Tuesday 2 June 2015

AvP : The Hunt Begins - Unboxing and Review

I was fortunate to acquire one of the first fifty one of the 'AvP : The Hunt Begins' Miniatures Game boxes...well...it was a bit more involved than that but the important point is that I ended up with one...


A review of the actual game-play will come later as this article is already massive as it is and on that note it's also VERY picture heavy (there's just over a hundred)...you have been warned, lol. You can see larger versions of the smaller pictures by clicking on them and they are high enough resolution for you to copy them and zoom in if you wish.

Box Cover
The game was rather unsurprisingly in a box...

Instructions
The instruction booklet contains lots of useful diagrams and all the necessary rules though many of those rules will be familiar to players of Prodos Games's other major game Warzone Resurrection. Even if you're not familiar with that other game the rules themselves are easy to pick up and logical enough in structure to easily remember. The booklet contains all the information you need to play the game as well as a series of linked missions and some stand alone ones to get you started. There's also rules for a model to gain experience and 'level-up' over linked missions. I've included some sample pages for your perusal...

Board Sections and Tokens
The tokens, board sections and some templates are all on thick card stock and require pushing out. The quality seems very good and the pieces slot together well. You might want to get some bags to keep the smaller parts in as you disassemble them or you could always use the bags that the model parts come in. Some of these are door sections and the game helpfully comes with little stands for them...
Everything's double sided so I've taken pictures of both sides...
This one has a couple of tile sections on it as well as the templates...
...and these just contain tiles representing the ship sections though they are also double sided. The rear of the tile is usually representing  the same section of the ship under slightly different circumstances... 
You get two lots of these...
...and six lots of these...at least that's what I got...

Cards
You get stat cards for each of the models, twenty mission cards, twenty environmental cards and twenty strategy cards for each faction to be used in the advanced game.

The Models
Of course this is the bit that most of you have probably just scrolled down to and I can't say I blame you much, lol. First we'll have a look at the assembly instructions and after we'll have a detailed look at the unassembled and then assembled models faction by faction. You get bases and there's three d20's in the same bag...I didn't bother with a picture of those though...

Predators
Unassembled - Front and Back

Assembled
No assembly issues with these at all...at least I had none...




Marines
Unassembled - Front and Back

Assembled
The assembly of these is fairly simple with only a couple of parts that need aligning. I'm a particular fan of the smartgun though...






Aliens

Aliens - Infant Warrior
Unassembled - Front and Back

Assembled
You get ten of these and they seem to be two lots of five judging from the poses...though I may possibly be wrong about that. I've taken pictures of them from all angles but due to the overall similarity of them it seemed a bit redundant to do pictures of them individually. I've therefore grouped them together...
The models (the resin versions at least) are complete with the exception of a separate tail. You can pretty much put the tails on at any angle you wish but I've gone with the instructions 'over the shoulder' one. You can bend resin by heating it up a little in some warm water and holding it into a new position if you so desire...be careful though...

There's also a little piece left over from the moulding process in the centre of each palm that will need trimming away and as it's close to the fingers you'll need to take care you don't slip.

Aliens - Alien Stalker
Unassembled - Front and Back 

Assembled
There's five of these. Each has one separate arm and leg that slot in neatly. You may need to trim these joints a little as there was some flash left over from the moulding process on a couple of them...it came off easily enough though.

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

6 comments:

  1. Wow OO

    Thank you so much for sharing !!

    Serviteur,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lol.
    Mori.
    He's a character.

    Well- I've been waitin' a while fer this. It looks cool.
    I knew this was gonna be an awesome review cuz it started with 'the game was rather unsurprisingly in a box.'
    :D
    The models look nifty- I'd love to paint a pred and a xenomorph. That's been a dream of mine for a long, long time.
    OhMyGawd I'm already starting to talk myself into buying this.
    -_-

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Predators are the highlight for me though all the other models are equally well done.

      It's more than worth it for the models alone imo.

      Delete
  3. The is the most complete overview of the box contents in the entire universe and in all history of mankind. Thanks a lot mate ! ; D

    I find it pretty disappointing that there are only two Alien subspecies and they are all the same sculpts and just mirrored. The rest looks good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like to be thorough, lol.

      I think that the lower model count of the Predators and Marines meant that they needed to have some individuality. The 'Horde' nature of the Aliens makes them more generic. There are other expansions due so that should add some variety...

      Delete
  4. This is an excellent overview, thank you! I've linked your work in my article about the game: Alien vs Predator: The Hunt Begins Ed1 from Prodos Games, 2015

    ReplyDelete

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