"Mantic Games-Galactic Tour Series: Azure Forest " Topic

Pre-ordered my copy a while ago and received it yesterday.

I was expecting a larger box than it came in. It comes in the same size of box that one of the standard teams arrives in. Which is fair enough when I think about it, since these boxes are FAR too large for just a team, but the right size for a small expansion.

The new star player: Comes in metal (not restic thank the gods). Nice enough sculpt, not mind blowing. 7/10

The trophy: Again metal. Nice sculpt but I can't see me ever using it. Fair amount of flash but since its metal that's solvable.

The cards: These were bound with an elastic band rather too tightly, to the point where the top facing card (the weather card in this case) was actually damaged. Damned annoying. Usual high quality of cards but packed in an inconsiderate manner.

The rulebook: Ai ai ai Zordon. This is just TOO small. Fine its a5, I have no problem with that. Nor do I have a problem that half of it was "filler" for official tournament rules (most of which were less rules and more just common sense). The size of the text is FAR too small is where I take issue with it. Granted I don't have great eyesight but I expect to be able to read it. Combined with annoyingly dark background colours and pictures and I could just about read it and no more.

The rules: As above, half the book is filler. There are rules for playing an Azure Forest game and incorporating those games into a league (I haven't played these but they seem like they're pretty cool) and for the Azure Forest star player.
Also included are the rules for the 3 Kickstarter star players (the ones including the dino-kid-thing). These seem…ok I guess but since I doubt I'll ever use them I found it hard to care.

Price: I like to order direct from companies where I can to support them; it costs a little extra but thems the breaks. So this cost me £17.00 GBP including p&p. normally I'd just eat that and not care less but in this case I feel a little cheated. What with all the filler in the book, the small package, the rules I'll never use and the damaged card I'm not overly happy. If I'd spent £10.00 GBP it would have been ok.

Overall, I'd give this a 6/10. Its high quality for the most part let down by some silly decisions what to include in the rules, the badly packed cards and the overpricing.

Thanks for this review. AF had been high on my list as I've been something of a completest with DB. Not so sure now since I would want to use the cards and the rules.

NP. As with yourself I'm a completist. Knowing what I know now I would still buy it, just not direct from Mantic. One thing I didn't put in there was they also sent the packs out to retailers BEFORE pre-orders, and it was for sale in the shops before I got my copy, highly annoying.

If you have duff eyes like I do, you WILL need a magnifying glass for the rulebook. I'm not a total Magoo, this is the first rulebook I have ever "read" that I could not make out the text. Had the book been two pages longer so the font could have been two sizes larger I'd have been much happier.

That's actually where you get into some odd things related to the way the machinery works, Pete.

For example, have you noticed that most hardcover or perfect-bound books are in multiples of 16 pages? That's apparently an industry standard, and it's what the machines can handle. So it's really not easy to just add a couple pages for some book formats.

Well thats something I didn't know, so thats my fact for today.

On the plus side, I commented about the font size on the Mantic forum and they're sending me a free digital copy, so that was nice of them

Pete I felt a bit the same as yourself when I got the set.