The Power of the Evil Horde! - Unboxing & Reviewing the Wave 4 Expansion for MotU Battleground
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- Опубліковано 3 сер 2024
- Always Board Never Boring received his copy of The Power of the Evil Horde! expansion for Masters of the Universe Battleground by Archon Studio. Naturally he wanted to dive in as soon as possible, so in this video he goes through the components, builds the miniatures and shares his initial thoughts in a sort of review. It's a sizeable chunk of information, so here are some time stamps:
00:00 Intro
00:58 Contents overview
01:50 Miniatures (unassembled)
04:13 Character abilities and cards
12:10 Weapons, spells and items
15:41 Fate and glory
17:03 Mission book
18:39 Review
19:50 Assembled miniatures
#mastersoftheuniverse #motu #evilhorde
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Whew... Favorite? That's a tough call. But Grizzlor and the Shadowraith have got to be the coolest!
They are both excellent. It has to be Grizzlor for me, even though I wish he was a little bit beefier.
Would still like to see s play through either solo or head that head! Thanks in advance!
I’ve just spent a pleasant evening assembling my minis from this set so this video couldn’t have come at a better time 😊
It's a lovely set. I hope you had an easier time with Catra than I did. I swear that miniature made me think I'd forgotten how to build miniatures!
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring no I had the same issue, your comment did make me laugh 😂 Archon are usually very good at designing how their models fit together but that leg and whip!! Obviously having an off day.
I've found all of the MotU stuff very easy to work with until Catra, so it feels like a bit of a misstep. At least it wasn't just me!
Let us know in a video who your favorite characters are and what you think about the miniatures and in game shenanigans? Cheers :)
Because I don’t play competitively, my favourites tend to be the characters I like the most from the media. Like, He-Man isn’t as amazing in the game as he should be - he isn’t a one-man wrecking machine - but I still like to run him with Orko, Man-At-Arms and Teela because that’s just a classic combo. Lots more Battleground coverage to come.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Yes, that's what I wanted to know :) Who are your favorites? :P
Favourite miniature for this set has got to be Hordak. I’m wondering what we will be getting in wave 5 and beyond, surely if they do more 2 character packs we will get a Mantenna and Leech double pack at some point. There are still tons of great characters from the Masters and Evil Warriors factions yet to come, personally I hope we get Meckaneck and Webstor soon.
They have said we are getting three more waves this year, one of which is a large pack like Preternia. The smaller expacs are being changed to three characters in each, and we know that the next wave will include Masters of the Universe in one box (one character being Fisto) and Evil Warriors in the other (with one character being Webstor). My prediction is that the big set with be a Fright Zone set, like the Preternia set. They have also said they are releasing more characters from the Evil Horde this year.
Okay, now I'm realy thinking about Legacy Shipping. I don't know, when I might get time to paint this hole stuff (since I also have Fields of Eternia and backed CMONs "Clash of Eternia") but I realy love the Francise.
Cool
Arcon love making minis in garish colours. It is so that you are forced to paint them quickly! I had Wolfenstein painted in record time.
Ha. Well it hasn't worked for me, unfortunately. I have to say, I have stacks of Archon products and haven't noticed anything being garish. Their D&L stuff is mostly basic grey. The Battleground stuff is all in nice colours that make sense based on the faction. And red is a classic choice - even the HeroQuest heroes got the red treatment.
Nice! They're really blasting out those waves, man. Wonder if ol' King Hiss, and his snake-men minions will make an appearance. Pretty excited they included Grizzlor. Would have loved to have seen Leech, and Mantenna, but thats mainly because those are the the ones I remember mostly from the toyline. Haha.
There are more Evil Horde characters coming later this year. Leech and Mantenna seem like the obvious choices. There is also a big expac coming. My guess is a terrain set, but it could be the Snake Men.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring That would be pretty awesome. I could imagine some pretty interesting mechanics with Leech. Haven't played it yet, so I dont know if any other characters have the mechanic, but I would imagine some of the snake men having a pretty nasty bind/paralysis ability. I really need to get started on this game, before ot becomes damn near $1000 to get everything for it. Haha. Its finally available here in the states outside of Ebay, so theres no excuse really.
I picked up D&D Onslaught and have been playing that almost nonstop for a few days now, and am really enjoying it. The factions, enemy mechanics, and objective driven scenarios, really make it feel like a board game version of a MOBA. I'm just hoping they dont, "Dungeon Command," this thing, because with the enemy element, and scenarios that involve escorting prisoners, and dropping treasure off at drop off points, theres really a LOT they could do with it. I could definitely see expansions that bring new enemies, and new big bads lile Beholders, and powerful Liches. I just really hope they keep up on it.
Glad to hear you are enjoying Onslaught. I wouldn't mind trying it out, but not at the current price in the UK. I am concerned that the pricing might lead to it being relatively short-lived.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Yeah, I fear you may be right on that, and honestly, thats a huge concern of mine as well. High end here is around $140 usd, which is pretty steep for what you get with it. I mean, I've seen games come with tons more things in the box for that price. Even the two additional faction packs that are out now go from $50 - $60. Each faction contains 6 characters, so thats basically $8 to $10 a mini. I get everything is pre-painted, but at the same time, its WizKids, and their mass production level paint jobs aren't all that exceptional.
In the UK, some places have it for around £150, which is $175. That's just a no-go for what the game is. I think it has sold pretty well despite that, so hopefully it will have some legs, but if I can't get it for closer to £100 I can't see myself getting it at all.
Ooh ooh I got this
Catra is a character from She-Ra, from what I understand she was a figure, but I only had Hordak, Grizzlor, Leech and Mantenna. I think she, Shadowweaver and Scorpia were marked for girls..?
As for characters, they fit in pretty well. Shadowweaver often acts as a manipulator and she is an advisor for Hordak. When She-Ra was working for Hordak, it was because of Shadowweavers magic.
Catra acts like the Catwoman from the old Adam West Batman series... Think a lot of Cat Puns... Like A LOT ..!
Yeah I know who these characters are, I just don’t have the same connection to them because they were basically created to be antagonists for She-Ra. Shadow Weaver didn’t even get a toy back in the 80s. Not having any toys, and not watching Princess of Power, and not following the franchise through the new media and toy products means these two don’t speak to me like the classics I loved.
@Always Board Never Boring:
Actually, ALL of the Evil Horde (including Hordak) were created for the She-Ra cartoon. Filmation co-created that show with Mattel, who then made the toys based on it. It was a different situation from He-Man, which was based on existing Mattel toys.
Shadow Weaver did have a prototype figure back in the 80s, which was intended to be released as part of the MOTU toyline, not Princess of Power.
I'm not a He-Man scholar, so perhaps you are right, but that's not my understanding. Hordak, Grizzlor, Leech, Mantenna and Modulok had mini-comics that introduced them combating He-Man in 1984-85 as part of the Masters toy range (which is where I first encountered them collecting the toys as a child), while the She-Ra toyline only had a few villains until they made the Filmation series and incorporated the Evil Horde characters at that point. For that reason, those first Evil Horde characters are the ones I owned and connect with the most as they were part of He-Man's adventures and toyline.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring What I do recall is how the 2002 He-Man treated Hordak. He was a powerful evil ruler who had long ago been trapped in a demi-plane called "Despondos". There he, Grizzlor, Mantenna, and I think one other, languished waiting for their release. In that story Hordak was responsible for Skeletor's magic power, and in exchange old skelly was to release Hordak. But when the time was right, King Hiss and He-Man intervened, and Skeletor ultimately betrayed Hordak, refusing to release him.
It was so cool, because they were building up to a 3-way villian off! But the show ended way too soon 😭
❤
Nice and extensive review! What do you think the single best expansion box of the core box is? There are plenty of wave boxes to choose and I can't pick.
This box is obviously a good choice if you want a third faction, and I like the set with tyrantisaur for the solo game mode and new battlefield, but generally my favourite expansions are always the ones that include my favourite characters from the comics and cartoon. I have reviewed every expansion on my channel so it might be worth checking those videos to see how the characters act and what cards come with them.
It does Look very good but I totally agree with Your remark about the cards. Full deck it should have as a starter. I wonder if we start to get more boxes for next waves , like one for each faction?
A fully usable deck would have been a solid addition to the box. They are changing the format of the small expacs slightly. Apparently for the rest of 2023, the next wave will be a box of three heroic warriors and a box of three evil warriors (including Fisto and Webstor), and there is going to be at least one box for Evil Horde, and one more large pack like Preternia, which could be Snake Men, but I would guess Fright Zone terrain.
Thank you for the review. I am still painting up the Core Set and Wave 1 & 3, so it will be a while before I buy Wave 2 and 4...though I did splash out on getting the three exclusives! As for favorites - Hordak and Grizzlor are my two faves.
You mentioned in the intro, that there even though MotU Battleground is a favorite, there are parts of it that you dislike? Can you expand more on what those issues are, please?
It will all get covered in more detail when I do a full review at some point, but it's all things I've commented on before. Mainly poor or inaccurate wording on different card abilities, and a few rules that just feel slightly clunkier than I think they should be such as overwatch, the way that some things are measured in inches while others are measured in hexes, and the fact that LoS is 360 degrees yet characters all have a specific facing which is important sometimes. That sort of thing just feels a bit cludgey and inconsistent.
Also, the army-building doesn't feel quite granular enough. Pretty much every character is between 16 and 21 points while items are 1 to 3 points, so it feels like you always end up with forces of similar sizes and there is a lack of bigger or smaller options to shake things up. Evil Horde and the promo figures do help with that though.
I would like He-Man to be more of a force to be reckoned with. He really should stand above the other characters and be something that the Evil Warriors need to make more of a concerted effort to deal with.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring Thank you for the reply! I have only played the intro scenario (twice) and I agree, that He-Man does seem to be a bit lacking...
Totally agree regarding He-Man ! As he is, he is just average or even below average. It’s one of my main grip with the game actually (which is still such a good game in many aspects of it !).
So I ended-up changing one He-Man capacity (he now « can » get mana from fate cards as anyone else +focus) and the text for Sword of Power as well to make them truly great as they should (obviously, I did my best to raise their cost accordingly)
I wish I could get these in Australia
I've loved masters of the universe since I was a kid 😢
It's a shame about the limited distribution deal. I assume you will be able to get the CMoN Masters of the Universe game, though.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I have the main box but the rest are next to impossible to get.
I own a Funko Pop of Hordak and a Funko Pop of a Horde Trooper.
Nice. I've seen the Hordak one in the shops, along with Skeletor and He-Man.
Sure you assembled Catra and the Wraiths correctly? On the Boxcover the whip does not go around Catras left foot. And the left hand fingers of the Wraiths point downward not upward.
Yes and yes. These models only go together one way. They may be painted prototypes on the box. It's definitely not possible to put the wraith hand on upside down (it actually looks odd on the box art) and there is a ridge carved in the base next to Catra's foot for the whip to sit inside.
It's funny that they converted Hordaks bat shield into an actual bat.
Now we know She-Ra is coming since the two females here are villains from that show. Well so are the horde troopers and wraiths.
And yet the horde trooper gets the bat shield. I assumed the bat was a later change I wasn't familiar with - as you know they keep blending elements from different eras of the franchise, like the forthcoming Webstor incorporates the extra spider limbs on the back - but I mainly know about the mini-comics and Filmation stuff.
They created She-Ra for the Fields of Eternia game so she's almost certainly on the way, but I'm expecting Snake Men as the fourth faction, as they were the fourth main faction in Fields.
That change came in the Masters of the Universe Classics toyline back in 2009. The designers of that figure (Four Horsemen Studios) decided that a little pet creature made more sense for Hordak than an oddly-shaped shield, and it also works as an homage to the Imp character from the She-Ra cartoon.
The Horde Wraiths are from the 2002 He-Man cartoon, not She-Ra.
@@Rocket1377 That blending is why I don't like these minis. They are far to disjointed in influence.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I cà’t wait for snake men, but don’t care at all for She-Ra
Hi, where did you order from?
I got mine from Wayland Games in the UK I believe.
Do you have an affiliate link with them?
I only run affiliate links in my video description for Element Games but they aren’t stocking this unfortunately.
The thinking may be different for Europeans boardgamers but I don't like that you have to assemble the miniatures together. I liked that the American version of IP has the miniatures already assembled and ready to play right out of the box.
Miniatures games that need assembly are huge in America. It's not a specifically European thing. Miniatures that come in kit form usually have more detail, you can paint them in sub-assembles, and sometimes they are multi-part allowing you to build them in different ways. Miniatures that come pre-assembled have the advantage of being usable straight out of the box. Both approaches have their benefits, and their fans. It's a shame both games aren't easily available in all territories, as I would like to own both.
@@AlwaysBoardNeverBoring I got this confused with MotU Fields of Eternia. I thought this game was part of that line. Its interesting that the same company put out an adventure game and a miniatures wargame using same IP.
@@wayner7263 Ah, I see. I would like to pick up Fields of Eternia as well. Can never have too much Masters of the Universe! Thanks for checking out the video.