Today we will take a closer look at the Shieldwolf Miniatures Forest Goblin Infantry, their newest hard-plastic modular miniature kit. The release of this entirely new Forest Goblin faction was succesfully funded on Kickstarter along with some other cool resin creatures and characters. So let's take a look at these new Forest Goblins during this fully illustrated review below!
"Goblins in the Shieldwolf World may have a very little bit of clumsiness but there's nothing funny about it! They are definitely not dumb or silly; quite the opposite. Shieldwolf goblins can better be described with words like "demented", "psycho", "aggressive", "evil", "twisted", "thieving", "cunning", "malicious". Some have surprisingly shown signs of courage other races would normally envy, and they are known not to have good relations with any other race, they trust no-one and they especially hate Humans and Orcs. Apart from these 2 races, they willingly join as mercenary armies and follow others for coin and loot. They wage war only if it is in their favor, theirs is a war of attrition, where their superior numbers overwhelm the enemy. And it is known that it best to die a swift death than be imprisoned by goblins, where the worst awaits you..."
"Goblins in the Shieldwolf World may have a very little bit of clumsiness but there's nothing funny about it! They are definitely not dumb or silly; quite the opposite. Shieldwolf goblins can better be described with words like "demented", "psycho", "aggressive", "evil", "twisted", "thieving", "cunning", "malicious". Some have surprisingly shown signs of courage other races would normally envy, and they are known not to have good relations with any other race, they trust no-one and they especially hate Humans and Orcs. Apart from these 2 races, they willingly join as mercenary armies and follow others for coin and loot. They wage war only if it is in their favor, theirs is a war of attrition, where their superior numbers overwhelm the enemy. And it is known that it best to die a swift death than be imprisoned by goblins, where the worst awaits you..."
The Shipping and Packaging
Shieldwolf Miniatures if offering flat shipping rates to Europe and the rest of the world at very competitive prices next to this orders are shipped for free above €60. Not sure which postal service they use but they are very fast and cheap. Note that these miniatures were received quite some time ago before the Covid-19 pandemic which might cause delays these days. The miniatures are packed in a nicely illustrated cartonboard box which is much sturdier than the box of the Shieldwolf Miniatures Mountain Orcs which we reviewed here which is certainly an improvement in quality and feel of the product.
The Boxed Set Content
The Forest Goblin Infantry boxed set contains five hard-plastic sprue, each containing enough parts to assemble five savage looking Forest Goblins with a large choice of melee weapons and bows. The set includes three soldier sprues and two command sprues. Below you can see the pictures of the soldier sprues which contain the parts to make the bulk of your Forest Goblin regiment and also contains the most melee weapons of the two sprue types. The boxed set also contains 25mm plastic round bases enough to base all the included 25 miniatures.
On the soldier sprue you can see five bodies of which four are standing and one is kneeling. Some of these bodies have cast on heads while two of the bodies have seperate heads allowing for more unique poses which is most certainly welcome to further diversify your Forest Goblin horde.
The amount of weapons on the sprue is certainly satifying with enough parts to equip each of the soldiers with bows, spears or melee weapons which is very good as you can equip the entire regiment with the same choice of weapons. Looking at these weapons, these are very reminiscence of the Mountain Orcs which we previously reviewed and look to be based on crude weaponry made of bones and worn metal. I think this is a great choice as this would allow these miniatures to easily be matched with their larger brethren in one large goblin-orc horde. While I like all the weapons, I found the inclusion of the rather distinct warhammer looking odd as this weapon has a completly different look as the rest of the weapons and style of the soldiers. Next to the weapons, the sprue also contains the necessary shields and shield arms.
The command sprue contains the parts to make your command miniatures but also a couple of soldiers to further bulk your regiment. As you can see in the below picture, this sprue contains less melee weapons than the soldier sprue but more shields but more importantly also a nice banner and hornblower arm. As mentionned above there are two of these command sprues included in the boxed set. I won't note the included bits as these seem more or less the same as on the soldier sprue with some exceptions.
Assembling the Forest Goblins
Assembling these Forest Goblins is like assembling most modern hard-plastic miniatures, they are well-designed and everything fits very well with minor work on removing mouldlines and flash. Although the boxed set is designed to be modular I found that the number of poses is quite limited due to the pose of the bodies and arrangement of the weapons on their respective arms. Note that this is a minor issue but never the less worth mentionning as the amount of poses could be greatly improved with a slightly improved design of the included parts. In the pictures below you can see some of the box content assembled straight from the box and to be honest I was quite impressed with the detail of these little savage warriors.
The Scale Comparison
In the pictures below you can see the size of these new Shieldwolf Miniatures Forest Goblins alongside fantasy and historical miniatures of other popular miniature companies. As you can see these miniatures are most matched with the heroic fantasy miniatures lines which is not a complete surprise but are certainly also usable as opponents of historical armies which are in most cases more scaled as non-heroic 28mm to suit the wide range of 28mm non-heroic metal miniature ranges.
Painted Forest Goblins
Let's take a look of some painted Forest Goblins examples, note that these aren't my own work and were taken from Shieldwolf Miniatures website to give you a better impression of the reviewed miniatures. Looking at the pictures, the great detail of the miniatures really shows when using washes or highlights to further improve their characteristics.
The Conclusion
As you can see and read throughout this review, these new Forest Goblin miniatures from Shieldwolf Miniatures are a great addition to their growing fantasy miniature line aimed at covering a nice selection of factions including but not limited to humans, orcs, goblins and ogres. This latest hard-plastic release covers the bulk of the Forest Goblin horde in the form of the savage goblin warriors armed with deadly short bows, spears and other crude melee weapons.
The content of the box offers you no less than 25 fully equiped warriors, allowing you to assemble these miniatures with all the same weapons for mass-battle games or with a larger variety of weapons for skirmish gaming and roleplaying. The box covers everything you need from the basic warrior to their leaders holding inspiring banners or blowing their mighty war horns. The quality of these miniatures is once more top-notch as the design and look of these miniatures is excellent.
As always though there is a minor point of criticism, the modularity of the miniatures. Although these are most certainly modular, the design of the bodies and weapon arms makes the variety of possible poses not as varied as would be possible with some better kit design. That said a minor point as the amount of poses and options is certainly good but could have been better in my opinion.
To conclude this review, I would want to say that these miniatures offer a great alternative to further expand your goblin and orc armies with some cool looking plastic modular miniatures at a reasonable price. Also worth mentionning is the availability of some great-looking resin heroes and creatures for your Forest Goblin army which are also available here at Shieldwolf Miniatures along with the plastic Forest Goblins as seen in this review. Check the Kickstarter video below but note that most of the shown miniatures are now already available in the webshop or will be released in due time.
Found this review informative? Make sure to follow and share Wargame News and Terrain as more cool wargame miniature news is posted daily. Find us on Twitter @wnt_news and bookmark our homepage here for your daily dose of wargame news and miniature discounts!
Disclaimer - We received these miniatures from Shieldwolf Miniatures for reviewing purposes. Please note that this doesn't influence our review as we always strive to supply you with our own independent and honest opinion about the wargame products reviewed.
In the pictures below you can see the size of these new Shieldwolf Miniatures Forest Goblins alongside fantasy and historical miniatures of other popular miniature companies. As you can see these miniatures are most matched with the heroic fantasy miniatures lines which is not a complete surprise but are certainly also usable as opponents of historical armies which are in most cases more scaled as non-heroic 28mm to suit the wide range of 28mm non-heroic metal miniature ranges.
Painted Forest Goblins
Let's take a look of some painted Forest Goblins examples, note that these aren't my own work and were taken from Shieldwolf Miniatures website to give you a better impression of the reviewed miniatures. Looking at the pictures, the great detail of the miniatures really shows when using washes or highlights to further improve their characteristics.
The Conclusion
As you can see and read throughout this review, these new Forest Goblin miniatures from Shieldwolf Miniatures are a great addition to their growing fantasy miniature line aimed at covering a nice selection of factions including but not limited to humans, orcs, goblins and ogres. This latest hard-plastic release covers the bulk of the Forest Goblin horde in the form of the savage goblin warriors armed with deadly short bows, spears and other crude melee weapons.
The content of the box offers you no less than 25 fully equiped warriors, allowing you to assemble these miniatures with all the same weapons for mass-battle games or with a larger variety of weapons for skirmish gaming and roleplaying. The box covers everything you need from the basic warrior to their leaders holding inspiring banners or blowing their mighty war horns. The quality of these miniatures is once more top-notch as the design and look of these miniatures is excellent.
As always though there is a minor point of criticism, the modularity of the miniatures. Although these are most certainly modular, the design of the bodies and weapon arms makes the variety of possible poses not as varied as would be possible with some better kit design. That said a minor point as the amount of poses and options is certainly good but could have been better in my opinion.
To conclude this review, I would want to say that these miniatures offer a great alternative to further expand your goblin and orc armies with some cool looking plastic modular miniatures at a reasonable price. Also worth mentionning is the availability of some great-looking resin heroes and creatures for your Forest Goblin army which are also available here at Shieldwolf Miniatures along with the plastic Forest Goblins as seen in this review. Check the Kickstarter video below but note that most of the shown miniatures are now already available in the webshop or will be released in due time.
Found this review informative? Make sure to follow and share Wargame News and Terrain as more cool wargame miniature news is posted daily. Find us on Twitter @wnt_news and bookmark our homepage here for your daily dose of wargame news and miniature discounts!
Disclaimer - We received these miniatures from Shieldwolf Miniatures for reviewing purposes. Please note that this doesn't influence our review as we always strive to supply you with our own independent and honest opinion about the wargame products reviewed.
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