"Mantic vs Games Workshop Dwarves" Topic

So I have been thinking about expanding my Fantasy armies with Dwarves but GW stuff is not worth it.

But I found this on Amazon the other day and order it tonight.

link

85 Infantry and two Cannons with Crew for a total of 91 figures.

How here is the really good thing about this. The cost was only around $70 USD or around $0.77 USD per figure.

For that I got:

40 Dwarf Warriors with Hammers
30 Dwarf Shooters (either Rifles or Crossbows)
15 Dwarf Two-Handed Hammers
2 x Cannons with two Crew each
Plus a Mini Core Rulebook

Now lets look at Games Workshop:

36 Dwarf Warriors – $70 USD
36 Dwarf Shooter – $70 USD
15 Dwarf Two-Handed Hammers – $77 USD
2 x Cannons with three Crew each – $50 USD

So for $292 USD you can get 95 models or around $3.11 USD per figure.

How do they compare? Well…

How they look like in a unit.

So there is no comparison.

The Mantic Dwarves are far better than the current rotund GW Dwarves.

Oh and I do have a few of Games Workshop Dwarves as well but they are a tad bit older.

Like Prince Ulther's Imperial Dwarves (a very old unit) plus some miners.

Oh and these guys go for around $9 USD for the standard guys.

Oh and you can get the whole unit for around $271. USD

auction

I have a full unit of 25 of Ulther's Imperial Dwarves.

So with this new box set I have the very nice beginning of a Dwarven Army.

Oh and the very best thing it only cost me around $120 USD total.

Miniature Market has some Mantic stuff in their moving sale right now, I believe. Personally, I like the look of the GW dwarves better, but only marginally.

Doug

edit – not in their moving sale, actually, but on clearance nonetheless

Nice comparison review. I might be on board with the Mantic Dwarves if they had round shields. I just don't like the look of the heater/kite shield for a dwarf. Hopefully they are separate.

You can put Round shields on them if you want.

Since they don't come with the shield attached.

I like the look of the GW dwarves better,

True if you go back to the later 1980's and early 1990's.

Like the Dragon Company above or Bugman's Rangers.

or the old Warhammer Norse Dwarves.

Far better models than GW short rotund Dwarves of today.

Avatar of War Dwarves are far better but they cost even more than GW like $48 USD for just 20 models and that is without tax or shipping.

So if you want to get a Fantasy Army I would go with Mantic because you would save quite a bit of money.

Now if you just so happen to win the lottery than I would go with Avatars of War from Warthrone.

Yes, the only negative is that some of the Mantic stuff is a bear to assemble from what I have heard?

Mantic and indeed Reaper, have renewed my interest in sizes larger than 15mm for fantasy.

I love some of the other boxed sets too such as Elves and Basilean figures.

Thanks for the heads up on Avatars of War too. I bet someone will run them on special to get better pricing.

Funny that you like the older Dwarves from GW. I got rid of a bunch of them for a little more than what you paid for the Mantic stuff about 4 years ago at Millenium. Almost didn't sell them and sold them for too little. I still made money though as I got most for about 50 cents each in comic store clearance sales back in in the early 1990s. Still, they went for cheap but I needed the money. I think they are in a good home. I love the GW Longbeards too though :-)

While looking at EM4 to see if they had their shields still I remembered these guys. link

Shields are still available BTW, but the dwarves here, especially are nice and at about $15 USD for a pack of 50, that ain't bad!

I used the EM-4 dwarves 'Joker linked to and did some conversions.

The ones in this article are mine:

link

It does take some extra work, but they can look quite good and I personally like the 'low tech' dwarves best.

I did use bits from GW dwarves in some of the conversions as I didn't have any of the Mantic dwarves at the time, but I bet some of the equipment could be swapped over.

Pattus,

Nice looking brunch of Dwarves.

Very crisp work on the shields.

GW wants $50 USD for ten of their new Hammerers / Longbeards.

I'm glad I bought most of my army in the Metal days.

Nice looking figs Pattus. I've seen the conversion article before. Interesting stuff. It does look like it would take a bit of effort but done right would definitely pay off. Looks like you "did it right".

John

Mithmee, 'Joker,

Thanks for the compliments!

As for the EM-4 plastic dwarves, the other thing about them the OP should keep in mind is that they are a bit smaller than GW dwarves – not necessarily shorter, but certainly slighter in build. They are quite a lot smaller than the Mantic dwarves.

In the pics in the article a lot of the war-axe heads were originally 1-handed axes on the GW dwarves.

I haven't tried it myself, but I suspect it might be possible to make EM-4 dwarves blend in with a GW dwarf army (or at least be less noticeable) by swapping in GW shields and weapon bits. I find my eye is drawn to figures' faces and shields (and to a lesser extent hands) – if those parts are consistent across ranges then differences in stature are less jarring.

I do not like the look of either one of them to be honest --they all seem to be very static and boring and just cannot understand why everyone rants and raves about the "quality" ???
Now, the picture of the metal "norse dwarfs" is quite another thing -- them are some super figures with loads of character, visible variation, movements,etc,etc !!!
regards
Russ Dunaway

Old Glory,

True about the old GW Metal Dwarves.

But they don't make those any more and if they do have any left they could be melting them down.

But given the choice between $3 USD-$5 dollars per figure and $0.77 USD per figure.

Well I will vote with my wallet.

As Snurl1 has stated if you want Dwarves with Two-Handed Hammers then it will be around $5.40 USD per figure with tax.

The command group of five will be nearly $6.00 USD per figure with tax.

Oh and the new 8th Edition Dwarves that will be coming out soon will probably cost even more.

So for me Mantic wins because I can get them for far less money.

Which means that I can build up a far bigger Army of the little s.

I did not make any comment as to the prices -- I stated that I do not like the boring and static poses offered by either company --regardless of price.
regards
Russ Dunaway

True,

But when it comes to GW it is about the price.

Like when they doubled the price of Eldar Dire Avengers from $3.50 USD per miniature to $7.00 USD per miniature.

So for more than what I got 91 miniatures for I would get 10.

GW is going to find that their price gouging is going to come back and bite them on their ass.

Because as shown here their are cheaper ways to build up an army.

Well that is a bit annoying.

My package arrived today but there is a bit of a problem.

I was suppose to get this. 85+ figures

But instead I got this.

Oh and the packing slip states the Dwarf Army set not the Chaos Dwarf Army set.

So going to have to contact Amazon and send it back and get them to send the correct set or refund my money.

Very, Very annoying.

I have dealt with Amazon many times and this is the first time this has happen.

Though this was not coming from Amazon but another seller.

Oh and the set they sent me has less than 50 models.

West Wind's Dwarf Wars range has some nice and varied figures

Including a rather tasty looking War Mammoth – it's on the list, one of these days :)

I like the Mantic Dwarfs, but I should warn you that half of the miniatures in a given boxed troop set will have fixed heads, so although they give you lots of choices for heads, you're stuck with what they sculpt for half your models. Not that they look terrible, but significantly less detail is the norm for these "fixed" sculpts.

You can't beat the price, though, and if you're looking for Dwarfs on the cheap (but maintaining good overall quality), then Mantic is your company.

I painted some up on my blog not too long ago, along with some Black Tree Design Dwarfs. BTD is a good alternative, Mithmee, if you like the old Citadel style in metal (and who doesn't?)

angrypiper.com/gaming/?p=433

The WestWind Dwarf figures are great, I have most of them.
You get 24 figures in a box for $45. USD Not too bad. Their slotta bases are Orc sized, so you would have to get the smaller dwarf size bases, but hey.

And in some of the boxes there are no duplicate figures. That's what I like the most about them.

It's such a shame that I personally don't like Mantic's Dwarves (or elves, or orcs), while I could accept the posing the heads kill them for me – weird uniform-length Chaos Dwarfy-beards and helmets I simply don't like.

They'd be a bother to head-swap, plus since I decided not to Kickstart them, I'd be paying a lot more than I would have back then for them so the door on them has closed for me personally.

West Wind looks good to me, though for Warhammer purposes they are too unarmoured (everyone has heavy armor in the Dwarf army unless they're slayers or war machine crew!) and have the wrong weaponry (swords and spears are not used).

For Hammerers / Longbeards (and Quarrellers), although the new GW set does look awesome, these provide an excellent looking and affordable alternative:

and are sold here: sgmm.biz/Dwarves_c_66.html

although the new GW set does look awesome

Yes they do but not $5.00 USD per model, which is the price of the box add in tax and they are now around $5.50 USD per model.

Hmm, $0.77 USD per model or $5.60 USD per model.

Knowing that I want to field an army and not a small unit.

I will vote with my wallet.

I voted with my wallet and got the new dwarf battleline. Mantic dwarves look awful.

It is your money to throw away.