Review: Warlord's Continental Starter Army

So I have already shown the start of building up the force, but why not have a bit of a review of the boxset as well!

Right off the bat I have to say that this boxset is huge. Massive even. And rightly so when it is to contain 120 Regular/Irregular Soldiers, 40 Militia, and a sprue for the Cannon/Generals. Not to mention all the flags etc alongside it all!

And my copy came with an extra cannon/general sprue as well due to the 4th of July sale that Warlords was having when it was released.

So the instruction leaflets contained within are split between the 3 different sprue types available within the box. The field artillery includes the general ( and dead solder ), the Infantry sprues, and the Militia sprues. Plus a bit of explanation on how they can be all assembled there within.

The assembly is set up to have certain pairs work well or better with each other. If you look at some of the ones that I assembled I disregarded this for a majority of it, and some of them now look quite strange. But ranked up and painted I hope no one will notice too much, and I began to focus on the instructions more closely after seeing some of them with fresh eyes the morning after!

But nevermind that now.. here is what the contents of the box looks like on my table though!

Perhaps having more light on my desk would also help me see things better.. but that aside.. this is an insane amount of sprues. Thankfully the rule set that we plan to use means I do not have to assemble, and paint all of this. Though I will have a lot of options available for later one.

Quite the selection of options to be fair with many different head types to represent different types of troops using the same body stances. So your Regular Line troops with the Tricorn hats or even capped hats available, to the steeped hats of the Irregulars is available. To the wool or skinned toques available for the Militia troops.

Below are the full sprues, both sides, available within the kit.

First up is the Field Artillery / Officer's Sprues. Here you have the options to build a general on horse, along with a variety of different head options to represent different historic commanders available ( Like George Washington ). For me I am not sure if they difference is enough to tell who is who, but it is a nice feature all the same.

You also have enough parts to build 2 cannons except for the wheels. So I will try my best to source something out for those to give me an advantage in larger battles :) Plus the crew here, though I suspect that regular soldiers from the other sprues can be representing this also.

There is also a famous woman cannon operator. Molly Pitcher who took up the cannon when her husband died at the red coats hands.

Then you have the officers sprues. Making enough troops to do 2 sets of command units per sprue available with 4 such sprues sitting within the box.

Though the options for the flag bearer are slim with only one real arm choice for it, and the other more like he is running away. So that is not as cool, but can be worked with.

For musicians, you have both the flute and the drums available. Need to really watch which one you take with which as to ensure that you don't mix them around ( not that I did that.. twice.. or anything while assembling mine! ).

With the core soldier sprues, you have plenty of options here. One thing I haven't mentioned is that there are also heads for Washington's guard with their capped or rounded hats.

The variety of poses is good, but since it is a historical army, they are mostly standing or aiming. So although many poses available, they can come out a bit static. Though the instructions state that since they are plastic, the conversion opportunities are limitless, and this is true.

No idea why I did not get the other side of the Militia sprue, but it holds quite a few options within itself as well. Including the choice of 2 body styles available. The trapper and the civilian styled ones. I prefer the trapper ones, and I think they would work nicely as Canadian Militia also, but the civilian styled ones are almost cowboy-ish? Could be something to that also.

In the end it also comes with a mega ton of bases to use for the models. Along with some gap at the bottom for those that want them to be more rank and file styled, you could add magnets for easier set up and transportation.

All in all a great kit. What I don't mention within the sprues themselves is that they all have a load of extras. Extra muskets, or tomahawks, or heads, or whatever.. tons of them that can be added to scenery or objective markers as/where needed.

Honestly for me at this time, I don't think I will be requiring any more models for this any time soon, aside from maybe some Indians in case I want to run them as French/Canadian forces for the rules of Muskets and Tomahawks. But aside from that, there are a lot to get on with from this box alone.

Now I just need to paint up enough to get in some demo games with them!