Frostgrave – Knights

One of the first boxes that came along with the second edition of Frostgrave was the new kit for Knights. But it covers a lot more than just knights, but let's take a closer look into this new plastic set.

Unlike the other troop kits, we have had so far, this just covers 10 models instead of 20, but the sprues and layout are similar to the latest male and female Wizards. You get two sprues of the new unit and a base sprue with 10 round bases with a 25mm diameter. The kit is 15 GBP instead of 20 GBP for the other plastic kits of 20 miniatures.

But as mentioned above, this kit is labelled as Knights, but basically covers all kind of soldiers that wear better armour, like chain mail or heavier leather armour, thus including the options for Marksmen or Templars.

The second edition sprues are manufactured by someone else than Renedra. From my suggestion it is the same producer who does the Plastic Soldier Company sprues.

Casting quality and crispness of the casting is well done, never the less. Yet, the 3d sculpted bits and pieces have rounder and fewer sharp edges. It lacks a certain style of hand sculpted miniatures and is clearly CAD. But the sprues are packed to the limit with bits and options.

• 5 bodies
• 23 heads
• 5 shields
• Multiple close combat options, covering dual hand and single-handed weapons, ranging from swords, pole arms to axes.
• 2 bows and 2 cross bows
• lots of bits of equipment, charms and bags

This sprue is included two times, so you have double the amount to play with.

I like the amount of pieces and the variation, but have to say, I have my problems with the heads as their CAD style just doesn't appeal to me the same way as hand sculpted faces. Some of the helmets look a bit oversized.

Let's build one sprue, covering five different models. We have five different poses, all of them with layered armour, chain mail combined with cloth and leather. Due to the heavier gear the poses are less dynamic, but that is absolutely okay.

With the weapon load out, I went for two templars, two knights and a marksman.

You have to take care how you combine weapons with heads, as some weapons interfere with the position of the head. For that reason, I had to swap one of the decided head choices.

As always, the assembly is quite quick, we're almost done and just missing the last few pieces, like shields and bags.

For scale comparison, with some of the other Frostgrave Kits along with a Gripping Beast plastic Viking (due to their heroic 28mm scale, the miniatures fit and mix well with plastic kits, like Gripping Beasts, Fireforge or older Citadel ranges from the late 90s / early 00s).

The more elite addition to your warband can look like this.

Conclusion

Even if these are a bit more expensive compared to the regular range, with 1,50 GBP instead of 1 GBP per miniature, that is not a deal breaker. You get a more elite kind of unit / troops and the sprues cover much more variety than the slightly smaller "regular" Frostgrave soldiers or cultists do. Osprey / North Star pushed further, for more details on these and that's a good thing. But as said above, I personally would be preferred a less computer-designed-look, as I find it easier for dry brushing, edge highlights and so on to have a hard edge on some parts of the miniatures, compared to these rather round corners and finishes on some details.

That these miniatures are slightly taller than the remaining isn't that much of a problem. Humans are different size in real life, so this works here too, especially in combination them representing a more veteran kind of soldier. So having a knight that is taller than your regular thug works on a narrative level as well. Gear and weaponry are cool, not sold on the heads overall. Some of the helmets are certainly too big. But as this is plastic, that's not a big problem, as you can grab something fitting from any rather heroic scaled range there is (and there are plenty) like Oathmark, Fireforge and so on.

But after all, chapeau! towards North Star and Osprey Games for providing such a broad range for this skirmish. We have access to a very steady and well made range of plastic kits, that I wouldn't have expect for a non-mass-combat game. And all that for reasonable prices with a proper availability on both sides of channel.

Frostgrave is a brand of North Star Figures and Osprey Games.