Warlord Games on the release of their new official Doctor Who: Into the Time Vortex miniature game and new exciting miniatures!
Our first game, Into The time Vortex, will be released in early 2017 and will feature Daleks V Cybermen. The Doctor and his various companions all have a role in setting the scenario, objectives and the special rules for the game. Additional releases introduce many of the Doctor’s foes and allies, each with their own unique characteristics.
The gameplay allows for three different levels of play, ranging from the harsh environment of the Battle, through the world of the Adventure and finally allowing you to take part in an Episode. Each level of play has its own challenges, as dictated by eight scenarios that come with the game. The Doctor and his companions all have key roles in the scenarios and have their own rules that add to the experience. The rules booklets are simple to use. The basic game uses Battle cards that can be played to enhance your own plans or thwart those of your enemies. There are also clearly laid out Faction Recruitment cards that detail the forces being used, their individual weapons and abilities, plus generic and character specific Adventure cards that may be used to create more advanced versions of the game. In addition, a set of Event cards can be found in the box, providing the means to weld all the aspects of the game together and take part in the type of adventures that make the TV programme what it is.
The initial release consists of everything you need to play, including specially created plastic miniatures of two of The Doctor’s iconic foes, the Daleks and the Cybermen. There are 12 ‘snap fit’ miniatures for each of these factions, plus the Cybermen sprue includes six Cybermats that can aid their larger brethren. Of course, no Doctor Who based game is complete without The Doctor himself, so you will also find a miniature of the 12th Doctor, ready to take part in the action. One boxed set, three ways to play! But that’s not all, as there are a number of further releases planned which will add more miniatures, cards and opportunities to gain victory over your opponent. New factions, Companions and additional Doctors will become available over time, so the game can keep growing, as will your collection of finely crafted pewter and plastic heroes and villains.
Found this online interview with head of product design Paul Sawyer featuring an interesting insight and answers to important questions such as the matter of odd scale and the future of this range.
What made you decide to make the figures larger than 28mm? There were a number of factors. From the start we wanted our figures to appeal not only to tabletop gamers but also to Doctor Who fans and collectors. This led us down the route of producing photo-realistic models as Whovians outside of the gaming world wouldn't appreciate the usual big head, ham fists and short legs on traditional wargames figures. When you're paying a licence you want to make sure you replicate the look of the subject matter rather than caricature and exaggerate them. Most tabletop gaming figures have odd proportions which came from the early days of metal casting capabilities - large heads, big hands, short legs and over exaggerated details. Our figures are scale representations of the characters from the show so are slimmer in general and the features and details more subtle. To show these off to their best and to allow our master casters to stand a chance of producing the antennae, fingers, etc on the models we decide to make them a slightly larger scale.
We also wanted the figures to be one piece where possible - that way collectors with little gaming hobby experience can pop them on their PC, mantelpiece, bookshelf, etc without having to buy superglue, hobby knives, etc. Again a larger scale meant that would be easier to accommodate. As our models are photo-realistic representations of the heroes and villains form the TV series we knew they would be very different from old Doctor Who figures produced many years ago so matching the scale of those wasn't in our mind at all. We also know from feedback Doctor Who collectors appreciate the increased scale so all round it has been well received. When we first started Warlord, myself and partner in crime John Stallard agreed that we'd look at every project in it's own right rather than being formulaic. We also said than we'd try not the follow the crowd and to do things differently when necessary. Oh, and for it always to be as much fun as possible rather than too serious and dry. I'd like to think we've done a pretty good job of that on the whole!
What would be your dream franchise to get the licence to? Perfect time to ask that question as aside from Doctor Who, we've just announced a worldwide licence to produce games and miniatures for the characters and strips in 2000AD comic. If you'd asked me when we first started Warlord which two licences I would want from a personal perspectie I would have gone for Doctor Who and 2000AD. I'm a bit excitable at the moment!
Where do you see the range in a year's time? We'll have the first of our games out by then (I hope!). We have two games in development at the moment one of which I hope to be released around summer next year. The other will take a little longer as we need more models to be finalised to show off in it. In terms of miniatures we have over 20 sculptors working on figures but the painstaking attention to detail plus the BBC approvals process mean it takes a lot longer than traditional sculpts. We have more Doctor & Companion sets underway for the 4th, 8th, 9th and 11th Doctors at the moment. The likes of the Slitheen, Vashta Nerada, Draconians, Sea Devils, etc are all underway. Your favourite characters such as Missy, Davros, The Master, etc are also being worked on. A lot of the timing depends on approvals from the BBC. Sometimes we can get approval on something in the same week whereas other times it's taken up to 3 months. Approvals have to be done on the sculpt, the painted figure, the packaging and all the website material. That makes planning rather difficult and we're approaching this with a 'when it's approved we'll start planning it into our schedules' view. It means it's hard to given hard and fast dates for what is likely to be released when, I'm afraid.
Are there more plastic, multi-pose figures on the horizon, bar the Cybermen and Daleks? Absolutely. Current plans are to introduce more plastics for the Sontarans, Silurians and UNIT. Again, there is no timescale on this (see above!).
Are there any of the larger sized monsters on the horizon, ie Dalek Emperor, Cyber King and so on? The Emperor Dalek was on our list from the start. It's a beast of a model though so we'll be focusing on the main elements such as Doctors, Companions, adversaries first before tackling these. The Cyberking is also on the cards along with a Mercy Hartigan in place as cybercontroller. I'd quite like to do a Time Lord tank from the Hell Bent episode but that would be a long way down the list of priorities! One question we're not asked very often is about scenery - what would people like to see on that front? I'm not likely to consider a Statue of Liberty Weeping Angel but it would be good to hear what people wanted as set pieces or themes. Thank you,Paul, without your determined drive to secure the DW licence we wouldn't be where we are today with all the wonderful figures coming next year.
And last but certainly not least some previews of upcoming Doctor Who miniatures starting with the Tetraps henchmen and the cruel master mind The Rani.
We are delighted to announce that a series of Classic Series monsters are soon to arrive at our HQ, starting with the Tetraps from the 1987 story Time And The Rani. Although impressive in design, they have never been seen since, but you can soon right that wrong by adding these guys to your growing collection of pewter miniatures from Warlord. More information and images coming soon…
The Rani - The Rani is a renegade Time Lady, an evil scientific genius whose villainy comes not from the usual variety of lust for power and suchlike, but from a mindset that treats everything (including morality) as secondary to her research; she has been known to enslave entire planets such as Miasimia Goria in order to have a ready supply of experimental subjects and a place to carry out her experiments uninterrupted.
Tetraps - The Tetraps are a bat-like race from the planet Tetrapyriarbus. A pack of Tetraps was employed by the Rani to help defend her Giant Brain in the Seventh Doctor's debut story, Time and the Rani (1987) by Pip and Jane Baker. The Rani armed a pack of Tetraps for this purpose and used them as general henchmen to terrorise the native Lakertyans. Tetraps have four eyes, one on each side of their head, giving them all-round vision, and put this to good use in stalking fugitives. Like bats, they sleep by hanging upside-down in a cavern. They feed off a dark red-coloured sludge that the Lakertyan leader releases down a chute into a trough.
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