Whilst I did state in my last post that there would be no new content on here during the month of July, it appears that I can’t resist talking about our wonderful hobby, especially when I have something I feel I need to share.
So, just over a week ago, I received the very generous and very much appreciated gift of the Doctor Who – Exterminate! miniatures game from Stevie and Hils from The Games Cupboard. As those of you who have tried to give me gifts in the past will know, I’m quite stubborn when it comes to accepting presents – so Stevie and Hils basically didn’t tell me they were doing it until almost the last moment and ignored me when I tried to convince them NOT to do it. Still not entirely sure I deserved such a nice present, but I’ve resigned myself to the fact that I’ve now got the game I was probably going to buy myself anyway…
Whilst I’ve opened the box, enjoyed the smell (it does smell rather wonderful) and read the rules in their entirety, I’ve yet to have the time to play the game. However, I did decide to put together a couple of the figures, just to see how east they were to assemble and to get an idea of how well they scale in with my other figures.
And this is the reason for this post, as I am in the unique position of owning at least one of every Cyberman and Dalek released by different manufacturers since Games Workshop first had the licence way back in 1987. And as there have been various questions asked regarding how well these figures scale in with other miniatures, I thought I’d provide a few pictures to assist in answering this question, followed by my own personal opinion.
First, the Cybermen…
Okay, from left to right we have; a Games Workshop plastic Cyberman (25mm), a Black Tree Design metal Cyber-Controller (28mm), a Doctor Who: Micro Universe new-style Cyberman (God knows) and the Warlord Games plastic Cyberwar Cyberman (32mm?).
Next the Daleks…
So, a GW plastic Dalek, a BTD metal Dalek, a Warlord Games Time War Dalek and a Doctor Who Adventures New Paradigm Dalek. As the Warlord Games Daleks don’t come with bases and their ‘skirt-print’ is too big for a standard 25mm circular base, I’ve not yet decided if I am going to base them or not.
And finally, as the WG figures are both the most recent version of each race, who better to give an idea of scale for those already owning a large collections of 28mm Doctor Who miniatures, than the Twelfth Doctor himself, as depicted by Crooked Dice?
Now you’ve seen the pictures, this should give you an idea of how compatible these Warlord plastics are with your existing figure collection.
Now, for my own personal opinion, which can be summed up in one sentence;
The Cybermen are too big.
Whilst you could rationale away that these represent the most advanced iteration of this species and that essentially a Cyberman is a normal human encased in a metal shell, so it’s bound to be bigger, it still doesn’t alter the fact that the Warlord Games Cyberman stands a good head above a normal 28mm miniature and that’s on a base that’s at least half as thick.
The Daleks, however, are another matter. Even if based on a base the same thickness base as my existing figures, the Time War Dalek would be a little larger than the Black Tree Design ones, but still smaller than the New Paradigm Daleks, which is as it should be. Plus the detail on these figures is excellent.
If you’re new to Doctor Who gaming, with no existing figures in your collection, then there is nothing stopping your from buying those figures produced by Warlord Games, However, if you already have a reasonable collection of 28mm Doctor Who figures, and just want to expand into the newer era of the Whoniverse, I would suggest avoiding the Cybermen, as they really do look too big in my opinion, although they are easier to paint…
I will give my opinion of the actual rules and the game itself once I’ve had a chance to play a couple of games, so there will be plenty more Doctor Who content to come here on the Buffet – and more Daleks! And you can never have enough Daleks!
Carrion Crow's Buffet 