DGS Games: Black Rose Bandit Starter Set Reviewed!

It has been a while since I have posted a review, so here's a review of the Black Rose Bandit Starter Set made by DGS Games to be used for their fantasy skirmish game called Freeblades. Before we continue with the actual, we will first take a look at DGS Games as a company. 

DGS Games produces high quality metal miniatures in the 32mm scale. DGS is also developing game systems that use these unique figures in our fantasy World of Faelon. You can see greens, concept art and painted figures in the Gallery section of the website.Our first game is Freeblades, a fantasy skirmish game set in the vibrant World of Faelon. Freeblades are fortune hunters who operate under contract from one of Faelon’s many factions. A freeblade contract permits the holder to operate without restraint outside of the issuing faction’s boundaries for a share of any plunder or profit. In return, the freeblades can expect protection once back inside the faction’s borders. If they make it there…

The box

As said we will take a look at one of the starter sets that can be bought to start playing the Freeblades skirmish rules or any rules you want. As DGS Games is an American company, you would expect a well-packaged package. And do not worry the two startersets and the Freeblades ruleset arrived well-packed and relativly fast considering the vast distance they needed to cover to Europe. Each of the starter sets are boxed in a nice illustrated cartonboard box, containing the content of the set as you can see in the picture.

The boxed set contain six 32mm white metal miniatures and plastic slotta bases allowing you to immediatly assemble the miniatures. The detail on these 32mm miniatures is excellent and there's also almost no flash present on these well-casted miniatures. As said the box contains six miniatures, these miniatures form the backbone of your Black Rose Bandit warband and can be expanding by buying individual models from the DGS Games Store. The box contains the following: 1 Black Rose who is the leader of the warband, a feared Shakrim Headhunter from an far exotic continent, a Duelist, a Rustler, an Outlaw and an Enchantress. We will take a closer look at these during the assembly part of this review.

The assembly

In the first picture you can see the splendid Enchantress miniature flanked by the Duelist. As you can see the detail is very crip and almost no flash is visable! The Enchantress miniature comes as a single cast while the Duelist has his sword and dagger casted seperatly. But as the casts are great, the parts fit exactly in the destined places.

In the second picture you can see the Rustler and the Black Rose, the leader of your warband on the right. As with the Enchantress Miniature, the Rustler is one solid cast and probably my favorite miniature of the starter set as his character features are great and extremely well-sculpted. 

On the right you have the Black Rose miniatures which comes in two parts, one being a seperate arm with attached sword. These loose parts with all the miniatures really create some interesting and dynamic poses which are often lacking with one-piece castings. This is important as these miniatures are created to be used in a skirmish game.

In the last picture you can see the Shakrim, Headhunter miniature which is a one piece casting. The Outlaw, miniature with the crossbow is casted in two pieces but as with the previous multi-part miniatures, all these parts fit extremely well.

As a conclusion these miniatures are easy to assemble as there is almost no flash and because of this all parts fit well and can be easily glue in place using a good superglue.

Assembled miniatures

Here you can see the assembled miniatures

Black Rose and Rustler

Enchantress and Duelist 

Outlaw and Shakrim

Scale comparison

As these miniature are 32mm you will probably wonder how they match up with other manufacturers. For this reason I have add the following scale comparison, to allow you to judge the scale and if these fit your existing fantasy collection.

DGS Games Black Rose, GW Radagast, CP Models fantasy adventurer, GW Mordheim Youngblood 

DGS Games Shakrim, GW Radagast, CP Models fantasy adventurer, GW Mordheim Youngblood

The conclusion

To conclude this review, I can honestly say the detail and character of these miniatures is really good. The casting has been done with great care hich you can surely notice as there's almost no flash and all seperate parts fit. Some fit so good that you can add them without any usage of glue! I would certainly recommend these miniatures as some of the poses and characters are really unusual and would be nice to be used in other settings but you could also try something new and purchase you a nice softback rulebook of the skirmish fantasy rules called Freeblades.

Interested in these miniatures, the great monsters of Faelon and other starter sets? Take a look at the large catalogue of DGS Games and immerge yourself in the world of Faelon becoming one of the many Freeblade leaders in search of glory and fame! This Black Rose Bandits starter set now retails for $36.99 with the possibility of buying more miniatures for $6.49 a piece.

Dozens of other reviews can be easily found here and make sure to follow this blog as more reviews, tutorials and wargame news appears every day!