A couple of years back I picked up painted sets of both the 15mm Irregular Miniatures starter sets for Tusk, their mammoth hunting rules, on a bring and buy. Unfortunately the previous owner had gone for the dinosaur hunting option and neither the caveman and Victorian adventurers sets included a mammoth (instead they both included a t-rex and brontosaurus).Tusk is a classic beer and pretzels game and as I had to buy a few things off Irregular I decided to order the mammoths I needed for the scenarios (and the cavemen firestarters who were also missing). Now we all know Irregular can be a bit hit and miss and definitely quirky. The mammoths are no exception...
When I opened the packet I must say I was distinctly underwhelmed. The 15mm mammoth is a three piece casting that did not fit together at all well and let's face it, it isn't a mammoth at all but an elephant with fur sculpted on it!
After sticking the pieces together, filling the gaps and painting I must say they have grown on me. The fact they are furred up elephants rather accurate mammoth models adds to the amusement factor IMHO and is all very 10,000 BC.
The baby mammoth is very cute when placed alongside the adults but in reality is really their 6mm mammoth, regardless it works well enough as an infant in 15mm...
Postscript: as you may have seen on Bertie's Blog or the WG Yahoo groups, Wessex Games will be producing the PDF edition of Tusk very, very soon...
Very cool work Steve. I have often thought about getting Tusk.
ReplyDeleteIrregular are VERY hit and miss. But then, so are AA these days. I just resculpt what I don't like!
Sounds like the sort of game you could use to represent a film style mammoth hunting game rather than a realistic one, so as you say, elephants with fur is perfectly acceptable.
I seem to recall a rather large mammoth in one of Oxford's museums. I must go check that out before I move then!
"I have often thought about getting Tusk" - as you may have seen Bertie has some good news then!
ReplyDeleteThat's scarey, I looked out my copy of Tusk a couple of weeks ago with the intention of actually trying them out
ReplyDeleteNick