Hobby Update: Riftforged Reborn Legionaries

Orcs are a fantasy staple, like Undead, Elves, and Dwarfs. Back in 2021 I made a small Orc army on individual bases. The goal was to create a demo army for Kings of War that could double as a multi-system army, so I could maybe trade some games around town. In 2022, they actually came close to seeing the table, but my prospective opponent had to cancel, and he was never quite free for squeezing in a rescheduled match. Nonetheless, I expanded them a little later that year since I still had a few unpainted orc minis sitting around. Back in January of 2024, I painted up some Reborn Legionaries for the Orcs, but never published the post about them. Gonna fix that quick right now! 

Finished! Needs a real movement tray though.

The models are Mantic's, and you can read a bit about Mantic's design thoughts and see the sprues in some better lighting here. I picked a set up from a sprue store online sometime in the last year or two, just to see what they were like. They are... just ok.

Their Lower Abyssals kit was a single sprue of 5 bodies and one of everything else. The Northern Alliance Tribesmen were 10 bodies spread over two sprues, but was still just 5 basic bodies, with them and everything else just doubled and then spread out over an additional sprue. The Riftforged Orcs kit takes the latter approach as well, with 5 basic bodies and lots of doubled bits. The bodies/torsos are one big block of plastic, leading to a hefty miniature, and thankfully, Mantic's sculpting here is more in the style of Fireforge, where bodies have twisting torsos and such, preventing things from looking too "samey". The two-hander weapon options have some awkward grips, but are some of the most dynamic I have ever seen, with some at the ready; others lifting to strike and some coming in for cheap-shots from below, making for a surprisingly lively-looking unit despite a limited amount of torsos and weapons.

Design-wise, I like all the art of the Riftforged Orcs. Utilizing the Mjölnir amulet for the Stormcaller models is awesome, and with all the Marvel movie stuff over the last decade, it's easy for folks to let their imaginations fill stuff in when the official art has these buff orcs with electrified weapons and lightning coursing through their veins... but all the cool art didn't translate well to these minis. They are good orcs, but lackluster lightning orcs.

The lightning effect as a whole just didn't translate well on the minis. The crackling effect around the skin is limited to one patch on an arm per pair of arms. I would have loved to have seen more from the minis with this, or at least have a few pairs with a more pronounced effect: powering up right before a strike or something. Such a teeny-tiny effect makes it look like a mistake rather than a core design idea for the miniatures.

The weapons themselves were also disappointing, lightning-wise. Folks hobbying for 40k have all sorts of rad lightning effects for power swords and stuff, but those need flatter surfaces, and don't work well for these big, detailed, sometimes curved hammers. My own effect looks more like frosty weapons than ones crackling with electricity, so that's a bit disappointing. There are some 40k Thunderhammer techniques, but again, those need flatter spaces to work best from what I have seen. Someone could probably spend some time with an airbrush or a file or more washes or more skill and really make these big weapons pop somehow, but that person is definitively not me.

Grousing aside, on the table, the Legionaries look like a very fun unit. I really enjoyed the Salamander's Ancients, and these function the same for the Orcs; a unit that Inspires! That's really cool. I think it's generally best practice to not run hordes side-by-side in order to avoid positioning complications, so fitting in one or two of these regiments along a long horde-heavy battle line sounds like a good plan to start with the Legionaries, though my collection will never be in a place to really test this idea out fully... because I recently gave all the Orcs away!

Despite the orcs being a fantasy staple, I've got more armies than I can really manage well, and with a gaming group growing via the Kings of War Wisconsin FB Group, I gave away the entirety of the orc collection, as well as a smaller unpainted goblin collection, to two players that will get much more use out of them than I ever will. Hopefully we'll see those old minis across the table sometime soon!