They Live?! Not So Much

The big release this year at Salute for SAGA was the new boxed Revenant faction.  It appears to be quite a deal.  It's got 48 revenant figures, two grave pits, a set of eight special SAGA dice, rules, battleboard, bases, and an exclusive necromancer figure and scenario available only in this box.  It's reportedly enough to get started with a six point warband.  Nice.

And yet, I'm not in.  Sure, I was chuffed when it first came out.  It's a nice set.  It just isn't for me right now.  Part of it is definitely the price tag.  85GBP puts it just above what I want to spend on gaming in a month.  It lands just beyond the thoughtless splurge threshold.

The biggest point, though, is the figures.  The sculpts are not bad.  Not by any stretch of the imagination.  They're just not "Wow!" level.  They aren't quite evocative enough to make the cut. I really like Gripping Beast miniatures, but I think I could do better with some of the Wargames Factory zombies I've got sitting around and a few sprues from their Numidians, Germans, or Celts.  While I'll be the first to acknowledge that I'm not that I'm a great modeler, modelling zombies allows for a more relaxed approach to details and plastics make customization relatively easy.

Another concern is that these are going to be like the Jomsvikings, initially a terror and quickly negated once everyone figures out their weakness.  My understanding is that the rules were developed by an independent wargaming group. That doesn't mean it isn't properly playtested, but I'm not sure about paying $130 to find out.  Gripping Beast has already said that this won't be a tournament army and is supposed to be a fun one off.  While I hope they do more fun limited edition armies, this one isn't for me.

Finally, it comes down to comparing the set against other things I'd rather have right now for SAGA.  That 85GBP represents a new resin church as a centerpiece with money left over to finally populate my village with civilians.  It's two new warbands made up of nice metal hearthguard and warlords with plastic warriors.  It's a pair of really nice new printed gaming mats.  Good ones this time.