WizKids has just released the Dungeons & Dragons Icons of the Realms Goblin Warband set, which includes six pre-painted goblin miniatures. Goblins are one of the classic D&D monsters, which players will encounter time and time again. The aim of this minis pack is to start a goblin army or instantly have enough for a meaningful encounter. However, does the pack fulfil those aims? Let’s find out!
A lot of the Icons of the Realms sets come in blind booster boxes. The Goblin Warband set instead comes in clear plastic. Unlike the blind booster boxes players therefore know exactly what they are getting in this set, rather than it being a randomised selection. Included in the pack are 6 goblins, each pre-painted and in a unique pose. From one that is about to do a downward swing with a spiked mace, another with a whip swerling in the air to a goblin mid way through a leaping strike, the poses are rather dynamic – with the gang of goblins looking very much ready for a fight.
Players will instantly notice that none of the goblins in this pack are holding ranged weapons, with not a bow or sling in sight. Not including a ranged unit seems an odd choice. Just as it is odd to see an archer mini used to represent a monster that is equipped with only a dagger, it is just as immersion breaking seeing a goblin with a mace firing at the adventurers from range. Variety is there in the weapons they use but this doesn’t extend past melee.
The miniatures are all around 2 – 3cm tall, depending on the exact pose they are in or the way they are raising their weapon. This sizing works perfectly for their small D&D monster stats, being visibly shorter than medium sized humanoids. Due to the small size it is impressive how well the paint jobs are on the minis. The goblin’s faces are clear, with the weapons and armour mostly done to a high quality. A couple of areas have a colouring extending past where it should. One example of this is some of the metal of the shield overlaps onto the wooden portion of the shield. These minor blemishes are only noticeable when looking at the miniature from inches away. During actual play no one is going to be that up close and personal to the minis.
As with all of the newest WizKids pre-painted miniatures, the Goblin Warband set comes on clear plastic bases. This does mean that they stick out a little from other goblins from previous sets, which were on solid black bases. If this isn’t an issue to you then the clear bases come with the benefit of being able to see the terrain below them. 1 of the goblins has a plinth holding them in place as they are jumping through the air. Whilst these plinths detract from the mini such a pose just wouldn’t be possible without it, and the dislike of plinths is very much a personal one. If anything with the clear bases the plinth is less noticeable than before.
There is no doubting that the Goblin Warband set will get a lot of usage from players. Any dark cave or overrun castle could have a group of pesky goblins awaiting players, and this is before adventurers track them back to an encampment. The quality of the miniatures, with strong paint jobs and epic poses makes them both great to use and also easy to use, with them distinguishable across the table. Many DMs may already have goblin minis to hand. For those that don’t though, the Icons of the Realms Goblin Warband set can bring that spot of miniature flair to your adventures for many sessions to come!
(Editor’s Note: The Dungeons & Dragons Icons of the Realms Goblin Warband set was provided to us by Asmodee for the review. The set is currently available from local board game stores! Find your local store here.)
