Evaluating Hell Dorado

After thinking and deciding about Dystopian Wars, the next project that's to be judged. Does it get the axe or the brush?

As not everybody is going to be familiar with the game, i'll give it a short introduction. Hell Dorado is a tabletop skirmisher, originally from France developed and distributed by the now huge company Asmodee. In the meantime, after being dropped by Asmodee, and picked up by Cipher Studios, it received a Kickstarter and a few novelties. The game is set in a fantastic version of the real world, set in the early 17th century. Westeners and Saracens meet demons and those who lost in the underworld. The miniatures are roughly 32-35mm and devilish handsome.

First up, Emotion, and that is surely one of the reasons why i began collecting Hell Dorado in the first place. Those miniatures are so incredibly nice sculpted and casted. So much character in each of them, from the small demons up to the humans or large scale demons. I rarely do decision with skirmishes based upon their rules, but primarely on their miniatures. And as a french game, who tend to have an amazing level of detail and passion with their design, Hell Dorado most likely has some of the best looking miniatures out there. I rarely play aliens or meta-human races, have a western / eurocentric taste in many things (like comics, movies and so on, for example Manga and Eastern just don't do it for me), and the design of the westerners just speaks to me. So there is a big point on the emotional chart. And i like painting them, like you see above.

But let's take a look at the probability. I have roughly around 20 miniatures of Hell Dorado Westerners. That is not a huge, unreachable goal and actually something that could be taken care of in a real productive weekend or two. But it is Hell Dorado, something special, nothing you rush down like some rank&file grunt. You have to give every miniature the attention it deserves. I'll have to be in the mood, and be confident about my painting skills. So this is not a solid going to happen within the next few weeks, but it is definitely not a "never" or "not gonna happen". I started the most of it already, "just" need to finish it.

Gaming wise this is something completely different. The game is dead, there is no point lying about that. Being dropped and then picked up by Cipher Studios didn't change that much about it. The Kickstarter started 2013 and was not so bad, but the last updates came online around June 2015. Actually the german translation is ready as well, but after some traders just flogged the game for 20-30% of the retail, releasing that would be wasting money. Well, i didn't expect Ulisses to do anything about Hell Dorado, beside the usual bulk order "wholesale" farce and ditch it in the meantime while no ones looking.

But like i said, i don't care about rules and Hell Dorado has high potential, even just as something just displayed in the glass cabinet.

Now let's talk about space. It is a skirmish, mostly based on 30mm round lip bases. All of my miniatures can be stored easily on half a letter sheet of paper. So this is the least of my problems, easily. And gamewise, it is a skirmish, 3 by 3 ft, a bit of terrain, good to go. Any questions? Nope, solid answer - Space is no problem. I even added some of the second wave / kickstarter miniatures from the Inferno release, when they came into retail.

What about players? As this game has high showcase quality, it is popular and i know a few people who think the same, even participated in Kickstarter. So find somebody for the occasional game really isn't a problem. Even if somebody would start later on, here and there you get remaining stock for a couple of bucks. So this isn't a problem either.

To sum it up, it isn't straight As. But it doesn't need to be, to get a thumbs up. I love the miniatures, i have all what i need of them and they don't take up much space. So what would i gain from selling them? Roughly 20 square inch, which is next to nothing, and not a considerable amount of money to spend for something else (when many traders like Ludik Bazar and Wayland are dumping it, the price for second hand miniatures aren't that great). I even got third party miniatures to add to the warband, like from Mierce Miniatures Banelords, Guillame le Pelerin.

Thanks a lot for reading, come by again soon and leave a comment or give me a like on Facebook if you like this blog!