Warhammer The Old World – High Elf Realms Ellyrian Reavers

The latest addition to the Old World are the High Elf Realms, who got a teaser on Las Vegas Open, with the re-release of "classic" miniatures of the last Warhammer Fantasy Battles kits along with some new additions to the range. A few characters and a new plastic kit of the Ellyrian Reavers.

This new multi-part plastic kit is available for 67,50 EUR and covers ten mounted miniatures. They went on pre-order on February 15th and will be delivered on March 1st.

While the reavers themself are an elite unit of High Elf Knights, they might be mistaken for simple mounted scouts. Armed with spears and bows, they fulfill multiple roles for the Elven kingdom, intercepting enemy raiders, slaying cockatrices or chimeras that wander Ulthuan or are avantgarde troops, living deep in enemy territory.

The Ellyrian Reavers are an old unit of the High Elf armies and around since the early 90s. The first models were part of Marauder Miniatures and sculpted by Aly Morrison, covering the Reavers armed with spears and a small command unit. Note that these models used the generic unbarded plastic horses from Citadel Miniatures.

During 5th edition, the Reavers got an update and were available as a boxed set and blisters. These new sculpts were done by Gary Morley, and brought a lot of variety to the unit, as you got Reavers armed with spears and bows, and a full command unit. The horses were replaced with the unbarded elven plastic horses. The sculpts themself seem to be re-cut during their production, haven separate upper torsos and legs.

With the Island of Blood starter set for Warhammer Fantasy Battles 8th edition in 2010, the Reavers were moved to plastic with a push-fit design. There were five different sculpts, four armed with bows and a champion with a sword. In 2016 the content of the Island of Blood starter was repacked as a campaign set, called Spire of Dawn for Age of Sigmar, and the bases were replaced with oval/round ones.

The new boxed set, is strongly connected design wise with the Island of Blood / Spire of Dawn design of the High Elves. The 10 Reaver Knights are not really a unit of 10, but more 2 sets of 5, but more on that later. The set itself covers six medium sized sprues, 10 30 by 60mm cavalry bases and a grey-scale instruction leaflet. No decals, no rules, a lean set for the almost 70 EURs.

There are three different sprues in there, each of them included twice.

Due to the fragile nature of some of the parts, there is room around them, that is needed due to the production process. Mould lines are a bit of an issue, but beyond that the cast is crisp and with proper details. In some cases the connection of the bits towards the sprue is not ideal, as you have to be careful not to damage details while removing the bits and pieces from the frame.

For this review, we will build a unit of 5 models from one set of sprues.

With The Old World the cavalry units were mostly moved to a larger base size. In this case we're not with the 25x50mm rectangular cavalry bases, but the new 30x60mm. These don't come with slots for the tabs and don't have a substructure underneaths and that unfortunately causes a bit of a warping issue, as the larger cavalry bases do not align flush with the underground.

All of the five different horses are cut the same way, but can not be mixed among eachother. You get two halves, marked with a letter on the inside, so you don't use the wrong ones (which wouldn't align anyway...), a head (partially with options) and a tail. In case of the Reaver Harbinger, the horse is only connected with the left back hoof to the base. Not the sturdiest way to design this and you have to make sure that it doesn't tip while the glue bonds.

This pose can either be build as the champion or Reaver #3. The instruction is missing the number for the torso of the regular Reaver pose, an error that will return in that assembly instruction. At almost 70 EURs for a set of 10 miniatures, I can expect somebody to double check the instructions.

We build the Harbinger / Champion, which is the only pose with a close combat weapon.

Depending on weither you went with the Champion or Reaver #3, the spear and holster is different. As the regular Reavers are armed with bows, their holsters are empty.

The standard bearer shares the horse with Reaver #4, and as such the body either is carrying the banner or a bow.

The connection of the banner is rather thin, as you glue it on wrist and do not have a second connection to the model (I would have expected something near the knee or leg), and just like the champion they have a different set for the quiver, spear and holster.

I didn't understand, why this model is basically carrying two spears, as the banner pole is spear shaped with an armed tip. That seems like a redundant piece of weaponry for a "light" travelling unit like the Reavers.

The musician and Reaver #5 have the same horse. As mentioned above, all horses are build from the two halves, a head and a tail. With the musician we have the same error in the instructions as with Reaver #3, he is missing the number for the torso.

The alignment of the horn, as well as the multipart right arm is a bit soft. So you have a bit of play, when you assemble them. This could have been made a bit easier, by using like a more present tonge and grove design. And as usual, as the command miniatures aren't using their bows, they have a seperate set of bits for holster and quiver.

Then we have the remaining rank & file Ellyrian Reaver poses, #1/#6 and #2/#7. Their only alteration is a different head. You have the same pose for 1 and 6, and 2 and 7, same quiver/holster, same heads for the horses, the only difference are the heads of the knights themself.

The models look quite dynamic on the larger bases and the benefit from the design choice, as they don't look to crowded. Yet, I am disappointed by the lack of options, especially the aspect that you can't arm any of them with a spear.

The spare bits are mostly from Reaver #3 to 5, along with the alternate horse heads for the command.

The horses are well-proportioned and leaner compared to their predecssors. I unfortunately don't have the Island of Blood Reavers for comparison, only the Gary Morley sculpts. But these models fit very well with the 8th edition design of the High Elves.

As mentioned above, the models benefit from the larger base sizes and come in dynamic poses.

Conclusion

To be honest - I am a bit disappointed by this kit. It is not one major issue, but the sum of multiple smaller things in combination with the rather high price of 67,50 EUR (compared to other Old World cavalry units with more miniatures and / or a lower price). The aspect that the more or less moved the design of the 2010 models into a multi-part kit, without actually adding the benefit of a multi-part kit is lackluster. While I am aware, that other knight units don't have more options for their banner, musicians etc., the aspect that I can't arm these with spears, baffles me.

The aspect that the instructions have missing numbers is something that quality control has to catch at a company like Games Workshop. If you brag about producing the best miniatures there are and charging for it, the customer is entitled to that quality. And design wise, the way these models are split is not the best for actual gaming pieces. Some connections are quite thin, like having the entire model only be connected by a single hoof to the base or a large banner with a a few square mm, along with the rather loose way the arms are guided by the pauldrons.

Is this a bad kit? No. It just isn't as good as it could be, as good as they could have designed / produced it, as we have seen their capability in various other sets. The Knights of the Realm are far older, have lots more options. And if we move them eye to with the Chaos Knights, that are the same price and cover 10 models as well, and was released in 2009 (!), it gives you the options of multiple hand weapons, lances, different shields to show their marks of chaos, different heads and so on. And they made all that happen with three sprues as well. So why is this not possible 15 years later?

Warhammer The Old World is a brand by Games Workshop.

The reviewed product item was provided by the manufacturer.