignette rather than a wargaming figure. I suppose quite possibly the piece could be a special limited edition miniature, similar to the bareheaded Johnny Alpha with Electronux which accompanies just the "Strontium Dog" rule book...? Mean Machine Angel and Oola Blint however are clearly designed to operate as standalone characters, and both looked suitably menacing.

"Mega-City One... 800 million people and every one of them a potential criminal."

Enjoyably, a few of the residents of Mega-City One were also on show, in the significantly rotund shape of a Fattie and extremely-elegant Bat-glider. In addition, I was allowed to have a sneak peek at the ongoing paint-job upon Judge Grice in his chief judge's uniform, and at the massive MDF tabletop which "Warlord Games" are currently assembling in order to showcase the "Judge Dredd Miniatures Game" upon its release in November 2019.

Interestingly, the wooden walkways and habitation modules look set to be adorned by a number of pieces taken from "Mantic Games" Terrain Crate range of Starship Scenery and Starship Doors, as a few presumably empty boxes were lying amidst the partially-assembled buildings and plastic pieces dotted throughout the streets. The terrain boards would also appear to be utilising the multi-use interlocking tile system recently announced by "Sarissa Precision Limited", an intriguing series of different-sized edged MDF tiles which can be repeatedly reconfigured and looked rather useful for rule-sets such as "Zombicide" by "Guillotine Games".